MCCAIN=TROLL

I HAD A WHOLE POST written inspired by Captain Joy's very smart comment in the comments, but then it occurred to me:

Gov. Palin's selection amounts to McCain TROLLING the debate.

HER OPEN APPEAL to former Hillary voters is classic disingenuous CONCERN TROLLING.

AND HER SELECTION tempts us into a quicksand debate of relative experience in which we'll all sink in a panicky writhe of circular arguments and counter-accusations.

GOV. PALIN is a remarkable and accomplished person. But every anxiety she provokes (in both parties) as a shadow president to an aging man--and the doubts her selection sows regarding McCain's own judgment and priorities--are self evident.

There is no reason to get bogged down in the comments, all snared up in the bottom of the thread.

RATHER, it's better to take a cue from Obama's second comment, in which he dials back his campaign's own initial reaction. Because he seems to know the first rule about trolls, which is:

DO NOT FEED THE TROLL.

THAT SAID, you really should read Cpt. Joy's very smart comment here.

UPDATE: Thank you, KARNAS, for pointing out my egregious error.

That is all.

ONE THING THAT IS TRUE ABOUT MCCAIN'S VP SELECTION

ONE THING THAT IS TRUE ABOUT MCCAIN'S VP SELECTION of Sarah Palin,

AND SOMETHING Democrats are perhaps unused to,

IT REVEALS just how much Obama/Biden are in charge of this conversation.

That is all.

HODG*CON 08

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MISSED my live feed on Twitter from HODG*CON 08,

YOU CAN RELIVE THE MAGIC through this amazing album of photos I took in the main hall.

That is all.

AND PLEASE ALSO CHECK OUT THE STUNNED LOOK ON MADDOW'S FACE AT THE 1:01 MARK

WHEN YOU ARE THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE, and you get Pat Buchanan to RE-DELIVER your speech for you,

THEN SOMETHING UNIQUE AND STRANGE is happening in American politics.



UNIQUE AND STRANGE and welcome.

That is all.

RE: OBAMA'S SPEECH

I CAN MAKE two metaphors:

1. THE SPORTS METAPHOR (for most humans): "The rope-a-dope is over."

2. THE GEEK METAPHOR (for internet users):

"ASLAN IS OFF THE STONE TABLE"

That is all.

POLITICS

I KNOW THE POLITICS CAN GET TEDIOUS, especially when all I'm doing is goofing around over at Twitter.

BUT I AGREE WITH RACHEL MADDOW, this would have been a great keynote.

BUT RATHER THAN REGRET, I will do my small part to remind those who didn't see it on TV (like me) that this actually happened.

BECAUSE, as you will see, it's not just politics.



That is all.

ALSO, congratulations, Doctor.

WE SHOULD NOT BE PRAYING FOR RAIN

I SUPPOSE I APPRECIATE THE "IRONY" (quote quotes, not ironic quotes).

BUT IT SEEMS TO ME THAT we should be wary of praying for rain, as some others have done.

IT IS NOT ONLY BENEATH US, but hypocrisy is the surest way to ensure a hailstorm of toads.

IN MY EXPERIENCE ANYWAY.

That is all.

YOU ALL KNOW HOW I DISLIKE SPORTS POEMS

BUT AT LEAST they are not "love" poems.

THAT IS WHY I DIRECT YOU HERE, to a poem that replaces every reference to "love" with the words:

"BOSTON RED SOX HALL OF FAME CATCHER CARLTON FISK"

IT IS perfect.

READ MORE OF MATTHEW'S work at his ingenious collaborative storytelling venture "THE PATHWAYS."

That is all.

"HELLO GIRARDO [GIRARDEAU] FAMILY"

IF YOU DO NOT RECOGNIZE THAT QUOTE, then I guess you missed Michelle Obama's speech.

IT'S THE WHOLE MESSAGE of this convention, in a way, spoken by a seven year old.

A HELLO OUT INTO THE NIGHT, and I think it was heard.

That is all.

PS: SPELLING of the G family's name is corrected, courtesy my wife.

"THEY HAVE RING BALONEY AT THE WA WA I GO TO"

IF THAT QUOTE SOUNDS FAMILIAR TO YOU, then you need not click on the following words.

"RING BALONEY"

OTHERWISE, I urge you to go and see what Nathan Rabin has to say about Scharpling and Wurster.

AND ALSO, on the subject of portraits of awesomeness: Ted Kennedy looks and sounds amazing. I hope if I'm ever that sick that I get the kind of great doctoring (and nursing) that he is obviously getting. And I know that Ted Kennedy hopes so, too.

THAT IS ALL.

ATTENTION, OXFORD UNIVERSITY

I AM BACK FROM THE INTERNETLESS HILLS and am now drowning in the internetful river.

ALSO, I fear I deleted from the server an e-mail from a nice man or woman at the Oxford Union, regarding an invitation to speak at that ACTUAL ENGLISH UNIVERSITY.

IF YOU ARE THAT NICE PERSON, would you please re-send the e-mail?

THAT IS ALL

AS I CONTINUE TO BE CHASED AROUND NEW ENGLAND

AS I CONTINUE to be chased around New England, I will lose internet power again tomorrow for some days.

UNLESS I GET THIS COMPUTER to run on lobster rolls.

That is all.

SECOND GUESSES COUNT

FROM THE COMMENTS...

TODD is the winner: famed "TRUE LIFE TALES" contributor and all-around awesome talent Jon Glaser is the voice of "STANDING UP GUY" in David Rees's new, animated static clip art comic.

IF HE WILL PROVIDE an accurate mailing address, I will be sure to provide the promised copies of MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE and GET YOUR BEST OF "GET YOUR WAR ON" ON when they are available.

MEANWHILE APOLOGIES TO...

"WILL," who was slightly too late.

"CHRISTOPHER," who is a Jon Glaser expert.

and especially

"ANTHONY LAURENT," who, "Terrance" reminds, portrays "SITTING DOWN GUY" and is brilliant at it.

That is all.

MNFTIU

ALSO, WHEN DAVID REES briefly brought the magic of INTERNET to Internetless Hills last week, he shared with me this...

IMPORTANT MOVING DOCUMENT

(Begin quoted animation)



(End quoted animation)

THE FIRST PERSON TO correctly identify the voice of the standing up guy gets a free copy of my book when it is published.

