Wow.... a GOOD column by George Will.... Very good, in fact (link)

[scheming daemons]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/05/looking_for_a_metric.html


Hillary Clinton, 60, Illinois native and Arkansas lawyer, became, retroactively, a lifelong Yankee fan at age 52 when, shopping for a U.S. Senate seat, she adopted New York state as home sweet home. She may think, or at least would argue, that when she was 12 her Yankees really won the 1960 World Series, by standards of "fairness," because they trounced the Pirates in runs scored, 55-27, over seven games, so there.

Unfortunately, baseball's rules -- pesky nuisances, rules -- say it matters how runs are distributed during a World Series. The Pirates won four games, which is the point of the exercise, by a total margin of seven runs, while the Yankees were winning three by a total of 35 runs. You can look it up.

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Gen. Douglas MacArthur said that every military defeat can be explained by two words: "too late." Too late in anticipating danger, too late in preparing for it, too late in taking action. Clinton's political defeat can be similarly explained -- too late in recognizing that the electorate does not acknowledge her entitlement to the presidency, too late in understanding that she had a serious challenger, too late in anticipating that she would not dispatch Barack Obama by Super Tuesday (Feb. 5), too late in planning for the special challenges of caucus states, too late in channeling her inner shot-and-a-beer hard hat.

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McCain's problem might turn out to be the fact that Obama is the Democrats' Reagan. Obama's rhetorical cotton candy lacks Reagan's ideological nourishment, but he is Reaganesque in two important senses: People like listening to him, and his manner lulls his adversaries into underestimating his sheer toughness -- the tempered steel beneath the sleek suits.

[livetohike]

1. She's no Mazeroski!

:hi:

[GarbagemanLB]

2. Hillary supporters and Republicans always confuse me. He is either a wimp and not tough enough,

or he is a slick politician from rough and tumble Chicago politics....

[Bicoastal]

6. Don't forget that he's also just like Bush AND waaaay too liberal.

[Bread and Circus]

3. Reagan = "ideological nourishment" ?!? People who praise Reagan like that are

from a different planet than the one I am on.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Like ketchup?

Pure bullshit.

[Beregond2]

8. Yes,

to this day, I am baffled by all that "Great Communicator" bullshit. I used to listen closely to Reagan, trying to figure out what I was missing. I never once heard him utter a coherent sentence, let alone communicate anything resembling an idea. Listening to Reagan was like listening to your grandfather, post-stroke, babble on and on, and saying nothing.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. "Reagan's ideological nourishment"

Just because will is slamming Hillary, it doesen't mean he's on your side.

[anigbrowl]

7. Yeah, but don't draw toomuch from it - he's still not our friend

Like most columnists, Will writes a column every so often that pre-empts defeat, so he can look wise and insightful. He'll vacillate between now and the election, attacking Obama when it's convenient to do so and building him up whenever the Republicans need to lower expectations if they seem headed for a humiliating defeat.

The thing about Will is that he's not a nice guy (in terms of the attitudes he holds), but he IS a very very good writer - he is enormously skilled and this is why he has been such a good propagandist for the GOP.