Needed: Nose-Holding Instructions

It seems that "Democratic elites" are worried about the Obama/Hillary campaign still going while John McCain runs victory laps and takes aim at the Democrats.

The still airtight race likely will go on for many weeks with 370 delegates at stake on March 4 in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont. Without a sweep of wins in the upcoming contests, the Democratic race could come down to theconvention in August, which some party officials dread will happen.

But why? Both Obama and Hillary are looking like much stronger candidates than they were in December while McCain is the weakest "presumptive nominee" since Jimmy Carter in 1980. I don't know what's worse for McCain, the fact that he lost to Huckabee in Kansas and Louisiana or the fact that he's only getting 26% in Washington state where he's winning.

John McCain's mother hit the nail on the head when she said that conservatives would have to "hold their noses" before they voted for her son. Perhaps the McCain campaign should send out instruction pamphlets on the proper technique for holding the right-wing schnoz.

McCain and the Identity Politics of the Right

As I wrote last night, the activist right-wing will never accept John McCain because of the power of identity politics among conservatives. McCain may agree with a lot of conservative positions, but the conservative movement will never embrace McCain because he isn't "one of them."

There are several dimensions on which McCain is a stranger to the right. Here's a couple.

MCCAIN'S REASSERTION OF TRADITIONAL MASCULINITY. The most important cultural achievement of the conservative movement has been the temporary enshrinement of weenie-boy masculinity as the dominant mode of political manhood. Painfully conscious of their own failures in terms of conventional ideals of male athleticism and big man on campus popularity, conservatives like George Bush, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, and Tom DeLay adapted a comic book ideal of exaggerated masculine gestures and promoted that ideal to the public as what "real" masculinity was all about. Selling George Bush as more of a man than more conventionally masculine guys like Al Gore and John Kerry was one of the keys to his victories in 2000 and 2008.

But John McCain is just as far from the weenie world of right-wing masculinity as any liberal democrat. A jock, fighter-pilot, and all-around cool guy, McCain doesn't need, understand, or have any respect for the hyper-masculine posturing of the activist right. That's why McCain has been such good buddies with guys like John Kerry. He shares a kind of ease with masculine give and take that somebody like Rush Limbaugh wouldn't be able to achieve if he had 100 million listeners rather than 13 million.

To put it crudely, John McCain just isn't the same kind of man Limbaugh and the other weenies of the right. Even worse, McCain is a constant reminder to the right of the kind of men they aren't.

MCCAIN MINUS THE RACIAL/GENDER NARRATIVES. Figures like William Bennett argue that Barack Obama "transcends race." That's nonsense. At the Obama event I attended in Lexington, KY last fall, there was a strong, specifically African-American presence. There were a lot more African-Americans in the audience than there are at most Kentucky political events. A couple of black students from local high schools also came forward to give short speeches and an African-American music student from the University of Kentucky gave a powerhouse rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Obama was definitely running as "the black candidate" as well as the candidate of the whites in the audience. Indeed, Obama's living multi-culturalism was part of the excitement of the event.

However, there's going to be a very real sense that John McCain is going to be transcending "whiteness," or at least the traditional Republican version of whiteness, in the general election campaign. Republican presidential candidates from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush have been running as specifically white men who have been promising to oppose the aspirations of black people, keep black people under control, or find ways to keep black people "in their place." I believe it was Howard Kurtz who captured the Republican spirit when he stressed that the GOP candidates as the first presidential debate of the 2008 election represented "hierarchy."

To my knowledge, however, McCain has no racial narrative in his campaigning. Seemingly outside the debates over segregation and integration, McCain doesn't support the Confederate
flag, hasn't made a point of campaigning against "activist judges," doesn't have a big crime agenda directed against black males, and isn't a big opponent of affirmative action. In other words, McCain isn't trying to rally Republican voters around white supremacy or the many stand-ins for white supremacy that Republicans have been promoting for the last 40 years going back to Nixon.

