Game On!

John McCain may not be the greatest orator presidential politics has seen, but he sure knows how to take advantage of an opportunity. He didn't wait for the dust to settle after Barack Obama's history making claim on the Democratic presidential nomination to ask for a series of town hall meetings across the country.

For McCain, the timing couldn't have been better. Obama was (and still is) dealing with the fallout from Hillary Clinton's long, drawn out exit from the race. So McCain sends a letter proposing 10 such meetings, with both candidates criss-crossing America together, as John Kennedy and Barry Goldwater agreed to do back in 1963.

The proposal was also structured to play to McCain's strong suits, and away from Obama's. McCain thrives in unscripted, unstructured environments while Obama does best giving speeches. The Arizona senator's camp also realizes that Obama will have trouble claiming to be the candidate of change if he backs away from this challenge. Ten such meetings before election day, an average of two per month, constricts Obama's schedule, making him tethered to McCain not just for the meetings, but the time it takes to get to them.

No doubt about it, this is an interesting gambit, one that you have to admire, even as it appears certain Obama won't bite. For him, a smart move would be a counterproposal that cuts down on the number of town hall meetings McCain wants, and sets a schedule the Illinois senator can live with.

Nice try, though.   

The Case of the Vanishing Leverage

Barack Obama made history last night. John McCain gave a tepid speech to a half empty room in Louisiana. And Hillary Clinton? Well, she was Hillary being Hillary. Her "I'll be making no decisions tonight" line was an exercise in delusion. The decision was made for her, and she knew it. So just who does she think is still asking what does Hillary want?

As Obama soared last night, Hillary simply engaged in cheap theatrics. If she's trying to use her refusal to concede as leverage for whatever she does want, she could find herself out in the cold. The Clintons, both of them, are watching their clout in the Democratic Party vanish before their very eyes. From her "I won the popular vote" mantra, to the disingenuous use of a congressional supporter to re-float her vice presidential aspirations to her demand that her supporters be respected, Hillary Clinton did not distinguish herself yesterday.

Barack Obama has a number of well qualified people he can choose as his running mate. Many people have gone back and forth as to whether picking Hillary Clinton would work politically. I am one of them. After last night, however, the decision appears clear. Barack Obama should look elsewhere, to Jim Webb, to Sam Nunn, to Janet Napolitano, to some one worthy to be the vice presidential nominee.

It's now clear Hillary Clinton is not that person.      

The End of the Road

With today's primaries in Montana and South Dakota, a long, winding, and tortuous road finally ends for the Democratic Party. No matter what Hillary Clinton's people say about waiting, her scheduled speech in New York tonight could well be the last one we hear from her as a candidate. And make no mistake, she's been a flawed candidate.

Her run against Barack Obama has stained her legacy, and that of her husband with a constituency the Democrats can't afford to alienate, black voters. Ironically, it wasn't that she was determined to see the race to the finish that bothered people, it was the way she conducted her campaign. When her people finally realized that Super Tuesday wouldn't be the coronation they thought, there was no back-up plan worth talking about.

That's when the Clintons, both of them, decided to pull out all the stops. Changing staff, flogging the media, and in the end, naked appeals to white working class voters and demands to the DNC rules committee all failed to stop Barack Obama. Even her late season victories did little more than provide a road map to the Obama campaign as to the work they still need to do.

It was all so strange, and so unnecessary. Still to be determined is how Hillary exits, and how hard she and her husband work to get a fellow Democrat elected in November.

Time will tell.  

Back To You, Bill!

While the wonks focus on whether Hillary Clinton's campaign is over now that the Rules and Bylaws Committee has made their decision and Puerto Rico's voters made theirs, a new distraction appears in the form of an exhaustive piece in Vanity Fair about former President Clinton. Written by Todd Purdim, the article chronicles Bill Clinton's strange journey through his wife's campaign, and a whole lot more.

The piece so upset Bill Clinton's people that they've circulated a response of more than 2000 words! There are efforts to refute, point by point, some of its central assertions. Purdim's piece, using a number of anonymous sources, details some of Clinton's questionable associations, statements, and behavior that go back even before the current election cycle. By way of full disclosure, Purdim mentioned he's married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers, but said she wasn't a source.

No matter. Despite refusing to talk to Purdim, the Clinton camp  hinted Myers, given her close proximity to Purdim during off hours, must have told him something. They even went so far as to chronicle the alleged past sins of Vanity Fair. Something much have touched a nerve. And all this as Hillary continues to play out the string, trying to turn a win in Puerto Rico into an upset the likes of which has never been seen in American politics.

These are strange days, indeed.