Friends Close, Enemies Closer, Rivals At Mid-Distance

Hillary for VP? 

While Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers insist that she is determined to win the Democratic nomination, friends of the couple say that former President Bill Clinton, for one, has begun privately contemplating a different outcome for her: As Senator Barack Obama’s running mate.

I can think of two reasons for Barack to contemplate this insanity - one is the Godfather's advice to keep your friends close and your enemies closer; the second is the Lincolnesque "Team of Rivals" scenario.

However, the key concept with Lincoln was "team" - he had a number of rivals jockeying amongst each other as well as (potentially) against him, so he could play the shifting alliances against each other (I say this not having read the book, but I did hear Ms. Goodwin discussing it with Don Imus, so I am practically an expert). 

The idea that Obama wants to spend four or eight years (or even eight minutes) trying to keep tabs on Hillary's endless machinations as she grooms her own base and tries to claim credit for the accomplishments of the Obama Administration while distancing herself from its failures, all with Wild Bill prancing about doing his satyr dance, defies credulity.

Surely the Democratic party does not lack for boring, reassuring white guys who will bring along most of Hillary's supporters and none of her baggage.

WELL, IF HE IS WILLING TO MEET WITH MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD:

Formal Talks

CNN is reporting this morning that the Obama and Clinton campaigns are in formal talks about ending her quest for the Democratic nomination and possibly giving her the VP slot.

These apparent talks are described by CNN as being in a ``very preliminary'' stage and as "difficult."

Presumably they met with no preconditions, but plenty of preparation.  In fact, the Obama's campaign had detailed preparations covering A to G and beyond.

Comments

[kim]

Watch him pick Gore just as Hell freezes over.
=============================

[centralcal]

Good one, Kim.

In other news Tucker Carlson may enter the ring . . . the Libertarian ring, that is. Take that Bob Barr!

[Bill in AZ]

I thot it was McCain contemplating Hillary as VP... dang, I can't keep up...

[Cecil Turner]

One interesting dynamic of the unsettled nomination process is that the critical delegates (read: unpledged superdelegates) can force modifications of the ticket. B_O might not be the final authority on who his running mate is.

[clarice]

(I'm always happy when my typing and proofreading deficiencies prove contagious,TM.)

[Buford Gooch]

It would be akin to Cleopatra holding the asp to her breast.

[Rick Ballard]

Buford,

On a Shakespearean basis, wouldn't it be closer to Julius Caesar declaring a desire to spend more quality time with his friend Brutus? I do like the casting of RW as an asp, though. Good fit.

[Neo]

If Ted Kennedy could oblige by dropping off early, they won't have to make any excuses for his comments that Hiliary can't be Obama running mate. Or, better yet, maybe they could claim that he was already comatose.

[Appalled]

I have tended to dismiss those who claim Hillary wants a President McCain to preserve her 2012 viability. But, by trying to force her way on the ticket, I begin to think those folks might have a point. All Hillary brings to the ticket is her collection of negatives, and the Big Bill show. The right answer for Obama is to make a big Hillary supporter (Wes Clark, maybe)his Veep, and let Hillary cling bitterly to her guns and her religion (which I think has soemthing to do with graven images found in Michigan and Florida).

[Soylent Red]

No way Obamessiah accepts her as a running mate. No frickin way:

1. What does she truly bring to the ticket? Poor white people? Hardly. They were looking for a handout candidate who wasn't black. She was all they had to choose from.

2. Obamessiah is already going to be a Secret Service nightmare. Every racist cracker on earth will be plotting. With the Clintons in there, he'll have to worry about an inside job.

3. She ruins his whole illusion of "change". She's about as far from idealistic dreaminess as a person can get.

4. She won't accept it. Too much ego, and too long a wait until her turn. Which would tend to exacerbate #2.

[Soylent Red]

One thing that does come to mind, thanks to Neo, is how an Obamessiah campaign will treat a Kennedy funeral.

Another Wellstone memorial? I don't think that's out of the question, especially if the race is close and the base is shaky.

[Danube of Thought]

If she wouldn't accept it, how come Bubba is openly hustling for her to get asked?

[Mitch H.]

