In an interview last week, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois telegraphed his intention to sharpen his distinctions with Mrs. Clinton. At the same time, though, he said he had no plans to “kneecap the front-runner.”Presumably because they all know that Hill will be the nominee and they're all running for Vice-President. The product positioning thus requires enough differentiation from Mom so they'll bring something to the ticket, without (as Obama blurted out) "kneecapping" her.While other rivals have made no such pledges, the Democrats have yet to unleash the sharp personal criticisms to the degree their Republican counterparts have against one other.
Obama's differential is his mellow skin color, which is why he doesn't have to say anything beyond anodyne feel-good generalities and nondenominational uplift. Edwards, by contrast, has to talk a slightly more aggressive game (and since he's not in office, of course, this is zero-cost).
I don't know what Biden is thinking of.
Comments (5)
update from the paine crystal ball :
mother clinton
is still timber tall
and ready for a topple
only adjustment
the party core
has no need of a winner
the repugs are such losers
so she's looking more
like a nixon 68 avatar
then a musky 72
but
those long long ears
and squalid hack-ass bray
means one thing and one thing only
fuckin 40 mule team wall street
is roundin the bend
toward the white house home stretch
way way earlier then sanity admits
and at this rate
it'll be a slowmotion
spine bending spectacle
like waiting
for the private parts
of an obscene ice sculpture
to melt ......in a freezer
taking the ride with hillary ....
yikes
imagine
its to be
the blouse and louse legion
all the way to next november
this seems an ordeal
like staying after school
for bad boys only
Posted by op | November 3, 2007 7:59 AM
Posted on November 3, 2007 07:59
Yes, an ordeal. Having not watched the debate, but reading about it on "The Daily Howler" and checking the transcript, I'm surprised the op isn't heaping his usual slam-bang scorn.
1. Jesus, now Hillary is getting blamed like every Mom in therapy sessions. Ah, does any of these alleged "liberals" remember it is George GW. Fascist Bush that has been in charge here, semi-elected by the American pee-ple? Say there had been an election in 1942 - should the opposition party have been calling each other lying po-faced scum in public, or beating the hell out of Hitler?
2. Chris Dodd says his answer to everything is education. Biden wants 16 mandatory years of edumacation. Edwards wants to proteck the chillen from Big Bad Internet. What kind of a Golden Book world do these clowns live in? 16 more years of what Bush and Rumsfeld and Eric Keroack and Dana Perino and every idiot with a mortgage went through in bootlicking stupidity for the last 40 years?
3. The performance by Russert and Williams on paper was calculated FoxNews attack questioning. Kucinich came off like a gibbering loon. This was unserious, moronic puppetry, and now only Mommy looks good in this family of quibbling boys.
Posted by mjosef | November 4, 2007 2:35 PM
Posted on November 4, 2007 14:35
Responding to mjosef:
Re: no.1:
George W. Chimp may be "in charge", but he couldn't get away with jack shit without the Democrats and Liberals -- including Hillary "Evita" Clinton -- enabling the sonofabitch. It's Democrats and Liberals who are running and hiding from every opportunity to stand up for the Constitution, to close Gitmo, to end the torture, to end the war. It's Democrats and Liberals who are rolling over and giving Presidente Chimp everything he wants -- hell, they just gave him another goddamn' blank check for more endless war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Re: no.3:
I don't know about Fox-style attack questioning, but all I can say is that I'm really glad somebody out there had the balls to throw these assholes to the wall. If you think what Russert was doing was "attack questioning", you haven't watched Meet The Press enough. If that's "attack questioning", let's see more! It's about goddamn' time we got to see Hillary squirm.
Oh, and one more thing: if Dennis The Menace comes off like a gibbering loon, it's probably because he is. I mean, the guy claims to have seen a UFO at Shirley MacLaine's house f'cripesake!
And, you actually like Hillary because she looks better than the rest of the losers up there? Jayzus Keerist, Liberal America must be more desperate than I thought.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | November 4, 2007 7:11 PM
Posted on November 4, 2007 19:11
Loon or no, he's about the only one who seems to have a conscience. Although that too may be an illusion.
Posted by StO | November 4, 2007 7:53 PM
Posted on November 4, 2007 19:53
Ah, come on, Hillary is not in the least to be liked or trusted - I was saying that the puppet show made her into poor Mommy at the therapy session. End of image. Now, if you think I represent "Liberal America," well then, Mister, you done got yourself a duel.It's the working of the supersystem that is bringing us this terrible calamity of us fightin' over nothin.' There's a bias that keeps Republican candidates insulated within some protective media bubble, and yet the alleged liberals are insulted over what they might have said, didn't say - who gives a damn. They are quibbling over who said what about "torture," when there are millions dead from our weapons, when global inequality has been exacerbated, etc. Are you trying to say that only you, Mike, have the purity of radical scorn that will bring forth the revolution, and then the ascension of - what? Liberal America is desperate, conservative America is desperate, and what is radical America - happy? Am I not on your side enough? Should I go back to my cave?
If you think that we are going to somehow end "torture," then are you willing to go work in our foreign prisons to keep our guards from hitting? Are you willing to build and staff 15 new prisons to house the thousands of military/intelligence people and higher ups who have criminally participated in such doings over the years of your life? I am willing to admit that I haven't got a clue of how to rein in this beyond-massive military/corporate US global operation. Neither you, nor your precious Constitution, nor any of our tenured heroes, nor any of our tax-deductible dollars, are or will be governing it.
Posted by mjosef | November 4, 2007 8:44 PM
Posted on November 4, 2007 20:44