Political Miscellany

It's nice to know New Yorker writer Hendrick Hertzberg reached the same conclusion about the Democratic candidates I did. In this week's issue, he writes of Bill Clinton's attacks on Obama: "Whether or not these and similar attacks 'worked' (the evidence is mixed), they certainly succeeded in diminishing both the former President and his wife. 'The Clintons' used to be a Republican trope, calculated to make one or the other half of the couple look like a puppet or a victim or a co-conspirator; now it is simply descriptive." He concludes, "Hillary Clinton would make a competent, knowledgeable, and responsible President. Barack Obama just might make a transformative one."

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Also in the New Yorker is a political quiz. I'll admit, I did fairly badly. The fact that their periodic quizzes run in the humor column just underscores the craziness of the whole political process.

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Finally, I'd like to make a plea to my readers: Could someone please do a competent YouTube mashup of Barack Obama's "yes we can" speech with the theme song of Bob the Builder? I searched for one last week and found nothing; this week, there is one example, but it's poorly executed. I don't have the first idea of how to do one of my own, but, on behalf of liberal parents of preschoolers everywhere, I must say it needs to be done.