Goodwin aside, Lincoln's cabinets were chaotic lunacy incarnate, with cabinet secretaries running wild in each other's bailiwicks. The Secretaries of State and the Treasury (who both thought they should have been president instead) meddled destructively with military policy, the Secretary of War tromped all over the Attorney General, and Lincoln himself often ignored his own secretaries to indulge in direct interference with their departments, in total disregard of any sort of chain of command.

[kim]

Thanks, cc, I appreciate that. I'm better when I stick to my own jokes, rather than repeating someone else's.
===============================

[richard mcenroe]

President Andrew Johnson. Any further questions?

[Pagar]

Has anyone asked Vince Foster what he would recommend?

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

It's Barack to the Future. Specifically, 1960 when a callow, but charismatic Senator needed gravitas and added the Senate Majority Leader to the team. With nasty consequences.

Michelle plays Bobby Kennedy.

[Danube of Thought]

Bubba ain't gonna be no Lady Bird.

[Bill in AZ]

Watch him pick Gore just as Hell freezes over.

Pretty close to that right now... Gila Bend, AZ is a screen door away from hell, and it's snowing less than 100 miles from Gila Bend right now. Prolly a warm snow, though, with GloBull Warming and all...

[Neo]

Jonah hits a homerun with this beauty ..

The country is being forced to subscribe to a modern version of transubstantiation, whereby corn is miraculously transformed into sinless energy even as it does worse damage than oil.

Al gore call your ministry.

[SteveJ]

Hillary lived for eight years in the shadow of a popular man -- her husband. I doubt that she's game for another time around, living in yet another shadow.

[Neo]

And where do you keep this guy ..

"I'll tell you my impression. We really in this last election, when I say we...the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the fleet, didn't say it, but we implied it. That if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody was a good student of Government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts...and people ate it up."

Woof.

[Thomas Collins]

If B57O ends up with the nomination, Hillbillary gets the VP nod. The long used phrase "politics makes strange bedfellows" is applicable here. B57O in bed with Hillbillary is actually a more plausible sight than the JFK/LBJ 1960 pairing for the Dems.

[Porchlight]

Thomas Collins,

On that topic, check out the Hot Air thread about a possible Obama-Clinton negotiation deal in the works:

An end to Chaos?

The reported deal is that she wants him to publicly offer her the VP slot so she can respectfully decline, a face-saving strategy on her part. In return she'll give him her pledged delegates and begin encouraging her voters to support him. Oh, and she also wants him to clear her campaign debt of $20 million.

But Obama's afraid to sign on to the deal. Why? Because he doesn't trust her to decline the nomination as promised!

I will be so sad when this hugely entertaining primary is over.

[Jane]

OT: Obama just accused Bush of coddling Cuba. I kid you not.

And now he is announcing his agenda of - get this:

"Freedom from fear"

[PeterUK]

"I do like the casting of RW as an asp, though. "

That's a hell of a big asp!

[PeterUK]

"Freedom from fear"

I was frightened he would use that one.

[vnjagvet]

He has nothing to fear but the big asp herself, PUK.

[Jane]

I think "Freedom from fear" must be a right, in the Obama constitution.

Obama figures we will never know what hit us.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

OT, but I just heard a clip of Joe Biden criticizing John McCain for making an ad hominem argument. He goes on to say something like;

It's as if, in the middle of a debate on a highway traffic safety bill, John McCain said I was wrong; that the bill wouldn't make the highways safer, and I responded: "My wife and child were killed in a traffic accidnet. Don't tell me about traffic safety."

Biden's right that that's a logical fallacy, but it's an appeal to emotion (or to a spurious authority), not an ad hominem (to the man, not to the man's argument).

A good example of a real ad hominem would be if Biden had responded to McCain's safety claim by saying: 'Don't listen to McCain. He dumped his first wife when he met someone prettier and richer.'

[clarice]

Actually, didn't Biden lose family members to a traffic accident?

[Soylent Red]

I think the proper nomenclature is that Hillary is a fat asp. Or something like that.

DoT:

Bubba is pushing because he'll settle. When, at any time during her campaign, has Bubba been with the program?

[PeterUK]

Could be worse, could be "Freedom from beer".

[PeterUK]

Actually Scooter Libby's remark about "aspens" is beginning to make sense.

[kim]

'Freedom from Fear' is a naive and confusing riff off of 'All we have to fear is fear itself'. Actually, it is somewhat emblematic of the difference between Obama, the flyweight, and Roosevelt, the cruiser.
==============

[Ann]

Heck, with the V.P. nod, Hillary is in this for the long haul because Barack might be assassinated:

Via Drudge:

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out

[PD Quig]

"In fact, the Obama's campaign had detailed preparations covering A to G and beyond."