I WILL ALSO THROW IN A FREE COPY of David's new forthcoming omnibus that I have code named GET YOUR BEST ON.

And I have to actually pay for that book. SO YOU KNOW IT'S ON.

That is all.

BACK ON THE OVERNIGHT

I AM BACK on the wireless overnight service, with some reliable broadband after some days of travel and adventure.

NOW DEDICATING MY LIFE to the collection of clam shells that are large enough for stuffies.

LOOK IT UP.

THANK YOU, very belatedly, to all those who managed to follow the moon letters and found the hidden path SECRET SHOW 2 at the VOO.

BOTH SHOWS were very fun from where I was sitting (I WAS THE ONE AT THE FRONT AT THE PRIVATE TABLE).

AND BOTH WERE incredibly helpful as I prepare for the new book tour.

MY ONLY REGRET was that I could not pass along my advice to Glenn, which was:

"IF YOU ARE TRULY CALILNG ME FROM AN ALCOHOLISM PREVENTION CONFERENCE, THEN WHY ARE YOU DRUNK DIALING ME?"

That is all.

JUST FINISHED DOING THE BILL DWIGHT SHOW

JUST FINISHED DOING THE BILL DWIGHT show with David Rees and Jaz(z) Tupelo.

DELIGHTFUL

AM BLOGGING BRIEFLY from WHMP and reveling in their giant barrels of FAST INTERNET and ALL CAPS.

DON'T SAY ANYTHING about the secret show at the Rendezvous at 8PM tonight.

OF COURSE, I WILL NOT SEE YOU there, because I NEVER WROTE THIS.

AND TURNERS FALLS does not exist!

That is all.

will give away a zune tomorrow at voo. Stop. See you then. Stop. Urgent Please send CAPS. Full stop

Blogging from phone. Stop. Bill dwight show tomorrow Am. Stop. Secret show tomorrow night at rendezvous tomorrow night stop. Will give away a zine

THANK YOU, DENIZENS

THANK YOU Rendezvous and its denizens for your patience and good humor.

YOU ALL KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT MOLE-MEN than most of your fellow citizens (at least, those who are surface dwellers).

EVENTUALLY I BELIEVE the radio shall make some of it available on the radio.

UNTIL THEN, I look forward to seeing you at the next Secret Show, next week...

SAME MOLE-PLACE, SAME MOLE-TIME

For a discussion of non mole-manic issues.

That is all.

IF YOU HEARD ME ON WHMP-NORTHAMPTON THIS MORNING

THEN YOU KNOW these facts about tonight's SECRET SHOW/CRAFT NIGHT at the Rendezvous:

YES, commenter known as "bourgeoispig," I will read "Top Spots for Crab," because it has a LOCAL ANGLE.

(ALSO, update your blog!)

and

YES, commenter known as "adriane," is is free of charge.

BUT FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, buy alcohol (or non-alcohol) and tip heavily: it's a bar!

SEE YOU THEN (8pm) at the VOO.

That is all.

CRAFT NIGHT AT THE VOO

I AM TOLD that the SECRET SHOW next Tuesday overlaps with the Rendezvous bar's regular

KNITTING AND CRAFT NIGHT.

PLEASE FEEL FREE, thus, to bring your unfinished blankets, collage projects, model airplanes, and papier mache constructions.

I WILL BE BRINGING my own scrapbook of fake trivia and mole-man names.

THAT IS ALL.

THANK YOU, STANDARD DESIGN

THANKS, SD, for your consideration.

BUT HERE IT IS, the next morning

AND I AM STILL NOT DONE ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT LOVE for Glamour magazine.

That is all.

YOU DID NOT HEAR IT FROM ME

That is all.

NOT THAT I'M SPENDING ALL DAY ON THE DEHYDRATED FOODS SITE

BUT I KNEW YOU WERE WONDERING about the "Spray-Dried Squid"

AND THE ANSWER IS YES.

That is all.

PACKAGING: DRUMS AND TOTES

COURTESY BRIAN from the comments, and the good people of American Dehydrated Foods:

MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE ABOUT LIQUID CHICKEN

BEGIN quoted text

Features	Benefits
Shelf-stable	Can be stored for up to nine (9) months, depending upon the antioxidant used.
Low moisture	Helps to ensure microbiological and chemical stability. (Max. of 0.25%)
Freshness	Produced daily; from fresh, young broilers. Does not require freezing.
Liquid	Reduces production cost, compared to using frozen or lard products.
Choice of antioxidant	Your choice: BHA, BHT, Rosemary or many other natural antioxidants.
Packaging choices	Drums and totes
Antioxidant	Customer choice.

Application Information Usage: Sprayed on, as a topical application, typically at a 1-8% rate for petfood, biscuits or treats. May also be applied as an inclusion ingredient in canned petfoods, at a rate of 1-10% Ash: N/A Moisture: 0.25%

Standard Packaging:

Drums and Totes

END quoted text.

OBSERVATION 1: Does AMERICAN DEHYDRATED FOODS give away liquid chicken totes as a premium during their pledge drive?

OBS 2: Sweet Golden Retriever!*

THAT IS ALL






*Actual observation about the dog on the website, not a euphemism for liquid chicken.**

**Though it is acceptable to use this phrase as a general exclamation of surprise.

SONG FU

JULY 15 is the final challenge.

That is all.

THE INTERNET IS NOT A BIG TRUCK

DAVID GUION (who wrote and read the "Spy Rock" Lecture on the Little Gray Book Lecture Podcasts exactly 82 years ago today) wrote today regarding

A BURGEONING TRUCK/INTERNET MYSTERY.

AS GUION does not have a blog, and I am currently in the INTERNETLESS HILLS, and thus forced to blog even more poorly than ever,

I PRESENT HIS E-MAIL TO YOU UNEDITED, and without further interruption.

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT

Gentlemen,

"This tanker truck was traveling between Little Rock and Nashville, as were we, on July 2. If you google the relevant phrase you will get nothing but blog entries by people describing how they googled it too and came up dry."

"It is worth noting that liquid is the state between solid and gas."

END QUOTED TEXT.

That is all.

PS: The time for both SECRET SHOWS shall be 8PM.

INTERNETLESS

I WILL BE LARGELY INTERNETLESS for the next few weeks. I will do what I can to update from remote locations. I may even tell you about those locations.

OR I MAY SIMPLY CONTINUE TO KEEP MY OWN SECRETS.

