It's almost embarrasing to watch

At the end of the CNN debate, Senator Clinton had the crowd on their feet and even some of her louder detractors (yours truly included) wondering if maybe they'd been a bit harsh.

Things began to decline from there. Later that evening it got out that her moment in the sun was formed of two lines from other presidential campaigns; one from John Edwards and another from her husband.

Not that there's anything wrong with that

Except that she'd minutes ago accused Obama of plagarizing Deval Patrick, his friend and one of his national campaign chairs, calling it "Change you can Xerox," and saying that "If your campaign is going to be based on words, they should be your words."

And now, her last vestiges of sanity are slipping away in correlation to the decline to her advantage in Texas and Ohio. The latter was cut in half. The former is swinging towards Obama.

She's called Obama's mailer warning voters that her healthcare plan would force everyone to buy insurance the stuff of Rove. Too bad they describe the central premise of your plan, eh Hillary? Certainly more truthful than the assertion that 15 million people would be "left behind" by Obama's plan. And she trashed him similarly for citing a misquotation in another mailer (that wasn't corrected by its source publication until after it was already sent out) that she thought NAFTA was a "boon to the economy" because she didn't use those EXACT words. There is, of course, plenty of evidence that she supported and continued to support NAFTA until recently.

And then she went and claimed that there was some significance to the love-fest that SNL (a side note... They had a white guy portraying Obama. Blackface much? Ok, not much but still) had for her in their first show since the end of the writers strike.

a clip:



So, I'm not going to be one of those assholes who tries to claim that more significant denigration of women is perpetrated by women than men, but I must say, even if I were trying I wouldn't be able to do as much damage as Tina Fey there. First she mocks the notion that a discerning feminist could support Obama in good conscience--that to not blindly vote for Hillary as a woman is to be blindly following Oprah-- then proceeds to make no other argument in Clinton's favor not related to her gender or her husband.

Oh right, and I almost forgot.

IT ISN'T FUCKING FUNNY AT ALL!

And I don't want to trash Tina Fey, because all in all, I do like her. She's hardly the only one framing things this way.

Attention voters! This election is not about gender politics! Clinton's possession of a vagina does not disqualify her from the office, nor does it obligate anyone to vote for her. And while some of the people who refer to her as a bitch probably are doing so because she's a woman with ambition, and as politically incorrect as it is to apply the title to her she's earned it

Moreover, having a female president for the first time would be significantly less nifty if it was someone who was only ever considered for the job because of her husband.

And it would be even less cool if she happened to be a distasteful hypocrite.

So to those who are offering no other argument for Clinton than her being a woman, and there are many: If you wouldn't otherwise have her represent your party, why the hell would you have her represent your gender?

Gentle Reminder

In case anyone forgets:

If George W Bush refers to a piece of legislation as a "good bill," one can safely assume that it's horseshit.

Keith Olberman on FISA

My view on Ted Kennedy has long been that Democrats need to find some new talent. But here he has it right on the money.

The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.

Let alone that there's no fucking way the precedent for warrantless wiretapping should be upheld, because those implications are fucking terrifying.

Speaking of bullshit on the House floor, Clemens much? I wonder if any baseball fans will be mindful of the Republican whitewashing of a steroid abuser when they go to the ballot box this coming November. Those fuckers fawned over him while he stood accused of perjury.

Also, and this is a couple of days late, congrats to the WGA. Though I really wish those guys would do something to change the fact that to get your foot in the door in a writer's room you need to be willing and able to work for free and live in New York or LA on Daddy's money.

Please?

Yeah, I'm a flip flopper

So I said some things about Obama two years ago.

Barack Obama is thinking of running.

I'm going to clue you all in on two things, in case you haven't noticed

One: The main reason everyone, myself included, loved him in 04 is that his charisma was in such sharp contrast with John Kerry's.

Two: The concept of him as a candidate is the flip side of the coin John McCain has been sitting on ever since he didn't win the primary in 2000. The concept of such a mainstream candidate is far more enticing than either would offer in practice. It's no wonder as soon as the two of them started working together in the Senate they found themselves in a pissing match. Fuck that shit.

Anyways, he's said that religion belongs in the presidential discourse, remember? Because that's done such fucking great things for our country. To his credit, at least in comparison with the fucker on the other side of the metal disc, he never appeared with Falwell.

In retrospect, expecting a fully fleshed out platform for a presidency at a time when he was merely considering his options was probably a bit bullheaded on my part. Since then he's shown me that he does, in fact, stand for something. And no, I'm not talking about "CHANGE." That there may be supporters of his who are rapt by his presence even though they can't name three things he's about is not a valid political argument. His policies have been clear, and they aren't the politics of centrist for the sake of centrist. And despite the statement about religion, he hasn't ceded any political capital to Jesus-based interests

As for the contrast between him and Kerry... I was still pretty pissed at the time. I maintain that we would be talking about a re-election campaign for Kerry and Edwards if Kerry had openly and notoriously called the Swift Boat campaign what it was. Watching Kerry speak at the Obama rally in Boston last night, I wondered just where that power he seemed to be channeling was four years ago.

So, as if it mattered I wholly retract. His support of non-coercive universal healthcare, open government, and net neutrality among much else has earned him my support. Beyond that, I'm just glad that there's someone I can get genuinely excited about. Does his coming into the race as an insurgent within the Democratic Party have a lot to do with my support for him? Probably. But there is no way in hell I would vote for Clinton. Support censorship in any form and there is no fucking way you will ever have my support.

Today is both Super Tuesday and Fat Tuesday. I strongly urge you to grab some beads and head to the polls.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK