It's no surprise that HRC's rejuvenation has dovetailed neatly with a huge uptick in nastiness. The name-calling, trumping of non-stories, "as far as I know" hints, constant over-the-top belittling of not only Obama but his supporters, distorting his record and comments, etc. Once the Clintons shook up the staff, and finally got two weeks to get its head together between primaries, they've really turned on the afterburners.

This is beginning to remind me of a horror movie where the serial killer just won't die. You turn around, take your eye off him for a second, then look back and he's gone!

Hillary is saying  in effect "Apres moi, le deluge."  

I agree this is way over the line. Her campaign has long shown a sense of entitlement to the nomination as an end in itself. Let the greater interest of the Democratic Party be damned. This way lies disaster.

Just when you think she's hit the bottom of the barrel...

Clinton?  Shame?  That's an oxymoron.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

You're kidding, right?  She's positioning herself as the one candidate who can compete with McCain on national security issues.  That's nothing like saying (or having your spouse say) that s/he might not vote for the other Democrat candidate if the other gets the nod. ...............  I don't mind that each has her/his bias; but don't let that bias cloud good journalism.

Scott, I understand your feelings about Michelle Obama's comments.  However, I think her reactions will be a lot easier to parse come November than the line Hillary is using now.  And Hillary should really, really know better.

Much of the Clintons’ success stems from their apparent inability to feel shame. I don’t necessarily mean that as a slight: Gennifer Flowers, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, DOMA, Welfare Reform, Monica, “era of big government,” Mark Rich, “Jesse Jackson,” “change you can xerox” would have left many of us hiding under a big rock a long time ago. Yet the Clintons just keep on going, chin held high.

I guess my point is, why would Hillary feel shame now?

When this was aired this morning on MSNBC, most of their panelists cringed. (Only Joe Scarborough, hoping for a Hilaresurgence so that she can get beaten by McCain, was plainly pleased.) I hope this overreaching comes back to haunt her. I think it could make her look small and petty.

HRC is playing with fire, comparing her experience to McCains is a joke and one that will come back to haunt her if she does get the nomination.

In my term and half as a Senator...

While I was the First Lady...

The experience angle is a poor one to choose against an actually experienced candidate.

No class and no sense, perfect combination to lose the election

Scott, Michelle said she didn't think she would work for Hillary, not vote against her.  I think it was an impolitic comment to make, but there is a difference.

Chris, I wish I could agree that Obama is "the overwhelmingly likely Democratic nominee."

Clinton has found one of his perceived weaknesses, and is exploiting it. He has others. The race is too close to call, but today my money is on Clinton.

She will win Ohio, and possibly Texas. She will stay in until Pennsylvania, and win there, too.  By the convention her motley corps of circumstantial argumentation--"big states," primaries vs. caucuses, "experience," "But wait! Order now and we'll send you Bill absolutely free!'  etc. etc.--will make Chicago's unwashed hoards in '68 seem regal in comparison. By then, too, she will be living on fumes, like the Dennis Hopper character in "Blue Velvet" but inhaling formaldehyde or something only the residents of Jupiter can breathe.  She will be up at 3 a.m., waiting by the phone, after the bars have closed and hubby's still nowhere to be found, up all night now, every night, no sleep, no memory, straight out of "100 Years of Solitude," Bill's favorite book. Meanwhile, the superdelegates ebb and flow with the tides, like discarded styrofoam cups.

So, still now, on one side it's Obama Man of Mystery vs WonderWitch, and on the other, General Turgidson encased within the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Ah, for 2000: simpler times, when our final choice was the nerd or the naif.

"There are certain lines that you do not cross in a primary campaign."

It is true that there are certain lines that an honorable person would not cross.

But we're talking about Hillary Clinton, so your statement does not apply.

In fact Hillary makes an excellent point: On the most important issues of the Bush years, Hillary has voted with John McCain more often than she's voted against him. So why settle for her thin resume when we could have a similar voting record plus six decades of public service from McCain himself?

How in he world has she claimed the "35 years of experience" without a hint of blowback? That 35 years would include her years working as a corporate lawyer for the Rose Law Firm, her position as first lady of Arkansas and the United States (does this mean that Laura Bush can now claim she's an expert on foreign policy, too?), and her role as architect of the health care disaster. Even relegated to smaller deeds, she managed to bring us Zoe Baird. As a US Senator she voted for the war in Iraq and a bankruptcy bill that was written by credit card companies. This is the 35 years of experience that puts her on par with John McCain. It's a joke.

Don't either of the pro Clinton people hereabouts have anything to say? Anyone? Anyone?

Yard really needs a book contract and an expense account to cover this campaign, Hunter S.-style.

Fear And Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 2008.

She's the Rasputin of politicians.  No amount of electoral poison does her in.

And thanks to mpat above for telling me I'm not alone in my emotional reaction to her "experience."  It is the most ludicrous aspect of her candidacy, and McCain will chew her up and spit her out if she brings that weak-assed crap to the general.  First lady of Arkansas is "experience"?  BoD of the legal Services Corp is "experience"?  YGBSM.

If HRC manages to steal the nomination, Cindy can start measuring the drapes.

A book contract and an expense account. Yes.

And, to do it right, a replacement liver lobe. You don't take the old Rambler across a couple of time zones without at least springing for a new oil filter. Imagine me standing in the weeds alongside I-95 while smoke pours from under the hood. Nobody wants that.

There's bound to be fresh liver on the market from some strapping twenty-something Chinese dissonant who had the temerity to Google "Freedom!", if TNR asks around.

butchie b:

It certainly indicates a lot of understanding about how government, the private sector, non-profits, and state governments can come together to provide for the American people.

And it's a hell of a lot better than filling potholes in Illionois as part of your part-time job as a local rep to the state senate... oh.... puuuuhleeezzee.   Obama's a joke.

Many of us won't be voting for him in November.  

Hey, look, Hillary finally tells the truth, and TNRis bitching about it.

On CNN, Clinton water-bearer Paul Begala was just asked whether his candidate's comments suggesting

Lest anyone imagine that Hillary Clinton's praise for John McCain at the expense of Barack Obama

Kevin Drum has a much-needed rejoinder to those worrying that the ongoing primary campaign will damage