Updates

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Some polls are starting to show a big post-Iowa bounce for Obama. On the GOP side, Huckabee trails McCain and Romney.

Mike Allen and Ben Smith of The Politico write that Clinton advisers are fearing a New Hampshire loss.

Great bit from Niall Stanage at The Guardian:

Much of the punditry immediately following last night’s debate focused on her [Clinton’s] angry response to a comment by Edwards that cast her as the candidate of the status quo.

But one important sentence near the end of her reply was largely overlooked: “We don’t need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered.”

She sounded the same note again towards the debate’s end. When Obama began speaking about people’s feeling of being frozen out of politics, and about the need to bring those people back into a “working majority” for change, Clinton interjected.

“Can we just have a sort of a reality break for a minute?” she asked contemptuously.

This kind of calculated attempt to encourage cynicism now seems to be the best the former First Lady has to offer.

Tom Schaller says the Clinton Era ended last night at 9:34 p.m. EST. This is followed by an interesting discussion among commenters on the nature of anger in political campaigns.

Unrelated but weird:

Great Moments in the Bush Presidency, or other stuff you only learn by reading UK news sites:

Early in his first term, President Bush introduced a visiting President Putin to his Scottish terrier, Barney, and the Russian made no secret of his disdain for the small dog. When Bush later visited Russia, Putin showed off his much larger dog, Koni, a black Labrador, and suggested it could dispatch Barney with little effort. “Bigger, tougher, stronger, faster, meaner,” Putin is said to have boasted, “than Barney”.

Don’t call him “Pootie-Poot.”

12 thoughts on “Updates”

  2. One can only hope Hillary keeps saying stuff like that, further showing her true colors.

    And no surprise that Putin is so popular in Russia.

  3. If Bush were not Bush, would Putin be Putin? Or rather, wouldn’t the world be such a different place anyhow, so it seems that there is a principle of response and reflection necessarily at work.

  4. …ooo. meaner. Now *that’s* a quality to look for in a dog…and a lab yet.
    No wonder bush looked in his eyes and saw a kindred soul.

  5. Did you watch the “debates” last night, Maha?
    Charlie Gibson’s question was ” you get solid intelligence about Bin Laden’s where abouts in the mountains of Pakistan. Would you send in forces?

    Obama and Edwards would send in the military.
    Hillary mentions predators and air strikes, she’s the “Die hard with a vengence” candidate.

    Richardson would try diplomacy.

    Now call me silly, but I’d put a f’in wall around the place and call it good. BinLaden and his boys snug as a bug in the high country of Pakistan, no way in or out. No body gets hurt, they are in their medieval abode. Not quite the action hero way, but we see where that has gotten us.

  6. So an appeal to REALITY, in the face of Barack Oblique’s empty sermonizing, is a “calculated attempt to encourage cynicism”?

    Oy vey. Reality = cynicism???

    Sounds like we’re in for another era of faith-based nonsense, if Senator Oblique wins.

  7. So an appeal to REALITY, in the face of Barack Oblique’s empty sermonizing, is a “calculated attempt to encourage cynicism”?

    If by “reality” you mean we can expect no more from our government than a few mildly progressive mini-tweaks of conservative policies, then you can have reality. I don’t think the nation can survive much more reality.

    I wrote in the last post that I have no idea what we can expect from Obama, and if elected he may well prove to be a massive disappointment. But we do know, I think, what we can expect from Clinton if she’s elected. And it’s not good enough.

  10. The other thing I’d like to add is that if Hillary wins, it will mean two families will have controlled the White House since the late 80s. Gawd, I am getting tired of this movie…

    But of course I must add the standard disclaimer: I will vote for whoever the democrat is, even Mrs Triangulator.

  12. Labradors? Putin’s got a labbie? Damn, poor dog!

    Labs are not mean dogs. Scottish terriers are big in moxie, and would probably boss a lab around, paws down.

    This is in no way to be construed as possible endorsment or commentary on the owners :-P. Both dogs would likely do better rehomed with other families 😛

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