I never understand your letters. These weird tangents, these bons mots that you go out of your way to shoehorn in -- seriously, do you write your letters ahead of time and just wait for a thread to post them in?

Anyhow, I think I speak for many people who hang out here when I say that America can do without your non-witty non-observations from "the other side of the pond." You are not Christopher Hitchens. You are an Irish harridan with nothing better to do than spew hatred of Obama. You don't have a stake in our election. You don't get a vote, for which I am grateful. Butt out.

Seriously? Butt out.

Actually, Anon, I think it is a garden variety Republican troll.

But since she's Irish, if she's a troll, wouldn't that make her... a leprechaun? I think there was a movie about a malicious leprechaun. Titled "Leprechaun."

According to Wikipedia, the character was "vengeful" and "violent" and a key line from the movie was, "Burn in Hell you little green bastard!"

Sounds like our girl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprechaun_(film)

After reading the quote, I couldn't believe he would say Hillary "felt down." I am glad some people posted the clip, though, because "feeling" and "down" are so far apart that he obviously didn't intend to put them together. Katherine, you need to put all the ums and ellipses in.

I agree with those who say that the weirdly rambling answer is more telling than the actual words. I think he chose the word "feeling" and it was a poor choice and he had no idea what to put after it. Because he probably meant to say "feeling like she's losing," but, ironically enough, that sounded too ... insulting. Those who are saying it was "calculated"? That is laughable. In fact, I think he was rambling like this specifically because he really doesn't like her and was afraid of saying something nasty and was trying to avoid a Howard-Dean-type "scream" moment. And in the process, he may have just had that moment. What a disappointment. I was enjoying being undecided, because even though it was uncomfortable, it meant I still had a choice. I hope he doesn't get "screamed" out of the race by this stupidity. Especially since the bigger issue is not what he said but why he couldn't figure out what the hell to say!

The man is winning. He's going to keep winning. This non-incident is too stupid to get "legs." I'd be much more worried about that "cult" thing going around, because people genuinely ARE excited about him. But this stammering, overly polite, impromptu answer is a non-story. (I completely agree with your assessment of it, by the way -- he didn't want to put too fine a point on it and say that he is in the process of kicking her ample ass back to Arkansas).

My point is that it isn't Irish. It spends so much of its posts pointing out all its Irish creds that I've become certain that it isn't actually Irish. Nor, probably, a she. And I used to think it was the same person as Thrasher, since they used to post alternately anti- and pro-Obama and they disappeared at the same time. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but my troll-dar goes off whenever I read its faux Celtic drivel. And since it contributes virtually nothing to the conversation, I guess I don't see a reason to give it the benefit of the doubt.

I never thought of that. In my experience, Irish people Must! Let! You! Know! that they're Irish, like, constantly. I went to Notre Dame, so I know this. They feel about being Irish the way that people who don't have TVs feel about not having TVs. Must! Inform! You! "Oh, sorry, I don't know who Ryan Seacrest is, I don't have a TV." Like that. So I just took her as another annoyingly Irish person.

I agree that she should be ignored, but I just can't resist telling a racist hater to go get bent. Or, as she'd have it, to go ram a shillelagh up her County Cork.

I find the comment very weak, and embarrassing. I would hope for a much higher standard of discourse from a person who is trying to be president.

But it is not nearly as weak or embarrassing as those who are trying to paint it as a sexist comment.

Ooooh, Obama accused Clinton of "feeling down." Horrors! This type of attack, a very mild attack BTW, only serves to dismiss the Clinton campaigns obvious left turn into going, negative, negative, negative all the time. Good for Barack and boo hoo Hillary. He's calling you out.

Obama is Irish too kids. From his mom's side:

• Irish: He's traced to Fulmuth Kearney, who sailed to New York from Ireland in 1850. But where in Ireland? The counties are feuding: One expert says Kearney was from Meath, another Carlow. Now comes the news of ties to County Offaly.

• Pilgrim: One direct ancestor was Edward FitzRandolph, married in Massachusetts in 1637. He was a Pilgrim father from Nottinghamshire, England.

