Every Picture Tells A Story (And Answers Questions)

Domenico Montanaro of MSNBC et al have First Thoughts about Hillary's victory in Pennsylvania:

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** The secret to Hillary’s success: So how did Clinton win so decisively last night? The answer is women, specifically white women. They continue to be as important to her success in these primaries as new voters and African-Americans have been to Obama. Per the exit polls, 47% of the Pennsylvania Democratic electorate last night was made up of white women, higher than any other race/gender subgroup. Clinton ended up winning them by more than 30 points, 66%-34%; in Ohio, she won this group, 67%-31%. The question that everyone seems to be asking now is: Why can’t Obama put Clinton away? The AP’s Ron Fournier takes a stab at answering this, and he points to five reasons (race, working-class voters, friends in trouble, inexperience, and mettle). But to us, women seem to be the bigger reason. They continue to rally to her side; nothing has shaken their confidence in her. If Clinton continues to beat Obama by 30-plus points among white women, how can he knock her out?

This picture of Hillary and Chelsea has many of their answers:

There is a real mother-daughter thing going on in that pic.   Campaigns are grueling, endless slogs, but they are also high energy, high adrenaline, back-against the wall brawls which double as an incredible bonding experience.  Hillary is doing this one with her adult daughter (for the first time), and loving it.  And as Professor Dumbledore explained to Harry, a mother's love can deliver some powerful mojo.

Chelsea is also the answer to the oft-asked question, "Why did she stay with Bill?".  Looks loke a good answer right now; something sure did work.

Finally, although I don't think Chelsea can singlehandedly rock the youth vote, any parent who looks at her is going to think better of her mother.

I say this with the benefit of hindsight, stealing from Mark Steyn.

Relatedly, my granny-on-the-ground in PA read "Dreams From My Father", and wondered where the mother, or grandmother, was, and why Barack gave them such short shrift.  Tossing his grandmother under the bus during the Jeremiah Wright speech didn't exactly help reconcile her to Obama.  She will never vote for Barack, she says, and she is a closet socialist.

So, some Bold Predictions:  Chelsea has a TIME cover in her near future.  And a sympathetic reporter asking Hillary about what Chelsea's has meant to the campaign could probably provoke a genuine, grab your hanky moment.  Incredibly, I don't mean that as a cynical  prediction, either - it could be a great and humanizing video clip for Hillary.  Watch out, Obamacons!

IMAGINING THE IMAGINABLE AND CONCEIVING THE INCONCEIVABLE:   Will the Nutroots be daft enough to start trashing Chelsea?  Geez, every other stupid and improbable thing has happened, and this is the Nutroots we are talking about...

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

I'm trying to figure out what Nora Ephron's analysis must be. I believe she said going in that the vote would be decided by white men, and in particular whether they hated women more than they hated blacks. Very incisive. Of course, who is it that the white women hate? Whom do the blacks hate? How about the blue-collar voters? Or is it only white men who hate, and therefore they are the only ones who can determine the outcome.

Of course, since she was married to Carl Bernstein I can understand that she might be carrying around a bit of disturbance.

[Porchlight]

Finally, although I don't think Chelsea can singlehandedly rock the youth vote, any parent who looks at her is going to think better of her mother.

Bingo, to this and the rest of your post, TM. It's a lovely photo.

There was a moment in the Philly debate when Hillary was summing up at the end and the camera cut away to Chelsea. She had an enormously proud look on her face that I found touching. It made me feel more warmly toward Hillary than at any time I can remember. So yes, without a doubt, Chelsea adds quite a bit to Hillary's appeal.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

The world turned upside down; Truth Out actually produces some from a non-wacky (not Sawicky) economist:

Democrats could squander this opportunity if they fall into one of three traps on what they say and offer Americans. The traps are:

* Confusing 2008 with 1929. It's not even close. The overwhelming majority of Americans today are not on the brink of economic catastrophe, and Democrats should not treat them as if they are. In 2006, the median income of working-age husband-wife couples (ages 25-59) was $73,765. Eighty percent of Americans over 40 own a home, and while foreclosure rates have hit historic highs, it's still the case that relatively few homeowners are at risk of losing their homes over the next several years. ....

