..out of the dark

John Cole of Balloon Juice:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=10455

And if there are any Balloon Juice readers in Montana, South Dakota, or Puerto Rico, I sure would love one of those “I AM NOT AN ASSASSIN” bumperstickers or buttons the Obama campaign no doubt is handing out right now.

All right, so here's what happened: Hillary had a press- conference, where the always intrepid American press insisted on getting an answer to why she's still not dropping out of the race and conceding to Obama. Since, you know, superdelegates keep falling over to Obama, and he has the most delegates overall, and she has to win pretty heavily in the last couple of states to have a chance at the convention. And Clinton answers that - in the pursuit of gender equality, equity for the working man, democracy and liberty and the american way - she has to stay in and fight Obama tooth and polished nail, smear the bejeezus out of their campaign, intensively fuel another bout of insipid gossip- wankery about issues "real america" really believes in, and continue being the Fighter to the end.

And in that declaration, as she was searching innocuously for references to more or less pre- determined primaries where the contender didn't concede, the 1968 primary where Humphrey had the lead over RFK, and where Kennedy nevertheless kept in the race - until he was shot.. in June(!), you see! An entire bunch of weeks longer!

Needless to say, the Obama campaign handled this with the serenity befitting the beleaguered and race- baited black candidate - who is neither elitist, lofty, or on the other hand a gang- member and a terrorist who wants to destroy america:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/23/clinton-kennedy-assassina_n_103319.html

"Senator Clinton's statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

The Clinton- campaign then responded in similarly restrained fashion:

"She was simply referencing her husband in 1992 and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 as historic examples of the nominating process going well into the summer. Any reading into beyond that would be inaccurate and outrageous."

And the Obama campaign, and Obama has then spent the last week trying to move beyond "the issue":
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/clinton_camp_stokes_rfk_flap_b.html?hpid=topnews

Obama senior strategist David Axelrod dodged questions about why the campaign was still circulating commentaries criticizing Clinton even after suggesting it wants to move beyond the controversy.

"We're beyond that issue now, so certainly we're not trying to stir the issue up," Axelrod said.

While everyone of course takes this with total calm in appropriately reasoned fashion, due to how the media literally hates vapid controversies like the plague, and would cover real issues all day if they only could:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=10460

Liz Trotta: And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama…


Erik Shawn: Obama.

Liz Trotta: Obama. Well, both, if we could.

Eric Shawn: Talk about how you really feel

Meanwhile - thank god - the campaigns do not have to discuss the war, withdrawal plans, Ali al- Sistani's declaration that the US will not have permanent military bases in Iraq, what happens after the "UN mandate" (that apparently justifies an extralegal judicial system and a torture regime under the military in Iraq) expires in early 2009, and so making the occupation illegal in Washington as well. Or for that matter the Cuba- issue, where Obama has declared he'll coutermand several parts of policy that may or may not be the executive branch's responsibility alone.

Because we're all really, really bloody tired of /manufactured/ crises taking up our fucking time.

And why would anyone want to discuss how candidates could evolve their campaigns when competing about real issues they differ on, so people can make a choice based on at least /something/.

Stand by for the Obama- campaign recycling once again the message that the American people have had enough of the insipid, personality- based politics of fear and loathing we have seen with the Bush- campaign. I'm sorry, I mean the Clinton campaign.

Whereupon Clinton will declare that anyone not accepting her contribution to the democratic race is a misogynist elitist bastard who doesn't eat ribs and has one (as in one single during her entire life) drink with the "common folks".

Please try harder, people - on my scale of failed states, you're just above Zaire right now, trailing on Burma and the Ivory Coast. Gabon laughs at your electoral laws and fraud protection. The rest of the world apart from Bohuslän in Sweden hysterically ridicule the voting participation (because they had a really bad 40% in a local election a couple of years ago. Which incidentally is about the same as the state with the highest turnout in the US, California).

That is, of course, provided no more politically significant shootings occur as the race comes to an end.