All way up to Preparation H? He's going to need a tube or two before Bill Clinton is done with his skinny rear end.

[Sara]

Clinton says reports of veep negotiations untrue

Asked if her campaign had any discussions with the Obama campaign about her possibly bowing out in exchange for the vice president slot, Clinton said: “It is flatly untrue and it is not anything I’m entertaining. It is nothing I have planned and it is nothing I am prepared to engage in. I am still vigorously campaigning.”

[ahg]

Obama good at golf? Tiger would make a better president. He won't pain either.

Obama propably wants to forgive the land claims and look gooh all around. No more socialist land issues, etc. His pals want the land though.

The luciferian wreck probably had something to do with Obama and Kenya, S.Africa, etc. Yes, Obama and his pals and their history is the same as a combat vet who was tortured to death and Hilly's feminists who endured years of repression. Everyone is equal in their sacrifice to the country.

Appeals courts? We can find better people who have agendas that will really help everybody.

[centralcal]

"We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California."

Well, Ann, there went Hillary's VP chances! Aw, heck, she probably didn't even have a chance. These Clintons are sure some skilled campaigners.

[MikeS]

'Freedom from Fear' is a naive and confusing riff off of 'All we have to fear is fear itself'.

Obama still wants us to be afraid of fair trade, just not of terrorists and their sponsors.

Obama is going to make all these decisions for us about what to be afraid of, what to eat, what to drive, what temperature to keep our homes, etc.

[windansea]

re Obama assasination fox paw by Hill

in Brandon, SD:

“Earlier today I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June 1992 and 1968 and I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That’s a historic fact. The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy and I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that, whatsoever. My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and give us a lot to live up to, and I’m honored to hold Senator Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family.”

me head hurts

[windansea]

y'all know what a fox paw is don't cha?

[centralcal]

faux pas?

[windansea]

faux pas?

ding...winner read the thread on this at Hot Air

sample:

Hilary: Oh, shoot… I mean darn, that didn’t come out right. I will be sure to fire… I mean discharge… NO, I mean dis-employ my staffer who wrote that. My aim… I mean target (oh, crap) I mean goal was to make a reference to the time line. But I cocked… I mean messed it up and the press is going to murder… oh… I… give up… (bangs… I mean hits… no, I mean beats head against desk)

db on May 23, 2008 at 5:20 PM

[Ann]

Her apology doesn't match up with her incredibly stupid "Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June" statement. Imagine a republican making that statement.

MSDNC is already spinning how tired she is because of the last week. Brother! I know this woman and she is campaigning on the Democrat FEAR factor.

What's a fox paw, Wind? :)

[Ann]

I love this comment at Hot Air:

She out Huckabeeed Huckabee!!!

(I forgot about his fox paw!)

[PaulL]

It's not like Sen. Clinton *called for* "Sen." Obama's assassination.

[section9]

I simply don't understand what everyone's all bent out of shape about. She's simply channeling the Inner Spirit of the Undead Richard M. Nixon, which has decided to inhabit her body for the duration of the campaign.

She'll go out and buy Bill a nice Republican cloth coat, call Pat Buchanan, Roger Ailes and get the Old 1966 Gang back together and show those Pansies at the DNC how a real Convention is run. Do you think for one minute that the Undead Nixon would let some candy-a** McGovern Wannabe steal the nomination from him? Forget it!

Time for Hillary to take a nice, lonely walk on the beach with the Ghost of King Timahoe.....

Now where the f**k is Donald Segretti, dammit!

[Danube of Thought]

That is the modern-day version of what passes for an "apology." It's not "what I said [or did] was wrong and I apologize for it and ask your forgiveness." It's "to the extent anybody was offended I regret that."

Jesus...

Peggy Noonan does a pretty good hatchet job on her, and it was done before the "assassination" flap.

[Thomas Collins]

It seems to me that middle aged Hillabilly and youngster B57O have had a lot more "losing bearings" moments in this campaign than Johnny Geezer. I think the old timer would be the best at taking that 3 am call!

[KJH]

Kennedy's brother's seat, now it's husband's job, later seat to to be given to her daughter. Kennedy gives seat to wife like Bill gave her the presidency. Obama gives seat to wife after becoming president and giving presidency to her when he's done.