* Confusing bad times with pessimism. Even during tough times, Americans are optimists and believers in the American Dream. They believe success or failure is within their control. Eighty percent believe you can start out poor and become rich in America. And while they are anxious over the current economic downturn and the broad changes brought about by globalization, they do not see themselves as victims, and are not comforted by politicians who recite a litany of their anxieties.

Most people think the economy is in poor shape and worry about potential misfortune. But this sour mood and their worries are tempered by a strong appraisal of their own financial situation and a low evaluation of personal risk. For example, only 15% think that it is at least somewhat likely that they could be laid off in the next year. Even in the most recent polls, over two-thirds of Americans describe their financial situation and standard of living as either good or excellent.

* Offering only security instead of success. We're not French. Americans want to succeed, not just get by. They don't dream about a better safety net. They dream about getting ahead. If Democrats default to a traditional recipe of expanding the safety net - and that is all they offer - they will hit the brick wall of public antipathy toward "big government."

[Porchlight]

And TM, damn it if you didn't get that song in my head too: Every Picture Tells A Story

But remember one thing don't lose your head
To a woman that'll spend your bread

[NH]

Chelsea wants a job. She wants a job like mom got. Mom wanted a job like dad got. Dad was President and mom got a job in congress in New York. Mom decided to run for President. Chelsea should probably run for something too. Mom, dad and children making all their money from government work, just like dems do.

The Clintons think they're owed government jobs. Obama thinks he's owed government jobs. Obama's wife thinks she's owed government jobs.

None of these people made any money outside of government jobs. They think government jobs are owed. None of these people have done any government service.

The Clintons are an example of why dems should not think they are owed jobs in the federal government. Like my dad was in the army, so I get a job at CIA, FBI or DoD or Congress. Dems believe government jobs are owed them and their families: the people who do this are pathetic.

If you have worked for the government, bummed off our taxes, for generations; you should be embarrassed and worried about your son's and daughter's tax jobs.

Hillary thinks she has blessed us with her royal daughter. I would rather vote for an immigrant.

[Donna V.]

I would rather vote for an immigrant.

Well, Bobby Jindal is not an immigrant, just the son of immigrants, but I will watch his career with great interest. If he can manage the daunting task of even partially cleaning up the Augean stables of Louisiana politics, he'll be a fit contender for the presidency.

[Foo Bar]

where the mother, or grandmother, was, and why Barack gave them such short shrift.

Regarding his mother, this is what he says in the preface to the 2004 edition:

“I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book — less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life,” he wrote in the preface to his memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” He added, “I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.”

[MayBee]

As it was, she died wondering why her son had indeed given her short shrift in his book.

[bart]

"Hey, where the white women at?"

[bgates]

Awww, what a sweet preface! See, guys, he really did love his mom! And he would have said so in his book if he had realized she'd make him look bad by dying after he devoted his autobiography to the story of chasing a man he never knew but preferred based on skin color.

[Jane]

Yeah, really Maybee. She raised him. Obama was abandoned by his father and he goes all goo goo over the myth of the philanderer, leaving he and his mother out in the cold. I come from a similar background and I cannot for one second imagine honoring my father above my mother. I certainly would never idolize him. My mother is no saint, but she didn't abandon me. There is simply no contest - unless of course you are Obama.

That part of his mythology has always fried me.

[Danube of Thought]

Shoulda, woulda, coulda. What kind of guy writes an autobiography at the age of 33? I know at least a hundred guys who had done more, and accumulated more wisdom, than this strange man by that age, but every one of them would have thought it very presumptuous and unseemly to sit down and write some tract like this at that point in their lives.

This is an exceedingly odd and troubling man, and he will not be elected to the presidency.

[section9]

You realize, folks, that the George P. Bush vs. Chelsea Clinton contest is already in the oven, ready to pop on us with the suddenness of a Kansas twister!

[clarice]

DOT--Publishers are the new political patrons. Undoubtedly Soros spotted him (or someone like him did), greased the skids with the publisher who paid him an outrageous advance and promoted him and the book like crazy.

Another way around CFR.

[JM Hanes]

Good on you, Tom. I agree completely. Every time the camera pauses on Chelsea watching her mother, I get a lump in my throat. Hokey things like Hillary bringing Mom out on the trail with her from time to time can also make a not-so-subtle difference when your opponent is tarring his grandmother for political cover by pretending she's a racist. How do you vote for a guy who leaves you feeling sorry for the woman who raised him? I'll take the way John McCain treats his mom, thanks.