I have a lot of doubt that McCain is going to push hatred of Muslims, hatred of gay people, hatred of Hispanics, or hatred of women in the form of anti-Hillary stereotypes if he runs against Hillary. Given the absence of bigotry, a McCain presidential campaign "just isn't going to feel like a Republican campaign" to a lot of right-wingers. Once again, McCain isn't one of them.

Obama's Cool Androgyny

THE FIRST METROSEXUAL PRESIDENT. Today, Megan Beyer, the wife of a former lieutenant governor in Virginia, referred to Barack Obama as "in many ways . . . the first woman president." Actually, I can see that in a certain way. One element in Obama's cool is that he has a certain androgynous air about him. I don't mean in any crude sense that he "looks like a woman," but Obama doesn't project the kind of testosterone posturing that signifies someone as "male" in our political culture. That's one of the things that makes Obama unique. David Bowie thin, Buddha-like in his relaxation, and transcending any need to prove his manhood, Obama doesn't have any of the strutting macho that characterizes George Bush, Dick Cheney, or even John Kerry. That wouldn't make Obama the "first woman president" any more than Bill Clinton was the "first black president." But I can see presidential historians someday referring to Obama as the "first metrosexual president."

MITT QUITS. Mitt Romney dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination today. Outside all the money he's going to save on his campaign. I'm not sure why he quit. Sure, Mitt's initial strategy of winning Iowa and New Hampshire fell apart. But there still were a couple of scenarios under which Romney could have won the nomination from McCain. It was especially easy to see Romney pressing McCain's record hard and McCain blowing up about it at some point and ruining his campaign as a result. There was also a strong possibility that McCain wouldn't do very well at managing a front-running campaign. McCain's the front-runner because the Giuliani and Fred Thompson campaigns fell apart not because he's doing such a great job running his own campaign. Mitt should have stayed around to see how well McCain handled prosperity.

THE RIGHT KILLS THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN. People on the right complain a lot about "identity politics" among blacks and women. However, conservatives themselves are the most determined purveyors of group identity in American politics. It's just that the group with which they identify is "conservatives" or now "Reagan conservatives." That's why the right is never going to be satisfied with McCain no matter how many conciliatory speeches McCain gives. He's just not "one of them."

Ultimately, the right is going to kill the McCain campaign after he becomes the Republican nominee. The underlying problem is that the right will be be policing every McCain speech for deviations from conservative orthodoxy and what figures Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter do best is blast away at anything that is not conservative enough. And McCain will have to kowtow to the right if he doesn't want to see his campaign founder on intra-party disputes. Unfortunately for McCain, that means he's not going to be able to do much to convince moderates, independents, and weak Democrats to forget the Bush administration, the war, and the faltering economy and once again vote for a Republican. The Republicans underestimate the extent to which non-conservatives have tuned them out on issues like the war. If McCain wants to win the election, he's positively going to have to move a lot of moderates, independents, and weak Democrats to give up hard and fast opinions. Having to bow to right-wing orthodoxy every time he opens his mouth will prevent McCain from doing that. In my opinion, John McCain doesn't have much more chance of being elected president now than he did last July when he hit bottom.

Hillary by a Hair

Well, it's all over but the shouting and I've got self-congratulatory e-mails from both the Obama and the Clinton campaigns. Contrary to Kos, I think Super Tuesday will end up with Hillary getting a hairs-breadth edge.

In a lot of ways, it was a Red State/Blue State primary. Where Obama really cleaned up was in the red, red states like Idaho, Alaska, North Dakota, Georgia, and Alabama. Of course, it certainly would be wrong to deny that Obama is a strong candidate who is competitive on a national basis. After all, he also won in Connecticut, Delaware, Missouri,and his home state of Illinois. Likewise, I saw very few states where Obama didn't outpoll the leading Republican by big margins.

At this point, it wouldn't be too speculative to say that Obama's chances of winning the nomination are better than 50-50. But Obama's main strength today was in states where Democrats have had to listen to the Hillary-hatred of their neighbors for a long time.

