Small Town Thinking

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Much being made in today's media about Bill Clinton's "small town" tour to drum up votes for Hillary.

I'll save for another day deconstructing the mindset in small towns...is it "bitter," or "set in its ways" or that other b-word, "bigoted...."? [Answer: none of the above...depending on who's doing the framing...or twisting it for their own advantage.]

Instead--from the perspective of small city living in Fargo, and weekending in such exotic locales as Park Rapids and Walker, Minnesota, and considering that our wee cabin in the woods was one of the first in the country to have satellite teevee...

And from the perspective of listening over time to people like Russet, and Tweety, and Snuffy, and Cokie, and Wolfie, and ... well, you get the idea. I've come to the conclusion that the "small town" most in need of exposure to the great big world outside the bubble and the cocktail wienie circuit and the incestuous revolving doors that are K Street and Congress and Big Media and Congress and Military Contractors and Congress and political consultants and.... is the rarified and isolated little burg of DeeCee.

The posturing portion of the population of DeeCee probably adds up to the size of yer everyday small town out in the boonies. The kind of small town where the satellite trucks are clustering these days breathlessly touting "once in a lifetime" visits. But at least we, in the boonies, actually check out what's going on in the rest of the world instead just pontificating for the mirror or the teevee camera... oh, wait, that's pretty much the same thing, these days, now isn't it.

And when the satellite trucks pack up and follow the parade of candidates and the very important pundits and "journalists" who follow in their wake, we'll consider how it's just like the good ol' days when the circus came to town, and there was a lot of hoopla and folderol and then the wagons headed on down the road and all that was left was a few pleasant memories and a whole lotta dung to clean up.

We're looking to clean up this election year...now if we can just get those big city folk to stop thinking that we're rubes for backdrops and tellin' tales to, "once in a lifetime," before they all pack up and head back to their cozy salons in DeeCee.

War Games

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The politics of campaigning is getting darker and darker on the Democratic side. And you thought it was bad in the run-up to Pennsylvania.

Thursday morning on the Imus Show, Carl Bernstein, author of the Hillary biography, told Imus that there's talk of Hillary and her campaign engaging in McCarthyism against Obama. And that it was interesting given her own background, which had far more association than Obama with the left. Bernstein added much detail regarding the law firm she worked at after graduating from Yale, and more. You can listen to the interview here. [the meat starts at about 4:15 mins in]

Then there's the swirling rumors of some of Hillary supporters growing increasingly distressed by the tactics her campaign has been and continues to use. Distancing and defections have already begun. There are the big names: Richardson, Reich. Now Joe Andrew, the former DNC chair from Indiana, saying the Clintons are destroying the party.

And Peter Dreier, in a lengthy commentary at Huffington Post, recounts the barrage of emails ongoing for months now from Sidney Blumenthal and the Clinton campaign attacking Obama by associations.

So what's the story? Is a desperate, driven Clinton campaign going to any lengths and beyond for the ultimate "win now, fix it later"? Or is this Hillbillery trying to inoculate herself against similar attacks coming at her if she's in the general election? Or is this Hillbillery setting out once again on a me-first crusade that damns the Democratic party as they did in the '90s? Or being willing to destroy Obama if he's the nominee so she can run again in 2012?

We want answers. And we can handle the truth.

It would be refreshing, in fact, if we'd actually get that truth--instead of smirking, smarmy TweetyKristolRushRoveRussetopolous spin knowingly enabling smear and innuendo in the furtherance of newsertainment.

Instead of the media enabling BushCo going to war on Iraq. Instead of the media enabling the Pentagon with their cozy conversations with propagandizing generals. Instead of the media enabling McCain's campaign with their hands-off "see no nothing" Sgt. Schultz scrutiny of McCain.

The media rushed to embed themselves in BushCo's Iraq war and enable the lies and corruption and torture and all the other horrors this war has inflicted on America. The media rushed to enable whatever the guy you most want to have a beer with had to say. And now, they are enabling Clinton and McCain--birds of a feather in their headlong rush to give us four more years of entitled elitist Bushism.

And a pox on the media.

'cause it sure as hell ain't enabling democracy.


advance preview of Friday 5/2/2008 blogpost