A Second Hand Conjecture

After speculating upon Hillary Clinton’s strategic thinking with respect to the Democratic nomination, James Taranto concludes (emphasis added):
To summarize, Mrs. Clinton maximizes her chances of becoming president if she (1) does enough damage to Obama to snatch the nomination away from him, (2) failing that, does enough damage to him to bring about his defeat [...]

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Meet Shirley Golub, a feisty San Franciscan who is challenging Nancy Pelosi for the Democratic nomination in the 8th Congressional District of California, on the grounds that she’s just not anti-Bush enough. Shirley fears above all that if Bush isn’t impeached, he’ll invade Iran. Yes, you might say that Bush will not even be in [...]

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Wow. They beat the crap out of this elderly school teacher, because she chanted for Hillary at the Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting: video. (via FDL). I suppose that’s one way to put down internal insurrection. Not a very good one though in a building full of cameras.

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F05%2F31%2Fthuggery-for-obama%2F’;
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(photo: Department of Defense)
The Obama campaign has categorically rejected John McCain’s proposal for a joint trip to Iraq, calling it a “publicity stunt.” Publicity stunt it most certainly is, but why is it automatically assumed that the publicity would only benefit McCain? Because he proposed it? Or because the facts on the ground are thought [...]

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Some interesting parallels with our current situation and the period before the Great Depression. Interestingly, it seems the Democrats are intent on not learning from history, at least not about what led us to the Depression. Or maybe they want a replay of the policies that helped drag us out of the Depression.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_shlaes&sid=alBsmRS72DyM
Schumer [...]

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Most people believe that liberals and Democrats are more sympathetic to gay interests than conservatives and Republicans. Count me among those who think this is accurate.
But, not all is what it seems on the surface.
Some Republicans - some very high up - can and have expressed support for those in the gay community.
Allow the [...]

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Do you want the best possible result? Sure; don’t we all?
When I play bridge, we frequently say: “I didn’t get the best possible result. But - I got the best result possible.” Sometimes, the best possible result is impossible to get. And - you don’t always get what you want.
These [...]

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Steven Taylor takes a look at Paul Kane’s conclusion that it is now mathematically impossible for either Obama or Clinton to win the nomination with pledged delegates, and notes that a super-delegate decided nominee represents an enormous political problem for the Democrats:
The party that has a legitimate gripe about the 2000 election and the [...]

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The Anchoress has a splendid post on my very own Representative, Heather Wilson (R-NM), whom I proudly voted for in 2006. While she upsets many conservatives with her McCain-esque positions (NR likes to slam her quite frequently), it should be remembered that Albuquerque –the urban heart of her district– is a politically divided city. Her [...]

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Video clip of Sean Hannity asking Frank Luntz’s group of Democratic Obama supporters to name one (1) specific accomplishment of their candidate. They all fail embarrassingly and resort to offering Obama’s personality characteristics as achievements. One young girl does manage to meekly submit “community organizer,” which may be a valid allusion to Barack’s accomplishments on [...]

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In a post at QandO, Billy Hollis explains why John McCain will not be getting his vote. Essentially, McCain-Feingold and Johnny’s continued contempt for the Bill of Rights leaves Billy cold:
This [McCain-Feingold] is THE main reason I cannot vote for the man. Heck, I almost shied away from Fred merely because he voted for [...]

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Bill Clinton’s recent emergence as Hillary’s principal anti-Obama attack dog has left a lot of people somewhat uncomfortable. We’re not generally accustomed to seeing this sort of bare knuckled political brawling from a former president (all the effort seems to be wearing Bill out too). Eugene Robinson supplies a reason for Bill’s furious anti-Obama rhetoric: [...]

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I don’t want to hear any more about how the Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility; none of them are planning to close the current deficit, much less deal with the now-seriously-it-really-is-looming entitlement problem. Their tax code changes will claw back only a small fraction of the revenue lost in the Bush tax cut. [...]

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(photo: Marc Nozell)
Matt Stoller at OpenLeft has a pretty interesting observation about the swing of the self-described “very liberal” constituency from Obama to Hillary over the course of the primaries:
In Iowa, Obama beat Clinton by 16 points among those who consider themselves as ‘very liberal’. In New Hampshire, they were even. And now [...]

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At least the last sentence, my emphasis:
First he has no chance whatever of being elected President of the United States of America. He is a rich kid, yes so is George Bush as well - but George Bush gives a good imitation of looking and sounding like an ordinary Texan, Mitt Romney looks and [...]

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Michael Goldfarb thinks that the unexpected Hillary win in Nevada despite the Culinary Workers Union endorsement of Obama, could represent the beginning of a substantial diminution in union political power: “If they can’t even affect the votes of their members when those members must vote in public, in front of their colleagues, and under the [...]

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Here’s a fascinating little article on Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome and the new leading light of the Italian Left. Vetroni has worked to create a more moderate and flexible social democratic political culture in Italy. Modeling his new party in name and substance expressly on the US Democratic Party, he’s sought to create [...]

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Hillary and Edwards are slamming Obama after he heaped praise on Ronald Reagan –something that may not play well with the leftist base of their party, but was doubtlessly well received by the general electorate. One wonders if Obama shouldn’t have waited to express that opinion until after he had the nomination wrapped up however.

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Hotair has video of Chris Matthews talking about Barack Obama on the Tonight Show, in which he tosses objectivity to the wind and replaces it with a kind of turbid political idolatry. He suggests to us that he wouldn’t be an honest reporter if he failed to tell us about the “spiritual experience” one supposedly [...]

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Via hotair
President Bush on Friday used a “pocket veto” to reject a sweeping defense bill because he dislikes a provision that would expose the Iraqi government to expensive lawsuits seeking damages from the Saddam Hussein era…
The sponsor of the contested provision, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the provision would allow “American victims of terror to [...]

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A few weeks back I posted a facile little rebuke aimed at the national security implications of Green Party presidential candidate Alan Augustson’s political platform. Alan responded to this in such a way that I realized I had little idea what the Green Party’s position on security matters was, relative to its environmental policies. Indeed, [...]

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