Years ago, I was having a conversation with a jazz pianist who told me, "When I hit a wrong note, I keep hitting it — so the audience will think it’s intentional." To move away from the wrong note would be a subtle admission of a mistake.
About a week ago, Hillary Clinton hit the wrong note when she called for a "gas-tax holiday" over the summer. The dumb idea ran counter to almost every positive quality Clinton has — her commitment to telling voters the truth, her intelligence, the seriousness with which she takes policy details, etc. The whole mess contradicts who Hillary Clinton really is, and she knows it.
But like the pianist, instead of quickly transitioning to a better note and hoping no one notices, Clinton has decided to hit the wrong note over and over again, with increasing volume and intensity. The more reality pushes back against her nonsensical idea, the more aggressively Clinton pounds the ivory. As someone who's respected Clinton's intellect for years, it's been painful to watch.
-- STEVE BENEN
It's a sad (but predictable) state of affairs when Hillary is left hoping that Democrats lose in order to validate her electability arguments, but a Democrat in a special congressional election in a deep red Louisiana district, who had faced attack ads linking him to Obama and Rev. Wright has won. And when I say deep red, imagine as the polar converse a Republican winning Nancy Pelosi’s district.
-- SEBASTIAN
Hillary Clinton had just started doing an Indiana town-hall meeting being broadcast on ABC, and George Stephanopoulos asked her a direct question: Could she name a single economist who agrees with her support for the gas tax holiday?
Hillary sidestepped the question, and tried to use the complete dearth of expert support for the idea to her advantage, pointing to it as proof that she’s on the side of ordinary folks against "elite opinion" — a phrase she used twice.
-- GREG SARGENT
This year we have witnessed an astounding political tragedy. Astounding because no one would have believed it possible a year ago. We have watched while one candidate, once assumed to become the Democratic nominee, upon losing her position, has taken every opportunity to defame and demean her opponent, including a persistent appeal to racism. Done out of desperation, done out of ambition, it matters not the reason. It is the action that matters, and the actions of her campaign, including statements by her husband, her surrogates and her supporters have spread lies and half truths, and appealed to the basest instincts in our nature.-- STEVEN D
Democratic politicians are starting to pop up on Fox News in droves and the netroots isn’t happy about it ... I never really understood the Fox boycott. Objecting to Fox hosting a Democratic debate is one thing: it really doesn’t make sense to have a Democratic event hosted by an obvious arm of the Republican Party. But not even giving interviews? That doesn’t do anything to spoil Fox’s credibility. It just reduces Democrats’ exposure and makes them look like they’re afraid to confront their opponents.
-- KEVIN DRUM
Employees in nine major industries are beginning to turn their money toward Barack Obama's campaign -- a potential new sign that US business is placing their bets on Obama to win the Democratic nomination.Campaign finance reports now show that employees of nine major US industries -- including defense, communications, health, construction and Wall Street -- gave the lion's share of their contributions to the junior senator from Illinois instead of rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in the first three months of 2008. All of these industries favored Clinton in 2007.
-- JOHN BYRNE
It is for many in the Obama camp an unthinkable thought. But politics is sometimes the art of adjusting today to what seemed inconceivable yesterday. I'm talking about the possibility — and the powerful logic — of a unity Obama-Clinton ticket for the Democrats.
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