So now the Clinton's will complete the retreat from the cocoon of gender to the fortress of machine politics. The problem is the machine is operated by rats and rats' first and only concern is self-preservation. Last week's stern private admonitions of the Clintons by high-ranking Democrats to express concern over the tenor of their campaign rhetoric look like they will become next week's steady stream of endorsements of an opponent who is a vetted and safe political ballplayer. Unless Bill Clinton learns to shut up and bail, this thing will be over very soon.


And while careful examination of Barack Obama turns up a rather ambitious man who is single-minded in his pursuit of power, the rhetoric he has used to fire up the people may have created something a bit loftier than what he has in mind. He is telling a nation full of disenfranchised citizens that their voices do matter, that they have a right and a duty to demand change. And so they are taking him at his word and standing with him. If Obama realizes that it's more important to answer the demands of that mob than to keep his political 'accounts payable' file up to date, something good will result from this. For decades, diversity training has been a meaningless corporate exercise designed to duck accountability and keep up phony appearances. In the Obama campaign, actual diversity may have found a rightful home. That home is occupied by a wide cross-section of people who have begun to realize that getting fucked over is the tie that binds us. It's been several decades since anyone has successfully organized the people to believe they can actually speak, think and demand for themselves. When this happens the result is a principled mob that can, if you'll forgive the term, change the world. Perhaps this one will breathe life into a renewed deal in the USA.

It's not a matter of abandoning your principles to join this mob. Hold fast to your principles and light a torch. Believe in your ideals and grab some pots and pans and clank up a clamor. Remember what you're pissed about as you hoist that pitchfork. If the senator from Illinois is as smart as he appears to be, he'll understand that the mob can continue its forward march with or without him. Don't worry, he'll do what he needs to do to remain at the front of the throng.

I'll pass on the Obama Kool-Aid but I'll have a few belts of whatever the mob is drinking. And it sure is something to watch the Clintons choke on their own hubris.

Mr. Obama heads into the 22-state showdown as the underdog. The Illinois senator trails Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York by large margins in polls in most of the big states voting Feb. 5. And he lacks the time or resources to campaign intensively in many of those far-flung races to close the gaps.....for all of the attention Mr. Obama has garnered since his Iowa caucus victory at the beginning of the month, Mrs. Clinton has maintained her big lead in national polls -- and in polls in the big states with delegate prizes far greater than any state that has voted so far.

...

Mrs. Clinton appears to have the edge going into the coming week. Polling conducted since the middle of January -- after her thin-but-surprising victory in the New Hampshire primary -- shows that she holds a decisive and often double-digit edge over Mr. Obama in eight of the 10 most important Super Tuesday states. These states collectively will deliver more than 1,500 delegates; 2,025 are needed to lock up a nomination.

posted by Scats : 1/28/2008 04:44:00 AM