I could be wrong, but I'm also not sure Michelle's incredibly obtuse poormouthing and all the little personal jibes about her husband are likely to stir up much empathy in women who aren't already in the tank for Obama. Calling your husband a jerk may seem like a refreshing change from the usual Stepford fare, but I'm not sure how that translates into votes for the jerk you apparently married either. I really don't need to know about Obama's socks. I don't even want to think about his socks.

Now Hillary has reasons galore to dis her spouse, but does she do it? Nope. I can respect that, regardless of her motives, even if I'd have dumped Bill in a New York minute myself. I don't know if that qualifies as a typical woman's perspective -- but it occurs to me that I don't actually recall hearing guys express their opinions on that subject very often.

[Foo Bar]

Awww, what a sweet preface! See, guys, he really did love his mom! And he would have said so in his book if he had realized she'd make him look bad by dying after he devoted his autobiography to the story of chasing a man he never knew but preferred based on skin color.

From the end of the introduction, which was in the original, 1995 edition (unlike the preface):

It is to my family, though - my mother, my grandparents, my siblings, stretched across oceans and continents - that I owe the deepest gratitude and to whom I dedicate this book. Without their constant love and support, without their willingness to let me sing their song and their toleration of the occasional wrong note, I could never have hoped to finish. If nothing else, I hope that the love and respect I feel for them shines through on every page.

I come from a similar background and I cannot for one second imagine honoring my father above my mother. I certainly would never idolize him

from p342, where he meets another one of his father's ex-wives, Ruth, and her son, Mark (Ruth is speaking first, to Barack Obama, but is referring to Barack's father as 'Obama'):

"You must have gotten some of his brains. Hopefully, not the rest of him, though. You know Obama was quite crazy, don't you? The drinking made it worse. Did you ever meet him? Obama, I mean?"

"Only once, when I was ten."

"Well, you were lucky, then. It probably explains why you're doing so well."

That's how the next hour passed, with Ruth alternating between stories of my father's failures and stories of Mark's accomplishments.

On the next page (p343) (Toot is Obama's grandmother on his mom's side):

I looked out the window, thinking about my mother, Toot, and Gramps, and how grateful I was to them, and for the stories they'd told.

From the context it's clear that the "stories" he's grateful for are the ones that had painted a positive picture of his (almost entirely absent) father for him when he was younger.

[who, me?]

My white-woman radar suggests that the most direct hits have been scored by Mme. Michelle, the sententious self-absorbed faux-brite sorority girl you'd duck around the corner to escape before she could buttonhole you for KP at the pan-Greek tea party she's chairing.

[Topsecretk9]

Shoulda, woulda, coulda. What kind of guy writes an autobiography at the age of 33?

Ah yeah, especially when he explains away all his associations and actions as being/happening when he was a kid at the same touting his superior foreign policy experience from his visits and travels as a kid.

I don't get it. All the bad things people he associated happened when he was a kid, so they don't count. All his foreign policy experience happened when he was a kid so they do count

But writing an autobiography at 33 is BEEzare. And he would apprently like everyone to discount 18 or so years of that 33, except for the travel and visits around the world.

[Barry]

"Only once, when I was ten."

A ringing endorsement, that one.

Anything in that "book" about throwing Grandmother under the bus?

[Topsecretk9]

Posted by: Donna V. | April 23, 2008 at 09:14 PM

Me too. Jindal is the actual real deal and the thing that is so amazing about him is his intellect isn't trumped up, it's a force to be reckoned with.

[Foo Bar]

A ringing endorsement, that one.

Yes, that was precisely the point. I was responding to Jane's incorrect suggestion that the book somehow honored his father above his mother.

[Rick Ballard]

Tops,

After a bit we'll start debating whether BHO is a bigger fantasist than Magic Hat. It's as if these guys received massive blood transfusions from James Thurber.

[Ann]

Tops,

I bet if Jindal wrote an autobiography he wouldn't make millions.

Clarice is right again, "Publishers are the new political patrons" and it's "Another way around CFR." Think about how much Hillary and Bill made on their tomes. Compare that to what McCain made on his book "Faith of My Fathers".