IN ANY CASE, I make this promise:

1) I WILL SHOW YOU A PICTURE OF BIGFOOT.

2) WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS OF TWO SECRET READINGS AT THE RENDEZVOUS in Turners Falls, MA, at which I will sit at a table and try to remember how to read in public. These will occur on July 22 and July 29, time TBD.

I JUST REALIZED that I am terrible at keeping my own secrets.

THAT IS ALL.

SASQUATCH IS MISSING, AND MAY SOON BE GONE FOREVER

I FIRST LEARNED OF THIS SAD TALE from noted cryptozoologist LOREN COLEMAN:



NOW, JUST BECAUSE I HAPPEN TO HAVE THE SAME STATUE in my home in Internetless Hills, MA, it does not mean that I stole it from the Niki's Quick Six.

NOT AT ALL. The truth is, COULTON got it for me for Xmas (I can prove it).

AND AS COLEMAN HIMSELF POINTS OUT, it is widely available through Toscano Design.

WHICH LEADS TO ONE QUESTION : how many should we buy for the Quick Six?

MEANWHILE, I do not thank Loren Coleman enough for all his inspiration. You may have heard from BOINGBOING that he is being audited by the IRS.

THEY SAY it is because his Cryptozoology Museum in Maine is not properly a "museum."

OTHERS SAY it is because the government does not want YOU to know the truth.

EITHER WAY, Coleman needs your help. He lays it all out here, and I hope you'll join me in supporting him.

That is all.

EMBEDS WITHIN EMBEDS

HERE IS RON HOGAN of Galleygat's video of COULTON and STRAUSS singing at the Strauss Book Party one week ago:



NOW HERE IS MITCH of Jocopedia's video of HOGAN taking a video of COULTON and STRAUSS singing at the Strauss Book Party one week ago:



IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY at Mitch's video, you can see when Ron swings around to catch me joining in on the horn part (I am the one sitting in the wing chair like Sidney Greenstreet).

IF YOU LOOK EVEN MORE CLOSELY at Mitch's video, you can see that on the viewscreen of Ron's video camera is a picture of me WRITING THIS VERY BLOG POST.

I KNOW MOST PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET are jaded about this sort of total surveillance.

But I still find the fact that Ron Hogan has a video camera that sees into the future PRETTY AMAZING.

That is all.

"CRAIG KITTLES"

AND IN FACT...

THE FIRST PERSON to say the password to Darin Strauss tonight (as per the below), will additionally get a free copy of MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU

COURTESY: the author himself! (Darin Strauss).

That is all.

IF YOU ARE IN SAN FRANCISCO

I APOLOGIZE that I failed to post yesterday. BLAME TELEVISION.

BUT NOW I MUST TELL YOU:

IF YOU ARE IN SAN FRANCISCO and looking for Mr. Darin Strauss,

THEN HERE is where you can find him:

Friday, June 27
7:30 PM to 9:00 PM
BOOKS INC IN THE MARINA
2251 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94123

ALSO KNOWN AS "EVENT ID 376522"

IF YOU GO, you will hear words read in order from Darin's amazing novel MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU...

AND PLUS you will also probably get to meet Frank Lauria, the author of psychic detective novels who first virgiled COULTON and me around SF on the BOOK 1 tour, about 1000 years ago.

TELL THEM ALL I SAY HELLO.

OR BETTER: go up to DARIN at the signing and tell him I say "CRAIG KITTLES"

For that is the password.

DARIN WILL THEN TAKE YOUR NAME DOWN AND PROVIDE IT TO ME, and I will send you:

1. A TAXONOMY OF COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE

and

2. A SURPRISING PHOTOGRAPH OF DARIN STRAUSS.

This offer is good for the first five people who give Darin the password. If those people do not also buy his book, THEN SHAME ON THEM.

That is all.

IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME

Hobo Sign and Coastal Life
Originally uploaded by greyaenigma.

SINCE I HAVE DRAWN your attention to these fine and persistent contributors to the H IN SUNRAYS POOL at flickr.

HERE IS A PROVOCATIVE ONE FROM greyaenigma, who shares my fondness for the strangeness of barnacles, et al.

That is all.

GOOD MORNING

I NEED TO WRITE a new blog post so that you don't all keep going to Darin's reading night after night.

BUT THANK YOU, all who did.

THAT IS ALL.

ON BEHALF OF DARIN STRAUSS: TONIGHT

GREETINGS INTERNET USERS

THIS RATHER POOR BLOG is pleased to announce that I, JOHN HODGMAN, will be appearing alongside my old friends COULTON and DARIN STRAUSS at a party tonight to celebrate the publication of Strauss's new novel:

MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU.

COULTON will be singing some songs.*

I WILL be reading some pages from my new book, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE.

I DO NOT KNOW EXACTLY what Strauss will be doing during all of this. Sitting on a giant satin pillow, I guess, or shooting at our feet with a pistol.

NO MATTER: I am happy to dance for Darin Strauss.

ATTENTION: TRUAX. I have a copy of Darin's book for you, signed by the author, and I will send it along forthwith. And by forthwith I mean: WITH FORTH!

SORRY TO THE MYSTERIOUS GL3NN and his faction. I did not understand his cryptic response to my trivia question (was it a rebus or something?), and so I reward TRUAX for being the first to answer in a clear, forthright manner, by which I mean: RIGHT FORTH!

IF YOU WANT A COPY OF DARIN'S BOOK, GL3NN, come to the party, and I will buy you one.

AND TO THE REST OF YOU, by all means, come to the party.

Monday, June 23
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

NYU PARTY
with John Hodgman ("Areas of my Expertise," and TV's "The Daily Show")
& music by Jonathan Coulton

58 W. 10th St.
Lillian Vernon Writers House
58 W 10th St, New York, NY, 10011
(Between 5th and 6th Avenues)

THAT IS ALL

*DID YOU SEE COULTON at the Highline Ballroom on Saturday night? Wow, correct? Coulton+Paul&Storm+Shirts+Ukes=RIGHT FORTH!

MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU

SOME OF YOU MAY KNOW that long ago, in the Second Age of Man, I was a Professional Literary Agent.

AND DURING THAT TIME, I had the great surprise to discover that my fun, unassuming, tall friend DARIN STRAUSS was actually--SECRETLY!--one of the best writers I had ever encountered.

