This is part of the very subtle racial undertone of McCain's campaign: congratulations on "your achievement" but you aren't ready to lead. This picks up viscerally on some whites' worries about affirmative action. In context with all the character attacks before and after -- using "not experienced" to mean ahead of himself, asking for more than he deserves -- this is quietly condescending. It also, of course, portrays McCain in a presidential pose: in office, he would need to dispense (hypocritical) praise all the time.

Nothing happens here that is not intended to send a message to the white voters McCain is trying to persuade.

Posted at August 28, 2008 5:46 PM in response to New McCain Ad Congratulates Obama

To Artappraiser:

Race is only a part of this election. It is the election of our lives because it offers the possibility of turning away from trends toward galloping economic inequality and vicious, right-galloping politics that have been underway since the 1970s and 1980s. No one election will do it, certainly, but this election has a starker choice than most throughout U.S. history.

I am a professor of political science and a longtime student of American politics. The trends I am talking about were carefully researched in my books BOOMERANG: HEALTH CARE REFORM AND THE TURN AGAINST GOVERNMENT; DIMINISHED DEMOCRACY; and THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS. So I reflect as a scholar as well as in my capacity as a citizen. Thanks.

Posted at August 28, 2008 4:26 PM in response to The Election of Our Lives

Why don't an array of Democrats strike out at McCain's dishonesty in this and many other matters?

Posted at August 25, 2008 6:11 PM in response to Flashback: McCain Agreed To Condemn Swift-Boat Attacks In General Election

Actually, this is silly. Voters will see through it, and it sets up an easy set of ripostes by HRC.

Posted at August 24, 2008 9:24 AM in response to New McCain Ad Hits Obama For Not Picking Hillary As Veep

To Gretz, believe it or not, I would have moved on long ago (as I did when my first choice fell out in the primaries. Obama would have disappeared after February's primaries if the tables had been reversed, and people would have expected HRC to name a VP like Wesley Clarke. Certainly I would have expected that.

A woman AND a black together is too much for the Dem Party to try this time if it wants to win.

Finally, I am sure HRC WAS carefully considered in the confidential process. She did not need to be formally vetted because there is a full set of info about her with every other campaign, and it would have been really awkward to probe Bill's finances. She could not be publicly vetted and then turned down -- THAT would truly have been an insult.

Posted at August 23, 2008 7:44 PM in response to Biden as the Perfect Bridge from Good Past to Better Future

No, I would not be asking for anything for Obama.

Posted at August 23, 2008 6:30 PM in response to Biden as the Perfect Bridge from Good Past to Better Future

I am sorry, I just do not buy the 3am email theory. This was a coincidence, not a slap.

Really, wallowing in self-pity is politically useless for the country, and that is what counts in an election like this. I understand very viscerally the kinds of feelings that older women in HRC's generation have about these things, believe me. But it just is not becoming for any of us to wallow in this stuff in public, or to overinterpret every little thing in self-referential ways. Hillary Clinton is a powerful Senator and will accomplish more in that role than in an awkward Vice Presidential candidacy with Obama.

Posted at August 23, 2008 5:41 PM in response to Biden as the Perfect Bridge from Good Past to Better Future

As a P.S. to my own commentary, I now see via CNN that some Clinton staffers like Paul Begala are whining or "expressing outrage" that she was not directly vetted for VP. This is procedurally ridiculous, because HRC is so well known that it would in effect have been an insult to put her through a formal vetting process and then not pick her. You can bet we would have heard lots of complaints about that, if it had occurred. She could and be no doubt was fully weighed as a possibility without having to force her to be interviewed by Holder and Kennedy, or having to ask her to report on donors to Bill's Foundation. There are many good reasons why any excellent possibility -- and there were many -- was not chosen for this nomination. And there are a lot of more effective ways for Senator Clinton to exercise leadership going forward.

But, really, the bottom line is this: GET OVER IT RIGHT NOW CLINTON PEOPLE, and shut up to the press -- especially those of you who are party professionals like Paul Begala. The country has a lot at stake here and self-immerseration is not appropriate. (Yes, you wish your network were back in charge -- we get it -- but that is now how the cookie crumbled. Had the shoe been on the other foot, we would not be putting up with whining from Obama professionals.)

Millions of us who support the Democratic Party will turn in total disgust away from the Clintons and any of their acolytes if public whining distracts from a successful 2008 Democratic Convention. We all need public unity now, period.

Posted at August 23, 2008 5:17 PM in response to Biden as the Perfect Bridge from Good Past to Better Future

The fact that Biden previously praised McCain is going to open many great opportunities for Biden to say that McCain has since "lost his way." And he will also be able to explain his growing respect, over the past year, for Obama. All this just strengthens Biden's ability to attract attention to a new message.

In the end, I just think Biden's experience and verve will trump all the old quotes -- and reassure a lot of older Democrats and older Independents that this is the right ticket.

As for AP, it is a cesspool of obvious bias, a shame ful thing for a once objective medium.

Theda S.

Posted at August 23, 2008 11:06 AM in response to Choice Of Biden Signals Vigorous Debate With GOP On Foreign Policy, But There Are Risks

McCain's camp and camp followers are launching many attacks simultaneously, in a way that steps on each other, and just before Obama can grab the narrative back with his VP choice. This may help blunt this stuff later, if they dump it all now.

Posted at August 21, 2008 5:21 PM in response to Right-Wing Group To Slime Obama With Ayers Ad