Dems don't want term limits or limits on employing family. Millions of federal jobs get away with this yearly.

Let's bend Obama and Hillary's brain stem!!

Assassinations are wrong unless we use(bodies like lucifer), then we are just in our repression!!!

A luciferian disease that attacks all these dems and feds that leach off our taxes!!!! It's bio terror?

[PeterUK]

Sounds like,"A nice little presidency you got here,shame if anything should happen to it".

[PeterUK]

"I simply don't understand what everyone's all bent out of shape about. She's simply channeling the Inner Spirit of the Undead Richard M. Nixon, which has decided to inhabit her body for the duration of the campaign."

Comes over more like Meyer Lansky.

[Danube of Thought]

From the Politico:

"It sounds crazy at first. Amid dire reports about the toxic political environment for Republican candidates and the challenges facing John McCain, many top GOP strategists believe he can defeat Barack Obama — and by a margin exceeding President Bush’s Electoral College victory in 2004."

They're catching on.

[KJH]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357463,00.html

Dems.

[Jane]

It's a long time til November and the knives will remain sharp, but these foreign policy gaffes are sticking. Lots of people hate President Bush's foreign policy, but they aren't quite willing to risk everything on a guy who won't meet with Petreaus.

[Ann]

This is so funny, I am posting the whole thing and not linking:

Bobby Kennedy? Obviously, It's Operation Chaos! [Andy McCarthy]
I'm betting Hillary's unbelievable Bobby Kennedy gaffe is why Rush laughed off all those critics of Operation Chaos who fretted that he was inadvertently helping her get elected. Yes, USOpChaos has used Hillary's tenacity to batter Obama; but, as CINC-USOC has always known, the flip side of that tenacity is that Hillary can't help herself: Every now and then, she's inevitably going to give us a self-disqualifying when-they-shot-at-me-in-Bosnia-type moment. Like today.

OpChaos — the best friend McCain ever had ... whether he deserves it or not.

05/23 08:17 PM

[Porchlight]

Sorry, I just can't too worked up over Hill's Kennedy comment. To my mind she was just thinking aloud and basically saying look, it isn't over until it's over - even Kennedy was still battling right up until he was shot in June. It wasn't the wisest of comments, clearly, but I don't believe she was insinuating anything, even in a "Freudian slip" kind of way.

[Danube of Thought]

I don't think she was insinuating anyting either. I think she just made a stupid and tasteless comment.

This is what we have had in mind when, since 1991 or so, we have been talking about "low trash."

[clarice]

She said much the same thing to Time in March IIRC. It seems to me that she is exactly hoping for some unforeseen event--like an assassination, for example--to get her the nomination.

[Ann]

The problem is you have to believe she is a decent person to begin with and would never have such terrible thoughts.

Her apology was the usual (eyes looking at the ground and not at you) gibberish.

Maybe, I am just mean and bitter, but I have seen this Bosnia carp to many times to even be kind enough to give her an inch.

[JM Hanes]

Clarice:

That was a really fine piece on Doug Feith! I ordered his book immediately. May it make Times' own Bestseller list -- and stay there. Bravo to Feith for doing history right.

[hit and run]

JMH:
That was a really fine piece on Doug Feith!

Amen. Please tell me this isn't the first anyone's mentioned it here.

It. Here.

What an fascinating angle to have been able to talk to Feith about...

[clarice]

Thank you both. I noticed that Lowry and Commentary mentioned today that the MSM is refusing to review it. To the best of my knowledge I was the first to consider this angle and wrote the piece Sunday but it hung around in the queue behind a lot of election stories.

[hit and run]

Oh, yeah, catching up now on the Times Front Pages thread....it's all over there over there.

::sigh::

Sorry. I shoulda caught up first.

[hit and run]

Oh, yeah, I saw the Commentary commentary today.

You know, here's a gripe. I like NRO because for the most part, the Corner contributors give their email addresses with their posts. Commentary and Weekly Standard do not.

Sure, you can send an email into the generic Contentions and WWS email addresses -- but, from my experience, those just don't get much of a response.

