MONDAY,  MARCH 3,  2008

A TIME TO LEAVE

It's one of the oldest stories.  Some people don't know when to get off the stage. 

Do you remember Gloria Steinem?  She hasn't made much news recently, but at one time she was, using the prevailing terminology, a "leading feminist."  She emerged in the 1960s, primarily because of her looks.  She did a magazine piece called "A Bunny's Tale," about her time as a Playboy bunny.  I was in New York journalism during this period, and can tell you what a sensation she became.  She was "the beautiful feminist," the pictorially pleasing alternative to the founder of modern feminism, Betty Friedan.  Let us be direct:  Betty Friedan, far more philosophical than Steinem, wasn't exactly in contention for Miss New York.  Steinem could have had the title just by showing up.

Steinem became a fashion icon - she popularized aviator frames for women.  And she could turn a glib phrase:  "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle."

Underneath, she was a fairly dim bulb, and she, like many dim bulbs, became a hard leftist.  That has now returned to backfire on the Clinton campaign.  Steinem, putting in an appearance for Hillary Clinton in Texas, has made a total fool of herself:

Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.

“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.

McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.” 

It goes downhill from there:

Steinem’s broader argument was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises.

“I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting.”

To the Observer, Steinem insisted that “from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.”

In fairness, we report that the Clinton campaign issued the following statement:

"Senator Clinton has repeatedly praised Senator McCain's courage and service to our country. These comments certainly do not represent her thinking in any way. Senator Clinton intends to have a respectful debate with Senator McCain on the issues."

Gloria Steinem's bulb has apparently gotten even dimmer. 

It's time to go, my child.  Take out the old scrapbooks, remember the good years, and write to friends.

OBAMA'S YOUTH APPEAL

The Jerusalem Post, of all places, has run one of the most intriguing pieces I've read, analyzing Barack Obama's appeal to youth.  The conclusion:  The American educational system has prepared young people for just this kind of phenomenon:

His evident charisma aside, a clue to the source of Obama-mania may be found in the demographics of his support: he is far and away the favorite of younger voters and college students, routinely winning over 75% of the votes of Democrats under 30. Obama has tapped into is the first generation educated in schools focused on "self-esteem." Now, the products of self-esteem education have come of political age in substantial numbers, perhaps with profound implications for this and future elections.

For the past two decades, America's educational establishment has stressed the inculcation of self-esteem as the supreme educational goal. Self-respect - the product of struggle and achievement - is out; self-esteem - the entitlement to feel great self-worth regardless of actual accomplishment - is in.

And...

Coddled children raised to believe that any dream is not only attainable, but an entitlement granted regardless of actual effort and accomplishment are increasingly growing into depressed and stressed young adults as they rudely discover that the post-school world is not so cooperative and doesn't really care about their dreams or their feelings. In the real world, they keep score.

But not in Obama-world. That is a world of Hope; of Action; of Change You Can Believe In; of Yes We Can; of Coming Together; of Moving Forward Into the Future, and of other banalities that can mean absolutely anything to anyone. "I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations." It's all about us and our good feelings of youth and unity. Nothing so difficult as spelling out tough policy choices or arguing about a particular program's merits or ramifications is involved.

And...

Which brings us to the question of sustainability - will the movement last? It certainly could. By bolstering voters' sense of self-satisfaction, Obama has unleashed a wave of heady feelings of unity, purpose, and enthusiasm - but all for the man who makes them feel this way, not for any particular policies. No one, after all, is fainting at the thought of Obama's position on health insurance. Thus, nothing any opponent can say or do will likely get between Obama and his worshipers to undermine those feelings.

This is very provocative stuff, and well worth reading, whether you agree with it or not.

WHY, THEY'VE NOTICED; THANK YE, THANK YE

Apparently, it took a "Saturday Night Live" sketch to wake up the journalists and let them know that we expect some tough questions about Barack Obama.  Media observer Howard Kurtz reports on some changes.  How serious and lasting they are is another story:

Are the media going to change the environment that prompted Kristen Wig, playing a CNN anchor on "Saturday Night Live," to declare that she and her colleagues "are in the tank for Obama"?

The Illinois senator still hasn't faced the sort of negative onslaught that generally envelops presidential front-runners. But after a year of defying the laws of journalistic gravity, he is being brought back to earth.

Kurtz has the goods:

Would Clinton have skated as easily if she were found to have visited radicals tied to violence? Or bought land from an indicted businessman, as in the Rezko case? Or if the pastor of her church had talked about "this racist United States of America," as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who heads Obama's church, has?

That is hard to imagine. Clinton's complaints about media imbalance are buttressed by a new study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs. From Dec. 16 through Feb. 19, it says, the three network newscasts aired reports that were 84 percent positive for Obama and 53 percent positive for Clinton. She scored higher on evaluations of policy and public performance, but that amounted to only 10 percent of the coverage.

Maybe we're getting somewhere.  But the real test will come in the week before the November election.  Look for The New York Times, or some similar in-the-tank paper, to spring a last-minute surprise on McCain.  It will happen.

