From Scratch

“We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people, and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America.”
Senator Barack Obama’s words last night, outside the Capitol in Des Moines. It was a fitting return; January’s Iowa caucuses catapulted his […]

It’s becoming almost farcical. After Hillary’s expected big win in West Virginia Tuesday, Obama picked up the support of enough superdelegates to take a small lead and is only 17 elected delegates away from a majority, but she refuses to admit defeat.
I’ll think of her the next time I watch Carrie, thanks to Frederick Deligne of France’s […]

Editorial cartoonists around the globe weighed in this week on Hillary Clinton’s refusal to quit the Democratic presidential race, despite impossible delegate math and the party’s coalescing around Barack Obama in the name of unity. I didn’t see a single one that took her side.
From Canada, Tab of The Calgary Sun went beyond criticism to sketch out […]

Last night, after Barack Obama’s victory speech in North Carolina, David Gergen said it was the beginning of the end of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Gergen is a rarity: he put aside partisan politics after serving in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan White Houses when he agreed to serve the country as an adviser in Bill Clinton’s administration. His […]

At long last, the Pennsylvania primary has come and gone. It wasn’t the blowout for Hillary it seemed it would be a month earlier, but it wasn’t a squeaker either. So she lives to fight another day, despite Obama’s likely insurmountable lead in delegates.
I’ve come to think of the primary as Spinsylvania and, apparently, so […]

Carl Bernstein wrote an incisive opinion piece the other day for Anderson Cooper’s 360 blog. Bernstein, author of the Hillary Clinton biography, A Woman in Charge, is a CNN analyst this year and appears on Cooper’s program.
His post is so damning that Clinton loyalist Lanny Davis requested and got the chance to rebut.
In speculating what a Clinton […]

After what seems like months, not weeks, of increasingly-nasty campaigning, the Pennsylvania primary finally is at hand. And one issue I can’t believe even became an issue refuses to go away, especially among small-minded xenophobes.
Keefe of The Denver Post summed up my thoughts on Thursday with just a few strokes.

Sphere: Related Content

Cindy, Cindy, Cindy. I’m sure you won’t mind if I call you that; you told me to, the times we met in New Hampshire when you were standing by your man in his quest to become president.
I always liked you and admired your smarts, your easy charm, impeccable grooming and appearance, although the New Yorker […]

Hillary Clinton has made a last-minute change to her schedule for a stop in Detroit today to further try to persuade Michigan legislators to allow a do-over primary election.
She trails Barack Obama in both popular votes and elected delegates; without do-overs in Florida, where the proposal has been rejected, and in Michigan, where Obama was […]

As the graphic proves, everyone can be Irish today. Americans of all ethnicities are making corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, even though it’s not an Irish thing at all.
What?
Well, if you weren’t around last year at this time — and you probably were not, as this blog was only a couple days […]

It’s probably true that everything old is new again, even politicians’ complaints such as Hillary Clinton’s whining about the media favoring Barack Obama. So let’s go back 16 years, when the other Clinton was running for president, and Garry Trudeau devoted this Doonesbury strip to the issue of Clinton and the media. Oh, the irony.
Thanks […]

In her “kitchen sink” approach to attacking her opponent, Mrs. Clinton has acquired a recent fondness for saying, “I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience to bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in […]

Anyone interested in my take on last night’s primary results can find it at Barry!, a new political blog of mine. It’s called Reality Check for Hillary.

A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds a jump in Barack Obama’s support since the New Hampshire primary, paired with increased confidence in his ability to lead the country and to beat John McCain.
Among Democratic primary voters, 59% now say Obama has the best chance of winning in November, compared with 28% who say […]

Conservative talk show hosts and their marionette listeners and viewers are still having a field day over Michelle Obama’s comment Monday about being proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.
Or did she say “really” proud and why, if one is certain of having heard her say that, is that word […]