(then again, I operate on a "one step away from a restraining order" email methodology, so, please keep that in mind)

[narciso]

Rush is clearly doing above board what Segretti did subrosa. Which is ironic, when you watch all the President's Men; how Woodstein are whining about how Segretti cleared the way for McGovern; did they think they would win any other way. Now
this is lesson #123 in how Hillary is running the most inept campaign since I think Blaine in 1884. Of course, one is reminded that Humphrey was around in 1968
and that did him no favors; as the Clean
Gene crew (which included at one point Larry Kudlow and James Woolsey; so there
is always hope some people will learn from
their mistakes)went crazy at the Convention.
Of course, not a small subsection of this group would end up in Ayer's Weather Underground. (Hat tip from the Anchoress;
don't want martial law: don't recreate '68
with 2008 technology and weapons!)

Biden's latest plea in the Wall Street Journal really reinforces the idea; that the
party has no bench strength; as he vainly cites the Nixon/China negotiations as a reason to excuse Obama's ponderings; this from a Hillary supporter, I think. Then again this is the guy who recommended partition for Iraq; because it worked so well in Palestine, India, Ireland, Cyprus
et al!

[RichatUF]

clarice-

Not really relevant to your great article, but I've noticed that the Limited Modified Hangout is "Corruption in Iraq". The MSM has some State guy that spent about a month in Baghdad in 2006 fronting the operation and they are dribbling out stories of unaccountable money now.

Interesting that the Dem's are so worried about corruption. If I were more paranoid (and could come up with a top shelf conspiracy), I'd begin to think that the Pelosi-Clinton-Obama meetings in Syria were to coordinate some sort of financial warfare on oil prices. Funny if they peaked a few months too soon...

[Rick Ballard]

"The problem is you have to believe she is a decent person to begin with and would never have such terrible thoughts."

Start with unicorns and elves, then Santa and the Tooth Fairy, then Tinkerbelle (remember to keep clapping). Now, when you can swear that all those exist, here and now, you're ready to start believing that Red Witch "is a decent person to begin with and would never have such terrible thoughts".

Very, very few will be able to reach that level of belief and they generally won't be able to vote, although some might if ACORN is given access to their institution.

[Porchlight]

You're probably right, Rick.

Still, I have developed something of a fondness for ol' Hill over the last few weeks. I can honestly say I'll be sorry to see the back of her. After her exit, it'll be the real deal and we'll have to accept the fact that either BHO or JSM will be our next President.

[Porchlight]

....but that didn't stop me from ordering my first (only?) McCain bumper sticker this week. Yes, I made the plunge. My chief motivation is to confuse and annoy the South Austin libtards (I drive a Volvo wagon with MN plates).

[Rick Ballard]

"I can honestly say I'll be sorry to see the back of her."

Me too. The front's worse though.

I'm not counting her out quite yet. The fact that BHO was pumped out of the sewer of Chicago machine politics leaves open the possibility that there is something as dirty as cash changing hands for votes yet to surface. Rezko wasn't his only "angel".

[Rick Ballard]

Porchlight,

Maybe Franken's campaign could spring for a bumpersticker to put next to McCain's? That would really cause some whiplash - and it wouldn't hurt Coleman a bit.

[RichatUF]

JM Hanes-

About a week ago you mentioned if anyone did a link chart like some undertook when the MOM story broke. I've started a rough draft and its not going well.

I've come up with an idea to organize it under 3 main links: the "Columbia School" (this is mostly his foreign policy, intel, and military advisment); the "Chicago Machine" (this captures Rezko, part of his fundraising apparatus, his economic advisors, and his domestic political base); the "DNC" (this breaks out as Rick's Dean-Stern thesis with Joe Tripp added in to capature his IT operations). I'm debating about including a Bertelsmann Foundation link because this would capature his book deals (Random House and I forget his first publisher) and explain the Volcker endorsment (wanted to be tounge-in-cheek and call it the "Billionaries for Obama Faction", and am sort of surprised about how many line up under the heading.

[hit and run]

PUK:
Could be worse, could be "Freedom from beer".

Illogical. Does not compute.

Actually Scooter Libby's remark about "aspens" is beginning to make sense.

Huh, he just made an appearance on my blog. As a dendrologist, no less.

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

I'd tuck Gore/Brazile in next to Dean/Stern. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Gore as BHO's VP pick. Bubba and RW are viscerally despised by the Kennedy machine (to include Kerry), Gore and Dean. BHO is plainly a Soros creature with the Pritzkers holding the leash when Soros is otherwise occupied. It really is a big, happy, deadly poisonous aspen rootball.

