Senator Joe Lieberman:
"It's not the Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defense, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government…It's been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist, and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me."
Bill and Hillary have made the required ideological adjustments and don’t feel your pain, Joe. It may pain you more come November.
Here is a loyal, honest Democrat writing on Deval Patrick’s week:
AFTER 15 MONTHS in office, Governor Deval Patrick is ready to write a new chapter in his political life. From "Together we can," it's "Me, me, me."…A trip on that day for that purpose proves one thing: politically speaking, the great communicator is deaf… At least DiMasi cared enough about the issue to exert influence up until the votes were cast…the governor could have demonstrated grace in the face of defeat, as well as gratitude to supporters, especially those legislators who did as he asked and stood up to DiMasi…He was going to change Beacon Hill's culture and priorities; and when he said that, no one thought he meant casinos for Massachusetts and a $1.35 million book deal for himself..it looks like he is doing a version of what his predecessors did: moving on.
Patrick's book, said the publisher, will draw upon the governor's "extraordinary journey from Chicago's Wabash Avenue to the Massachusetts State House." Will it end on Inauguration Day? It might have to, because the chapter after that could be very thin.
Joan Vennochi has can write as a Democrat without discarding her honesty. This is unlike her colleague Scott Lehigh, who one day phones in an absurd and dishonest Op Ed piece copied from Howard Dean’s talking points, and then three weeks later tells readers the unsurprising news that things have changed.
Do you suppose that if Mitt Romney, rather than Deval Patrick, had traveled to New York to pursue a personal book deal for his autobiography on the same day that a major piece of his program was being decided on Beacon Hill...do you suppose it is remotely possible that the Boston Globe would run the story on the front page rather than page B1?On Wednesday, the reporters on the tour received a detailed schedule for the trip and shown a video about the riots, said the reporter present in the group who did not want to be identified.A reporter who did not want to be identified? The Times does not explain why. But if simply speaking to an uninvited NY Times reporter is taboo for this press tour, it must be some swell Potemkin Villages they are seeing.
Globe columnist Joan Vennochi laments the “misspeaking” of presidential candidates. In this era when so many Internet eyes are watching and comparing, it’s much harder for candidates to get away with “misspeaking”. Of Hillary, Joan writes: As a candidate, Clinton carries the weight of her husband's long list of lies about sex and other matters, as well as her own dishonesty during and after his administration. Dick Morris, a onetime Clinton friend turned nemesis, lists as Hillary Clinton's "admitted lies": being under sniper fire in Bosnia; saying that daughter Chelsea Clinton was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, when she was actually watching it on TV; contending that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary; and learning from the Wall Street Journal how to play the futures market.
These are the admitted lies, which makes this list far shorter, doesn’t it, Joan?
Yesterday a student at Butler University was not answered when he asked if Hillary’s January 1998 rant on national TV about her husband’s innocence and the “vast right-wing conspiracy” supposedly attacking him was honest or was another unadmitted lie. What did she know and when did she know it?
With all those reporters and journalists hovering around Hillary for so many months, why is a college kid the first to ask this question?
Today’s Globe carries an article on the Democrat’s dilemma, which some Dems still refuse to acknowledge. Tennessee Governor Bredesen is worried and proposes a mini-convention of superdelegates to prevent a brokered convention.
Bredesen said he remains open to other suggestions, however, "Most of the other suggestions seem to be, 'Let's cross our fingers and hope for the best,' " he said. "Hope is not a strategy."
That’s news to Obama.
Perhaps for balance, the Globe story carries quotes from “two veteran Democratic operatives” who are not worried. These may be the only 2 Dems on the planet still smiling, except for Globe political columnist Scott Lehigh. The pair is:
If they are not worried, Republicans should not worry, either.
I wonder what veteran Democratic operative and big time loser Bob Shrum thinks?
Redmen traditionalists say the name is part of town history and refers to red athletic jerseys, not the Native Americans who settled in this Boston suburb in the 1600s.Native Americans moving to the Boston suburbs in the 17th century? Red flight? Were they forced out by the Puritans? Driven out by the high wampum downtown real estate? Or is this just another Globe cow pie in print?
Tuesday’s Boston Globe has a wannabe sob story about how the hard economic times are driving New Englanders to “channel their inner Yankee”. The sad foolishness of what passes for journalism at the Boston Globe is epitomized in this simply dreadful story. It is on page 1 above the fold and 4 columns wide, with 2 photos and charts, and completely worthless. Incidentally the charts aren’t referred to by the story. The charts show consumer spending trending away from personal items, but the charts also show that trend has been going since the year 2000. What is the news here?
