Than did Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic in this post today. With Hillary Clinton stressing her experience and her constant refrain of being “ready on day one,” he asks what we’ve learned about Ms. Clinton’s abilities during this campaign: Clinton is a terrible manager of people. Coming into a campaign she had been planning for, what, two decades, she was so not ready on Day One, or even Day 300. […]
Ten straight victories for Barack Obama, including a 58% to 41% shellacking in Wisconsin, have left me feeling, well, almost sorry for Hillary Clinton. Unlike Big Bloated Bill, who I always thought lucked into the 1992 Presidency with weak competition in the Democratic primary (quick, name two other candidates — extra credit for those of you who came up with our own current AG Jerry Brown; the others were equally […]
I wonder if France’s relatively new President, Nicolas Sarkozy, isn’t a little bit out of control. He married the model-singer Carla Bruni a very short time after his divorce from his wife Cecilia (click on the links to check out the uncomfortable resemblance). Ms. Bruni’s reputation isn’t exactly, ah, pure: She’s posed for numerous nude photos, and she dated Mick Jagger (forgivable) and Donald Trump (eeewwwww, gross). Still, she’s attractive, […]
The local paper, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, which I respect a great deal, and which does a very good job of reporting on local and regional issues, published a story earlier this week about a candidate for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors who had failed to pay property taxes for a number of years. This entry is not about the substance of the story (I try to stay […]
It’s getting scary for me, finding myself in agreement Frank Rich. But his column today in the New York Times, beautifully titled "The Billary Road to Republican Victory," pretty much says what I’ve been thinking, as does, frankly, almost everything I’ve read today. Among the best: Joe Klein and Vaughn Ververs on Big Bloated Bill’s well-deserved smackdown in South Carolina. Somehow the last week brings back a irritating memory I […]
Well that didn’t take long, did it? Just when I thought, against my better judgment perhaps, that maybe, maybe Hillary Clinton was capable of reinventing and reinvigorating her campaign (see this post), we’ve all be treated to a week that not only makes perfectly clear that she’s incapable of that, but also reminds me why I will never vote for Hillary Clinton. I’m not the only one feeling this way […]
Reflecting on Hillary Clinton’s close victory in the New Hampshire primary, it seems that amidst all the talk of who was the “candidate of change,” it was a change in Ms. Clinton as a candidate that may have made the difference. From her showing at least a little sense of humor during the debates (“Well that hurts my feelings“), to her greater accessibility to reporters, to her much-commented upon emotional […]
During our Thursday evening immersion in the Iowa Caucus results, because I’d used the term several times, my wife asked me what, exactly, did I mean by “populist.” I realized that this is one of those terms that I feel I know, but have a hard time explaining in words. (OK, maybe that’s a sign that I don’t really know.) I said that populists were those who distrusted big business […]
As a lapsed Iowan, the results of the Iowa Caucuses last evening did not surprise me. Iowans tend to have a populist streak, which affected both races. On the Republican side, I always figured that Mitt Romney would have trouble in Iowa. Not many Iowans can feel real kinship with an investment fund manager, specially one as preppy and squeaky clean as Mitt Romney. On the other hand, Mike Huckabee’s […]
Interesting results from a poll by Rasmussen Reports. The poll looked at “core” support and opposition for Presidential candidates — how many voters would “definitely” vote for or “definitely” vote against a given candidate. Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton has one of the highest “definitely vote against” figures — 47% of all voters say they would definitely vote against her. Mitt Romney has the same 47% “definitely vote against” figure. And […]