Monday, February 25, 2008

What Krugman wrote

"I’d like to see more moments like that, perhaps starting with strong assurances from both Democratic candidates that they respect their opponents and would support them in the general election."

[quotes out of order from that in original]

[What’s particularly saddening is the way many Obama supporters seem happy with the application of “Clinton rules” — the term a number of observers use for the way pundits and some news organizations treat any action or statement by the Clintons, no matter how innocuous, as proof of evil intent.

The prime example of Clinton rules in the 1990s was the way the press covered Whitewater. A small, failed land deal became the basis of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar investigation, which never found any evidence of wrongdoing on the Clintons’ part, yet the “scandal” became a symbol of the Clinton administration’s alleged corruption.

During the current campaign, Mrs. Clinton’s entirely reasonable remark that it took L.B.J.’s political courage and skills to bring Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to fruition was cast as some kind of outrageous denigration of Dr. King...

...I call it Clinton rules, but it’s a pattern that goes well beyond the Clintons. For example, Al Gore was subjected to Clinton rules during the 2000 campaign: anything he said, and some things he didn’t say (no, he never claimed to have invented the Internet), was held up as proof of his alleged character flaws.

For now, Clinton rules are working in Mr. Obama’s favor. But his supporters should not take comfort in that fact.

For one thing, Mrs. Clinton may yet be the nominee — and if Obama supporters care about anything beyond hero worship, they should want to see her win in November.

For another, if history is any guide, if Mr. Obama wins the nomination, he will quickly find himself being subjected to Clinton rules. Democrats always do. ]
(emphasis added)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/opinion/11krugman.html

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

"Can't we all get along?"

Subtitled: "Let's pit the wimmens agin the Nigras."

As the Democratic party stands at the treshhold of US history, ready to proclaim either a woman or African/American as candidate for President, one wonders if we stand at the edge of a precipice of internecine party warfare leading to 4 more years of misbegotten misrule by idiots led by John McCain.

Democrats looking to avoid campaign rift.
"The issues party leaders are grappling with, they said, include how to avoid the perception of a back-room deal that thwarts the will of millions of voters who have cast ballots in primaries and caucuses. That perception could cripple the eventual Democratic nominee’s chances of winning the presidency in November, they said."

See, if primary political parnoia hadn't posioned the well, a moderately intellgent kindergartener could probably work out this squabble: Whomever loses the primaries or at the convention becomes Vice President.

Simple, case closed.

Instead you have Douglas Wilder, former governor of Virgina saying on Face the Nation, "...If the super delegates intervene and get in the way of it and say oh, no, there will be chaos at the convention. It does nothing to help the Democrats. And if you think 1968 was bad, you watch; in 2008, it will be worse." page 12 of 15 in the transcript.

In 1968, I watched along with the rest of the world as the 1968 Democratic convention became forever marred by violence, which mayhaps played into Nixon's law and order campaign, playing on visceral fears of isurrection fomented by those dirty hippy communists as well as part of his southern strategy of coded appeals to white southerners.

While governor Wilder's words my constitute a flight of rhetorical flair since his candidate, Mr. Obama, has given $700,000 to campaign coffers of the super delegates, presumably just because they amount o such nice people, the words illustrate a very real possibility of Democrats self destructing in an election year vital to preserving our very Constitution.

Trying to write so that my teenage nieces and pastor can read this (no profanity and few vulgarities) without diasapprobation towards my "Empire," words fail me at this almost literal doomsday scenario.

Maybe paraphrasing FDR works: the only things Democrats have to fear is Democrats themselves.

For God's sake people, Pollyanna aside, practical politics demands comprmise; in Orlando, FL, WESH reported a poll that 31% of Fl Democrats would vote for McCain, presumably the condo commandos from Broward who already feel marginalized by their party.

Bloggers for once have got to quit grinding their axes and promote compromise if no clear winner results from the primaries.


[The Chicago police department responded in a way that could only be characterized as sanctioned mayhem. With billy clubs, tear gas and Mace, the blue-shirted, blue-helmeted cops violated the civil rights of countless innocent citizens and contravened every accepted code of professional police discipline.

No one could accuse the Chicago cops of discrimination. They savagely attacked hippies, yippies, New Leftists, revolutionaries, dissident Democrats, newsmen, photographers, passers-by, clergymen and at least one cripple. Winston Churchill's journalist grandson got roughed up. Playboy's Hugh Hefner took a whack on the backside. The police even victimized a member of the British Parliament, Mrs. Anne Kerr, a vacationing Laborite who was Maced outside the Conrad Hilton and hustled off to the lockup.]http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9609/06/