[Porchlight]

Maybe Franken's campaign could spring for a bumpersticker to put next to McCain's?

You may be right - painful for me and my car, but sure to produce instant confusion among the intended targets.

[clarice]

I ran an errand.On the public broadcasting station playing on the radio in my car was the odious Albright and others of her ilk yammering about Bush's awful foreign policy and how they have to undo what he did (*click* drove with no radio); came home heard Hagel yammering on same theme as he flogged his book (*click* switched channels for a while). then the preposterous Phil Donahus on the war..too revolting to even bother summarizing.

I can't stand this. I'm going to bed.

[Ann]

Clarice, I had to run out and pick up kids from the gym, but I wanted to add how much I enjoyed your article. I think any review my the NYT or Washington Post would make them look like idiots hence no reviews.

I would love to know more about your interview. Was it on the phone? If you got to meet Douglas Feith, what was your impression?

Lucky me, I only got to listen to bands on FM blasting through the car with girls singing badly. :)

[hit and run]

Clarice:
(*click* drove with no radio);

I am sure the radio on my SUV (take THAT Obama!) still works, though I only assume that. I commute 16 miles to work each way each day -- in silence.

And it is what keeps me sane.

Please indulge a quick story (because you know you want more evidence that I am not sane)...

My freshman year in college -- my roommate (we went to highschool together but were just baseball teammates there, not really friends) would often come back to our dorm room from classes -- and I would be in my bed -- completely awake, no stereo, no tv, nothing -- just silence. I wasn't doing anything. I was ... in contemplation. (you can say prayer, meditation, whatever...)

Freaked him out.

By the spring semester that roommate had transferred ... my new roommmate (another baseball teammate who knew of my propensities the semester before) decided to keep a pair of scissors under his pillow at night.

Just in case.

Silly. I just really, really like silence.

[VIMH: Me too!]
Me too, too.

[VIMH: We should hang out]
Totally!

[bgates]

Maybe Franken's campaign could spring for a bumpersticker to put next to McCain's?
I dunno. The Al Franken Decade was apparently followed by The Tax Evasion Decade - does he still have bumper sticker money?

[Ann]

Oh, and Rick, I am so glad you showed up:

"Start with unicorns and elves, then Santa and the Tooth Fairy, then Tinkerbelle (remember to keep clapping). Now, when you can swear that all those exist, here and now, you're ready to start believing that Red Witch "is a decent person to begin with and would never have such terrible thoughts".

You always have a way of painting a picture of just what I was thinking. Your comments are picturesque.

[clarice]

Ann, he came to my house for lunch, I've known him for years, His first job was as a intern on the Hill working for my husband.

Hit---I know how you feel. Just.So.Much.Pointless. Noise.

[Ann]

Hit,

Enjoy it while you can.....silence I mean. Wait til you get your kids and friends in your SUV and they want to put on the latest RAP song. You have to put your foot down on the RAP carp, but they still want to listen to the newest band full blast.

What we do for our kids. I can remember when my sweet little child would listen to Uncle Rushy with me.

[hit and run]

Clarice:
I know how you feel. Just.So.Much.Pointless. Noise.

Yeah, I've always like the silence. And now, with a 4 year old and 6 year old at home ... and all the carp at work ... and ... well, the car is about the only place where I am in control of my silence.

I wouldn't trade all the silence in the world for my kids, though. They're upstairs sleeping. And by golly the little snore/heavy breathing that princess hit and run has when she's sleeping is, well, it's better than any silence I've ever had.

And more profound than anything anyone has ever said.

It even rivals the pppsssshhhhhh of a beer being opened.

[kidding!!!!]

[MikeS]

I just really, really like silence.
I heard a theory that the monologue going on constantly in our heads is actually a dialog between our intellect and our soul. The problem is that though our soul has much to say, she is much too polite and much too humble to interrupt. So, she never gets her two cents in.

[Ann]

Clarice,

I should have known that you were probably friends with him. I was just interested because Rumsfield and Feith get such bad press and it's hard to find anyone that will stick up for them.

McCain is especially harsh on Rumsfield and I find it...well not fair.

[cathyf]

If I were more paranoid (and could come up with a top shelf conspiracy), I'd begin to think that the Pelosi-Clinton-Obama meetings in Syria were to coordinate some sort of financial warfare on oil prices.

