Is Hillary Really Inevitable?

Throwing red meat to his GOP base, Rudy Giuliani unleashed a new battle cry.... "I'm not Hillary."

While dissing Hillary Clinton, Giuliani, as a member of the white-males-only GOP presidential candidate club, ironically told a national convention of Republican women devoted to getting women elected, "We have a record that's very, very proud and very long of making certain that women participate on a full and complete and equal basis with men."

Just not when aspiring to the highest office.

Today's New York Times also fired at Hillary.... Frank Rich aimed his powerful pen at the similarities between Hillary's perfectly oiled "inevitability" campaign and that of the losing Al Gore in 2000.... or even that of slick New York Republican Thomas Dewey running against the unslick but earnest incumbent Harry Truman in 1948. Dewey sloganeered... "It's time for a change." NOT!

Rich wonders if with a presidential candidate from New York known for her experience, competence and above-the-fray demeanor.... Hillary.... the Democrats could lose the White House in 2008.

In a effort to divert attention from this robotic campaign performance, Hillary has resorted to a loud giggle-laugh.... it's about as humanizing, and authentic, as Rudy Giuliani's smooching I'm-a-loving-husband cellphone calls from his third wife in the middle of campaign speeches.

The public senses authenticity.... and Hillary's make-no-mistakes defensive debate crouch punctuated with a laugh sure to be labeled a "Shrillary" is a campaign three dollar bill.

Next thing we know, Hillary will plant on her frisky Bill a full lip lock a' la Al and Tipper's convention stopper. But, what Hillary really needs to do is stop giving safe answers when voters are looking for Truman truthiness. Rich grumbled, "What I saw on television last Sunday was the incipient second coming of the can't-miss 2000 campaign of Al Gore."

Tying together both the Giuliani take on Hillary with the cautionary tale of Rich, Maureen Dowd today unleashed her piece "The Nepotism Tango" in defining the Democratic frontrunner.

Dowd muses that, "Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar. But then, without nepotism, W. would be pumping gas in Midland -- and not out of the ground."

As Joe Biden pointed out at last Sunday's debate, all of the "old stuff" might get in the way of passing legislation. "The special interests, with regard to Hillary, they feed on this, you know, this Clinton-Bush thing." That "thing" is dynasty.

Perhaps this seeming dynastic inevitability is the reason for Hillary's un-Mona Lisa guffaw.... tickled pink by the thought of her entitled Democratic coronation.

Or, is it as Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of the very conservative The New Republic, sees Hillary (listen up "equal" GOP women), "She's like some hellish housewife who has seen something that she really, really wants and won't stop nagging you about it until finally you say, fine, take it, be the damn president, just leave me alone."

Hillary seems locked into her disciplined campaign march, daily becoming less, not more, likable.... just like the hapless wooden Gore, despite his wardrobe changes and wife wuzzies. As the saying goes, at this point it's still Hillary's to lose.

Which might not be a bad turn of events for the Democratic party and the country. We can do better than the dynastic choke-hold of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton.

Mothball the Electoral College

The current year-long and obscenely costly slog leading to the election of our president has become, well, ridiculous.

And that's just the primaries!

The subsequent bruising focused-saturation-advertising race between the nominated party candidates has become a statistician's joyride.... crunching the numbers to come up with the dozen or so "battleground" states, slotting states as red or blue.... with the end game being to secure the most Electoral College votes regardless of the national will of the majority of the voters.

This could change. And we have Maryland to thank for leading the way.

On April 10, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law a measure that would circumvent the Electoral College by awarding the state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes nationwide.

It's called the National Popular Vote plan. The idea is that once enough states have signed on to put together a majority of electoral votes (270) those states agree that their electors will always vote for the winner of the popular vote in all fifty states plus D.C. This would make presidential elections truly national, every citizen's vote would count.

No need for the Supremes to swoop down to award the presidency.... neither nine citizens nor a select few states would have such power over the outcome of a presidential election.

Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000. Imagine if the National Popular Vote plan had been in effect...an intelligent response after 9/11.... the ability to stem the runaway spending of the GOP-led Congress.... an action plan to reduce man's contribution to global warming.

An experienced leader with management skills and a proven interest in the advancement of us all, not just corporations, would have been at the helm.

Contact your state representatives, your governor. Find out if they are considering the National Popular Vote plan. Encourage and educate.

It's our best hope for reining in this presidential race lunacy, and for electing a leader who can unite because he represents the will of the majority.

An Inconvenient Fever

The Hill is alive, with the sound of musing.

A passionate former Vice President Al Gore warned two congressional panels Tuesday that environmentally "we are facing a planetary emergency" because of climate change fueled by emissions of greenhouse gasses. He urged that we take drastic action because we're facing a feverish planet and dwindling time.

But an unmoved Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) mused that Gore was wrong, and rejected Gore's call to action with a flat, "we're not going to do it."

The in-your-face Inhofe rejected Gore's educated testimony, preferring to nurse his narrow ideological biases. As a bible-quoting ultra-conservative, Inhofe rejects global warming as the "second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state."

This big-oil-loving, gay bashing, torture condoning, flat-earth Inhofe is what is wrong with religion, and government. Malicious ignorance.

Inhofe is but one more example of a for-sale dim-bulb lawmaker who has crawled into bed with lobbyists. And make no mistake, Inhofe and his ilk worship at the money trough.... contributions Inhofe has received from the energy and natural resource sector since taking office have exceeded $1,300,000 dollars. That's his real religion.

So, Gore was left to try to intellectually persuade a rude and uncomprehending Inhofe and his like-minded cronies on both committees. For although Gore has the scientific community and facts on his side, the greedy unhinged can obstruct government action.

Gore posited that stemming global warming was "a challenge to our moral imagination."

But "moral" is a foreign concept to the mulishly-musing "Inhofes" on the Hill.

Sharpton, Jesus and Gore

You can't make this stuff up....

The headline reads "Sharpton's Ancestor Was Owned by Thurmond's." Yes, black civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton's great grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by relatives of late senator and one-time segregationist Strom Thurmon. Coleman Sharpton was given as a "gift" to Julie Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather.

Another headline screaming for attention..... "I've Found The Coffin Of Jesus." A Hollywood filmmaker today will unveil three coffins he claims were those of Jesus, his mother Mary and his "wife" Mary Magdalene. In 1980 ten coffins were accidentally found during an excavation in Jerusalem, six names were etched into them.... "Jesus son of Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, Maria, Mariamne (thought to be Mary Magdalene's real name), Joseph and Matthew." Lots of gnashing of teeth over this one. Stay tuned.



And, Ex-VP Al "Wooden Man" Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth"....in which he starred.... won an Oscar.

Is this a great country or what!