It is a good thing that Obama gets some training in how to deal with "Clinton rules" because he will be barraged by them soon enough. If he is the Democratic nominee the Republicans will unload on him starting with his name (Obama = Osama), his education in a Muslim school in Indonesia, his drug use (he says yes, his friends say no), and his less than perfect political affiliations.

He will have to deal with the "L" label even though he isn't a liberal but a centrist Democrat. His healthcare proposal is voluntary which means it is almost the same as McCain's no-healthcare-plan. McCain is already rolling out the old lie, that tax cuts will make the economy grow and increase revenues. The MSM will spin this as there being little difference between Obama and McCain so why not vote for the old white guy who's a war hero?

As for McCain, you say Shi'ia I say Sunni, what's the difference? And the who? Curds? Kurds? The real question is, "Do you want to have a beer with him?"

McCain is 71. He would be the oldest president at his first inauguration. He has had several bouts with skin cancer. His VP choice will be critical because that person may become the President.

This is getting so old that people have become immune, indeed come to expect this kind of unequal media treatment of each party's candidates and office holders. As if that wasn't bad enough, liberals still have to defend themselves against bias coverage from the "The Liberal Media". Let's face it - the right wing has this game figured out: buy as much of the media as possible, co-opt "journalists". plant bogus stories, and redirect the discussion to lapel flags. Josef Goebbels would be proud.

there is no left in Murka, dumbass. Just the middle and the reich. It's obvious where your sentiments lie. and lie. and lie again. check the polls, troll. check the delegate count. then, since you're not using your left, shove it up your reich. love heywood.

First, great article by Joe Conason. Thanks!

Second, why do people keep saying that if Hillary doesn't make it this year, she will be back in 2012? If she wins the nominee and the general, then, of course, she would run in 2012. However, if Obama gets the nominee and wins the general -- no way to 2012 and by 2016, she would be close to 70. If McCain would happen to win this year, why would she try in 2012? Most people would hate her even more as she would be blamed for the Democrats losing the election to McCain. The fact of the matter is, she is giving it all she has now because it is her one shot at being president. It is funny that people would not begrudge a man for being so ambitious, but they are Hillary.

I agree with Mr. Conason in that the media has vilified the Clintons for years. Most of what the media says as facts have been pushed by the likes of Tom DeLay and Newt Gingrich. Those stalwarts of honesty. Unfortunately, many that support Obama believe what has been put out there by the media about the Clintons over the years. It is easier to see them as the villains than it is to see the truth about someone.

It's too late Len, you've already had a President who made things up. His name was Ronald Reagan. Of course since then a lot of people have false memories of his time in office. Some people "remember" that he "beat the Russians", or they forget Iran/Contra.

Arms for Hostages.

"We did not--repeat, did not--trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we," Reagan proclaimed in November 1986. Four months later, on March 4, 1987, Reagan admitted in a televised national address, "A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."

Reagan, the senescent old murderer-in-chief, also claimed to have been there when the concentration camps were liberated.

In November 1983, Reagan told visiting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that he had served as a photographer in a U.S. Army unit assigned to film Nazi death camps. He repeated the story to Simon Wiesenthal the following February. Reagan never visited or filmed a concentration camp; he spent World War II in Hollywood, making training films with the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.mendacity-index.html

Your current dictator, buhs, once told Mahmoud Abbas that Jesus has told him to invade Iraq. Maybe that was not a fantasy, but Jesus, I hope it was.

You'd do well with a harmless character like Walter Mitty, at least his fantasies killed no one.

Billary's put all her chips and all her money and all her tacky jewelry in the pot. She's all in or all out. she has a ten percent chance, tops, of winning the nomination. if she does not, and Obama loses a close election based on issues billary's kitchen sink spewed up, then she can kiss her imperial ass goodbye. She'll be lucky to hang on as a senator, as if that's a glass ceiling. Hiss off, Pillary.

