Hillary: The Post-Mortem

The Antlantic's Joshua Green has an exhaustive analysis of how Hillary Clinton and her staff blew up her chances to become the Democratic nominee for President. Most of the fault lies with Hillary herself, who allowed her own media paranoia to cripple the huge edge she had in name recognition. Basically, Clinton is a brand-a successful, well-known brand. Hillary made the brand mysterious, which took some effort considering how famous her and her husband are. Her distrust of the media allowed Obama and Edward to capitalize on the void by using the media to spread their own core messages. Finally, her decision to bail early in Iowa will be studied in political science classes forever as an example of how to make an opponent bigger than you. Obama's win in an overwhelmingly white, heartland state launched him as a legitimate contender, an image she didn't combat until much too late in the campaign.

As I've written before, Hillary deserved to lose because she ran a poor campaign.

I highly recommend this article if you are a fan of inter-office politics and arrogance. The Clinton campaign's emails are hilarious to read.

Father-Daughter Debate Sexism and the Hill Campaign

Slate published an email exchange between Casey Greenfield and her father, Jeff, one of my favorite journalists. Jeff did fine work for years as a Nightline correspondent. He now is a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. Casey is a Hill supporter who wants the media's sexist treatment of her candidate put on trial. Jeff believes her daughter doth protest too much.

I agree with everything Jeff writes in his emails (where did they sell those nutcrackers, anyway?). Politics has very little to do with marginal social issues (racism, sexism, whitism). Politics is about getting out the vote, and picking up the garbage (thanks, Richard J!). Hillary did not run a campaign, but a coronation. Barack won not because he is black, or a man, but because he did a better job.

Sometimes I feel like I've woke up in Election, and the Tracy Flick supporters won't shut up. You ran for an office, and you lost. It happens. Even to ambitious, capable women.

Hillary continues

Hillary won both Texas and Ohio yesterday, which means she and Obama will duke it out until probably June. People think it will hurt either in the general election, but I don't know. As long as they don't damage each other irreparably (which with a Clinton involved you can't take for granted), the two of them should dominate the media coverage for the next while. McCain will be like that great show on the CW-you're aware of it, but you don't even know what channel number it is. Whatever happens, it promises to be interesting.

Brett Favre retired yesterday. I think the Bears have an outside chance to win the division next year-and no, not because they just signed Marty Booker. When Marty Booker was last good for the Bears, I was still sulking through my undergrad years. The hope for the Bears lies in the defense, as their offense looks horrible right now.