The cover photo shows a large family (parents plus 5 children) in a large home having dinner in their large dining room (complete with fireplace). Dinner is pizza and salad. Dad is pouring the wine. Wine for dinner in tough times? Well, dad has turned the wine label away from the photographer. Perhaps it is a lower quality wine than dad wishes to show publicly. Maybe it’s just Australian plonk. The story tells us that this poor family has not been out to a restaurant in 6 months, and that dad drives 60 miles each way to work, and the heating bills for their big house now run $2400/year. Are you crying for them yet?
The Globe reports that Kathleen’s heroic sacrifices to make it in this rough economy include:
The Globe story reports:
Even before college costs were added to the equation, the family was in debt, with the balance on their credit cards "out of hand," Carter admitted, because they had to use them for basic purchases. "When it comes right down to the bone of the matter, we're hurting," said Carter. "I say, 'Any day now, I'm going to find a job.' Well, I've been saying that for two years."
Yes, lady, get yourself a job. A real job. Please.
And how does the Boston Globe always find "poster children" such as this?
There remains at least one scenario where Mrs. Clinton could win. It is an increasingly unlikely one and one that could traumatize the Democratic Party. Still, it gives succor to her supporters, and presumably Mrs. Clinton herself...Not to mention the delight it provokes among Republicans!
Are leading Democrats so narcissistic that they would create bitter stagnation even if they were granted one-party rule?David, have you never heard of Massachusetts?
In today's Globe Harvard Professor Harry Lewis smells hypocrisy in that the university now forbids men from using a gym during certain hours in order to accommodate extreme Muslim norms of female modesty, while the same university administration refuses to offer the slightest accommodation for ROTC, ostensibly because the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy is discriminatory:
The counterargument goes, however, that if ROTC were accommodated, the benefit to cadets would be far less significant than the injury to gays and lesbians. Indeed, some claim that no price would be too high for Harvard to pay for uncompromising adherence to its nondiscrimination policy, even the loss of all government funding, if it came to that.
Is the gym exception merely a reasonable kindness to conservative Muslim women? Then Harvard's failure of courtesy to its cadets suggests that politics determine what forms of discrimination are inoffensive.
Sadly Harvard (in step with many US universities) has become a laboratory for study of the limits of identity politics. It appears that such politics at this limit approaches a tyranny that will gladly sacrifice consistent logic to preserve political norms.
Note: The Globe ran an AP news story on this policy March 4.Does this scenario sound familiar?
It’s happening in Detroit now. The high official is the mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. He was sued for unlawfully firing 2 Detroit police officers, who claim they were fired because they had investigated the mayor’s office. The suit went to trial, during which questions of Kilpatrick’s use of staff to cover up his affairs became an issue. Kilpatrick denied under oath that he and his chief of staff were having an affair. His chief of staff also denied the affair under oath.
Kilpatrick is now being charged with perjury and obstruction of justice by the county prosecutor, who while a fellow Democrat and an African-American like Kilpatrick, is female. She says:
"Some have suggested that the issues in this case are personal or private," said Worthy, like the mayor a Democrat. "Our investigation has clearly shown that public dollars were used, people's lives were ruined, the justice system severely mocked and the public trust trampled on."
She added: "This case is about as far from being a private matter as one can get."
Tom Wolfe could not make such a story up, but its eerie similarity to the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton will probably serve to remind Michigan voters of those happy days of the Internet bubble and Clinton’s trials.
How much would you want to bet that no mainstream media reporter has the nerve to ask Hillary Clinton (who is now busy trying to stop the “disenfranchisement” of Michigan Democrats) what she thinks about this squabble? Too bad.
Hat tips: WSJ (Subscription required) and WWJ.
Criticizing the Chinese government for its plans to control Tibetan institutions of the Buddhist religion, a Globe editorial writes: Somebody should tell the current Chinese rulers of the Middle Kingdom that their imperial mandate of heaven does not extend to the pure mountain air of Tibet.
What, I might ask, makes the Chinese government less legitimate in the pure mountain air of Tibet than in the polluted air of China’s cities? Dissent? Culture? Religion? Its legitimacy is not different if judging by the standards of our founding document.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Sally Lehrman of Scientific American writes in another sorry Globe Op Ed piece: It's true that racial harassment has reached levels never before documented in the workplace, according to government data.
