Like waking up next to someone you can't believe you brought home last night, I wake up this morning feeling a bit ashamed about having had an emotional response to Clinton's closing last night.

Those soldiers she so graphically depicted and used the image of for her own promotion, wouldn't have needed that hospital if she hadn't sent them to war in the first place. She's used them twice. And now she's used all of us to gain some ind of sympathy for herself.

And the she borrows and Edwards/Bill Clinton line about the candidates being fine, etc.

Ick. Shower time.

A thousand thank-yous for the link to the Daily Kos poster who very thoroughly and even-handedly compared Obama's and Clinton's work in the Senate last year.

Clearly they are both hard-working, competent, qualified legislators who share many of the same values. The person who did the research came to the conclusion, quite fairly it seems, that while both of them are geared toward problem-solving, Obama seems to have an edge in terms of thinking bigger & riskier, aiming for the root of problems rather than their symptoms, and gaining co-sponsors across the aisle.

Looked at in this sober, analytical way, it's just crazy to see how much hatred some Salon readers have built up for the nominee they don't support. Personally, I have never liked Clinton all that much and really can't get past her Iraq war authorization vote, and yet reading about her actual day-to-day work made me respect her a bit more. At the same time, reading about Obama's day-to-day work made me feel a bit more confident in my vote for him in the Maryland primaries, and happy that he'll likely end up the nominee.

What is mind-bogglingly sad is that such sober, rational, USEFUL information isn't out there in the world, isn't at least a tiny meme floating out there somewhere in the MSM and competing with all the trumped-up controversies and personality caricatures.

The media have failed us utterly, and all the hyperbolic sniping and name-calling back and forth between Obama and Clinton supporters on this website is a SYMPTOM of that failure.

wish I could edit!

Like waking up next to someone you can't believe you brought home last night, I wake up this morning feeling a bit ashamed about having had an emotional response to Clinton's closing last night.

Those soldiers, whom she so graphically depicted and used the image of for her own promotion, wouldn't have needed that hospital if she hadn't sent them to war in the first place. She's used them twice. And now she's used all of us to gain some kind of sympathy for herself.

And then she borrows an old Edwards/Bill Clinton line about the candidates being fine, etc.

Ick. Shower time.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633

A detailed comparison of Obama's and Clinton's sponsored and co-sponsored bills last year. Fascinating and useful read.

that picture is priceless.

Mr. Shapiro--I am dissapointed at your thinly veiled pro-HRC commentary. As a former presidential speechwriter, if you think "...change you can xerox" was a 'potent' zinger last night (never mind the crowd's mixed silence and boo's) I think we can all agree that the people involved in politics and punditry lack a certain common sense that the rest of society may possess. I saw an evenly matched debate last night--with noone particularly more crisp than the other in their answers. Both were in command of the facts and presidential. The salient difference apparent to others is that HRC is so polarizing, she may not be able to overcome partisan obstructionists on the Hill. I do not overlook her polish as a seasoned politician. What you label a 'dignified' and 'powerful' closing (hint of voice wavering but adroitly avoiding a ruinous 3rd cry) I felt was adequate, but not moving. Certainly not exculpatory of the fact that she voted and defended the deployment of the troops on this fool's errand.

While I don't deny that HRC has real feelings for her country(or her ascent to power) Most of us do.

But if you don't think that 'genuine' moment at the end wasn't pure political calculation, you've been watching a different campaign.

The last place Hillary got any traction was in New Hamsphire, when she was asked 'How she kept going'. The tearful moment!!! Tucked into the middle of that closing love sonnet(valedictory) last night was a reference to 'How she kept going'---it KILLED in NH! Seems all you media Hallmark folks forgot you got the same card back then.

As to the reference to her Edwardesque close, in case you haven't noticed she frequently, goes a paragraph too far. I admire her, I don't admire this campaign. It has sounded hollow and calculating from the beginning. If a measure of her competence is how she has run this campaign---then, no thank you. If the measure of her sincerity is distilled down to her two 'real' moments in over 156 days of this spectacle. Then, really. NO THANK YOU.

Does she so mistrust us that being real is a last ditch effort?

Real is what we are hungering for.

Sorry -- no magic bullet. A lot of people who follow debates remembered that line from John Edwards because it made a big impression when he said it. That's when he was "the grown-up," so it came out recycled from Hillary, and then, when she turned and said how proud she was to be on the stage with Barack Obama, we got the idea that this was her, quite classy, valedictory statement. She's hoping for the best for America and she's going to get behind Barack Obama.

Disclosure: I am a Clinton supporter.

Barack Obama will make a GREAT president if elected. I look so forward to years of intelligent, insightful leadership.

However. Anyone who actually listened to this debate and thinks that Hillary Clinton doesn't simply know more than Barack Obama really wasn't listening. The woman is not only brilliant, but has SO done her homework.

She will make a GREAT president.