Hillary proved her resilience as well in hanging onto core states like California, New York, and New Jersey in the face of the most recent surge of Barackomomentum. Tonight was also a big night for her.

In fact, I see Hillary as coming out very slightly ahead because there was real reason to fear that her candidacy would fall apart in the face of Obama's momentum. As was the case with New Hampshire, Hillary has shown that she isn't going to be swept away.

It also looks like Hillary is going to win the overall popular vote by a hair. As of about ten minutes ago, Obama had a 57,000 vote lead at 5,628,649 to 5,571,039 according to my hand tabulation. However, it looks like Hillary is going to overcome that lead in California.

Right now, it's neck and neck with Obama having an overall edge because of momentum. I'm for Hillary, but I think the race is great for the Democratic Party and progressive politics in this country. I can be pretty happy whoever wins.

A Pause in Barackomentum

CNN has an interesting tidbit on late-deciding voters:

According to the exit polls, Obama and Clinton are essentially splitting those voters, with 47 percent going for Obama and 46 percent for Clinton.

That one percent differential is not what the Obama camp wanted. It looks like Barackomentum has slowed down somewhat.

I still think a lot of people are 51-49 in their own minds. But Hillary's getting her share of that group.

Early Primary Results: Democrats

As of 9:25pm

Hillary wins:
New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee,

Obama wins:
Illinois, Georgia, Delaware,

Analysis: Nobody is going to sweep the Democrats. What Hillary Clinton has accomplished is "hold serve" by winning New York and New Jersey. If she can take California, Super Tuesday will be a success and she can still claim the upper hand. Yeah, Hillary!

At the same time, Barack Obama has shone real strength by winning Delaware and having early leads in Connecticut and Kansas. If Obama wins in California, there's a good chance that he'll have the upper hand.

Very few of these states are close at all. Most states outside Delaware and Connecticut look like they're very solidly in one camp or the other. Hillary and Obama both look like they have a lot of home states.

Bob Knight: The Dick Cheney of Sports

Today Bob Knight resigned as head basketball coach at Texas Tech. Knight is the relentlessly bullying, supremely self-centered basketball coach who made his national reputation for abusing players and winning championships at Indiana University.

I was actually a camper at a Bobby Knight camp at West Point when he was the Army coach in 1970. Even though I was a callow high school sophomore, I could still tell what a jerk he was!

The sports world will miss Bob Knight about as much as the world of politics is going to miss Dick Cheney.

The Obama/Hillary Smackdown

The 51-49 Solution: I can't believe that Rebecca Traister of Salon is the only person who is undecided about the Democratic primaries. I think a lot of people are 51-49 between Obama and Hillary in their own heads. Obama has made his case for the importance of being inspiration and he's convincing. So is Hillary Clinton's argument for the importance of a hard-headed approach to the right. Whether Obama or Hillary wins, I don't think the other Democrat is being repudiated. That's why a Hillary/Obama or Obama/Hillary ticket could be in the works. Democratic voters might demand it.

From a Sample of One. Whenever I muse about the future, I think about one student who thinks of the "standard path" of going to college, getting a job, and raising kids as the equivalent of a death sentence. Because of the similarity between this student and the "alienated youth" studied by Kenneth Kenniston in the late fifties, I wonder if there isn't a bigger explosion developing under the surface of American society than we currently acknowledge. If Obama represents a return to the Kennedyesque optimism characterizing the early sixties, I wonder if a cultural revolution like the late sixties isn't right around the corner again.

A Bad Feeling. I'm sticking with my previous analysis of the Democrats. Nobody knows who's winning, but the dynamic is easy to identify. Hillary may still be ahead or she might have slipped behind. But her support is very fragile and might easily fall apart in the face of the Obama surge.