I doubt it. Though this certainly implies that government did not document “racial harassment” in the workplace prior to Emancipation.
The Clintons? Stretch the truth? Only stretch it?“Whadayah think uh that new man out your way?”
“Oh, I dunno.”
“Whadayah mean you don’t know? Would you call him an honest man or would you call him a liar?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a liar. But I’ve heard tell by them as knows, that when he wants his cows to come home, he has to get someone else to call ‘em.”
Deval Patrick’s casino bill was predictably defeated yesterday. The Globe’s headline (above) is delightful. However, unlike casino customers, casino developers leave the (legislative) table immediately when they win. They keep coming back only when they lose. A more substantial loss yesterday was the death of British actor Paul Scofield at 86. The Globe’s obit calls Scofield a “towering presence on screen, nearly invisible off”. The planet, and show business, would be better off with more of such.
Here is a short clip of Scofield in the 1966 file “A Man for All Seasons”, speaking lines that many in government (both parties included) seem unable to grasp. This is especially true of Massachusetts.
Jeff Jacoby had a fine critique in yesterday's Globe of Obama's speech.Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi. Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb..."St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added.Not newsworthy?
Reuters on the latest Zogby presidential poll:
"The last couple of weeks have taken a toll on Obama and in a general election match-up, on both Democrats," said pollster John Zogby…"It's not surprising to me that McCain's on top because there is disarray and confusion on the Democratic side," Zogby said.
But 2 weeks ago the Boston Globe’s guru Scott Lehigh assured us:
For all the fretting about divisiveness and for all the talk of attacks, the tougher fight we've seen in recent weeks has made both Obama and Clinton better candidates.
Maybe Scott was being Clintonian. Maybe he meant they are becoming better candidates for the Senate.
It’s only a poll, but the Globe’s Foon Rhee reports: The latest national poll offers some more good news for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain and more worrisome numbers for Democrats.
While Josh Green at the Atlantic says the Democrat Superdelgates should end the nomination contest ASAP:
Keeping their powder dry profits the superdelegates, but comes at the expense of their party. It shouldn't take Solomon to see that.
Wiser than Solomon, Scott Lehigh said you’re wrong! “Let the contests continue!”, he cried.
Why don’t you guys see if Scott still has any of that special Kool Aid he drank?
On my way to a
For 2 years I have authored this blog focused on the Boston Globe, which is usually quite critical of the paper. Did Richard expect that like Jonah in the belly of the whale, I would repent my past criticism after spending a just few hours at the Globe? Hardly. He did believe, though, that having some insight into the Globe’s workings would make any criticism more informed. I hope he was right. So here is a first impression – the points that stick in my mind after seeing the Globe in operation for the first time.
The Globe building has a typically grandiose 1960s corporate HQ lobby, full of granite, marble, and other signs of organizational pride. There is a huge stone map of
A Chance Meeting
While I was waiting in the lobby to meet Richard, I introduced myself to one Globe reporter who was there for a minute. When he found out I was a blogger he asked me if my blog was one of the “media bias blogs”. I told him it was, and he said that in his opinion “a lot of what may appear as media bias is really a result of laziness, incompetence, or organizational stupidity.” He related an example of one story that had been growing in importance for about a week. It was not covered by the Globe for several days because the key reporter on that beat was off on vacation and so the Globe’s antenna was impaired.
This is an interesting observation. Everybody who has worked in an organization, large or small, knows that work processes and practices are never all they should be, and that these issues always interfere with the organizational mission to some degree. Why should the Globe be any different? It cannot be. Of course we all know of organizations where the burden of organizational dysfunction eventually outweighs the ability to provide value (FEMA comes to mind as an example). The relevant question is how often and how badly such dysfunction impairs the Globe. Besides the inevitable issues mentioned by the reporter, there are also certainly dangers from group-think, ideological bias, and (of course) external competition. It is the external competition, I believe, that by far receives the most attention from Globe people today.
The Liturgy of the Hours
The most persistent impression to a new visitor is of the cavernous newsroom, which is on the 2nd floor and runs at least half the length of the building. When you see pictures of the room, it looks light and airy, but my recollection is of a very well-worn interior environment. The wear comes from almost continuous occupation. Each day a newspaper goes through a complete cycle as the product is produced. My visit was at the very beginning of the Globe’s daily cycle, starting at around 10AM.