HE WROTE A NOVEL called CHANG & ENG, which told the story Chang and Eng Bunker, the Siamese Twins for whom the term SIAMESE TWIN was coined. Specifically, he told the story from Eng's point of view, who narrates their conjoined tale during the brief period between his brother's death and his own--the only moment he was alone.

AN BRILLIANT, AMUSING GIMCRACK OF AN IDEA, no?

YES IT IS, but what startled readers more was Strauss's ability to inhabit this thrice foreign brain from long ago so completely and authentically, and to do so with such sensitivity, insight, and humor. IT WAS UNCANNY. How could Darin know so much about so much?

Indeed, after his next book, THE REAL MCCOY, about boxers and con men, Joe DiPietro spoke for all of Darin's friends and poker-mates when he speculated that perhaps Darin had secretly inherited a house full of manuscripts of unpublished novels and was quietly rolling them out as his own.

BUT THAT IS A SCURRILOUS RUMOR, spread by a barkeep. The truth is that Darin is simply a peerless liar, a fictioneer, a writer of real, honest-to-goodness big fat NOVELS.

NOW YOU MAY HAVE HEARD something about his latest, called MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU, on Craig Ferguson the other night. I did not work on that one at all. I confess that, as he worked on it, I was concerned that Darin was testing his limits.

THE 19th CENTURY and its twins and grifters is remote enough. But now he was writing about Long Island. Specifically: contemporary Long Island (where he is from) and the awful, emotional collisions that occur when a woman makes her own child sick (which Darin Strauss has never done).

THE BARKEEP and the other poker players went to NYU a year or so ago to hear him read from it for the first time. We were skeptical. But when he read it, we were weepy. HE HAD DONE IT AGAIN.

He had created a whole funny, sad, authentic world--one that is somehow all the more fascinating and powerful because it has no Siamese twins in it. JUST REGULAR PEOPLE, conjoined in other ways: white suburban parents and black ex-cons, obsessed doctors and one horribly ill mother--all twisting around each other so believably, and heartbreakingly, that you're quick to forget THEY ALL COME FROM DARIN'S HEAD.

LOOK, I NO LONGER RECEIVE COMMISSION ON DARIN'S BOOKS. My 15% is now earned in the pleasure I get in reading them (and the small fee I get for dipping them in silverplate and selling them on ebay).

SO MY RECOMMENDATION IS GENUINE.

I will be buying his book today.

And I and the Barkeep and all the rest will be going to hear him read in NYC tonight.

I HOPE YOU WILL JOIN ME IN BOTH ENDEAVORS

That is all.

PS: a rare TRUE TRIVIA CHALLENGE: did you know that Darin Strauss once played in a band with Jonathan Coulton? It is so. A Free Darin Strauss book goes to the first person who can name the band in the comments.

"THERE WAS NO KOOKY UNCLE WHO INSPIRED ME"

DURING APRIL AND MAY (of this year), when I was 100 feet underwater with hard but pleasant work on the book and other surreal diversions (GERVAIS), I turned down a lot of opportunities I wished I hadn't, such as:

BATHING
EATING MEALS WITH FRIENDS
REMEMBERING BIRTHDAYS
BEING INTERVIEWED FOR THIS WEBSITE.

BUT NOW, things are calmer, and on slower mornings like this one, I have a chance to peruse what it was that I had missed.

AND I CAN TELL YOU NOW: bathing is terrific.

AND SO IS THIS LINK.

FOLLOW it for lots of interviews with very smart, thoughtful heads, including HUEBEL, RICH, IWEALA, KOTTKE, CHANG, and THE GREAT LIEB, below, who is not only brilliant, but wears green pants like he has a license to.* (also **)




That is all.

* You can't see so here, but trust me. In real life, he has legs. In fact, a whole body.

**AND PS: where is SILVERMAN in this group?

AN EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT OF MY NEW BOOK

INSPIRED, AS USUAL, by Coulton,

HERE IS MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE, as a word cloud, using all 91,723 words of the manuscript as saved on 5-6-08.

INCREDIBLE word-clouding/end-of-day-erasing technology is courtesy: WORDLE.

That is all.

PS: HONESTLY, I didn't know my book had so much "Mr." Has to be the mole-man names.

I NORMALLY DON'T JOIN IN ON THE BLOGOSPHERIC CULTURE OF CONSTANT, DRONING COMPLAINT

AND I APPRECIATE HOW my commentary on advertising...

AND/OR my commentary on Brooklyn's ruination by various carpetbaggers like IKEA (or me),

ALL SENDS this imitation blog down a ETHICAL HEDGE MAZE full of twists and thorns...

BUT IN THIS CASE, I must agree with the actual blog called LOST CITY.

TO QUOTE Paul F. Tompkins, this is THE WORST.

That is all.

CAN NO LONGER TWITTER TODAY

CAN NO LONGER TWITTER TODAY due to possible contractual violations.

(Happy WWDC).

HOWEVER, this needed to be said a long time ago.

AWRYONE is great at comments, but a MASTER TWEETER.

(Not a euphemism)

That is all.

I SAID THANK YOU

AND SO SHOULD YOU. It's the right thing to do.

EVEN BEFORE CLINTON'S very gracious and powerful (and well written) speech, I was feeling this morning that lovely sensation that comes when bitterness evaporates, frustration disappears, and you remember that there are bigger fights worth having.

THAT FEELING OF SPONTANEOUS FORGIVENESS, as much of yourself for your own stupid anger, as of anyone else, is the closest thing I know to capital G grace.

AND IN A WAY THAT I COULDN'T BEFORE (sadly), I now feel a sudden surge of gratitude. I am grateful on behalf of my daughter (and my son) for her campaign. I never really saw this race in gender or race terms before (probably because I had the luxury of not having to). But I think it's evident and remarkable that either one of them could have easily won the nomination, and from there the presidency. And that is inspiring.

IT'S TIME TO SHAKE HANDS, and congratulate Sen. Hillary Clinton.

That is all.

PS: Now what?

FROM THE COMMENTS...

I THINK CAP'N JOY'S second comment (circa 2:24PM) offers the most humane, and frankly, most plausible explanation of HRC's speech.

BUT THE FACT THAT OBAMA is the nominee--and all that that means--really only sunk in last night, as I was heading south in a taxi on the FDR expressway.

