So is she a strong tough woman this week or a sensitive victim?  I'm losing track...

What was it Hillary said about Genifer Flowers? "A woman scorned"?

Good grief.

Please. Put Mark Penn on TV again. Run more interviews with Howard Wolfson. More snarky, too-clever-by-half "advisers" will inspire people to rally to Senator Clinton.

Riiiight.

I continue to believe that what will work best for Obama in response to this crap is mockery. If attacking Hillary risks making her a victim and ignoring her risks making him look like one, I think his most effective weapon is to mock her latest claims. It worked with searing perfection after she gave that non-answer answer to the question about her greatest weakness (he later remarked that he should have said that he sometimes helps old ladies across the street who don't really want it) and it's belittling without being mean. And there's no real comeback for Camp Clinton.

Mockery is indeed good, but only if it is funny and self-deprecating, as the old lady comment was.

"New" Clinton gambit? Not sure what's new here: identify HRC's flaws/transgressions and then pin them onto BHO. It's Rove's game, and it's depressing.

They have no response to Obama's argument.  Just none whatsoever.  So this is how they respond.

Another gambit: earth tones?

Ten thousand?  Lordy.

Someone muzzle Mark Penn, the man is a walking turd. I saw him skinned alive by Joe Trippi not long ago and he was absolutely overmatched. Hillary should back up a dump truck full of money to Trippi to hire him now that he is free, but he just might not take it.

I just heard an actual new Clinton gambit: Bill Clinton, speaking in New Jersey, just gave Hillary credit for Northern Ireland's Good Friday Accords. Seriously.

Now, I was on the Mall for the national millennium eve celebration. I was there when Bono came on to do a solo acoustic version of "One" at midnight as a "thank you" to the person who brought peace to Northern Ireland. Bono thanked one person by name, and it wasn't Hillary.

Have to say, though, that Bill is giving a terrific speech, even if he is just making up stuff about Hillary and Ireland. I tell you, he could have won a _fifth_ term this year.

I keep telling you people: Hillary is never more popular than when people are picking on her.  *Your* pettiness is why Obama's campaign is having trouble putting her away, not Hillary's.  "She's cheating!  Bill Clinton said Jesse Jackson!  You gonna cry now, little girl?  I'll vote for a Republican over Hillary after this latest minor thing that I view as the last straw, Supreme Court be damned!"  It's ugly and immature, and worst of all, it's bad politics. Stop the bitchiness and maybe, just maybe, she'll beat herself.  Keep up your self-satisfied pecking, which Obama lately seems to be absorbing, and always causes him to stumble when he lets it bleed over to his public performance, and HRC will walk away with the nomination.

And if that does happen, by the way, the Republicans can't beat her.  They're even worse at aikido than you are, and they will overplay their hand, badly.  Because as with Bobo the Clown, the only way to win a fight with Hillary is to smile and walk away.  Throw a punch, however glancing, and you lose.  And the GOP has built itself into a machine that does nothing but throw punches and pay off cronies.

austineexpat:

Having fun on this message board with semi-witty comments and writing, producing, and running campaigns ads is a totally different thing. Trust me: no voters are reading this. No voters are being exposed to pricks like us.

Though I agree that "Hillary is never more popular than when people are picking on her."

That's why I say Obama should bake her brownies* and give them to her at the debate at the beginning and say, "I'm sorry if you thought I snubbed you Hillary" and give her a hug.

*laced with exlax

Obama is a leader.  He follows the cues and knows when and how to make his presentation.  He isn't encombered by a suspect hisotry or questionable politics.  I am very optimistic that he will not only be our next president, but he will have the wisdom to know when to act.  The fruits of this wisdom will ultimately bring about positive change.

Um, the last time I checked, Hillary was still up in the national polls and in most of the high delegate states voting Tuesday.  That's the only reason Hillary's team does not want Obama to challenge her on substance and to make his closing argument both as to why he will be a good general election candidate and why she has weaknesses.  Hillary is still stuck in the frame from last April, where she thinks that Obama's idea of hope is of being an angel and all sweetness and light, when it was somewhat apparent then and very apparent to voters now, that his message of hope includes the hope needed to sustain a difficult fight and a fight that can at times involve pointed criticism of one's opponents.  So if they think they've "trapped" him in his own supposed loftiness every time he criticizes her, I think they are missing the boat.  That is especially true given the barrage of news reports pre-South Carolina that included harsh, angry red-faced attacks on Obama coming from Bill Clinton (and even from Hillary herself at the debate).  

thecelt44:

Say again?