I would love to know what the dollar comparison of book advances were?

[bgates]

Jane's incorrect suggestion that the book somehow honored his father above his mother.
What was that book called again?

[Foo Bar]

What was that book called again?

I don't why would you think that the title "Dreams from My Father" is some sort of honorific.

The back cover of the paperback 2004 edition says the book "begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father- a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man- has been killed in a car accident". It says that when he travels to Kenya "he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance".

[libocrat]

Jesus Obama didn't really know his father. His mother gave him enough to get him into elite Prep schools, Columbia and Harvard.
Big mistake by Mom.
As an intelligent black man, Jesus Obama filled a vital liberal prerequisite.
He was a token. His peers had a black friend, thereby eliminating their complicity in all of that American racism.
Obama, who in his own words described how he had learned to sucker whitey by playing nice, took to Columbia and the kid gloves condecension of it's liberal establishment, like a fish to water. He learned how to use people and to manipulate a liberal establishment that desperately wanted to be manipulated. He hung with the Marxist intelligencia and sought out the Marxist professors, in his own words.
(who knew that there were Marxist professors?) Wink. He married an angry disaffected Princeton/Harvard grad, whose pay has increased exponentially as her husbands political power has done the same!!
(how surprising). Obama attended a DISGUSTING Race baiting, bigoted, and hate America first church, and further claimed it's HATE LACED PASTOR as his INSPIRATION and "spiritual mentor". Again...how surprising. Then we find he's "friends" with avowed GENTRIFIED TERRORISTS.

And this doesn't disqualify him as a serious candidate??

[Topsecretk9]

Rick

BHO is a bigger fantasist than Magic Hat.

Don't forget dogfood over meds, internet wiz kid Gore....

Ann
I bet if Jindal wrote an autobiography he wouldn't make millions.

Because his book will contain ideas and solutions. "THE Audacity of IDEAS, SOLUTIONS - feel good pandering left behind, because I don't think U R STOOOPID and BIDDER"

[Topsecretk9]

learned how to use people and to manipulate a liberal establishment that desperately wanted to be manipulated.

Amen.

One analogy comes to mind when I think of western academia - liberal establishment ...it's like they purposely drop the bar of soap in the pokey.

[bgates]

a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man
Describes:
A) a college student's view of John Kennedy
B) a baseball player's view of Jackie Robinson
C) a Zepplin fan's view of John Bonham
D) someone who is obviously not being honored

FB, you're answering D here?

The 'bitter truth' about Obama's father is presumably that he died a failure. But why did that happen, and why would it preclude Obama romanticizing him?

[Jane]

Jane's incorrect suggestion that the book somehow honored his father above his mother.

What was that book called again?

Yeah really.

he's grateful for are the ones that had painted a positive picture of his (almost entirely absent) father for him when he was younger.

So he writes a book invoking the absent father in the title? That makes no sense. My mother never spoke ill of my father either. I guess I should have found some time to wax poetic about him while working my way thru school. Give me a break.

I can see dedicating your autobiography to a father that say was a naval pilot, captured and detained while you were growing up. Because that's a man you can be proud of. But a bigamist philandering drunk who you don't know and have no contact with? I think not.

[Jane]

Hey Good Morning everyone! The sun is shining, the air is crisp, and the day is young! Want some coffee?

[Soylent Red]

Morning Jane. Morning all.

"Hi guys. Maaaaaary...."

OT, Gen Petraeus new CENTCOM commander. Gen. Odierno takes over in Iraq. Good news.

[Jane]

Very good and well-deserved news too.

[Foo Bar]

I can see dedicating your autobiography to a father that say was a naval pilot, captured and detained while you were growing up. Because that's a man you can be proud of. But a bigamist philandering drunk who you don't know and have no contact with? I think not.

Unfortunately, I can only post my comments. I can't make you read them. I already posted this, but here it is again:

It is to my family, though - my mother, my grandparents, my siblings, stretched across oceans and continents - that I owe the deepest gratitude and to whom I dedicate this book

a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man
Describes:
A) a college student's view of John Kennedy
B) a baseball player's view of Jackie Robinson
C) a Zepplin fan's view of John Bonham
D) someone who is obviously not being honored

If the writer is aware that the early image he had of his father is a myth and in the same book illustrates his father's flaws in detail(e.g. irresponsible philandering, alcoholism, inability to provide for his many children, etc.) then the book is not honoring him. It's not even primarily about the father, anyway. It's about his own life.