Does My Gut Have Shit for Brains? The John Cusack character thought his gut had "shit for brains" in High Fidelity. Hopefully, that's the case with my gut as well, because my gut feeling is that Obama is turning the corner on Hillary Clinton and might rack up an impressive set of victories tomorrow. Given that I'm a Hillary supporter, I really hope I'm wrong. Here's to keeping hope alive.

Super Bowl and the Greater Evil

Patriots Lose! Patriots Lose! It's great to see the New England Patriots lose. They're the Dick Cheney's of pro sports--an evil organization that doesn't give a crap about its players no matter how much they've contributed to the team's success.

Too bad an ostentatious asshole like Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants had to be the coach of the team that beat them. I've always rooted for guys like Coughlin to fail as well. But in this case, the Patriots were definitely the greater evil.

Approaching the Half-Way Mark

At my Friday weigh-in, I was 216 pounds. That's about the same as Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson in their primes. So, I'm not in bad company even if I still have 36 pounds to go before reaching my target of 180.

Here's the run-down of where I am. Weighing 216 means that I lost about 4 3/4 pounds last week and that I've lost 27 pounds altogether since I started the diet 28 days ago.

I'd say that's a decent bit of dieting and I'm still pretty surprised that I'm progressing so fast. My initial goal was to about half a pound a day, but I'm losing about 3/4 pound/day. That's mostly a reflection of how fat I was at 243 and I know all the biblical invocations about pride.

But what the hell, I'm not a Christian anyway.

My big thing this week is brussel sprouts. I'm almost as obsessed with the brussel sprouts I'm now eating as I am with the sweets and pizza I'm not eating.

Maybe my next obsession will be water.

Anyway, ultimate goal was to lose 63 pounds. So I'm only 4 1/2 pounds from being half-way there at 211 1/2. That's my goal for next week, to get myself half-way home to the end of this diet.

If only I could develop any enthusiasm for a healthy lifestyle.

Quick Hillary Notes

Who's the Establishment Candidate? With the Kennedy family, Oprah Winfrey, and a bunch of Democratic governors endorsing him, Barack Obama now looks much more like an establishment candidate than Hillary. There's a "Clintonista" faction of people like Terry McAuliffe in top Democratic circles, but it's just a faction. Broader Democratic elites haven't been any more accepting of Hillary Clinton than the media. They're living the fantasy that Obama will take the country beyond the "politics of polarization" and that they can all be moderate and collegial and that they won't have to fight to get anything done. When will they ever learn?

How Valuable the Kennedy Endorsement? Not very. Ted Kennedy's a much more compromised figure than even Bill Clinton. Decades after Chappaquiddick, Kennedy was still partying like it was 1959. And how does a Kennedy endorsement make Obama look young and vital? Although Kennedy's done many valuable things as a legislator, he's a throwback to the mind-boggling hypocrisy of the John F. Kennedy administration (Sing "Happy Birthday, Mr. Presid-e-e-e-nt" in your best sing-song voice to get an idea of what I'm talking about) and a dinosaur who embarrassed everybody at the 2004 Democratic convention.

Not a great moment for Obama.

Hillary More Inspiring than Obama. One of the things I found interesting about the Thursday debate was that Hillary Clinton was more inspiring than Obama on issues like health care. Hillary started with a strong statement Democratic Party principles of universal access to health care and then talked about the details of her proposals. That gave her proposals a sense of drama and purpose that Obama's litany of details couldn't match.

The Bill Problem. I don't have much of a problem acknowledging that Bill Clinton's undisciplined, shoot-from-the hip pronouncements and "it's all about me" narcissism would be an occasional problem for a Hillary Clinton administration. But it also looks like a manageable problem because Bill Clinton can recognize when he screws up just as well as anybody else can and now he's sticking to his talking points. One of the things I like about Hillary, and about Bill, is that they learn from their mistakes. I haven't seen that in Barack Obama or his people yet.

Is Ann Coulter Biting the Hand

Ann Coulter remains an inspiration to media whores everywhere.