The content creation process continues for each day’s Globe until the ‘first edition’ of the day’s paper is released to the building’s press plant at about 10PM. The paper goes through 3 more editions each day. The 2nd edition has updates of financial information and minor changes. The third edition has late sports stories and other content changes, especially updates to page 1 for late news. The 3rd edition is what most subscribers living near
How do you tell which edition you are reading? The 1st edition gets 4 tiny stars in the margin at the upper left of page 1. For each succeeding edition one star is removed. For you algorithmic types, that means the edition you are reading is expressed as 5 – S, where ‘S” is the number of stars you see in the margin.
Newspaper stories have variable gestation periods, depending upon their subject. The stores are assigned to reporters by “assigning editors”. Globe reporters are assigned to ‘beats’. This might be City Hall, Universities, the police department, or a suburban region. Senior editors at the Globe are responsible for prioritizing the stories within their own beat.
The reporter writing the story and this editor are the primary people responsible for the story’s content and accuracy. They collaborate to write the story and take primary responsibility for its accuracy. This may seem to be a fragile system, and it is. It relies on the good faith efforts of people to produce a quality product. Would extra check help to eliminate bias? I doubt it. Additional approvals would not have much value given the very tight schedule that constrains production. Besides, having fewer approvals concentrates responsibility (and accountability) for a story’s accuracy.
When a story is passed by an assigning editor, it goes to a 2nd editor who focuses more on how well the story meets the paper’s style guidelines. The style guidelines provide a uniform guide for editing all the paper’s content. They would make interesting reading. I think responsible newspapers would do well today to publish their style guides, so that critical readers can evaluate them.
The Morning Meeting
The highlight of my visit was to attend a daily morning meeting in the Globe newsroom. There are 2 such meetings each day. The meeting is brief, lasting only 20-25 minutes. It is a meeting of Globe Senior editors, those who are responsible for various sections or departments (National, Local, Business, Health/Science, Sports, graphics, photo, etc.). The Globe’s
Not very exciting, but it is communicative. In 20 minutes one gets a good summary description of the content of tomorrow’s Boston Globe. On the day I visited about 80% of the stories appeared in the next day’s paper, and many of those that did not appear the next day appeared a day or 2 later. Seeing the stories in the paper the next day recalled the meeting and made me appreciate its significance. It is a meeting about tomorrow’s paper. There is another such meeting in the afternoon that I understand includes some discussion of which stories should appear on page 1. But that’s it for formal meetings. The overwhelming majority of the real work is done outside of meetings (isn’t that always the way!).
Layout
I didn’t see the layout process, since it happens during the late hours of the day. What I did notice about the process is that the advertisers get first pick. In other words, the areas of each page in the day’s edition of the Globe that are committed to advertisers are marked off first and the layout editors fit the news stories into the remaining space within each section. I don’t know why this surprised me. I already knew that magazines operated this way, but had just never thought about it in the context of newspapers. The customer comes first, and the Globe is an intermediary with 2 groups of customers; subscribers and advertisers. You would expect that the group that provided the most revenue would get higher priority service, and that is what happens. No big deal. Do the Globe layout people know who has bought particular ad space? I believe they do know what firm will be advertising in each area, but they do not know the ad content.
Layout is one of the last editorial processes, and most of the layout goes on from about 6-10PM within a large circle of workstations at the south end of the Globe newsroom. Since I was visiting in the morning, this area was completely vacant. I could only see a little of the debris left over from yesterday’s layout.
The Ink-stained Wretch as Author
Another aspect of the Globe that I could see and did not expect was to get some sense of the excitement of their business. We’ve all heard many people in the news business say that they love it. We’ve also heard them say (ad nauseum) how very important their business is, and cringed at the implied arrogance. Leaving arrogance aside, it is easy to see a sort of romance in the daily creation of an intellectual product which begins in the intangible and ends up on the doorstep and in the hands of hundred of thousands of people. Frost uses this image to describe the delights of authorship:
I told him this is a pleasant life
To set your breast to the bark of trees
That all your days are dim beneath,
And reaching up with a little knife,
To loose the resin and take it down
And bring it to market when you please.
Bloggers especially should be able to appreciate this creative aspect of news-papering. Like any author, a blogger is delighted to find readers. Reporters and editors are writers, but in a collaborative, structured and sometimes chaotic process that repeats on a daily or weekly cycle. They do not have a blogger’s freedom to produce 'when they please'. Are they proud to have their work in wide circulation? I am certain of it. Are they entitled to that pride? Most of the time.