IT IS LUCKY I WAS NOT DRIVING, because at that moment, my whole brain swerved off the road in happy surprise.

BUT THERE IS A LOT OF FDR EXPRESSWAY LEFT to travel. Onward.

That is all.

CLINTON'S HAND: AT BEST, STRONG TRIPS

I CONFESS I WAS actually surprised when Clinton refused to congratulate Obama on winning the Democratic nomination.

(AND I'M EQUALLY SURPRISED by the NY Times's headline, which echoes her toxic contention that Barack Obama has merely "claimed" the nomination, when the fact is: he earned it).

IT IS NOT THAT I DIDN'T expect her to be tenacious. But I think anyone who gives it real and measured thought must conclude that she overplayed her hand.

TO VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE and even undermine your Democratic opponent in the heat of a hard fought primary contest is one thing.

HOWEVER: Barack Obama is the nominee of the party they both supposedly support. It was a close race, but he played by the rules they all agreed to, and he won.

TO WITHHOLD her support, as she did last night, and indeed to actually undermine his legitimacy in public is pretty poor form in itself.

BUT IF SHE REALLY IS SEEKING TO LEVERAGE HER VOTERS against a VP slot, or some other prize, how is openly blackmailing her own party's nominee going to help her?

AFTER ALL, whether or not you agree that Obama NEEDS Clinton's voters in order to win, you must accept that the argument itself has a flaw:

CLINTON DOES NOT OWN HER VOTERS.

(as Hilary Rosen points out ELSEWHERE)

YES: the latest polls suggest that 53% of those who voted for her will not vote for Obama. But that means that almost half will indeed naturally gravitate to the nominee without Clinton's express permission to do so.

BUT HOW MANY of those hardcore 53% will follow Clinton into political exile? Into a legacy-scorching feud with the nominee of her party? Or into a doomed Independent bid for President that would almost assure McCain the White House?

ANSWER=SOME, but not all.

AND I WOULD ARGUE that each day that she attempts to horde her supporters at the expense of the party's nominee, the more her reputation and influence within the party will suffer, and the fewer supporters she will actually have to bargain with.

IRONICALLY, (actually ironically), if she had held her cards a bit longer--if she had conceded and congratulated and endorsed Obama last night, she would have looked great. She could have easily conducted the same negotiations behind the scenes in private, and arguably from a much stronger position.

AS SUSANNAH MEADOWS knows all too well from my rantings yesterday in the park, as of 24 hours ago, I was even feeling that, should Clinton make a graceful exit, adding her to the ticket would be unavoidable, appropriate, and smart.

NOW, HOWEVER, I think caving to her open bullying would be disastrous to an Obama campaign and presidency. And I can't imagine I'm the only person to feel this way (just, perhaps, THE LEAST INFLUENTIAL).

BUT IT'S OK. If Obama wants to neutralize Clinton as a serious VP candidate, all he needs to do is wait. So long as she openly opposes her own party's nominee, her cards get worse by the hour.

That is all.

OK, THEN. ONWARD.

That is all.

GERVAIS PICKS "FLIGHT" OVER INVISIBILITY

AS YOU PROBABLY KNOW BY NOW, as you are all internet users, Gervais picked FLIGHT over INVISIBILITY when given the choice.

APPARENTLY, he was afraid that if he chose flight, I would curse him with the ability to only fly a few feet above the ground.

(APPARENTLY, he was also under the impression that I was actually able to magically grant him a superpower).

THEN HE ASKED ME about my nipples.

(Again)

HE HAS THE NICE, QUICKTIME version on his website. GO THERE.

BUT AS I CAN'T FIGURE OUT how to "embed" that version, here is a fuzzy, Youtubic version:



BUT REALLY, go to Ricky's site, as he has much more to offer, and you ought to really enjoy the work of GUY, the nice fellow behind the camera, in its full glory.

That is all.

IN MY FIRST TIME AS AN IMITATION BLOGGER

I HAVE FALLEN PREY to the high enthusiasms of DRUDGE.

I MUST AGREE WITH this analysis. It is inappropriate and misleading for the press to call a race based on anything but public votes/endorsements.

AND BASED ON HRC'S mixed messages about what exactly is going to be happening during her speech tonight, I think it's too early to be drawing conclusions, or even jumping to them.

I APOLOGIZE for speaking too soon.

That is all.

I HOPE

THE AP REPORTS: Obama is the nominee.

I HOPE, desperately, both for the Democratic party and for the legacy of my former President and current Senator, that HRC will stop by in St. Paul tonight for an endorsement.

That is all.

HERE ARE THE E3 PODCASTS I MENTIONED

THANK YOU, PopSci, and thank you MIKE HANEY, for posting the link and also for sending us to LA so long ago.

IT WAS AMAZING, tiresome fun. And after the convention, I hung around in LA and met Richard Hatch.

That is all.

SARAH AND ZANE AND MATTHEW ARE ALMOST HOME

THOSE OF YOU who read very very closely the acknowledgments of my first book know of my fondness for this little family, who have been traveling in IRELAND.

MEANWHILE: I have been at BEA, signing TAXONOMIES OF COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE and meeting booksellers/bookreaders/bookeaters in Los Angeles.

ED HUMES WAS THERE.

THE LAST TIME I was at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Coulton and I were podcasting from the 2005 E3.

THIS TIME=fewer people dressed as zombies, stormtroopers, and warrior princesses. But one man who was trying to sell his book on gardening did force me to smell two gigantic sprigs of rosemary he was carrying around; and another man was very convincingly dressed as TED TURNER.

That is all

JOEL LOVELL HAS REMINDED ME TO REMIND YOU

DO YOU LIKE public schools?

DO YOU LIKE ace political writers Mark Leibovich, Ryan Lizza, and Robert Draper?

OR THE PUBLICATIONS the New York Times, the New Yorker, and Gentleman's Quarterly.

ARE YOU FRUSTRATED that I have not been frothing about the primaries lately and require some ACTUALLY INFORMED discussion on this topic?

And most important: DO YOU LIKE CLIMBING STAIRS?

Then by all means: ATTEND this amazing panel discussion in the Fourth Floor Library of a fine Brooklyn public school.

That is all.

MY FIRST COMMENT TO A YOUTUBE PAGE

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT

"THIS IS HODGMAN.

I found this video, and I wish to clarify. I enjoyed being on BU TONIGHT very much, and Christian Lynch was a gentleman.

