The world is on the warpath against female politicians today. There's the Mayor in Oregon who was, um, "stripped" of her office (their words, not ours) after posing on a fire truck in her skivvies.
Last night, Tim Russert foolishly tried to mock Hillary for not knowing the name of Putin's successor-- foolish since nobody else knows it either. Apparently, the Cleveland debate came off as a bad Saturday Night Live sketch-- and that was just how the Clinton campaign saw it.
McCain's opening act kept referring to Barack Obama by his Wonkette name ("Hussein! Hussein! His name is HUSSEIN!") to the point where McCain had to take the stage and put the guy down with a bodyslam. And you thought the general election was going to be pretty?
In another sign the ugliness is still in full effect, a Pennsylvania man stabbed his brother-in-law during an argument over which Democrat they should support. Let's be glad that two states with very few gun owners (Texas, Ohio) are next on the docket. Oh. Right....
The web was abuzz with the rumor that President Clinton (the first one) said, "Vote for me" in a slip-of-the-tongue. That would have given Obama (and other detractors) a lotta ammo against the Family. Thankfully, it turned out to just be this realy confusing blog entry... and not too far from the truth.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's campaign is going negative on Obama, which is helpful to both of them. Negative campaigning is an Election Year strategy staple of Bill's, lifted from the mind of Republican guru Dick Morris, and has always worked for his own Presidential campaigns. Obama, on the other side of the coin, needs to learn how to take the punches and go on the offensive himself, something he is reluctant to do because he made it this far while remaining positive and avoiding almost all wars of words or preemptive attacks. It remains to be seen whether a candidate can win a competitive primary while coasting through an opponent's barrage of negative attacks.
And for the first time in this election cycle, the people are giving in to the electability issue.
What does all this mean? All this infighting in the Democratic Party has let McCain take the national lead in both matchups (eight points over Clinton, four points over Obama.) Lefties should hope that whoever loses the contests on March 4th will drop out and instantly endorse their opponent. After all, if McCain's numbers go up in a week where he is accused on the front page of the New York Times of cheating on his wife, then we're all sinking in a big pile of horseshit...
Speaking of McCain's cheating, it at least got him one bit of good news: a Lindsay Lohan "endorsement."
[Photo: Dana Edelson for NBC -- how is it that Amy Poehler can make anybody look hot?!]
