Don't Let It End
By JAMES TARANTO
May 8, 2008
Dear Mrs. Clinton,
The Associated Press1 reported yesterday that you say you "will remain in the presidential race 'until there's a nominee.' " We were glad to hear it, but then we read the very next sentence: "The former first lady declined to say whether that meant through the roll call of the states at the Democratic National Convention this summer."
We hope you're just being coy, because so much is at stake here, and we hear lots of Democrats are urging you to call it quits. "George McGovern is switching his support for Hillary Clinton in this year's race for the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, and he urged her to drop her bid so the party can unify behind one candidate," Bloomberg2 reports:
McGovern said the time has come for the two top Democrats to stop fighting each other and for the party to begin preparing for the general election battle against the likely Republican nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain.
"We've got to start getting ready for McCain," McGovern said in an interview. "This is a Democratic year unless we Democrats defeat ourselves."
Do you think George McGovern really has the best interests of the party at heart? Think about it. For 36 years he has been known as the guy who lost 49 states, and that's got to grate. For 24 years he has been known as the first guy who lost 49 states. George McGovern is 85 years old. He won't get many more chances to see someone lose 50 states.
The Associated Press3, meanwhile, reports that other Democrats are not exactly profiles in courage:
Apart from George McGovern, a plainspoken man who knows something about losing elections, not a single Democrat of national stature publicly urged Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday to end her campaign for the White House.
They didn't have to.
There was no shortage of other ways to signal, suggest, insinuate or instigate the same thing. And certainly no need to apply unseemly pressure to a historic political figure, a woman who has run a grueling race, won millions of votes and drawn uncounted numbers of new Democratic voters to the polls.
Instead, many Democrats instead preferred to say softly what the party's 1972 presidential nominee said for all to hear.
These chauvinists think that they can "signal, suggest, insinuate or instigate" you out of the race, and that, being a woman, you'll respond to such cajoling. We know you're tougher than that. And in any case, do they really think they'll defeat John McCain, who endured years of torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese, by taking such a dainty approach?
Is this the way to sell a nominee who pals around with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorists and goes to the "God damn America church"? And that's only what we know about Obama. What if it turns out that he has other dubious associations, exotic middle names, etc.? Does anyone doubt that the Republican Attack Machine would use such information against him? If you can unearth it before the convention, you can use it for the good of the Democratic Party.
Mrs. Clinton, you've gotten a bum rap. Exit polls4 found that only 49% of primary voters in North Carolina think you are honest and trustworthy, vs. 71% for Obama. But as blogger Larry Johnson5 notes, the Obama campaign has actually resorted to urging its supporters to be dishonest. He quotes from an email sent Monday by Jason Green, Obama's Charlotte, N.C., field director:
Please join us as we knock on your neighbors doors and bring Senator Obama's message of hope, unity and change. There is nothing more effective than connecting with another voter and expressing your story. Only you can do that. You know how important this is! I know I don't have to ask, but I will one last time--please join us tomorrow. Call in sick if you have to and help us all day by canvassing or offering rides to the polls.
Bill Clinton6 in 2000 said, "If you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to have a decent life and a chance for your children to have a better one." Now the Obama campaign says, "Call in sick if you have to."
We see from this morning's USA Today that you're picking up this theme, telling the paper: "There was just an AP article posted that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans is weakening again. . . . I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on."
This is generally quite good. It's an especially nice touch ending the sentence with a preposition; it shows that you aren't one of those pedantic eggheads who want to take away guns and force them to go to college. You know that Mr. Arugula would say, ". . . on which to build a winning coalition."
Just one bit of constructive criticism. You should have left out the mention of "white Americans." It makes it sound as though you think black Americans aren't hard-working. Even if you do think this, some things are better left unsaid. If you do win the nomination, you're going to need the support of blacks in November.
There's one more reason to stay and fight: to undo the damage Al Gore did to the Democratic Party in 2000. That year, he went all the way to the Supreme Court in an effort to nullify the results in Florida and steal the election from George W. Bush. Florida voters were none too pleased with this, and in 2004 they gave Bush an overwhelming margin against John Kerry.
Incredibly, Obama is trying to disfranchise Florida voters again--and Michigan ones, too. Yes, "the rules" are on his side, but there are limits to that work-hard-and-play-by-the-rules stuff. Gore assembled a team of Democratic legal superstars to press his case against Florida; surely some of them would be willing to do penance by helping to re-enfranchise Sunshine and Wolverine state Democrats.
Sure, things look grim now, but you've survived worse. Remember how you and Bill stared down the vast right-wing conspiracy? They thought they would destroy his presidency and your marriage. Instead, you're a U.S. senator and he's in line to be the first male first lady. So buck up, work hard, and play by the rules, bending them a little if you have to. You can still win this thing. Yes, you can.
Cheers,
James
Great Orators of the Democratic Party
• "One man with courage makes a majority."--attributed to Andrew Jackson7
• "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."--Franklin D. Roosevelt8
• "The buck stops here."--Harry S. Truman9
• "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."--John F. Kennedy10
• "That's the kind of thing those people that aren't for us say. You know, they think we're dumber'n we are. I know, cuz I grew up in a place like this, and I figured out that people are just as smart here as anywhere else. But they ain't figured it out yet."--Bill Clinton11
Hooverville Hotel and Casino12
Just how dismal is the economy under George W. Bush? So dismal, USA Today reports, that "the pressures of a weak economy . . . are causing many gamblers to cancel or reduce the number of casino trips." The paper tells the stories of real people making real sacrifices:
Carlos Bueno and his wife, Mayra, drove three times last year from their home in Houston to a casino in Lake Charles, La., but they won't be making the two-hour drive this summer.