RIGHT ARGUMENT, WRONG AUDIENCE

In a late attempt to bolster her credibility, Hillary Clinton has been stressing national security in Texas and Ohio.  Now, both states have a goodly number of moderate Democrats, who might be attracted to her argument.  But these people are probably in her corner already.  As for the those to the left, they seem completely indifferent to national-security arguments.  Their idea is "bring the boys home," as it was in Vietnam.  Losing, for them, is not only an option, it's the preferred option.  It's hard to see how Clinton will sway them.  Dan Balz reports:

At a rally in Fort Worth and aboard her campaign plane, the senator from New York continued to hammer home the message of the "ringing phone" television ad that she began airing in Texas on Friday, arguing that she, not Obama, has the experience to handle a foreign policy crisis.

Speaking with reporters on the plane, Clinton sidestepped a question about what moment in her career demonstrated her capacity to handle a foreign policy crisis. "That's not the right question," she said. "The question is: What have you done over the course of a lifetime to equip you for that moment?" Clinton said that while she and Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) would each point to a lifetime of experience in a potential general-election matchup, Obama would point to "a speech he made in 2002" -- a reference to his opposition to the Iraq war.

Obama responded with an ad featuring retired General Merrill McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff.  The ad, of course, doesn't mention that McPeak is deeply disliked inside his own service and the Pentagon generally, and is not considered anywhere near the top rank of military strategists.

WHERE IS AMERICA?

Speaking of national security, The New York Times runs a well-done story on the latest confrontation over Iran's nuclear program:

Last Monday, the chief United Nations nuclear inspector gathered ambassadors and experts from dozens of nations in a boardroom high above the Danube in Vienna and laid out a trove of evidence that he said raised new questions about whether Iran had tried to design an atom bomb.

For more than two hours, representatives to the International Atomic Energy Agency were riveted by documents, sketches and even a video that appeared to have come from Iran’s own military laboratories. The inspector said they showed work “not consistent with any application other than the development of a nuclear weapon,” according to notes taken by diplomats.

Hmm.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement of our recent National Intelligence Estimate, which downplayed the Iranian program.  The story goes on, and this is very sad:

The new effort to pressure Iran has been led by Europeans and the international atomic agency. The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote Monday on a resolution on Iran, the third that would impose economic sanctions for its continued refusal to stop enriching uranium for nuclear fuel.

The United States has been relegated to more of a behind-the-scenes role, largely because the December intelligence report left it with little leverage to continue confronting the Iranians. That assessment revealed a contentious debate within the government over how imminent a threat Iran posed — a division that raged in secret while the report was being prepared, and continues to this day. “The administration is in real disarray,” said David A. Kay, the nuclear specialist who led the fruitless search for unconventional weapons in Iraq after the invasion. “And the Europeans are picking up the ball.”

What a commentary on the last months of the Bush administration.  Is the president aware?  Or is he listening to Condi Rice and the Bush 41 crowd, which never met a problem it wanted to solve?

The president has said he wished to end strong.  Now is the time, sir.

UH, BEFORE YOU DROP THAT NEXT BOMB...

Amazing how the sound of jets overhead gets the attention of the brave, self-sacrificing jihadists.  It appears that Hamas is trying to get a cease-fire with Israel, after Israel's punishing raids of the last week.

Well, why not?  Hamas itself now feels threatened.  Despite their we-feel-your-pain rhetoric, they never cared much for the Palestinian people, mere pawns in their games.  But now they realize they may lose power, or may lose their own lives.  Hey, this isn't as easy as sending some kid out to blow himself up:

Beleaguered Hamas leaders on Sunday signaled their willingness to reach a cease-fire with Israel, sources close to Hamas said.

The sources said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh sent urgent messages to the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia urging them to work toward ending the IDF military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The sources told The Jerusalem Post that Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders also appealed to Turkey to intervene and convince Israel to halt its offensive.

Hamas's apparent readiness to reach a cease-fire with Israel is seen by some Palestinians as evidence of the Islamist movement's concern that it may lose control over the Gaza Strip should the military operations continue.

Of course, other Palestinians continue with the bravado, but the story sounds about right.  The Israelis have learned what the Obama team in America has not, that weakness never creates peace.  Only strength does.

THE SCALES OF JUSTICE

Finally, a heartwarming legal story showing that the system works.  Greta Van Susteren, eat your heart out:

READINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- Twenty-nine New Jersey students punished with two-day detentions after they used pennies to pay for their $2 lunches are getting a pardon.

Readington, N.J., school Superintendent Jorden Schiff informed parents in an e-mail Sunday that he has rescinded the after-school detentions. They will only be restored if parents ask that their children serve them.

Officials say a group of middle school students upset by their shortened lunch period paid for their meals with pennies Thursday. Schiff gave them detentions for slowing down the lunch line and disrespecting cafeteria workers.

In his e-mail, Schiff said the students described their actions as a prank and that news reports inaccurately called it a protest.

Several parents had complained the punishment was too harsh, but some thought it too lenient.

Now, look, I'm all for law and order, but I'd love to meet the parents who think a two-day suspension for paying with pennies is too lenient.  I mean, come on.  What kind of hard-liners are these? 

I suspect this was well resolved, and that the kids will learn the value of dollar bills.

Go hug your children. 

Posted on March 3, 2008.