But back to media arrogance. Is there a further analogy between newspaper reporters and bloggers? Many bloggers have been sickened by the insufferable arrogance of major news media personalities (Dan Rather first comes to mind, but any such list would be long). On the other hand, I can think of other reporters who are personal heroes (Claudia Rosett, William Langewieche, and the late Mike Kelly fit in this category). Are there similar characters within the blogosphere? Certainly. The hero class for me includes Power Line, Andrew Sullivan, and many others. In the wildly over-arrogant class, I would enshrine the Wonkette and her ilk.
What contrasts Dan Rather and the Wonkette from the “heroes” is that becoming well known seemed to bring out more of their character weaknesses. The greater the fame, the greater the pathology. Character really does count. Wanting to be well-liked, well known, or well respected is not in itself a bad thing. But vice is only intemperate pursuit of what is in itself good.
Lessons Learned
The biggest change in my own perception of the Globe is a better appreciation for the separation between the news and the Op Ed content. These two operations go on in entirely separate but parallel processes, until they are combined in the day’s paper. The location of the Globe’s Op Ed content is well standardized within each day’s paper, but the degree of separation between the news and Op Ed processes is greater than can be communicated to the reader by just the layout. The reader often simply flips between pages . Perhaps the Globe should use red ink ( pink?) for the Op Ed content. Either of these color choices would be fitting. Seriously, since my visit I have revised upward my expectations for Globe news coverage and reduced my already low expectations for the Op Ed content. Realizing that most of what I find deeply offensive in the Globe originates in the Op Ed process helps me to enjoy the rest of paper more.
Finally, I learned some appreciation for the Globe’s esprit and for that of the whole newspaper business – a business that worries deeply about disruptive competition from the Internet in ways that remind me of the automobile business during my youth in
And, the Democrats are also giving up the political high ground. The battle between Obama and Clinton is mean and petty, not high-minded or inspirational. No one's debating issues, and forget about vision...Karl Rove couldn't have planned a more divisive contest.
Are you sure, Joan?
I agree with you, but your colleague Scott Lehigh reassured Democrats in the Globe just 10 days ago that this was all going to work out fine for them! Being a savvy, plugged-in Democratic thought leader and political columnist for (ahem!) the Boston Globe, Lehigh must know what he’s talking about, right Joan?
It is news when good news from Iraq, which is so rarely reported on the front page these days, appears there. This is due to the occasions of the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war and the 1st anniversary of the “surge”.Sunday’s Boston Globe headline trailer reports:
“…attacks in Baghdad and across the country have plummeted, and a relative calm has settled in…”
Who knew from reading the Globe the last 6 months? However we used to read daily front page stories about Iraq in the Globe when things were worse.
Why doesn’t the Globe get up their moxie and ask the presidential candidates about this? Or why doesn’t the Globe editorial cloister comment on their 2007 pre-surge editorial “Bush's refusal to face reality?”
THE INCREASE of US forces in Iraq that President Bush announced last night offers practically no chance of thwarting the Sunni Arab insurgency or quelling the sectarian civil war that is turning life there into a nightmarish inferno for Sunnis and Shi'ites alike.
Of course Globe editorialist work entirely separately from the reporters.
Though they seem very much of like minds to me, except of course Jeff Jacoby, who has a fine column today on the political repercussions of Bush's decisions as Commander-in-chief.
On page one of today’s Globe Susan Milligan reports that Hillary Clinton exaggerated her role during the Clinton administration in supporting the SCHIP program…which after all is for the children!
We are shocked, shocked.
The Globe front page photo (above) shows the junior Senator from New York inside a reserved Senate elevator. The elevator appears to have a human elevator attendant/operator. Quite a throwback! But that’s not featherbedding, we assume it is required for security.
The Globe photo brings to mind the humorous YouTube ad placed this week by Massachusetts Senate candidate Jim Ogonowski, that poked fun at official Senate perks, including the “Senators-only” elevators, which Ogonowski carefully skirted (below).
An article on gasoline pricing in my local newspaper illustrates the different perspectives of law and economics:State law prohibits businesses from adding a surcharge to transactions when consumers pay with a credit card. But the same law does allow businesses to offer a discount to consumers who pay with cash.