But it was 10AM, and I was tour-weary. I had just done an early interview with CN8 after an even earlier drive from Hartford. And in case you can't tell, my suit smelled.

So blame me for any awkwardness. But I do think I owe BU TONIGHT a better interview, and when I go on tour for the new book this fall, I SHALL ARRANGE IT.

That is all. "

END QUOTED TEXT

HERE IS THE SUBJECT of the discussion.



That is all.

ROB KEMP - KOB REMP

APPARENTLY CONTINUING a conversation that Rob Kemp and I were having in Jim and Stephen's kitchen back in 1996 regarding DC vs. Marvel...

ROB KEMP (see HERE) COMPARES TWO UNIVERSES and their super-powered analogues.

THANKS GO TO JOHN SELLERS, who is similarly amazed and grateful.

That is all.

NOTES FROM MY COPYEDITOR PART 2

RACHELLE MANDIK has this to say in the manuscript of BOOK 2:

"I am lowercasing mole-men throughout, per its use in AOME. Hope that's OK!"

RACHELLE IS CRUEL, but fair.

That is all.

JANE ESPENSON HAS RINGO STARR'S CLOTHING

IS IS true.

AND SOMEWHERE, the person who is both a "Buffy" and a "Caveman" superfan is having trouble keeping his brains inside his head.

(FOR SOME REASON, I am convinced this person is a he.)

(AND FOR SOME REASON, I am convinced his name is JOHN SELLERS).

That is all.

THIS VIDEO OF A CROW BROKE MY BRAIN

JOSH KLEIN'S presentation on THE AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE OF A MURDER OF CROWS and what that might mean for us (CROW ATTACK, in my opinion) was one of my favorite things at the TED conference.



THE VIDEO HE SHOWS of the crow using the tool broke my brain for the rest of the day.

(TO BE FAIR, it was already half-broke from meeting Morgan Webb and Phil Zimbardo and Al Gore all within 24 hours).

IF THE EMBED FAILS, don't bother complaining. JUST GO HERE.

That is all.

HALL OF FAME OF PORK

I KEEP LOOKING at the headline for these posts from Adam Sachs's "blog," and I keep thinking that Adam is now writing about wasteful, patronage spending in congress.

BUT NO. He is writing about PORK.

That is all.

VOTE HOOK II

APART FROM the other contest in Oregon tomorrow, I trust you will not forget my early fascination with, and after seeing the ad below, my UTTER FONDNESS for

STEVE NOVICK, a hook-hand away from the presidency.



THAT IS ALL.

NOTES FROM MY COPYEDITOR PART 1

RACHELLE MANDIK writes in the margins:

"Websters says 'bloodred' is one word, but I'll be damned if I'll go that far. Hyphen OK?"

ANSWER: OK!

That is all.

NOW I'M JUST GOING TO HAVE TO GET SOME WORK DONE

HONESTLY? How is this fun for any of us?

That is all.

TWITTER

I THINK I did something bad at twitter.

That is all.

"SELECT ALL"

"TWENTY YEARS AGO WHEN I WANTED TO BE A WRITER? A big part of the dream was being able to put little videos on the internet."



The great and lovely and smart and funny DENNIS CASS promotes his paperback edition of HEAD CASE.

If you support greatness, loveliness, smartness, and funniness, YOU SHOULD BUY IT.

AND I'M NOT JUST SAYING SO because, long ago, when I really needed it, Cass took me to lunch at the North Food Court at the Mall of America.

THAT IS ALL.

QUATCHI

I CAN UNDERSTAND how I might forget that Vancouver will be the site of the Winter Olympics (a sporting event) in 2010.

BUT TO FORGET that its mascot is a Sasquatch? SHAME ON ME.

ACTUALLY, "QUATCHI" is one of three mascots for the Vancouver Olympics, all of which are either MYTHOLOGICAL or CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL, because

CANADA IS PERFECT.

That is all.

(AND, PLUS: even the mascots have a mascot. FINALLY)

I AM IN CANADA

AND SO I WILL be blogging less than my usual pathetic output.

BUT THIS TIME, I have an excuse:

CANADA!

That is all.

RICKY GERVAIS SHAMES ME INTO UPDATING MY BLOG

NOT ONLY MY BLOG, but his.

WHAT MAD POWER does he wield over us all?

That is all.

ALL TWITTER FRIDAY

NO BLOG: MICRO BLOG.

See you Monday.

That is all.

A-LAD KEEPS IT ROLLING

H in sunrays
Originally uploaded by Ape Lad.

AND HE DESTROYS a keyboard doing so.

That is all.

I GUESS ON SOME LEVEL I KNEW

I GUESS ON SOME LEVEL I KNEW that my posting below on the word "tharn" got 37 comments,

BY FAR A RECORD,

BUT I GUESS I needed to see them all laid out in front of me for me to really grasp it.

THANK YOU

That is all.

SACHS IS NOW POSTING TWICE A DAY

FOR SERIOUS.

HE MUST HAVE only had 87 whiskeys this morning.

THAT IS ALL

WHILE SEEKING IMAGES OF GENE RAYBURN FALLING DOWN...

I CAME ACROSS this remarkable collection of SMOKING ON NATIONALLY SYNDICATED TELEVISION.

I RECALL the first time I saw Ed Asner light up on a Match Game rerun. It was like staring into an alternate dimension.

ALSO: REALLY, Alex Karras? Were you not supposedly an ATHLETE?

I ALSO ESPECIALLY ENJOY: Skip Stephenson's blue jumpsuit.

(OH: if any of you are wondering, I am extremely heartened by last night's POLITICAL RESULTS; but I feel we have been here twice before....)

That is all.

SACHS IS WATCHING SHIHAB

SINCE WE MET HIM IN LONDON 17(!) years ago, I have not kept in touch with Shihab the way Mr. Sachs has.

AS YOU CAN OBVIOUSLY TELL WHEN YOU VIEW this obsessive photo gallery.

YET I LOVE THEM BOTH.

That is all.

JUST TAKING A QUICK CULTURAL TEMPERATURE CHECK

HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW what "tharn" means?

That is all.

SACHS AND I ARE IN AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

...BUT EVEN SO, I am still able to update my blog .

UNLIKE ONE PERSON I KNOW.

That is all.

PHOTO COURTESY: "Meow Meow" Kays.