"Gas prices are the main reason," says the 32-year-old father of three children who works for a utility company and also is canceling the family's annual vacation to the Dominican Republic. . . .
To save money on casino trips, Al Katz sold his SUV last month and bought a more fuel-efficient Toyota Camry.
Katz, a 55-year-old comedian, drives with his wife, Colleen, about 70 miles every week or two from his home in Kissimmee, Fla., to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. They also drive more than nine hours a few times each year to gamble in Biloxi, Miss.
"We may have to eliminate a trip or two" if the economic downturn continues, says Katz, who entertains on cruise ships. "Every time I get off a cruise ship, gas is a quarter more expensive."
Marie Braun, 45, of Olathe, Kan., has already made the decision to cut back, from five casino visits a year to two or three visits. Gas is too expensive for a 60-mile round trip to Missouri, says Braun, who works for a telecommunications company.
"It's pretty tough to justify spending money on any kind of entertainment when it costs so much just to get to work each day," she says.
You read these stories, and you get sad. Then you think about how George Bush is building casinos in Baghdad while American gamblers are left high and dry, and you get angry.
You'd Be Pessimistic Too if You Weren't Affluent Despite Being a Millionaire13
"Survey: Millionaires More Pessimistic on Economy Than the Affluent"--headline, Atlanta Business Chronicle, May 7
Great Moments in Public Education14
Here's a horrific story from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
For school officials in Haverford Township, the challenge was daunting: What do you do when a 9-year-old student, with the full support of his parents, decides that he is no longer a boy and instead is a girl?
Parents of a third-grade student at Chatham Park Elementary School approached the administration on April 16 to ask for help in making a "social transition" for their child.
The Haverford School District consulted experts on transgender children, then sent letters to parents advising them that the guidance counselor would meet with the school's 100 third-grade students to explain why their classmate would now wear girls' clothes and be called by a girl's name.
This kid obviously has problems enough. To make a schoolwide spectacle of him this way is just shockingly cruel.
Reliable Sources15
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who is investigating more than a dozen mortgage companies for possible violations in connection to the subprime crisis, resisted calls to resign after admitting an affair with a member of his staff," Bloomberg reports:
Dann, who is married with three children, declined to identify the woman with whom he had an affair, although he confirmed that his former scheduler, Jessica Utovich, 28, sometimes spent the night at his condominium in the Dublin area, the [Columbus] Dispatch said. Utovich resigned last week without giving a reason, the newspaper reported.
It's certainly gallant of Dann to protect the identity of his inamorata, though it might have been harder for readers to connect the dots if he had asked reporters to withhold his identity as well.
Metaphor Alert16
"The challenge for Mr. Morales is to find a way to change course. He must bridge the differences with the opposition before violence gets out of hand. Bolivia is heading over the precipice, and the clock is rapidly winding down."--editorial, Miami Herald, May 8
We Blame Global Warming17
"Planet Lands in Fargo After Fire in Restroom"--headline, Associated Press, May 8
The Obesity Epidemic Spreads18
"Americans Are Heaviest Bidders on Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby's"--headline, New York Times, May 8
Put a Tiger in Your Tank19
"Vacaville Man Finds Pit Bull Under Truck Hood"--headline, KPIX-TV Web site (San Francisco), May 7
'You Didn't Say This Would Be on the Test'20
"Exam Indicates Sea Lions Weren't Shot to Death in Oregon"--headline, Associated Press, May 7
Don't Marry a Harvard Professor21
"Harvard Professor: Children Can Send Marriage Into Downward Spiral"--headline, FoxNews.com, May 8
News of the Tautological22
"Teen Survives Near Fatal Alcohol Poisoning"--headline, Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.), May 6
News You Can Use
• "Handicap Parking Spaces Hard to Find"--headline, Repository23 (Canton, Ohio), May 8
• "Sexy Orchids Do More Than Embarrass Wasps?"--headline, Reuters24, May 8
• "Drive-Bys Are Bad in the City or Countryside"--headline, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel25, May 7
• "Want to Persuade a Woman? Do It Face to Face"--headline, Daily Telegraph26 (London), May 8
Bottom Stories of the Day
• " 'Micro Earthquake' Shakes Area"--headline, Webster-Kirkwood27 (Mo.) Times, May 5
• "Man Finds Check From 1971 After Arkansas Tornadoes"--headline, Associated Press28, May 7
• "Arabs Not Celebrating Israel's 60th Birthday"--headline, MSNBC.com29, May 8
Father of the Year30
An Austrian man named Josef Fritzl "fathered seven children with his daughter while keeping her imprisoned in his cellar," London's Daily Telegraph reports:
Fritzl . . . has complained of receiving a bad press and not being given credit for keeping his dungeon family alive for more than two decades.
Fritzl, 73 claimed that media coverage was "unfair" and "entirely one-dimensional", given the fact that he did not kill his daughter and the children he produced with her during 24 years of sexual abuse in a subterranean bunker in Amstetten.
"I am no monster," Fritzl said though his lawyer Rudolf Mayer, according to the German tabloid newspaper Bild.
"I could have killed all of them, and no one would have known. No one would have ever found about it."
This is a rather unpersuasive defense. In fact, it reminds us of that joke about the definition of chutzpah: a man who kills his parents, than pleads for mercy because the media failed to report that he's an orphan. |