Thus, explained Charles Carroll, deputy director of the state division of standards, it's legal for a gas station to charge $3.13 a gallon and then subtract 5 cents a gallon when customers pay with cash. However, it's illegal for a gas station to charge $3.08 a gallon and then add 5 cents a gallon when customers pay with a credit card.
We can be thankful to live in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where consumers are so effectively protected by law from rapacious businessmen and heartless market forces.
Today’s Boston Globe carries a New York Times story profiling Ashley Youmans, now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupré. She is the young woman whose assignation by an escort service to former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer caused his resignation yesterday.
Both the Globe and the Times use the same picture of the young woman. But (in the opinion of this knuckle-dragging ignorant blogger) the cropping job performed in the newsroom removes certain details that may provide information to readers. As a public service, this blog presents above the original photo alongside the Globe’s cropped version.
Readers are invited to judge for themselves whether the Globe’s editorial choice in cropping this picture omits several parts of the story that are newsworthy. This is another example of the Globe acting, in the words of Mark Steyn, as “the genteel Victorian matron discreetly draping chintz over the provocative piano legs of the story”.
Hat Tip: Power Line
Governor Deval Patrick launched an initiative yesterday to crack down on unscrupulous business owners who dodge taxes and other costs by paying workers in cash or by calling them independent contractors. State officials hope that the initiative will bring in millions of dollars in revenue.
Union leaders, business owners, and others say they are being squeezed out of the market by companies that skirt the law, including hiring illegal immigrants. Such abuses are common in the building industry, critics say.
Yo, Maria! I’ve got a tip for you!
Are you looking for an example of an unscrupulous business owner who dodges taxes and other costs by paying workers in cash or by calling them independent contractors, including perhaps hiring illegal immigrants? Look no further than Publishers Circulation Fulfillment. They hire hundreds of independent contractors in the Boston area, and nobody seems to know what their immigration status is, although these “independent contractors” who deliver your own newspaper, Maria, mostly speak native Spanish or Portuguese.
PCF’s phone number, Maria, is in this want ad, but if you walk from the Globe newsroom over to the Globe business office, I believe you will find somebody who can get you in touch with the right people.
Good luck with this tip, Maria. We’ll all be waiting for your next story!
But Clinton's campaign has proved more adept at seizing control of the race when no one is voting.True, and that speaks volumes about the Clinton mode of operation.
Now make it 6 Democratic gaffes in 6 days (in the Kinsleyan sense of “gaffe”). The first 5 are listed in the post below. The 6th and best so far is again from Geraldine Ferarro, who just won’t shut up:In a follow-up interview today, Ferraro said her company had been deluged with vicious e-mail messages accusing her of racism. But far from backing off from her initial remark, Ferraro defended it and elaborated on it.
"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"
Not bad. Tell me, Scott Lehigh, are the Dems still all excited about their long campaign?
Today brings yet another superb Kinsleyan gaffe to the Democratic campaign, this time by Democrat (and Hillary Clinton supporter) Geraldine Ferraro. Ferraro is a former House member from NY and was Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984. She says:"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.
"I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he's going to be able to put an end to partisanship," Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. "Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that's the way our country is."
Yo, Scott Lehigh! Are you still enthused about the prospects for another 3-5 months of days like this? Just six days ago this blog laughed out loud when you assured Boston Globe readers:
Democrats will probably wish their own nomination were decided and worry that the continuing campaign will put their party at a disadvantage. They should take a deep breath. For all the fretting about divisiveness and for all the talk of attacks, the tougher fight we've seen in recent weeks has made both Obama and Clinton better candidates.…Nor has this campaign deteriorated into truly worrisome territory. It's actually been rather tame. Instead, it's generated huge excitement among Democrats…Let the contests continue.
During the last 6 days:
That is just to mention the most notable cases!
If you’re still so enthusiastic, Scott, please let your readers know. But excuse me for suspecting that your Op Ed analysis was really just partisan cheerleading.
Am I the only person old enough to remember the Uncle Remus story of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Tar-baby? Or am I just the only person foolish enough to note that the Clintons' arrogant public dangling of the VP slot on their ticket in front of Obama is much like the behavior of foolish Brer Rabbit, who was angry because the mute and dangerous Tar-baby was not showing him the proper respect?
From a Reuters story in today’s Boston Globe with the gaffe headline “Clintons push Obama as a running mate”("Clintons" are indeed running for president): Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, who has endorsed Obama, derided the Clintons' suggestion.
