TPM:

An anonymous Clinton adviser made an interesting comment to The Guardian, explaining the difference between Hillary supporters and Obama supporters.

"If you have a social need, you're with Hillary," the aide said. "If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you're young and you have no social needs, then he's cool."

Andrew Sullivan sees something:

Anne Rice - a quintessential Clinton supporter - makes her case for Clinton. Notice how she uses the name "Hillary" all the time. To me, that's a sexist double-standard. To Rice, treating Clinton like a male senator is sexist. Maybe it's generational. David Kuo sees the same thing.

I've seen this complaint at least three times this week, on various blogs: why are you people using "Hillary" instead of "Clinton". And, I've given the same answer: I use "Hillary" myself because "Clinton" is her husband. For the past 15 years (at least), if you said "Clinton", you were talking about Bill Clinton. No, he's not the president anymore, but he's still on the scene, and often sharing the scene with Hillary, in a way that other people who share last names with prominent politicians don't (Bush I, for example). He's still making news; he's still casting a big shadow; he's "Clinton". So, to distinguish her from her husband, she's "Hillary". Maybe someday she will claim the last name, the way Bush Jr. has claimed "Bush".

But, maybe I'm being an impolite little blogger, using a grown woman's first name when I don't even know her! I wonder what Hillary herself thinks about using her first name... Well, on the first page of her campaign website, I count 11 uses of "Hillary" ("Ask Hillary", "Watch Hillary", "Join Hillary", "Team Hillary", "Hillary For President", "Women for Hillary", etc.) and only two of "Hillary Clinton" - and one of those is the official "Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President" disclaimer at the bottom of the page. So, umm.... is Hillary a part of this "sexist double-standard" ? Bzzzt.

But what about other candidates? I use "Rudy" instead of "Giuliani" because I can't spell "Giuliani" without looking it up. For all the others, I use their last names - except I think I'd use "Fred", if I ever had something to say about Fred Thompson, cause I like the way "Fred" sounds.

Seems to me that people are trying to find a double standard where there really isn't one.

McCain v Hillary = McCain

I have a terrible record when it comes to predicting elections, though. Pretty much 0/N.

Cry Like a Man, Hillary!

Baltimore Sun:

In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.’ "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07 ]

I like her less and less every time I hear about her.

JK! We BFF!"

Maybe now the liberals will finally take the threat of terrorism seriously !

(ten Schrutebucks to the first wingnut to say that seriously)

In a post called "politicizing Terror", some guy named Ed writes:

From a purely political point of view, the question demeans the audience to which it was asked and exposes the poser as the poseur she [Hillary Clniton] is. Most hilariously, she used this hypothetical [would Republicans benefit from another terrorist attack] to explain how she deals with negative attacks from Republicans. It's hard to get more negative -- and more foolish -- than to speculate that a terrorist attack would give the GOP an advantage, and that she's prepared to take political advantage of the situation should it arise.

Golly.

In his first interview as the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan told a reporter that America needs to be attacked by terrorists so that people will appreciate the work that President Bush has done to protect the country.

"At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001]," Milligan said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country."

That's Dennis Milligan, head of the Republican Party in Arkansas, June 07.

"Americans trust the Republicans to do a better job of keeping our communities and our families safe ... We can also go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby protecting America."

And that's Karl Rove, telling the Republican National Committee in 2002 that they should use the War On Terror as a political tool.

So, "Captain" Ed, how is Hillary Clinton doing anything but agreeing with what big names in the GOP itself are saying ? And those are just a couple of explicit instances. The idea that a new attack would unite the country around the President and the hawkish elements of the Republican party is so obvious that it hardly needs to be spoken.

Seems to me like Ed's trying a bit too hard to find a way to get himself (and his readers) angry about Hillary Clinton.

Some crazy person crawled out of his cave and threw a missive at Andrew Sullivan's window. He (let's just go out on a limb and assume a rabid Hillary hater is a He) wants Sullivan to know that Hillary Clinton is Nixon in a pants suit.

I am surprised that the Politerati, or DC's chattering class, have not seen the parallels between Hillary Clinton and Richard Nixon. They both have brilliant strategic minds, suffer from extreme paranoia about the enemy of their agenda, and both are extremely secretive. ...

I'm not sure Hillary is the paranoid one here.

And, from one of Sullivan's trackbacks:

If the Watergate Hotel hadn't been broken into Nixon would be remembeered as one of the greatest presidents of the twentieth century.

Meddling kids!

Here it is:

But my question, again: Is it likely that women would be chosen for our leaders in politics and government and business, if men assumed their traditional, time-honored and expected responsibilities of leadership and direction? Or is the phenomenon largely explained by the growing wimpiness, indecision, compromise and laxness of character among our men?

Hmmm. So Pat's a dick. But, at least he's coherent, unlike his fellow WhirrledNut, living fossil Carey Roberts:

By my reckoning, the United States officially became a matriarchy on January 20, 1993. That's the day Hillary Clinton moved into the West Wing. Soon she prevailed on Bill to establish the President's Interagency Council on Women, the group that railroaded feminist-inspired policies and programs throughout the federal government.

Matriarchy refers to a society in which feminist beliefs have become entrenched in the government, mass media, and other institutions. And the cornerstone of feminist belief is the dogma that patriarchy is an unrelenting, pervasive threat to women's well-being.

That means wayward women always have a convenient excuse. Consider the recent escapades of the Hollywood pop-tart brigade.

Lindsay Lohan? Surely we can blame her father who caused her to flee to cocaine. Paris Hilton? The judge who sentenced her to 45 days in jail was only trying to make a name for himself. Britney Spears? We can blame her demise on her self-absorbed boyfriend, Kevin Federline.

Under the matriarchy, entitlements, quotas, and set-asides are the coin of the realm.

Awesome!

Hillary says no, pulling out of Iraq isn't the same as pulling out of Iraq. We can pull out, but we have to leave troops there to fight Al-Q and to help the Iraq army. Oy. Good to know. Not that I was all that excited about her candidacy anyway.

Come on Obama, don't fuck it up.

Oops, too late. Obama's plan says:

The plan allows for a limited number of U.S. troops to remain in Iraq as basic force protection, to engage in counter-terrorism and to continue the training of Iraqi security forces.

Same dog shit, different used grocery bag.