Well, now there's a brilliant idea. Get the price of gas high enough, and the bitter/clingers say, "blood for oil? Sounds good to me!!!"

(As the parent of two very intelligent kids, 10 and 14, I have long lost count of the number of times I've said, "So, did you think that through?!?!?")

[MayBee]

clarice- fascinating article.
I'm shocked Risen has been a)interested and b)turned down by his editors.
And this?

(Contrast this, for example, with the review of Plame's oeuvre despite the repetition ad nauseum in the news section for years. Or the NYT's decision almost 2 decades ago to review the memoirs of the 28 year old law student Barack Obama. )

Well, yeah. In a way, though, it is heartening to know that in the end, even with all the exposure, Plame's book was pretty unsuccessful.

[vnjagvet]

Clarice:

I hope that your review in AT will be a start towards opening the sales floodgates for this book. I ordered it tonight entirely on your sayso.

As your review implies, it is easy to criticize those on the front lines. It is even easier when you are not interested in what really took place.

Many forget the serious problems in WWII which gave rise to the ubiquitous slang terms SNAFU ("Situation Normal All F***ed Up") and FUBAR ("F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition"). WWII also gave rise to the Truman Commission which spent most of the war ferreting out the rampant graft and corruption the beset defense contracts. Despite all of these significant imperfections in the conduct of the war, the Roosevelt Administration has been (justly, in my opinion) lionized for making, on balance, the correct though tough decisions that ultimately won the war.

Countless thousands of our troops lost their lives for blunders made at home and on the battlefield. Countless more lost their lives in spite of brilliant decisions which were indispensible for winning the war.

We honor all of those dead this weekend irrespective of the correctness of the decisions that sent them to their deaths.

Thanks for your great contribution for this Memorial Day.

[Ralph L]

My grandfather slept with a loaded pistol under his pillow until his first heart attack in 1940. He'd been cashier of several banks in the days before deposit insurance and armored cars.
Commentary and Weekly Standard do not.
I read the WS cover article about McCain's prep school teacher several weeks ago, and the part about school integration didn't ring true, but there wasn't a direct way to complain or ask for clarification.

[HoosierHoops]

I just really, really like silence.

Hit
I heard about silence..
We have 5 kids..
If I hear silence..
I immediately feel there is something wrong..
and go try and fix it..
Silence is so overrated!
:)

[ents]

Dems are a bunch of luciferians competing over lives that they claim. Garbage. Cult competition family versus family.

[SunnyDay]

I mentioned Feith's book weeks ago! Thanks Clarice! wonderful review. I'm so glad you wrote it.

He has been on Hannity and Rush mentioned it, but I don't think they had actually read the book. Feith isn't good at selling himself - the interview was almost boring.

You should write up his "interview" so he can get back on there and toss a few zingers that will get people's attention. :D

[kim]

It is a mercy Doug is a scholar.

Robert Kennedy wasn't just fighting on into June, he was winning. The historical parallel is close. So close, only a fatigued or malevolent person would say it. Could be both, I suppose.
==================

[kim]

The bitter bible and rifle church.

Go West, young man, and take your Beecher Bible and Rifle with you. There are savage heathens there.
====================

[HoosierHoops]

Countless thousands of our troops lost their lives for blunders made at home and on the battlefield. Countless more lost their lives in spite of brilliant decisions which were indispensible for winning the war.

We honor all of those dead this weekend irrespective of the correctness of the decisions that sent them to their deaths.

Thanks for your great contribution for this Memorial Day.

Posted by: vnjagvet | May

Well said..
Today was military day besides carb day at the Inianapolis 500 track.It gives me great pride see so many men and women in uniform walking around the track.
( we got rained out today..Very slow..But we stood out in the rain with thousands of people and watched stone temple pilots and Cedar play a great concert.. jeez i felt like i was 18 again, that and our 16 year old say he smelled pot at which point mom goes how do you know what pot smells like?
His face kindof of turned red..Yup..felt 18.

[PeterUK]

"Go West, young man, and take your Beecher Bible and Rifle with you".

Take your Breachers Bible and your breach loading rifle."Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition".

[Jane]

Good Morning everyone!

It's going to be a beautiful Memorial Day weekend in the Northeast. I'm planting my window boxes and entertaining family.

What is everyone else up to?