archives

Tom Shales at the Washington Post:

When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news — in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.

For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with. [...]

"It's not the first time I made a misstatement that was mangled up, and it won't be the last," said Obama, with refreshing candor. But candor is dangerous in a national campaign, what with network newsniks waiting for mistakes or foul-ups like dogs panting for treats after performing a trick. The networks' trick is covering an election with as little emphasis on issues as possible, then blaming everyone else for failing to focus on "the issues."

Glenn Greenwald adds:

Josh Marshall at the The Hill:

First we heard [from McCain] that it's not right to say that he's happy for the Iraq "war" to continue for a century because he's insisting that he's only OK with it if we're talking about the fantasy Iraq, where none of our soldiers ever gets killed and where we don't have to pay tens of billions of dollars a year to garrison the country. Even "occupation" is unacceptable, because what McCain says he's really talking about is a "presence" on the model of Korea, Japan and Germany. [...]

McCain's defenders come back with his caveats. Americans don't like being in Iraq because we're seeing American soldiers and Marines dying at a rate of one or more a day and it's costing us $100 billion a year. McCain's only for staying there forever as long as our troops aren't getting killed anymore. But this is simply a bizarre counterfactual that again shows how simply out of touch he is. While American casualties are down significantly from their peak in 2007, there's little reason to think our occupation will ever become bloodless. And even if Iraq becomes Finland, it will still take mountains of American cash to sustain it.

What McCain wants is to make a total commitment to the permanent garrisoning of Iraq but also add a big fat asterisk that stipulates that the occupation that has been bloody and fiscally ruinous will suddenly cease to be so in his fantasy future. But, again, that just makes it clear how out of touch he is — for all his trips to the region — with the real situation and where the American people are.

I think this is the right approach to McCain's remarks. It's not accurate to say he wants "100 more years of war." But it's totally legitimate to ask in what magical future will Iraq become a peaceful nation where American troops no longer get shot at.

Salt Lake Tribune:

The intra-party squabble seems to have intensified since January, when Burridge accepted a time-consuming litigation job at the law firm Siegfried & Jensen.

While Democratic leaders gave few specifics about Burridge's ouster, board member Ellen Birrell said Thursday the outgoing chairman simply did not have the time to serve as an effective party boss.

"We have so much momentum, we have got to do everything possible to preserve it," she said. "That will take someone in the leadership role who can devote those many, many hours each week."

Apparently 1st Vice Chair Weston Clark now takes over as chair.

Update: From an e-mail sent out on behalf of Weston late Thursday:

As First Vice Chair for the party, I am Acting Chair and intend to seek the approval of the Central Committee to continue serving as Chair. This will take place at the Central Committee Meeting, which will be part of the County Convention on April 26. If anyone is interested in running for the position of Chair, nominations should be submitted to Angela Romero, Secretary, Salt Lake County Democratic Party, via email at angela_y_romero@yahoo.com or call 801-973-2250 to make other arrangements for submission.