Tuesday, January 08, 2008

New Hampshire
Dems are turning out more than Republicans. Republicans are turning out more than Dems. Take all turnout reports with a grain of salt.

Coverage of Hillary is maddening - sexist, petty, contemptuous. When she is strong and disciplined she's portrayed as a cold, heartless woman; raise her voice a little and she's out-of-control angry; show a little bit of emotion and she's suddenly weak, or - if not to be believed - even more coldly calculating. Meanwhile, the men are alternatively passionate or warmly sensitive, not angry or weak. Jeebus people!

I found Edwards' response yesterday very disappointing, and read it the way Todd Gitlin does. Makes me feel better about my move to Obama.

Still, Hillary makes it difficult to rally around her with moves like this one, taking up Republican talking points to criticize Obama on taxes of all things. I'm not sure her campaign quite gets the intensifying Democratic opposition to Clintonian ideological triangulation. Say what you will about Obama's naivety or determination to build consensus, he at least doesn't try and win independent votes by framing progressive positions as the enemy. In fact, the governing philosophies we are choosing between are actually pretty well laid out. I thought the last ABC debate did a great job of doing that.

Not sure why - if you're Hillary - you want to campaign as LBJ over JFK, and even spell out that comparison, but that seems to be what she's doing. Obama's no JFK (yet). Still, it seems dumb to continue to re-run both Humphrey's and Nixon's failed 1960 campaigns, going so far as to *argue against raising the hopes of the American people.* If Obama's taking the mantle of JFK in this opposition, she's the one that's painted their difference in a way that asks for it, seemingly forgetting that for all of LBJ's legislative accomplishments, the torch was passed to a new generation, not to a seasoned back-room veteran of beltway battles. In fact, her comparison might be a bit more apt than she intends...rather makes Obama's point if you ask me. Surely she wouldn't say Democrats made a mistake nominating Kennedy as opposed to LBJ in 1960. And yet her recent comments read like she does in fact believe that.

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