As unhappy as she is with the Republican primaries, she still figured out a way to get herself a lot of media attention by declaring on Fox that she would support Hillary before she voted for John McCain.

No, and if you're looking at substance rather than whether it's an R or D after his name, manifestly, if our's candidate than Hillary's going to be our girl, Sean, because she's more conservative than he is. I think she would be stronger on the war on terrorism. I absolutely believe that.

Like most of Coulter's stuff, this is very clever. But there's a little honesty wrapped in Coulter's relentless cleverness. The clever part is that she got a nice little three-fer out of her Hillary endorsement. Of course, she managed to lash out at McCain and get some publicity for herself (need to sell that next book!). But Coulter also lashed out at Hillary by giving her an "Ann Coulter endorsement" that Coulter knows will hurt Hillary among Democrats.

Atta girl, Ann!

But Coulter's also being honest to the extent that she's always thought that Hillary would keep the troops in Iraq indefinitely.

I've heard her say that on right-wing radio.

Unlike most political pundits, Coulter tries to get under the surface of candidate statements to guess the direction a politician would take in office. On the one hand, Coulter basically sees McCain as an aggressive reform liberal than most Democrats despite his current nods to the right. On the other, she views Hillary as a steady imperialist who would stay in Iraq despite her stated policy of withdrawing American troops.

For Coulter, that makes Hillary a clear choice over McCain.

But being clever doesn't make Coulter right.

Hillary Clinton isn't any more of a steady imperialist than Dennis Kucinich. In 1998, the Clinton administration wanted to invade Iraq over Saddam's booting out the inspectors, but they desisted because they couldn't get any support for the adventure.

In 2002, she was in the ambivalent position of believing that Saddam Hussein deserved to be overthrown. But that wasn't her main thought. Sen. Clinton by then, Hillary preferred inspections and negotiations over invasion but also decided not to be identified with anti-war sentiment. Playing politics, she voted to authorize a war she really didn't want.

As president, Hillary would still much prefer negotiations over military conflict. That's exactly what people like Coulter hated about Bill Clinton's administration. Likewise, I think a Hillary administration would be a much steadier hand at negotiating than either Obama or the temperamental John McCain.

Back to the Real World of Blogging

9:30--Obama on Iraq--strong on his initial opposition to the war--But I would feel better if he were stronger on his current opposition to the war.

9:32--Hillary on Iraq--I like her on her principles of "coercive diplomacy" to make "bad actors" "change their behavior"--But she's not convincing. She says that she didn't realize how obsessed Bush was with invading Iraq. If that's the case, Hillary is the only person in the U. S. who didn't know how determined Bush was to invade. Not completely sure of herself on Iraq, Hillary is talking just as slowly about Iraq as Obama was talking about health care.

9:37--Obama wants to be "right on day one."--

9:48--It's winding down and Obama and Hillary start to talk about the campaign and filling offices--

I thought it was a very good debate. Hillary was better on health care and immigration, but Obama was better on Iraq. I'd still rather have Hillary at the top of the ticket, but the debate looked like a high-level draw to me.

More Live Blogging

8:54--Hillary's principle of respecting dignity of every person--nice.

And then a break.

With either a black guy or a woman guaranteed to be the Democratic nominee, we Democrats have already broken a lot of new ground with the 2008 election. That says a lot about the Democratic Party and the political coalition that has built up around the Democratic Party.

8:58--Back to the debate. I've got to pick up my daughter Katy in twenty minutes. Must remember.

Obama's talking about his experience and how he can "bring people together" and "overcome the special interests"--For Obama, it's skill and personal characteristics vs time spent in the system. All of this sounds like 1992 to me.

Hillary wants to "bring people together" as well.

9:05--Time for a civics lesson to daughter Tess--One of her classmates is referring to Hillary Clinton as the "mother of our country" is she wins. She reminds me that she has shaken Barack Obama's hand at the rally we intended last August.

