Turn, Turn, Turn

Or "Spin, Spin, Spin." Better yet, as Bill Cosby once said (in a completely different context), "You go around in a circle for five minutes, and then puke."

As much as I enjoy watching and discussing politics, I am officially sick to my stomach. Not so much with the Pennsylvania primary, but with the political and media spins on same. How can a 10-point win be a "big" win for Hillary Clinton when she very recently held a nearly 30-point lead over Barack Obama in the Keystone State? Looks more like a squeaker that Clinton won largely because rural PA voters were less afraid of a woman running for president than they were of a black man running for president. I extrapolate this by comparing what PA voters told pollsters to the exceedingly vituperative letters to the editor I've read of late in the Omaha World-Herald. The similarities are alarming. They are positively vicious in their expressed hatred of Obama--which they state in terms of the press not adequately chastising Obama for his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racially-inflammatory sermons. They claim the media are giving Obama a free ride, which is diametrically opposed to what I see when I examine TV, radio, and printed press coverage.

At least in part, this is America's traditional anti-intellectualism mucking up the voting in a big way. [The Founders expected people to make rational, informed decisions. Of course, they didn't expect the rise of political parties . . . nor did they expect people like me to be voting. Their vision of the electorate was of educated, land-owning, white men.--Ed.] Obama has run into the same problem Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and John Kerrey had--and a problem I still have--which is believing in the basic intelligence of the American voter. They were willing to speak sometimes unpleasant truths about America and then-current events, and they were running against people who in Carter's case, was the genial grandpa reassuring us everything was OK (Reagan), and in Gore's and Kerrey's case was a morally conservative good buddy (Dubya). The typical voter much preferred "sweetness and light" to reality, judging from the actual election returns. [I have previously addressed the issue of Dubya's stealing the 2000 election by fraud in Florida--while I believe that to be true, I also maintain that had Al Gore won his own home state of Tennessee, Florida would have been rendered irrelevant, and what Dubya's minions did there would not have put Dubya in office.--Ed.]

I remember voters actually saying they were voting against Kerrey because he was too brainy and thus they didn't trust him.

UGH!

I'll give Clinton this: when she's on her game, she understands how low a candidate needs to go to win. What really fries me in all this is that I saw part of her interview on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann late last week, and she was rational and sensible, and actually had excellent proposals for dealing with some of the policy issues about which Olbermann asked. But I just don't trust her anymore, and I still think I may have to boycott the election if it's her vs. McCain in November.

I also am still steamed about her illogic in claiming that since Obama can't seem to beat her in the big swing states, Obama wouldn't win them in November, either. That's simply not true. That's apples and oranges. Maybe Obama is a bit less popular than Clinton in those places in the primaries--it's irrelevant to how Obama would do against McCain in the general election were Obama the Democratic Party candidate. Clinton knows better, I'm sure. But "win at any cost or take everyone down in a truly Pyrrhic victory" seems to be her guiding principle at this point.

Furthermore, why isn't the press confronting Clinton with her real problem in terms of electability? I know I am repeating myself, but since no one else is saying this, I am going to continue saying it: McCain can recast himself as a Dubya clone all he wants. Among the really rabid right wing of the GOP(i.e., in places like Nebraska), however, he will never be trusted. Republicans around here would rather not vote at all than have to vote for him--unless Hillary Clinton is running against him. In that case, they will break records just to come out to vote against her. She says she's been in the public eye so long that the GOP can't touch her, as all her baggage is already "out there," but she's ignoring the lightning rod her very self has on those opposed to her politically. Why aren't the media confronting her about that?