• Scottish: There's even a royal link. Obama is descended from William I of Scotland, who reigned from 1165 to 1214. William was a politically and physically strong king. He charged Henry II's army single-handedly but was captured.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/368961,CST-NWS-ireland03.article

Its me MaddieP, registered independent, Obama supporter and, (or should I say yet) voice of reason. ;)

I've said in other threads that while I support Obama I will support Clinton if she wins the nomination. I don't like the idea of a McCain administration (shudder). I will continue to call for civility and an eventual democratic COALITION even in the midst of this ardent race for the nomination.

IN the meantime, to Hillary supporters (and possibly her campaign managers) see if you can figure this out:

what do these people all have in common:

JFK

Ronald Reagan

GHW Bush

Bill Clinton

GW Bush

Mike Huckabee

Barack Obama

PEOPLE JUST PLAIN LIKE(D) THEM. Now wait a sec and hear me out and you'll discover my opinion of why Hillary is having such trouble against Obama.

In general, we Americans vote for people 'we just plain like'. Go ahead and look at the list again.

RIGHT OR WRONG we have tended NOT to want to listen to policy talk. (I think this is a mistake, but the human instinct to gravitate toward those we like is built into every living creature's DNA). People just plain LIKED Reagan. They just plain LIKED GW and old Bill, people lied him so much the Washington power structure couldnt get rid of him even after spending millions of dollars and years trying - he came out virtually unblemished. Why? because the public JUST PLAIN LIKED HIM!

(Sometimes our instinct work out well, as in the case with old Bill. Sometimes...(GW)...well, need I say more?)

Poor Mitt Romney (who probably had better credentials to be the Repub nominee than McCain) is sitting at home today. NOT for lack of money or organization but (IMO) in part because he didn't come across as likable. No warmth, sincerity. He looked and felt like...an automaton. Capable (and proven) in terms of his fiscal ability to rescue troubled economic situations, he's NOT in the race today and is probably the only one who could've turned the deficit around in short order. He was accused of being (among other things) cold and calculating...ambitious...power hungry...would stop at nothing to win the presidency (sound familiar?).

Even Hillary (some have argued) won in NH after a showing of her more warm, 'vulnerable' side. (that's not the only reason but it didn't hurt her).

Bottom line: we TEND to vote for who we 'just plain like'. From a psychological standpoint we TEND to discount the negatives in those we like and magnify the negative in those we don't like. This is why an Obama attack campaign is probably futile.

Hillary's problem is that her strongest assets (her claim of a superior policies and better experience) are arguments that have to appeal to the HEAD not the HEART. We have NEVER in this country chosen a president from our HEADS. Democratic or Republican. Good administration or bad. And frankly, I'm not so sure we're all that different than anyone else in the world at any time in history, you know? I'm no world historian but maybe no one anywhere has ever made decisions any other way. Think about it: The best and worst leaders have always been placed in power because people liked them (with the exception of the ones who took over by pure force and intimidation).

People rally behind people they LIKE. Likability is an intangible quality that we assess instinctually in people we meet every single day.

Its a challenge for Hillary because her natural personality is (IMO) not an automatically 'warm and fuzzy' or 'likable' one. Her own people have admitted this and tried to counteract it in the past. I think they would've done well to keep her on that 'likability' track they tried early on, even though it really didn't have the 'ring of truth' with her (which may be why they abandoned it) and now it may be too late to try it again.

I'm NOT saying Hillary isn't a nice person. I'm absolutely sure she is. Its unfortunate that she can't translate that into 'good vibrations' with people more effectively. But people can only be who they are. Its a conundrum.

Again, I'm not suggesting this its right that we have this natural affinity toward folks we 'just plain like', I'm only suggesting that its how we humans make (and have made) judgments about people for millenia.

THEN in comes a person like Obama who would give even the most likable person like Bill Clinton a run for his money on the 'likability scale'. Its really hard to compete with it.

I don't have the answers for Hillary or her camp. I think at this point she can only continue to press away at the minor policy differences between herself and Barak, try to appeal to people's heads and hope the people who are listening agree with her logic, analyses and policies. (Thanks Texas Democrat for your outline of the Clinton Health Plan in another thread. I promise I'll look into it. But between us, I'm not confident that either candidate will be able to quickly fix this issue in the next four years. Besides we have a huge deficit we need to get rid of, pronto).

Hillary has her work cut out for her if she's going to be successful at turning this thing around. No question about it. Too bad her campaign managers just don't have a better understanding of human nature and what DRIVES people.