Friday, February 01, 2008 - Posts
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It's become a commonplace assumption that Barack Obama would fare better than Hillary Clinton in a general election—that he's the more "electable" candidate. But a new poll shows no discernible difference between the two. Either candidate would trounce Romney by about 15 points. Both would be within one point of John McCain.
When you factor in that Clinton's a known quantity (everyone knows her weaknesses), whereas Obama's relatively untested when it comes to mudslinging, I think this poll may actually suggest that Clinton's more electable, after all.
Another interesting thing about the poll is how differently voters from each party see the electability issue. Here's how it breaks down:
Independents
Obama: 48 percent
Clinton: 28 percent
Republicans
Obama: 43 percent
Clinton: 18 percent
Democrats
Obama: 37 percent
Clinton: 49 percent
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Ann Coulter is not so much a partisan as she is a performance artist, and her medium is the lie. So, normally, when she takes the stage and does her thing, there is nothing to conclude, beyond the fact that just as Gene Kelly had to dance and Karen Finley worked with chocolate, she is making it up because that is what she does. Well, that and to keep her skills up. So while it might be a pity she didn't hang in there with the tap lessons, we shouldn't take it to heart.
Today, however, in remarks about how she'll campaign for Hillary Clinton over John McCain if he is her party's presidential nominee, Coulter has shown new range by betraying something closer than usual to the truth. No, not that she'd ever actually support Clinton; even if she is all show, she is nothing if not a canny entrepreneur, and she knows her customer.
Yet even more than actual conservatives, those who only play them on TV would be beyond disappointed to see Barack Obama take the nomination away from the right's favorite chew toy. Not only because Republicans consider Clinton the weaker candidate in the general. (And if they don't, then why did George W. Bush come so close to endorsing her?) But also because these professionals have their careers to think of and would hate to even contemplate letting all those '90s-scandal recyclables go to waste. Can you imagine the years of preparation wasted, the patience unrewarded, and Billary best sellers left unwritten? Which is why I suspect Ann Coulter of seeing in Hillary Clinton a candidate who—ready or not for the actual job—would be distracted from Day One. And this time only, she could be right.
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It’s hard not to contrast the New Niceness pervading last night’s Democratic debate with the intramural slashing and burning of John McCain. No doubt there’s a lot happening under the surface here, but it’s hard to dispute that Clinton had to rein it in after South Carolina’s nastyfest because women get called “shrill” the moment they step over some invisible Maginot Line of niceness.
Truth? I don’t much care what animated yesterday’s warm fuzzies—I loved it. I’ll always prefer a respectful policy exchange to a mud fight, particularly when we’re talking about war and the economy and health care—issues so rarely illuminated by sequential head-slapping. One of the reasons Obama’s always been an inspiring candidate to me is that he is authentically trying to back away from the ugliness of partisan discourse. That doesn’t always serve him well, and it leads people I respect enormously to dismiss him as a lightweight, but I think it’s also persuaded at least some women with Fox-fatigue that there’s another way to talk to each other; that allowing your enemy to actually finish his sentences has worked fairly well for humanity for the last few millenniums for a reason.
This brings me round to your post, Rachael, about what women may want from their A Sections, which may well be a model for what they want in their political discourse. Not necessarily “anecdotal” or “personal” news as you (sarcastically?) suggest. But perhaps, as Deborah Tannen has argued, something more than the “attack-dog” editorial page we’ve adopted.
I know many tough-as-nails women bloggers and opinion writers who have no problem with attack journalism or attack politics, but I know a lot more women, and young moms, who are truly grateful that Obama’s tried to light the way to something else.
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Last week, we posted a message from frequent Slate contributor Walter Dellinger about a recent controversy over New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse. In an e-mail to Ed Whelan at the National Review Online, Dellinger retracted the last sentence of that post, in which he wrote that the Times was "wrong to dignify these attacks as if they were honest complaints that deserved an answer." Dellinger clarifies that he never intended to impugn Whelan's honesty and apologizes for the implication.
Emily and I couldn't agree more with Dellinger that disagreements on the merits needn't turn into accusations about the honesty of the folks on the other side.
To read more on this, click here. Our thanks to Patterico for bringing this to our attention last night.
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Sexism, racism: Last night's cordial Democratic debate stayed miles away from those toxic topics. But with the race down to two, ageism may now take its turn in the spotlight. Of course, a generational drama has been playing out all along, and Obama has been its beneficiary, especially this past week; with the Kennedys' endorsement, the glow of youthful vigor—that JFK word—has never been more dazzling. During an evening in which most differences blurred, and with the curiously ageless Edwards out of the picture, the contrast between young man and older woman again stood out—but this time it played, it seemed to me, very much to Clinton's advantage. Until now, I'd cringed whenever she invoked a career that began "35 years ago": Why make herself seem so old, an earnest do-gooder long before so many Obama enthusiasts were even a gleam in their parents' eyes? It is tough enough to be the past-her-prime woman, slathered in make-up under the unforgiving TV lights, up against men whose faces the cameras love and cares have barely lined. Yet last night—commanding, gracious, relaxed, confident, funny—Clinton had the je ne sais quoi that can give the older woman the seasoned allure Americans aren't known for appreciating, but may recognize from French movies. It's a glow with the potential power to make a younger man, however compelling, charismatic, and gallant, seem like someone with growing up still to do.
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