is that nobody, outside of the chattering classes, seems to care. Just look at the polls. Obama still leads Hillary for the Democratic Nomination in Rasmussen, and the poll released shows him still beating McCain today. After how much of this Wright nonsense? Okay, so it's not nonsense, it's a perfectly fair inquiry, but that the media seems intent on pushing this stuff nonstop is the very thing that Obama has spoken out against from the start, and the media has chosen, in a rare departure from journalistic integrity, to publish the story that they think "the people" want to hear.
The truth is that, while the Wright stuff is shocking, my sense is that most people simply can't sync that up with Obama. It just doesn't fit with what I know (and what others know) about his character. It has narrowed his poll numbers a bit, and the whole "post-racial" effect of his candidacy has worn off a bit, but that's not the only reason that a lot of us are supporting him, and it never was. His vision is still compelling, far more so than Clinton's, which seems to be a mixture of the 1990s, some errant "respectable beltway establishment" (read: neocon) thinking on national security, and a willingness to say whatever she thinks we Democrats want said. Think about it: didn't Clinton used to be a big-time small-c conservative, talking about balanced budgets and whatnot? Now, she sounds a lot more like FDR. And didn't she used to be a dedicated hawk and Iraq War supporter? Now, she sounds more like Dennis Kucinich. And neither of those are a bad thing, to my way of thinking, but it's this mutability that scares me. Is her progressiveness going to last the general election, should she get the nomination? I wouldn't bet George Bush's Crawford Ranch on it.
One might think that she's "seen the light," but such hackery actually worries me immensely. Someone who will just do what you want them to do to get power will just do what someone else wants them to do later if that someone else offers more power. This would be alleviated if someone could actually inform me what principles Clinton has fought for in her much-touted 35 years of service. A nice, ordered list of five "first principles" would be sufficient. Just don't talk to me about her "courageous" statement in favor of human rights in China. For God's sake, she is a Senator, a political celebrity who is married to a former president. What are they going to do, toss her in jail to sew soccer balls together? Get a grip!
I've been puzzling over Clinton's campaign until I finally realized why it's still around. In retrospect, it's obvious. After decades of marriage to a serial adulterer, denial has got to become almost second nature to a person. Of course, denial can only go so far when the facts on the ground keep getting worse...
Update: Maybe this isn't as big a deal, as I'd thought...