"The first threshold question about a vice president is, are you prepared to be president?" Kerry said yesterday on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"So on the one end, they are saying he's not prepared to be president. On the other hand, they're saying maybe he ought to be vice president," Kerry said.
Delightfully succinct, Senator Kerry. And from the Sunday congregation of “Meet the Press”:
Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota also mocked the idea.
"It may be the first time in history that the person who is running number two would offer the person running number one the number two position," Daschle said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
They are indeed running “number two” and offering “number two”.
Democrat and former Colorado Senator Gary Hart on Hillary Clinton:
By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party's nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her…For her now to claim that Senator Obama is not qualified to answer the crisis phone is the height of irony if not chutzpah, and calls into question whether her primary loyalty is to the Democratic party and the nation or to her own ambition.
Thanks, Gary. Welcome to the vast right wing conspiracy. Could not have said it better myself.
Conservative bloggers can simply cut and paste quotes from Dems for the next 4 months. Take yet another deep breath, Dems.
Isn’t “change” going to be wonderful?In today’s Boston Globe the front page points to a pair of stories about the politics of personal destruction and the politics of concealment. But unbelievably, not a single Republican is involved.
First, the story of an interview taken in the UK by the British paper the Scotsman of Obama confidant Samantha Power. The Globe’s story omits the full quote. Here it is:
"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.
"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.
Ms Power said of the Clinton campaign: "Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too.
"You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."
A classic Kinsleyan gaffe.
Next the story that the Clintons will not release 1000 pages of documents related to the 100+ pardons that the Clinton administration gave on its last day in office, including one to fugitive financier Marc Rich. No mention in the Globe that the Clintons have also refused to make public their recent tax returns.
This is “change we can believe in”, huh?
Republicans can expect more of the same on a daily basis until July.
Take another deep breath, Dems.
March 5: Globe columnist Scott Lehigh cheers up the Dems:
“They should take a deep breath.”
March 7: Globe columnist Ellen Goodman cheers up the Dems:
“…take a deep breath”
Hillary Clinton quoted in today's Boston Globe story "Trench warfare for a party's soul":
Sounding newly confident, Clinton even hinted at the possibility of Obama as her running mate. Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" whether she and Obama should form the so-called dream ticket that some Democrats want, she replied, "That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."
From the lead story in Thursday's WSJ on Obama and Clinton (subscription required):Impossible! Haven't these reporters read Scott Lehigh's superb analysis in yesterday's Boston Globe?Their battle is now certain to go on at least to the next big-state showdown April 22 in Pennsylvania, leaving Democratic leaders worried it will drain the party of cash and unity -- and produce a nominee bloodied by attacks that Republicans can adopt as their own.
The deepening rift contrasted with the Republicans, where Sen. John McCain, after sealing his nomination Tuesday, started mobilizing his support and raising money for the general election.
I'm riding the red-eye tonight so I'll miss Thursday's Boston Globe.
The Clintons and Obama will continue to spend vast amounts of money and energy struggling against each other for weeks to come. They will continue to split the primaries evenly, and thus split their party evenly as well. For the next few months both of them must still compete for the support of the extreme left of their party. Democratic primary voting has also broken along racial lines in that Obama is polling overwhelming majorities of the African-American vote. The Democrats cannot now nominate Clinton without giving an unforgettable and historic insult to their party’s most loyal voting block.
Clinton still trails in delegates, but the Clintons will never give up. Obama-smitten and Jagermesiter-hazed, Andrew Sullivan accurately observes of their character:
This is how the Clintons usually prevail - they grind you down. They don't care what happens to their party or their country (remember the 1990s?). They have no shame and no scruples. They will say anything. But they will never willingly relinquish power or the chance of power. In a free country, that is their right. And I'm not impugning that. But the refusal ever to concede or to champion others or to settle for a mere eight years in the White House is in their blood. You can only defeat them if you treat them as they would treat you.
Today’s Boston Globe has a good story on the campaign by reporters Scott Helman and Susan Milligan, and a very partisan (and doubtful) Op Ed analysis by columnist Scott Lehigh, who maintains that the Democratic campaign is not headed to a train wreck but rather toward an exciting finish. One passage demands a fisking:
Democrats will probably wish their own nomination were decided and worry that the continuing campaign will put their party at a disadvantage.
Not just probably, Scott. It is their one point of agreement at this moment.
They should take a deep breath.
For all the fretting about divisiveness and for all the talk of attacks, the tougher fight we've seen in recent weeks has made both Obama and Clinton better candidates.