"Penn called Obama's remarks a "greatest hits" of anti-Hillary attacks that contradicts his uplifting image. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer chimed in to describe Obama's comments as "blistering."

Mark Penn is still with Hillary's campaign after his performance on Hardball?  That tells you volumes.

"Greatest hits"?  "Blistering"?

You have got to be kidding me.

Let's see..."Obama said Democrats need a nominee who at once "will not unite the other party against us," but will also offer clear contrasts to McCain on Iraq, Iran, and foreign diplomacy."  I don't see anything here that is not already proven and accepted.  The Republicans would like nothing better than to run against Bill and Hillary. They would definitely unite the Republicans against the "Democrat Party".  Obama's positions are clearly more in contrast to McCain's than Hillary's.

It is easy to see what is going on.  If you say something loud enough, and often enough, some people will beginning to believe it .  Especially the Kool Aid drinkers.  I think this has been characterized as the "Big Lie".

Fracuss

Mischievous Pennmanship. He's the H.R. Haldeman of the Clinton camp. The inner circle is positively Nixonian: secretive, arrogant, foul-mouthed, self-righteous, power-hungry....isn't it time to try something different?What kind of people do the Clinton's keep close? Well, let's look back. Mac McLarty was Bill's long-time crony from Arkansas, became his chief-of-staff, and is now a partner at Kissinger & Associates. Or Donna Shalala, the kind of person a Clinton puts in charge of Health & Human Services. Shalala's fingerprints are all over the UnitedHealth scandal, the largest financial scandal in the history of American healthcare. Shalala and James Johnson, another Clinton crony, were intimately involved in the approval of backdating stock options. UnitedHealth is the Halliburton of healthcare. No matter how she may adjust her voice, look at her inner circle and past inner circles. Time for a change, enough Crony Capitallism.

fougasseu,

Have you seen the photos of the Rezko-Obama homestead?

If she's trying to make a big deal out of the "snub" then she's truly pathetic.

Chris Matthews spent about ten minutes on the snub. Olbernmann covered it. It's in the New York papers. The NY Post has a devastating picture of Obama standing with Ted Kennedy and looking sneeringly toward Clinton in the House chamber. The "Obama is nasty" narrative has clearly taken hold. A variation of this is "Obama is disrespectful to Hillary because she is a woman." The New York chapter Of NOW, which I know is beloved around these pages, has been talking about this.

It's all a new element in the mix. We'll see.

To his credit, Chris Matthews said a couple of times "I can't believe we're talking about this." And he also suggested that this was all a phony controversy.

Stopped clock and all that.

"Have you seen the photos of the Rezko-Obama homestead?"

Have you seen the photos of Sen. Clinton with the guy that exchanged pardons for cash?

virginiacentrist: If you don't think the Obama campaign is full of people just as anti-Hillary and just as foul-tempered about it as most of the TNR commenters, you're dreaming.  And those people are the ones who surround the candidate all day.  He can't help but absorb that chatter, and when it spills out in testy behavior, he's suddenly brought to earth by the fact that an "anti-Hillary moment" doesn't mean the same thing at a public forum where not everyone agrees with him as it does behind closed doors surrounded by comfortable co-believers and groupthink.

It would help him most if his following were not so strident, because they wouldn't implicitly legitimize viewpoints and behavior that can (and will) get their candidate in trouble.  If they lived up to his promise of civility and decency to those who disagree, regardless of provocation, he'd find it a lot easier to avoid this kind of headline.  Especially because he's set such a high standard, the media will be watching for signs that he's falling short.

austin, be honest, don't you wish now it had been Biden against Obama. The worst you can say about him is a 20 year old plagarism rap. The Clintons are toxic. Bill sold out Kazakhi miners for a large bag of gold to add to his infamy. Yes, I know the miners would have been sold out but that doesn't justify his actions.

Jimmy might now have some loony positions, but he has not done any outright evil. This is not just flawed but evil.