9:08--Obama on the Clinton administration--shifts to his "bringing in a whole new generation of voters"--Is it the "nuts and bolts of legislation" or "reaching for something higher?" Shouldn't Presidents be able to accomplish both.

9:10--Hillary Clinton answers the dynastic question by wanting to be judged on her "own merits"--Great line here--"It might take a Clinton to clean up after the second Bush."

Must pick up daughter no. 1

Live Blogging Democratic Debate

8:07 Obama's Introductory Remarks--I don't like the pale blue tie--Pretty uninspiring version of Obama. He wants to get past the divisions of our country. Big deal! Is it just "the past vs the future?"

8:10, Hillary's remarks on the problems we face are authoritative and she's speaking in a commanding style. Of course, I thought John Kerry was commanding in his last debate with Bush.

8:12, Hillary's turquoise jewelry. Good. Too much detail on her differences with Obama. What about some compelling general themes of how she's different? Why isn't George Lakoff advising her? "Not more of the same--That's good!"

8:14, Obama--too much detail as well. Snore! What about expanding on the moral imperative of providing universal health insurance. Obama and Hillary on first name basis. Nice to know they're friends.

8:17, Obama too soft on mortgage lending industry and "lobbying interests"--where's the fire? Obama is too wordy--not confident enough on the logic of his policy proposals.

8:19, Problems come up--Obama doesn't like mandates, but Jeanne Cummings points out that Obama's plan doesn't cover 15,000,000 people.

8:25--Hillary starts with reassuring "we few, we happy few" (Yes! that's my first Shakespeare quote of tonight's live-blogging) who are happy with the current system. And . . . my internet connection starts getting spotty. She's stronger on the principles of her plans, therefore sounds better on the details.

8:30--Completely missed Obama's last answer--Hillary's pretty strong on health care. I like the way she's talking about the health insurance industry and their opposition to health care reform.

8:34--Obama on taxes--Pretty good--But "restoring balance" doesn't inspire.

8:36--Hillary paying for health care reform by ending Bush tax cuts for wealthy and introducing electronic record keeping for more than $110 million she needs. Hillary is strong on health care.

8:39--Obama and Hillary now tag-teaming against the absent Republicans. But who's running for president? Who for VP?

On to immigration!

8:40--Obama somewhat hesitant--why isn't the total of the world's information not on the tip of his tongue? Obama against scapegoating immigrants for economic problems of inner-city African-Americans.

Wants to "pulls country together" to get "economy back on track."

8:43--Hillary has more empathy with African-Americans--Employers exploiting illegal immigrants to lower wages. She also has an ability to talk "comprehensively" about "comprehensive immigration reform."

8:51--An eight-minute break to locate 13 year-old daughter

When the "Base" Isn't THE Base

Michelle Malkin (via Salon) isn't in a very good mood over John McCain's win in the Florida primary. Here's what she thinks McCain's attitude toward the right is:

Insult the base, trash the base, and pay lip service to the base only when it
suits his needs.

Fair enough. McCain doesn't give a damn about Christian conservatives, actively campaigns against corporate interests, and is no friend to the right-wing commentariat. If McCain didn't have to pay lip service to the right on immigration, taxes, and judges, he wouldn't give them the time of day.

But is the right-wing the "base" of the Republican Party? On the results of the Florida primary and the upcoming California, New York, and New Jersey primaries, the answer is probably a big "no." To date, the success of the McCain campaign is an indication that the right is in fact a minority in the Republican Party. The right might be an active minority, an influential minority, and probably even the dominant minority in the Republican Party.

But they still look like a minority and they look like a smaller minority with every McCain win.

Hillary and Obama: Shades of 1992

With Bill Clinton's race-baiting of Barack Obama after Obama's South Carolina victory, both sides of the Democratic primary are looking like a reprise of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign.

Barack Obama is doing one side of Bill Clinton's "new Democrat" schtick with his opposition to the "brain dead partisanship" of the past, his ideas about rising above ideology, and his respect for Republican ideas. E. J. Dionne recaptures Bill Clinton's efforts to get beyond partisanship during his first presidential campaign.

