Barack Obama has to respond to Hillary Clinton’s continued assertion that her “experience” makes her a more suitable candidate for President. One way to do this is to examine her prior experience with one of the most prominent issues in this campaign, which is health care reform. As I remember it, Big Bloated Bill — newly elected and having a supportive Democratic Congress to work with — appointed Hillary Clinton […]
Warning, warning … very catty remark ahead. Those easily offended may wish to stop now. At the gym this morning I was half-watching CNN, without headphones, which meant that I was relying on the pictures and the subtitles for the deaf, so what follows may not be what actually was said. Hillary Clinton was at some rally talking about the one job that she thought really prepared her to be […]
One of my hobbies (of sorts) is photography. Although I don’t seem to find the time to shoot enough, and am not particularly creative either, the advent of digital photography allows me to combine photography with my techo-nerd side. Two wonderful completely free programs for imaging are the GIMP and a GIMP plugin called Mathmap. GIMP is a sort of open-source Photoshop. Mathmap is a program that allows you to […]
As a follow up to this post, the one of the study’s researchers published this commentary today. Among his conclusions: Liberals place a high value on individual autonomy and decision-making. Individuals are expected to internalize the norms of their culture and do the right thing on a case-by-case basis after thinking about it. This strategy can be highly successful but can also be costly in the time required for information […]
I wonder sometimes if Hillary Clinton’s campaign actually thinks about what it’s doing before it does it. A beautiful new example of this was reported today — a new ad, ostensibly targeting Obama, which according to ABC News, goes like this: “It’s 3:00am and your children are asleep,” a voice over says in the ad entitled “Children”. “There’s a phone in the White House, and it’s ringing. Something is happening […]
A fascinating article in last week’s Economist reported on a study by researchers at Binghamton University. They gave volunteers beepers to two groups thought to represent “conservative” and “liberal” camps, and every two hours asked the volunteers what they were doing and how they felt about it. (Unfortunately, like many university studies, they relied on a group that may not be reflective of the whole population — namely, teenagers. But […]
Meanwhile in France, Le President de la Republique, Nicolas Sarkozy, continues his post-Carla Bruni meltdown. The latest … during a trip to an agricultural exposition in Paris, Mr. Sarkozy had a few, um, unkind words to say to a man whose hand he tried to shake who was, to put it mildly, obviously not a Sarkozy supporter (bad translation mine): Man: “Don’t touch me” Sarkozy: “Piss off” Man: “You make […]
I was able to watch the debate tonight live, and both candidates performed well, and both came across as informed and competent. But since competence is Ms. Clinton’s keystone, a confidence tie means the edge in this one goes to Obama on that score. Add to that a couple of ridiculous, almost sophomoric moments from Ms. Clinton — the first one her unbelievable plaint about supposedly always being asked the […]
This time it’s the usually left-wing press engaging in a conspiracy against poor Hillary: “The media does not like the Clintons for whatever reason,” Rendell, a Clinton supporter, said in an interview with The Fix. “Maybe some of it’s [the Clintons’] fault, but the media does not like the Clintons.” Rendell insisted that the “media has relished this fall with glee that I have never seen in any other candidate […]
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. […]