HELLO RICKY GERVAIS BLOG READERS

MY NAME IS JOHN HODGMAN, and you have reached my blog.

I DO NOT know why the famous actor Ricky Gervais is claiming that I wrote something for his blog about his upcoming movie about LYING.

I WOULD NEVER associate with such a person.

ALSO: his accent is obviously fake.

AND I WAS NEVER HERE.

That is all.

EMILY FLAKE FOR THE VICTORY

APPARENTLY the great FLAKE won a Prism award for her fantastic book of cigarette cartoons entitled THESE THINGS AIN'T GONNA SMOKE THEMSELVES.

THE CATEGORY in which she won: best "accurate depiction of drug, alcohol, or tobacco use in a comic book story line"

Here is the winner now.

HOORAY

That is all.

TONIGHT, I AM ON THE WEST COAST

...SO IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO SAY:

"First of May, First of May/
Outdoor Fucking Starts Today."

That is all.

HEADLINE: SACHS HAS UPDATED HIS BLOG

SEE here.

AND tell him to update more frequently. ESPECIALLY WHEN I SEE HIM IN CALIFORNIA THIS WEEKEND.

MEANWHILE, BM continues to do a good job updating his blog regularly and finding bits of spooky coral.

That is all.

RYAN MCSHOWOFF WANTS TO KNOW IF I UPDATED MY BLOG TODAY

DID HE update his blog?

That is all.

DRIVE GERVAIS

SPEAKING OF INCREDIBLY FAT AND BALD, I presume you all know about this, yes?

That is all.

THAT'S NOT MY HAIR

IT'S A TIME HELMET. Come on, Matt Tobey. Get it right.

That is all.

HERE IS THE TRUE STORY

RYAN unveils the horrid truth, from a time long ago (2001), before I was fat and balding.

PS: Thank you, CC Insider and ANGRY Jesse Thorn, for defending me. OR AT LEAST MY HAIR.

That is all.

THANK YOU ALL

WHILE EVERYONE, including Xeni, had proposed able solutions, I found Chris's suggestion of cutting and pasting within the "Edit HTML" pane to do the trick.

THAT IS: if it works.

THANK YOU, in any case.

That is all.

TRYING AGAIN

I AM SEEING THIS. Are you?

That is all.

I DON'T GET IT

I CAN SEE THE VIDEO when I check Blogger's "Preview" mode.

BUT NO ONE CAN SEE IT once it gets published.

XENI--can you help?

That is all.

SOMEONE TO HOLD ON

MY LATEST ATTEMPT to embed the brilliance of bOINGbOING.tv



"SPAM THEATER."

That is all.

MIRMAN? MOREMAN!!!!

WATCH THIS, SHELLEY--I'm going to blog this right now.

That is all.

MORE FROM DETROIT OCTANE

Minimal blog activity due to television.

See you tomorrow.

That is all.

NPR and TRAUMA

LISTENING TO NPR this morning (imagine that) re: a panel of PA women voters speaking on the state of the primary election, I had exactly two faults.

1. The listener who is concerned she has not heard enough about how the White House will specifically be different under either Democratic administration.

2. I think we're all traumatized by the Republican attack machine. YES, they will "pounce," come the general election. But we're already seeing them pounce. And we're already seeing (one) candidate effectively fight back against those right wing attacks. But there seems to be this idea all the same that, when they REALLY REALLY pounce, we're history, no matter how powerful our ideas, how sophisticated our election organization, how strong we are on counter attack, and no matter how weak their candidate.

WE REALLY NEED TO GET OVER THIS. McCain is a weak candidate. In my mind, the only thing that would really make him a strong candidate is having Clinton as a rival. But even if you don't agree, you must agree to the truth: DEMOCRATIC REGISTRATION IS UP, REPUBLICAN REGISTRATION IS DOWN, THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE IS INCREDIBLY UNPOPULAR, MCCAIN HAS TERRIBLE LIABILITIES,

...and the non-issue of both the Wright- and Bittter-gate controversy among the actual voters (most polls remain unchanged) suggest that among actual voters (if not the media) the "attack politics" that so frightened us away from core principles in 2004 really aren't as effective as we fear they are.

THAT IS ALL.

ASTONISHING

THIS PIECE from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about Michelle Obama's old Princeton roommate is astonishing. 

FOR THOSE ON TV who like to believe that THEY know what's going through the minds of people in the South or North, whites or blacks, liberals or conservatives, gays or straights, here's evidence that it's all so much more beautifully complex. 

IN THIS ONE FAMILY, all these worlds blend together, learn from each other, and change one another. And I don't think this family is the only one either. 

That is all. 

SENATOR ASSCRACK

JOHN WARNER mercilessly reveals the fundamental problem with Senator Asscrack's candidacy.

NARRATOR: (In voice-over.) Confused? Lost? Wanting to take a tire iron to these two? Don't they remind you a lot of Senator Asscrack—pretentious and sort of French? Do you really want a president who hates America? That doesn't make sense, and neither does voting for Herman Asscrack.

DRAWING THESE KINDS OF important contrasts is perfectly fair, and not AN IDIOTIC, CONDESCENDING, DISTRACTING, REDUCTIVE, AND SELF-DEBASING ATTACK at all.

That is all.

PS: John Warner is NOT a Senator, but a very good writer of books. PROOF EXISTS HERE.

See, he's one of us. NOT ONE OF THOSE WASHINGTON FAT CATS.

PERHAPS BECAUSE HE IS CANADIAN

I FIND PAUL TOUGH calming.

That is all.

BLOGGING!

SO THIS is what it's like.

HERE IS A WEB SITE THAT I VISITED and liked. I will "web log" it.

FROM JOSH MARSHALL...

With the Wright business and now with this, the more nuanced version of the Clinton line has been that what 'we' think is not really the point. It's what Republicans will do with it in the fall. And that's a real concern that I definitely have. I won't deny it. I've never thought Obama was a perfect candidate. But as we get deeper into the primary calendar, increasingly so, this 'what the Republicans will do' line has become more of a simulacrum, or a license, if you will, to do what Republicans actually do do. That is to say, to grab for political advantage by peddling stereotypes about Democrats and liberals that are really no less offensive than the ones we're talking about about Americans from small town and rural America.

That is all

A READER NAMED HILLARY W. SENT THIS IN LONG AGO

...BUT APPARENTLY, this was a "picross" puzzle.

