'Tis the season for silly speculation. But today might as well have been called
pick on chicks Friday, or it is just Democrats? What is it about the corporate
pundits and powerful Democratic women? We all know the networks don't like to
have women on the Sunday shows, but this is getting ridiculous.
We've got the corporate hacks going after Pelosi again.
Then we have the Washington Post making stuff up out of whole cloth, saying
Democrats won't implement the 9/11 Commission report. It's just bunk, but you
can't expect the corporate hacks to understand the finer points of what the
Commission wants done. The difficulty revolves around changing the way intelligence oversight
of committees is handled, which is all very inside House baseball. It's not a magic wand type of change the 9/11
Commission has requested. But no one, certainly not Speaker-elect Pelosi, is
saying anything about reversing course, as is being blasted across
cable news.
But if you thought these were amazing feats of fulminating fantasy, this next
one boggles the mind.
Hotline believes the meteoric rise of Barack Obama will influence Senator Hillary
Clinton's entry into the presidential sweepstakes. Like Senator Clinton doesn't
have her own lightning in a bottle. Mind you, I'm not a supporter of anyone
right now for '08, but this is just silly.
It's kindergarten journalism at its best.
Clinton's aides, when asked about Sen. Barack Obama's aggressive presidential
explorations, contend that his expected entrance into the race has not influenced
the time-frame for Sen. Clinton to make her decision. Some Clinton donors
believe that if Obama announces shortly after the turn of the year, Clinton
would decide to wait a few more weeks, pushing her own announcement into late
January or early February.That would give her more time to assess the impact of Obama on the field,
on her donors and on elected Democratic officials, and more precisely, the
ability to change the storyline from him to her as soon as she entered the
race. Officially, Clinton's political team has the same, somewhat exasperated
response: that Sen. Clinton won't make her decision with any reference to
whomever else might get in, that it's premature to speculate about her decision,
and that reporters asking the questions are fishing for news where there is
none. They do deny, strenuously, reports (see 11/29's Hotline) that prominent
Iowa Democrats have been told Clinton is leaning against a run.
As most of you know, I started out a firm believer that Senator Clinton would
not run. Then I heard her speak at Take Back America. She was a presidential
candidate talking. That said, it still doesn't stop me from believing that her
best move is majority leader. But Harry must have signaled he's staying put
for a while.
However, I find the Obama's so “aggressive” he's scaring Hillary
inference, or that Barack is now the frontrunner, just silly. Senator Obama will not influence Clinton's run at all. He's an amazing politician as far as we can tell, but he's got a lot more heat to meet before we'll know. Besides, Clinton will either run or she won't and Barack Obama will have nothing to do with
it, in my judgment. She'll keep her own counsel, oh, and Bill's too. Clinton
will also have plenty of help and cash if she jumps in.
The two are also very different Democrats, with different records on the Iraq
war. Obama was against it from the beginning. Clinton remains hawkish, saying
it was the prosecution of the war that was bad. Well, no kidding. I also still find Senator Clinton's Iraq stance
untenable, but she has shifted quite a bit since she was booed at TBA, so we
could see a further refinement going forward.
Regardless, it's got the
wingnuts weighing in.
Everyone is so eager to dust Bush from our collective memory neither party
can wait to get the '08 race revved up.
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