Go Along to Get Along
"I score the night for Clinton...with John McCain smiling in the wings."
Dick Polman - American Debate (updated link)

Timothy Egan, writing in the Ouposts feature at the NY Times website, worries aloud that blue collar, small town America is more a campaign prop than the focus of any candidate's issues. "Is it too much to ask one of these candidates for an honest but painful statement suggesting that perhaps a lot of these towns may never come back? Or that the way to economic revival is to lose the pipe dream that Google is going to relocate to an old steel town because they have a tax-free enterprise zone and some cool mountain-bike trails?"

Because the Wolfson attack team had decided "bitter" and "cling" were words that could be made to matter, at ABC's Wednesday debate neither candidate proffered the aforementioned honest but painful statement, rather they were caught up in having the proverbial last word on manufactured issues which should never have had a first.

Tom Shales, never shy with his opinions, described the debate as "network newsniks waiting for mistakes or foul-ups like dogs panting for treats after performing a trick."

There was substantive discussion in the latter portions, but by then Obama appeared slightly rattled, like the server in a tennis match whose opponent has been chattering away to break her or his concentration.

One may still research a wealth of information about positions, if anyone actually cares to, but it's these Blackberry missives from the operatives, the backs and forths (the only actual sniping going on) which wind up in heavy rotation on the 24/7. That's the slow chase of a white Bronco modified for "the place for politics."

Observes Egan:  "One side rushes to drape themselves in flags, guns and the kind of Norman Rockwell hagiography that is far removed from the 2008 reality of meth labs and foreclosure frontiers. The other side says religion is for fools, and if only they had a new Starbucks in town, some of those Bible-banging gun nuts could learn to love Sundays with Norah Jones and a Scrabble game."

Worshipful autobiography not being beneath the senator from New York, she's telling a story on the stump which, in this once bitten twice shy world she has made for herself, is more than likely the truth. Up at Lake Winona, out behind the rustic wah-dee-doo-dah, she shot a gun.

Do you sense a touch of sarcasm when Egan concludes "Yes, and after that it was Wellesley, Yale, the White House and the $109 million fortune she made with her husband trading in their name and influence?"

The Clinton camp is loaded for "Bar." Obama associates with mad bombers, is elitist and condescending, won't throw his pastor of 30 years under the bus and can't take the heat of a modern run for office.

The kitchen sink strategy has morphed into a show trial, which the popular media perpetuate by describing it as covering the issues. They're covering something alright.

With the math against her for some time now, Clinton unflinchingly has embraced the alternative to a graceful concession, which is to keep firing and pounce on anything that even hints of sticking. (Please, please, please: Dukakis in a tank, Dukakis in a tank.) As Colbert King put it yesterday:  "Reminder, young hopefuls: There's no telling what some folks will do to get ahead."

Fortunately, less of this nonsense is sticking with the actual people of Pennsylvania than with the people who are claiming some expertise in what they must be thinking. Bill Maher's contributor, Jeremy Scahill, had a video essay from the supposed "Alabama" parts of PA and it showed a variety of folks who seemed to be questioning the go along to get along motivations from the past. Many had that zombie-like "is it trickling down yet?" look. From Bush to Obama in four years. Fired up. Ready to go.

And to this observer, Senator Clinton is the one who is waging the kind of campaign which brought us to a Bush presidency. Caricature assassination:  the tool of every last clique you can think of, from your high school years to the Limbaugh/Drudge axis. First you create a cartoonish distillate, then you puncture it gleefully because anyone with a pulse would agree it deserved it. The misdirection. The tautology. The false syllogism. The modulation of hysteria for maximum efficacy. All these tricks - so much repetition - they're all on YouTube now and yet, for some reason, somebody thinks they still work.

Neither Democrat is being afforded the courtesy of letting their positions, statements and responses speak for them. There is this insatiable, unquenchable desire to overlay, and that is the weakness in our politics. With two days to go, you could make a case for just shutting up and waiting to get the early returns.

Hey Pennsylvania, if you haven't shot the TV by then, see how badly the experts got it Wednesday. (My guess is that the corkscrew landing will have proven to be a tailspin into the tarmac.) Then we can all pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and wait to hear the words 'all-important' and 'Guam primary' extruded into 'coverage.'

Meanwhile, John McCain is completing dress rehearsals for what was once intended to be Fred Thompson's gig. Keep a Red Bull handy.

Next week: Into the Sunset

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