The 11th Reason

From NYT:
"On the day Senator [Clinton] was endorsed by the governor of North Carolina, a supporter gave her a three-foot-long balloon replica of herself, complete with blond hair, black pantsuit and wide pink smile, which Mrs. Clinton promptly took on her plane and laughingly showed off to reporters.
On Thursday, little more than two weeks later, the doll lay on the sofa by her seat on the plane, shriveled and deflated."

Sometimes I wonder how true these little anecdotes from the campaign trail really are. A lot has been said about how Obama has run a better campaign but surely somebody on Clinton's team must have realized that having a deflated doppelganger of Clinton in plain view of by-now extremely bored journalists was a metaphor too easy to ignore.

Ambition Vs Delusion

I like McCain. I really do. But stuff like this campaign ad and the gas tax holiday is making me question whether this election has changed him. Starting with that appearance at Liberty University, the concessions he has made to be a candidate have become steadily more alarming. I just hope that this more recent stuff has more to do with him running against a-generic-Democratic-candidate and that once Obama can engage him directly, pre-candidate McCain will return.

I think McCain could be suffering from a mild form of Clinton. His ambition, much like with HRC, when running as an underdog (and whatever the head to head polls say, this is the Democrats race to lose) leaves him vulnerable to desperation. I know Obama has been painted with an idyllic brush in many circles but he has set a standard for his campaigning that the other candidates haven't matched.

Although he certainly engages in the same childish and repetitive talking points that all candidates engage in (while we're here, can we stop with this "Bush third-term" nonsense? If you can't tell the difference between McCain - a veteran, a former POW, a 4-term senator, a graduate of the Naval Academy - and George W Bush - a C student at daddy's college, a one and a half term governor in daddy's state and an unqualified moron - I feel for you), he has drawn a line in the sand across which he will not pass regardless of whether it will help his campaign, and to a large degree, he has surrounded himself with people with the same scruples.

I question whether McCain can elevate his rhetoric once we get into the real meat-and-potatoes of the election. As we've seen with HRC, once you start with the lies and misrepresentations, it's hard to put on the brakes.