Day: August 27, 2008

Novak: Lieberman Would Be a ‘Disaster’ As McCain’s VP Pick

Jon Ponder

Bob Novak, the rightwing columnist who treasonously revealed the clandestine identity of CIA WMD investigator Valerie Plame, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, but recently returned to producing short squibs for his syndicate, including the latest on Joe Lieberman’s chances of being named as John McCain’s VP on Friday:

Reports of strong support within John McCain’s presidential campaign for Independent Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman as the Republican candidate for vice president are not a fairy tale. Influential McCain backers, plus McCain himself, would pick the pro-choice liberal from Connecticut if they thought they could get away with it.

But they can’t get away with it — and this has been made clear to McCain by none other than Joe Lieberman himself.

Lieberman surely doesn’t know that much about Republican politics, but he has close Republican friends. One of them prevailed on Lieberman to tell McCain that a McCain-Lieberman ticket would be a disaster for all concerned, and especially for the GOP.

Oh please, let it be Joe. Please!

Obama on Clinton’s Speech: ‘That Was Excellent, She Delivered’

Jon Ponder

While Trish found much to criticize in Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic Convention last night, her candidate seemed to think it was pretty good:
“Clinton Hits a Home Run in a Finely Tuned and Delivered Speech”
— BuzzFlash.com

Obama watched the Hillary video intently, with a slight smile.

“That was great,” he said afterward.

Although they were thousands of miles away, the crowd in the Thompsons’ living room [in Montana, where Obama watched the speech] clapped along when Chelsea introduced her mother.

“It was a nice moment,” Obama said.

“I am here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat, as a proud senator from New York, a proud American and a proud supporter of Barack Obama,” she said.

“It is time to take back the country we love and whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” Clinton said, bringing applause from the group.

“No way. No how. No McCain,” she said.

“Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president.”

…Obama smiled.

“That was excellent,” he said. “She delivered.”

Even our friends at BuzzFlash.com, who are big fans of their hometown guy, and who were among Clinton’s harshest critics in the liberal web-o-sphere during the primaries, were complimentary. “Clinton Hits a Home Run in a Finely Tuned and Delivered Speech,” read their headline today.

Dr. Democrat on Hillary Clinton

Dr. Democrat

Dear Dr. Democrat:

What is your take on Hillary Clinton’s performance at the Democratic Convention last night?

Hoping for Hillary

Dear Hoping:

I think Hillary hit it out of the park last night. She certainly won me over. I’m prouder now of the vote I cast in February than any primary vote since 1976. I can’t resist indulging in momentary regret that she (or Biden or anyone with a record of playing hardball) is not the nominee, but I’m eager to do whatever I can to get Obama elected — or, more to the point, to see that McCain is soundly defeated.
doctordemocratsmall4.jpg
The old line that Hillary wouldn’t have gotten this far if she hadn’t been Bill’s wife is a utter fiction. Bill Clinton would be the first to agree that he would have never been elected president without Hillary, so she has as much right to benefit from that success as anyone.

She got into Yale law without Bill Clinton, and Sen. Sam Ervin hired her to be on the Democrat’s Watergate legal team without Bill. She was seriously reluctant to go with Bill back to Arkansas, but once there went to work in corporate law to pay the bills while he sought very low-paying jobs as Arkansas’ attorney general for one term and governor (which paid about $35k per year, if memory serves). While he was gov, she really did reform Arkansas’ educational system and became a popular first lady in an environment that was generally toxic for Dems.

She endured lacerating criticism when they entered the national stage in ’92 that she was micromanaging his campaigns — an allegation that was fictionalized by Joe Klein in the book and movie “Primary Colors.” If even half of it is true, she did what testosterone-equipped leading lights like Bob Shrum, John Kerry and Al Gore could not do: she beat the Republicans in national elections twice, and did it dancing backwards and in a pantsuit and flats. So to have that accomplishment taken away from her now is just anti-factual.

[…]

What Hillary Didn’t Say, and Why

Trish

It must be hard to give a good speech when you know that even before you finish, people will be dissecting your every word and movement.

A “body language expert” gave his impressions of what Hillary really meant.

“When she spoke about Obama, she really did not emote very much,” [“Face Time” author Dan] Hill said. “The only thing she showed was a very weak smile, the cheeks didn’t tend to lift very much, it was really almost what I would call a ‘crocodile smile’ where even the slight corners of the lips sometimes raise into a little bit of a smirk.”

You’d have to have some mixed emotions in a situation like that, so her body language really didn’t bother me. But for some reason, her opening kind of did.

Hillary went as far into her personal life as being a proud mother but not a proud wife. I can’t help but think the omission was deliberate.

I am so honored to be here tonight.
(applause)
You know, I’m — I’m here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat…
(applause)
… as a proud senator from New York…
(applause)
… a proud American…
(applause)
… and a proud supporter of Barack Obama.
(applause)
My friends, it is time to take back the country we love…

Maybe it’s because the camera kept panning to Bill’s face in the audience but I thought it was strange that Hillary went as far into her personal life as being a proud mother but not a proud wife. He looked like a proud husband. She’s been a proud wife before. How to explain it?

I can’t help but think the omission was deliberate. Although Jon disagrees that any major part of Hillary’s success is because she’s the WOB (wife of Bill), I think quite a lot of it is. And I think she must at least be sensitive to such musings and wanted to be at the Democratic convention as someone who got there on her own two feet — only. All during the campaign she claimed this or that insight, experience, or qualification because of her position, not as freshman senator from New York (after all, she has less history of holding elective office than Obama), but as First Lady.

But the occasion was meant to honor her accomplishment at “glass ceiling breaking” so there wasn’t room in the spotlight for husbands. During the campaign, Hillary had to act a certain way because she is a woman. She was held to a different standard because she is a woman. She had to embrace her femaleness and deny it at the same time. Men, you’ll just have to take my word on it.

It’s a shame that on the most challenging night of her professional life thus far, she felt she still had to deny that any part of her accomplishments came because of whose wife she is. Obama — and any man — is free to credit others generously, and would not have finished the speech of a lifetime (so far) without acknowledging his wife. Too bad Clinton, and most other women, don’t have the same leeway to recognize husbands without feeling it lessens them.