But only one of these better candidates can be the nominee. A large segment of the party continues to become more deeply invested in a candidate who eventually will lose the nomination. This is nothing short of a Godsend for Republicans, who desperately need such miracles and now watch in astonishment as they continue to occur.
An indifferent debater when this started, Obama has developed into a convincing verbal combatant, and a particularly adroit counterpuncher. An awkward and presumptuous frontrunner, Clinton has become a feisty, and more likable, underdog.
Lehigh is truly stretching to complement Hillary here. “More likable” indeed! More likable than whom? Richard Nixon, perhaps?
Hillary is often compared to one female character in the Wizard of Oz. This comparison is unfair to the Oz character, who never makes her audience cringe by pretending to be something other than what she actually is.
Nor has this campaign deteriorated into truly worrisome territory. It's actually been rather tame. Instead, it's generated huge excitement among Democrats.
Let the contests continue.
Indeed they will, Scott. And despite your spinning, Republicans can now expect even more good news in the days to come.
Thank you, Democrats! Thank you.
You won’t find any reference to this AP story on the Globe’s front page. The Globe’s shameful half-truth of a headline is “3 luxury homes burn near Seattle”. The story begins like this:WOODINVILLE, Wash. - Fires gutted three multimillion-dollar model homes in a Seattle suburb yesterday, and authorities found a sign purportedly left by ecoterrorists that mocks claims that the homes were environmentally friendly. "Built Green? Nope black!" said the spray-painted sign that bore the initials of the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front. Crews removed explosive devices found in the homes…Do you suppose that if some unhinged right-to-life wingnut had firebombed a Seattle abortion clinic instead, the press coverage and commentary would be more extensive? Do you think the story would be left off the front page? Would the headline disingenuously read "Clinic burns near Seattle"? But this story is “merely” an attack on property. Ecoterrorism is different and not as newsworthy, I presume.
The Clinton's ability to spin their press coverage remains astounding. If Obama had lost 10 consecutive primary/caucuses to Hillary Clinton (as she now has to him), can you image the front page headline of the Boston Globe reading "Urgency growing for Obama"?
MassPIRG (wouldn’t MassPRIG be a more accurate name?) has issued a report lambasting the new more competitive market for auto insurance. The Globe dutifully ran an echo-like story on the same day, not written by Bruce Mohl (who seems to know something about the insurance business) but by reporter Jeffrey Krasner, who is far more docile at accepting and regurgitating spoon-feeding from the likes of MassPIRG.The Globe ran an editorial on the same topic Saturday, which said:
…the Patrick administration's "managed competition" auto insurance plan could turn out to be a junker for perfectly good drivers considered poor risks in the eyes of insurers because they are young, unmarried or renters.
The Globe apparently forgot that young urban renters now benefit from large subsidies in the current scheme ($400 per year per car according to this Globe editorial. Can’t they remember?). So what is happening is the partial unwinding of this subsidy, nothing more.
The one perfectly valid point of protest is that insurers are offering discounts as important incentives to attract desirable (that is, low predicted risk) customers. The factors used to award the discounts correlate well with other factors that are prohibited by the state insurance commission for use in setting rates.
Here is an excerpt from a post 5 months ago predicting the futility of this regulatory strategy:
The ugly head of market competition emerges from yet another mole-hole!
Many companies appear to be using proxies for those factors today. Under the existing auto insurance system, where Massachusetts regulators set all the rates, companies are allowed to offer discounts on the state-set rates to members of groups or associations. Many of these groups fit targeted education, occupation, and income levels insurers believe have lower loss experience.
Horrors! Please rescue us, oh wise Commissars of Insurance!
And our always confident Massachusetts Division of Insurance gives the proletariat this statement of assurance in today's Pravda Globe:
"As we move to give drivers more choice and lower premiums through managed competition, we expect these discounts may become less and less relevant as a competitive environment creates lower costs for a greater number of people"
Not only are these regulators able to simultaneously set so many business policies and also set rates at the market-clearing prices, they confidently predict that the appeal of discounts will soon wither away in our worker’s paradise. Such discounts must be mere vestiges of bourgeois capitalism!
The appeal and importance of discounts is greater than ever, since rate-setting remains tightly constrained by regulatory policy. Surprise, surprise!. Regulators can do their damnedest, but competitors in a market will find a way to compete, just as rainwater will find a way to the sea.
