May 27, 2008 at 3:32 PM by David Pleasant
I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday yesterday. Hopefully most were able to find some time to reflect and contemplate on what Memorial Day is about — honoring and remembering those who have sacrificed far more than the rest of us who can still read and write blogs.
I managed to get in some personal reflection, albeit limited, because all day yesterday my laptop kept venturing into apocalyptic eschatology. However, today it seems to be more indicative of Armageddon. Today has been a constant vacillation between certain death and miraculous resurrections. And each resurrection has indeed been attributable to anything but the mundane, with the of exception of literally, some electrical tape, twist ties, and rubber bands. None of which computer hot shots would normally consider “standard issue.”
So, I’m up for now, which could be anywhere between the next five seconds to maybe even hours. Moreover, I never ceased to be amazed at how engineers can so accurately design a product’s life cycle to end so perfectly just before catastrophic technical failures commence at the expiration of a manufacturer’s warranty. Mine expired exactly one week ago, and that’s not a first. I’ve experienced it numerous times before.
Consequently my technical woes have been an obstacle to seeking out what’s happening in the world around us. Moreover, with all the ups and downs, I haven’t had the opportunity to catch the chattering heads on cable today. Purchasing a new laptop just isn’t feasible or practical today. So, the plan is to try and ameliorate the emergent problems as they arise in the near-term and catch up as quickly as possible until I can discern what is necessary to accommodate the long-term.
I’ve started two to three posts, but have been unsuccessful in getting beyond any drafts. If the Band-Aids hold up sufficiently for the next few hours, I may actually be able to publish something worthwhile.
The power meter is yet again warning me of imminent failure, so I’ll be back as soon as possible.
May 27, 2008 at 7:23 AM by David Pleasant
In a scathing commentary in the Washington Post today, Eugene Robinson aptly captures and characterizes the litany of never-ending absurdities and logic-defying reasons Hillary Clinton routinely cites and changes (daily) as to why she continues her failed candidacy for President of the United States. And seemingly failed is probably a better characterization than just failed.
The third graf is Eugene’s money statement.
If this campaign goes on much longer, what will be left of Hillary Clinton?
A woman uniformly described by her close friends as genuine, principled and sane has been reduced to citing the timing of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination as a reason to stay in the race — an argument that is ungenuine, [sic] unprincipled and insane. She vows to keep pushing, perhaps all the way to the convention in August. What manner of disintegration is yet to come?. . . .
It could be that any presidential campaign requires a measure of blind faith. But there’s a difference between having faith in a dream and being lost in a delusion. The former suggests inner strength; the latter, an inner meltdown.
What Clinton’s evocation of RFK suggests isn’t that she had some tactical reason for speaking the unspeakable but that she and her closest advisers can’t stop running and rerunning through their minds the most far-fetched scenarios, no matter how absurd or even obscene. She gives the impression of having spent long nights convincing herself that the stars really might still align for her — that something can still happen to make the Democratic Party realize how foolish it has been.
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Eugene H. Robinson
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Many have asked, especially Chris Matthews, what exactly does Hillary want and/or what is she really trying to accomplish? The choices are not clear and are hardly indicative of Clinton’s historically expressed objectives.
Most of the speculation has focused on Hillary seeking a V.P. slot on Obama’s ticket. Until hubby Bill been campaigning for Hillary to be V.P., that rhetoric was echoed primarily by the punditocracy and Hillary supporters. Furthermore, just because Bill is campaigning for a V.P. position, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a Hillary authorized position — Bill tends to do his own thing from time to time.
It’s just my opinion, but I believe it will be a very cold day in Hades before Obama offers Hillary a V.P. slot. The calculating and reprehensible positions Robinson highlights in his piece and the rancor and numerous “illusions” emanated from the Hillary campaign are counter-productive for any potential vice presidential nominee.
At best, only a few know what Hillary wants, which of course presumes she knows herself.
Since I am a quintessential cynic, I firmly believe Hillary has an objective, if not a very calculated plan, but that is nothing more than my personal speculation. Furthermore, I increasingly suspect “the plan” leans more towards some version of a “nuclear option” rather than serving the best interests of the party. Paranoia will destroy ya, but I’m waiting on the Clinton campaign to drop an eleventh-hour bombshell — fabricated or real — that will be impossible to effectively challenge before the first round of ballots at the Democratic convention.
What other options does Clinton have? No superdelegate is going to buy into all these fuzzy math propositions and the recent lunacy of a stolen nomination based on gender.
I don’t buy into the Hillary’s crusade for Michigan and Florida, with the qualifier that it may somehow support a higher priority or objective. She dissed Michigan and Florida months ago, but now has this overwhelming motivation to fight disenfranchisement she fully supported?
But the most compelling item, and potentially flawed notion I have is dismissing what the Washington Pundit Elites said on David Gregory’s show a few weeks ago, especially considering there are no other “winning” alternatives. Obviously, Gregory, Scarborough, Maddow et al. were wrong about Hillary possibly dropping out after Indiana, but that was by no means the full subtext of their message.
As Terry McAuliffe and the unnamed sources indicated, we’ll probably have to wait until mid-June to glean maybe just a hint of what the Gregory crew were alluding to, but I wouldn’t put big bucks on Clinton suspending or withdrawing.
Whatever Clinton’s up to, Eugene Robinson has indeed characterized Hillary’s tactics and equivocating to this point quite accurately.
