Beyond their repugnant unethical nature: nut-kicking, false-charges, and below-the-belt slanders get much of their effectiveness by working as a form of "confusion hypnosis"- offensive tactics that channel the debate away from the vulnerabilities of a candidate on substantive issues (like their record in public office.)

If they can get people asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

The way to handle is to counter lies and slanders whenever they appear- and then, like a DA, return to cross-examination. Not mud-slinging. Return to asking the right questions.

"...It's odd though, a lot of the attacks came from....Michelle Obama...and Barack. In fact, much of the attack against Hillary (and Bill) was instituted, created, driven, by the Obama's; and one of the central elements in that attack sought to turn two of Black America's favorite politiicians, into "racists."..."

I don't think that's true at all.

I paid attention through the primary battles. Sometimes the disputes got heated, and even mean. But I don't think that the worst of it was "instituted, created, driven" by Barack or Michelle Obama. On the whole, I think there was a lot of flame-fanning and nit-picking over minutiae. High-school gossip column shit.

Frankly, the arena where I noticed that it got the worst was here, in the letters column on Salon.

It would be ridiculous to hold either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton personally responsible for the numerous foul comments, allegations, and accusations hurled by the most vehement of their partisans on Salon. The descent into pettiness, nastiness, mind-reading style imputations of motive, kangaroo court accusations, and hyperbole distinguished neither the commentators who resorted to those displays, or the causes of their preferred candidates.

Sometimes- especially in the case of the most offensive comments- it was enough to make me suspicious of the sincerity of those posting them.

At this point, whatever the side one was on, it's time to let it go. Hillary Clinton has moved on, right?

Can you?

Speaking of Power, I can only wonder how the haters posting on this thread would wield it, at the point when they found themselves possessing a significant amount of it.

But I don't wonder too much.

AJ Calhoun, you're a class act. I hope you have some students.

Walter Shapiro, you wrote a good obit.

...where compassion and grief are qualities of supreme irrelevance- unless they can be exploited as opportunities to express contempt.

"Truth" has no relevance to machines either, which reveals more about the screen name "truth machine" than the ego choosing it probably intended.

from one of the first responses to this article:

"Nothing will get Republicans to the polls on election day like the chance to vote against HRC."

To which I'll add that it's difficult for me to think of a VP pick who will lead more alienated independents and young progressives to stay home on election day than Hillary Clinton. They'll take it as confirmation that the Establishment Democrat politics-as-usual crowd is still calling the shots.

Speaking personally, I'm not sure that they aren't- but for the moment, I'm willing to take a chance on Obama. If Hillary gets on the ticket, the effect on my enthusiasm for electoral politics will be approximately equivalent to my reaction when I heard John Kerry going out of his way to provide a character reference for George W. Bush during the 2004 debate.

Lucy my dear, I'm not sure how many more times I feel like kicking that football.

But I don't think Hillary wants a "second banana" job, anyway. (I know that turn of phrase must mix metaphors terribly in the minds of some of the Salon regulars. Not me, though.) So I'd really be...surprised...if she accepted such an offer.

Personally, I can't imagine the two egos of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton co-existing for more than five minutes as president and vice-president. Add in Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton, and...come on, get real.

I don't think that supporting a modicum of decency in respect to the departed equates to "hagiography." I think much of the negative commentary simply amounts to using the passing of Tim Russert to make assertions of the moral superiority of the letter writer. Some of the judgements are much more harshly phrased, cosisting mostly of hyperbolic invective.

No matter who it is, grave dancing doesn't make someone any deader. It's a ritual act that has power only to the minds of those who revel in such vain consolations perhaps not the sort of power they imagine, either.

Ariel Dorfman's recent Salon article illustrates that he managed to confront and overcome that impulse with wisdom and maturity, on the occasion of Augusto Pinochet's demise. If someone a victim of the fascist Chilean regime like Dorfman was able to refrain from gloating about the death of Pinochet to his mourners- is it too much to ask for someone to maintain a civil tongue about the passing of Tim Russert?

I've been perusing your letter archive...got more than one note on that violin?

Perhaps you have another spam assignment to be off to...you should get an early start. It has to take some extra time for you to surf the Internet, what with your drawers around your ankles and all.

"@theplanner

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