MoDo: The Hillary Waltz

[RamboLiberal]

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Whether or not she wins, Hillary has already given noble service as a sophisticated political tutor for Obama, providing her younger colleague with much-needed seasoning. Who else was going to toughen him up? Howard Dean? John Edwards? Dennis Kucinich?

Obama had not been hit hard until this campaign; he sailed through his Senate race. Without Hillary, he never would have learned to be a good debater. He never would have understood how to robustly answer distorted and personal attacks. He never would have been warned about how harmful an unplugged spouse can be. He never would have realized how a luminous speech can be effective damage control.

When pressed about whether he’s ready for Swift-boating, Obama has seemed a bit cavalier. But the Hillary camp will garrote him with his mistakes until he fully appreciates what garroting feels like. Ickes told a Web site Tuesday that he has been pursuing superdelegates by pressing the Rev. Wright issue.

Besides coaching Obama, Hillary is also shielding him. If she had not fibbed about the Tuzla airport landing, and then fibbed to get out of a fib, the press would have stayed focused on Wright. She has been an invaluable lightning rod.

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Hillary’s work is done only when she is done, because the best way for Obama to prove he’s ready to stare down Ahmadinejad is by putting away someone even tougher.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02dowd.html?hp

I think MoDo snarked Obama more than Hillary on this one.

[Cha]

1. Not to me..I guess it's all

perception..but it is what it is and Obama is the best so he comes out the best.

[keep_it_real]

2. Maybe? Obama will learn how to deal with liars?

[October]

3. Be careful. MoDo doesn't like anyone.

I wouldn't be too quick to post her pieces. She's a fan only of herself. I think she has done much to hurt the Dems.

[loveangelc]

4. she makes a good point. This is a learning experience for Obama.

lets face it, Obama has never faced as tough an opponent as Hillary Clinton. If Obama is going to beat the Republicans he has to go through this experience with Hillary. We all pretty much know he's going to win the nomination, but Hillary fighting on may help Obama stronger in the general election. The Republicans will probably throw more at Obama than Hillary, so he has to learn to deal with this kind of thing.

[Pernambuco]

5. Comparing Hillary to the Republican smear machine is a stretch

Hillary Clinton is not 1/1000th as tough as the Republican smear machine. How can something as mild as Hillary, in comparison to the GOP, serve as "good training"?

[loveangelc]

6. Hillary has been almost as hard as running against a republican.

infact I think McCain would be easier than Clinton because Clinton will do anything to win. She really has problems. But she won't be the nominee...staying in helps Obama for the general election.

[bklyncowgirl]

7. Competition makes you tougher and reveals potentially fatal flaws

Obama reminds me of a brilliant, but lightly raced young horse. He's won all his starts against mediocre competition by miles in times that send the the old timers reminscing about Secretariat but he's never looked a tough horse in the eye while pounding down the stretch.

Now he's going for the Triple Crown and he's going to meet the toughest horses of his age group.

Sometimes the young prodigy does very well--witness Smarty Jones. Other times the grueling series reveals hidden flaws, sometimes tragically, think Barbaro. Sometimes, when the horse looks another horse in the eye, the brilliant one backs down event though he could easily defeat his rival.

Wouldn't you want to know whether your horse had the toughness to face the onslaught? I would.

Most trainers are of the opinion that the way to build up a young horse's confidence is to make sure he's never overfaced but there are times that the young speedball needs to be challanged and challanged hard. Trainer Barclay Tagg last year had a very good but somewhat goofy three year old in his barn who'd won everything in sight until the day he faced a horse who wouldn't back down. Tagg's response was to team this colt up in morning workouts with the toughest old warrior in his barn, the Derby and Preakness winner Funnycide. Funnycide was well past his best days as a racehorse but he was still fast and most importantly, once in a battle would not give an inch. They teamed up for a series of workouts. In the end the colt won the Wood Memorial after dueling with another colt down the stretch. He didn't win the Derby--but he did win a series of important stakes races on the turf. As for Funnycide, he was retired from racing after finally winning a stakes race after several unsuccessful starts in August and is now working, by all accounts very happily, as Tagg's personal (and somewhat spoiled) stable pony.

Barack Obama is brilliant but what this long run has revealed is that he is also tough and resiliant. I feel very confident that if he wins the nomination that he will show the same toughness against John McCain as he has against Hillary Clinton.