[clarice]

How saleable is a book about the ordinary-- a deserted white woman and her parents taking care of an abandoned mixed race child?
OTOH, a boook about a mysterious, communist from Africa who, it turns out was a philanderer,polygamist and a drunk as well as a feckless father is a more compelling read these days.

[Rick Ballard]

"It's about his own life."

Written at the ripe age of 33, some 8 years after he had completed his indoctrination education, with a list of achievements which included.... breathing?

[MayBee]

Foo Bar- from the Time Magazine article about her:

Before her death, Ann read a draft of her son's memoir, which is almost entirely about his father. Some of her friends were surprised at the focus, but she didn't seem obviously bothered. "She never complained about it," says Peluso. "She just said it was something he had to work out." Neither Ann nor her son knew how little time they had left.

His mother thought it was something Obama had "to work out", and her friends (hearing about it from her) were surprised at the focus. Tell her it was about her.

[Sue]

and at last reconciles his divided inheritance".

So, I was under the impression it was non-fiction. Obviously they put it in the wrong category.

[Sue]

He added, “I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.”

I would have thought he got that from the grandmother that raised him, not the mother who also abandoned him.

[Sue]

Incredibly, I don't mean that as a cynical prediction, either - it could be a great and humanizing video clip for Hillary.

Incredibly, the one thing I have always given Hillary high marks on is Chelsea. Other than some of the examples she has set, which might or might not have been passed on to her daughter, we shall see, Hillary did a great job raising her daughter. At least the public persona of her daughter.

[PeterUK]

A mother's love is a wondrous thing. But the kids often grow up like mommy.

[Jane]

Foo Bar,

You are right, the book was named for his father. His dedication came later. It's still odd as hell. The pages should be blank. Obama wasn't privy to those dreams. He met the man once.

My guess is Obama knows that the only thing he got from dear old Dad is the color of his skin. (Maybe that is where his bitterness comes from.) I smell agenda. It all goes to his need for black cred. Like Reverend Wright. Let's make Dad look like a good guy. After all the black community has got that abandonment thing down pretty pat.

Bill Cosby must be shuddering.

I don't find that part of him particularly admirable, but maybe you do.

[DebinNC]

Does his book explain why Obama chose Occidental College after reportedly graduating from his private hs "with honors"?

[Sue]

PUK,

::grin::

[bio mom]

Chelsea works for a hedge fund. She definitely is not living off the government as suggested above by a poster. Considering the Democrats demonization of capitalism frequently, it is a wonder they do not condemn her choice of employment. Of course, the hedge fund is run by one of her mother's biggest supporters.

[M. Simon]

Hedge fund?

Who knew there was good money in shrubbery?

[DebinNC]

Jesse Jackson's relatively well-to-do father lived next door with his wife and their children. He and Obama's father were similarly indifferent to their sons.

CALVIN MORRIS: Somehow, his father did not have to "Tom." The father did not have to grovel. The father had an ability to relate to_ to white people, as much as one could be in the segregated South, as an equal. He's very appreciative of that in his dad and very proud of his father and very proud of his father's success. ..I think there were some other things that was ambivalent because much of that success Jesse was not an immediate recipient of because he didn't live in the house. He didn't have the father's last name. He was not one of the privileged children of the father. But he still identified with_ with his dad.

And an explanation from JJ's life of why Obama was drawn to Jeremiah Wright:

ANDREW YOUNG: One of the things that Jesse wanted and needed more than anything in the world was the support and approval of Martin Luther King. Jesse's quite open and honest about this, that growing up as a child, seeing your father in another family, there's almost an irrepressible need for the support from the father that you never got as a child.

[clarice]

Do you suspect that a boy who idolizes his abandoning father and wants his love, has any respect for his mother? I suspect many boys feel if their mother wasn't good enough to hold father's interest and respect, why should she get his?

[Danube of Thought]

I think Foo Bar is in love.

[Walter]

M Simon,

That should be shrubbery, shouldn't it?