The worst thing about all this is what both Clintons are doing to their own legacy as pioneers of an approach that rejected, as Bill Clinton said in a 1991 speech, "the stale orthodoxies of left and right." The great asset shared by both Clintons is their willingness to bring fresh thinking to old problems.

"Our new choice plainly rejects the old categories and false alternatives they impose," Bill Clinton added in that 1991 address in which he offered a long list of new ideas. "Is what I just said to you liberal or conservative? The truth is, it is both, and it is different. It rejects the Republicans' attacks and the Democrats' previous unwillingness to consider new alternatives."

Needless to say, Bill Clinton was not talking much about "stale orthoxies of the left" in 1996 after all of his DLC ideas crashed in the face of right-wing partisanship.

Obama's similarity to Clinton is annoying enough, but what it makes it worse is that Obama's talk about "transcending partisanship" is contingent on the hard fighting that Congressional Democrats, progressive groups, and liberal bloggers have done against the aggressive Republican partisanship of the last 15 years. Now that the various factions of the Democratic coalition have finally turned the corner on the right-wing, Obama's calling for an end to partisan conflict.

To quote one of my least favorite Hillary surrogates, that's "pure fantasy."

At the same time, Bill Clinton and other Hillary surrogates like Andrew Cuomo have been reviving Bill Clinton's 1992 strategy of attacking Sister Souljah to prove he wasn't a captive of African-American interests. That might have been cleverly nasty in 1992, but this year Hillary Clinton has to prove herself to black voters and to white progressives. As a result, Bill's race-baiting comparison between Obama and the non-competitive Jesse Jackson campaign was both disgusting and stupid.

With all the progress that people on the left have made over the last five years of the Bush admininistration, it's extremely disappointing that the Democrats seem to be stuck in a 1992 moment.

But this also provides an opening for Hillary Clinton. She could claim that she's already been through an Obama-style campaign and that she's learned the lesson that the right-wing is both committed to extreme partisanship and in control of the Republican Party. By building on her attempts to pose herself as a "fighting progressive," Hillary could both regain the upper-hand on Obama and establish some much-needed distance between herself and the "legacy" of the Clinton administration.

A Belly Like Angelina's Lips

I've lost almost 25 pounds now and the news isn't all good. It turns out that Angelina Jolie and I are no longer soul-mates. Before I started losing weight, my stomach was like Angelina Jolie's lips--plump, full, and rounded. Needless to say, knowing that I had something in common with a real celebrity was a big deterrent to going on a diet. But as my belly is shrinking, the skin no longer has as much stomach to cover and it's starting to sag. Ah! The hardships of dieting.

Resistance Was Not Futile

My biggest weakness besides the 1500 calories of sweets I was eating every day is Italian cooking. Lasagna, manicotti, and baked spaghetti--all with extra cheese.

It's too much.

But this weekend, I managed to resist the siren's song of lasagna twice.

We had guests on Saturday and Sunday. Mrs. RSI made her famous spinach lasagna twice and I didn't touch it either time.

Next week, I enter the River of Comfort Food seeking to reverse the constant eating that got me initially got me up to 220.

Down to 215.

Not That Much More Patience

I'm supporting Hillary Clinton because I think she'd make a much better president than Barack Obama or any of the Republicans. But Bill Clinton's comparison of Obama's campaign to Jesse Jackson's losing campaigns is trying my patience. Sure, Bill was frustrated and sure the reporter was relaying an example of how Obama baited him. But those excuses don't wash. Strongly implying that Obama was "just a black candidate" was factually wrong, morally wrong, and totally inappropriate. If Bill's going to be that stupid, then Hillary would be smart to start sending him out to the hinterlands of Democratic constituencies. Maybe she could have him give pep talks to "Investment Bankers for Hillary" or groups like that. Otherwise, she'll lose a lot of her support.