My wife just came in from work. She said she'd heard Hillary speaking about Obama's whines that the debate the other night wasn't much about substance, just more or less, "gotcha" kind of discussion. "She said it far better than I," my wife said, "but essentially she said [in response to Obama]: 'If you think the other night was bad, boy, wait until the general election!" And indeed, this points out a very serious flaw in the Obama campaign. He and his followers (some of whom are so accurately described in Rebecca Traister's excellent commentary in Salon.com a few days ago ("Hey, Obama boys ...), believe and demand that the type of politics which have shaped our nation for the last twelve or so years, will change.

"Obama doesn't want that kind of dialogue," my wife said. "He's saying, he wants it different."

Right. What a load of horse manure that is.

Obama has struck back at everything Senator Clinton has raised as a legitimate issue, and just recently as the other day, in his mocking tone, asked: "What does she think she is? Annie Oakley?" when he zinged her on her discussion about guns and the use of guns. Unfortunately, Obama will have to decide what to do when organizations like Swift Boat Veterans Of America begin to question: Indonesian history; Muslim associations; Arabic sounding name; trip to Pakistan as a young man; association with former SDS folks (I'm one of those, albeit, not in The Weather Underground. Tony Rezko; his views on just about everything.

If Swift Boat Veterans can take a man who legitimately won TWO Bronze Stars; the Purple Heart; and courageously attacked a Viet Cong in an ambush that saw some of his men wounded, and turned him into a coward and a liar, and made George Bush into a hero of the Vietnam War ... well, they're going to depants Obama. And it won't have a damned thing to do about what John McCain says are the rules of engagement. McCain won't call those kinds of shots any more than Obama would, if he is the nominee.

I wanted to say that these are flaws that Hillary is talking about ... because her retort, from living in the White House for eight years was: "if you think the other night was tough, wait until you get in the White House." And she's right. Obamistas are just too thin skinned, and idealistic to think that because THEY suddenly, have ARRIVED on the stage, NOW the rules will be called BY THEM!

Silly.

Stupid.

And bound to lead to Democrat defeat in November, because the fact is: Obama IS an Ultra Liberal Elitist Intellectual candidate. He can say his upbringing is anything but elitist, but that was then: this is now.

And, piggybacking on Rebecca Traister's article: women might want to take a deep breath and look at how close they could be to grabbing the golden ring. This is a competent, intelligent, VETTED, experienced and tough woman they have as a presidential candidate. Look at someone like Queen Elizabeth I, as portrayed by Cate Blanchet. Does SHE look all that much like a monster? Oh, she has her quaint and charming and vulnerable side: but in her darker moments, she also said: I am my father's daughter. And that meant: she could be as cold-blooded and vicious and murderous as daddy dearest -- Henry VIII.

Hillary is hardly that kind of monster.

She is ambitious. Isn't that one of the fruits of a leveler playing field that the sixties and seventies and the Feminist Movement promised? She can be "calculating?" Meaning: she thinks before she makes a really stupid statement about Pennsylvania voters being bitter and clinging to their guns and religion because they're filled with antipathy over the economic plight.

Hillary is ready for the Republican onslaught. Obama won't do well under the strain.

Hillary also has a more developed and direct understanding of what the President DID when HE got the 3 A.M. phone call. Those next to us in bed usually learn A HELLUVA LOT by watching our spouses react to professional crises in the middle of the night, not too mention, what they SAY when they come home. We may not know the details, but we are aware of the process used to deal with the problem. And that can mean very rough attacks by opposition parties.

Senator Clinton has a far greater chance of being the next President, if women stop allowing men to tell them they cannot vote for a woman just because they're a woman, even though African-Americans can vote for an African-American because they're African-Americans. Or, that Hillary is a "nut cutter," and therefore, if they vote for her, they've voting for THAT!! And, she's a calculating "b...h." And some of our Presidents haven't been bastards?

And somehow, women should want to grab for the golden ring of history, and support the first viable woman candidate for President because ... well, a whole lot of bogus reasons.

I urge women to reconsider: don't tell your male friends, if you don't feel like it. On the other hand, you might just say: I don't give a crap what you think. I voted for Hillary, and you can kiss my butt if you don't like it! It's time we changed the equation: instead of 43-0 with men v . women; it's going to now be: 43-1. Shake in your boots, Obama boys! This time, the women are going to go all the way!!!!!

I'm a man. I support the time for a woman. It's needed. THAT'S real change.

Rebecca Traister