In Pennsylvania, the woman has proved herself the ethical equivalent of Richard Nixon, indeed virtually indistinguishable.
The vicious personal quality of her attacks reminds me very much of some of Nixon's early campaigns, suggesting a decent Congresswoman was "soft on communism."
The rancid quality of her manufactured memories of early life in Pennsylvania had precisely the quality of Milhouse talking about Pat's cloth coat.
She is precisely what America does not need. After Pennsylvania, I don't see how she represents the least improvement over the ethical swamp of George Bush.
It does appear that America's political institutions just will not accommodate a thoughtful and decent person to become president.
The irony is, while she is so busy showing how ruthless and ugly she can be, is that she represents a gigantic target for McCain. Her background is packed with scandals, lies, and embarrassments.
I truly believe that Obama could have reduced her to tears had he chosen to do so.
McCain is not going to show the same restraint.
And then there's her sleazy life-long partner, always just over her shoulder.
Who wants Bill back, hanging around the White House and in the headlines again?
The barf-inducing potential of that is beyond calculation. Like a never-ending cheesy soap-opera.
How does America make any progress with a political system like this? It cannot.
The harshest, most strident, most ethically-flexible seem bound to succeed.
The country has had at most a couple of large spirits, really decent men as president since WWII.
To my mind, that is a shameful record for such a vast and rich land.
But the media and institutions and prejudices are all tuned to producing imperial leaders, the same kind of people who brought us Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other lesser nasty colonial wars.