WHATEVER "PICROSS" is, or "puzzle," or "this."

THAT IS ALL

BOOZE CLUES

PAULINE AND DAVE'S pub quiz "Booze Clues" moves to the Echoplex starting tomorrow night, TUESDAY, at 7PM in Los Angeles.

I BELIEVE I AM TECHNICALLY STILL A MEMBER OF TEAM NEAL POLLACK. Perhaps you can go and ask him for me.

That is all.

BITTER STICKER=PURPLE HEART BAND-AID

YOU KNOW, I probably just should have twittered it.

That is all.


PHOTO and background courtesy: CNN

FROM TURNERS FALLS, MA

THIS, THE GREAT SARAH REID, believes:

I started waitressing when I was 16 years old. I would get up at 4 am to be at the diner by 5 and I would watch the sunrise from my bike as I rode down the nearly empty highway. My customers were mostly regulars- truckers- and what they didn’t give me in cash tips, they gave me in genuine and warm compliments, camaraderie and jokes. One very drunk college student one night didn’t have tip money, so he wrote me a check for a million dollars. I still have it in my desk, waiting till I see his name someday in Forbes magazine or something.

As I grew older I returned to waitressing a couple times. I was good at it. Eventually, I opened my own café, the only one in my tiny town. We didn’t have waiters, just bar help. But we had a big glass tip jar on the counter. My small staff and I always noticed who tipped well and who didn’t – did you know that, that we talk about you behind your back if you don’t leave a tip, even at a counter or a bar?

READ ON , or perish.

OBVIOUSLY I AGREE WITH SARAH, and not merely because I wrote great chunks of BOOKS ONE AND TWO in her and her "husband's" good company at the Bookmill and the cafe they used to own there.

(AND I HOPE TO GOD I TIPPED ENOUGH)

SARAH AND MATTHEW don't own the cafe anymore, but maybe you can go and buy them a drink at the Rendezvous some time. It is Turners Falls's only Space Shuttle themed bar, and it's hard for me to recommend a finer place to tip heavily in.

Meanwhile, AS I AM SURE YOU KNOW, you can find more "THIS I BELIEVE" essays and contribute your own HERE.

UNLESS YOU BELIEVE IN NOTHING. In which case, go HERE. (That is one wacky picture of the Kremlin).

That is all.

WHAT AN ELITIST

DUMB PHRASING IN SF, I think. But I'm not talking for 20 hours a day.

BUT OBAMA'S RESPONSE to the hamfisted attacks from his rivals is kind of beautiful--as rhetoric, as incredibly deft politicking, and most of all, as truth, rough and simple. The kind his rivals don't seem eager to tell.



I THINK this moment will either lose him or win him the Penn. and Indiana for good.

That is all.

STOLE IT FROM BOING BOING, BUT:

HOW CAN I NOT POST my hero: http://kcet.org/explore-ca/web-stories/graphic_novels/jaime.php

That is all.

A BEGINNING IS A VERY DELICATE TIME

BOTH KAKI KING AND I LEARNED THE HARD WAY this week that not every single person in the crowd has read or seen DUNE.

BUT SHE IS STILL incredible.



That is all.

MERLIN MANN REMINDS ME THAT YOU LOOK NICE TODAY

MERLIN MANN alerts me to EPISODE 3A of the sterling podcast he produces with his friends Scott Simpson and lonelysandwich: "YOU LOOK NICE TODAY."

YOU SHOULD LISTEN AND JUDGE FOR YOURSELF.

MEANWHILE, I trust I am the last person on the internet to arrive at this party, but is not Merlin Mann one of the finest names ever? It is great enough that he is actually named MERLIN, but then the name just comes back and hits you with a classic oxymoron

It is almost like being named WIZARD NONWIZARD.

OR MORE ACCURATELY: WIZARD NONWIZARDD.

That is all.

CONCERN TROLL

I'VE NOT DISCUSSED THIS BEFORE, but I have some actual writing to do today, and I've found no other way to procrastinate yet.

CLINTON SUPPORTER LANNY DAVIS'S OP-ED in the Wall Street Journal, discussing Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright, suggests "This issue is not going away."

WELL, IT CERTAINLY IS NOT. At least, not so long as Lanny Davis continues to write Op-Eds about it.*

BUT DAVIS'S FURTHER POINT--that Obama's history with Wright will be brought up in the general election should he be the nominee--is true.

IN FACT, it is so true as to be self-evident, and hardly necessary to point out, unless you want to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt among certain voting blocs right before a big primary. In this regard, Lanny Davis is the definition of a concern troll.

BUT TO BRIEFLY FEED THE TROLL, I will take Davis's concern seriously for a moment. Let's ask: should Obama become the Democratic nominee, will the Republicans attack him over his relationship with Wright?

YES, OF COURSE... just as they will happily attack Hillary Clinton over her relationship with Bill Clinton should SHE become the nominee.

BUT HODGMAN, you ask, DO THE TWO LIABILITIES REALLY CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT?

No, the candidates' guilt-by-association problems are NOT equal.

FOR ALAS, Clinton's is worse.

Not because Bill Clinton is somehow more "guilty" than Wright (I'll leave that for the angels to debate), but because the association is closer, and because Clinton has never had to defend against these kinds of attacks in this election.

DEMOCRATS are not trying to tie Hillary Clinton to the Bill Clinton scandals, for obvious reasons. And I'm not even talking about what you think I'm talking about. Indeed, I can think of two attacks against Bill Clinton that are not stupid and disgusting and that I actually find substantive and troubling, though I will not air them here.

BECAUSE NOT EVERY DEMOCRAT LIKES TO USE RIGHT WING TALKING POINTS AGAINST FELLOW DEMOCRATS.

AND REPUBLICANS have not really deployed this line of attack yet either. I'm not sure why. It's either because they have had a complete change of heart about Bill Clinton in the past 8 years, or they have been biding their time until there's a nominee.

WHAT'S YOUR GUESS?

BUT IT WOULD BE HOPELESSLY NAIVE to believe that these attacks are not coming. And we really haven't seen how Clinton will handle them. Whereas I would argue we have seen how Obama intends to handle the Wright smears, which is to say: PRETTY EFFECTIVELY.

SO I WILL DO MY OWN BIT OF CONCERN TROLLING HERE AND SAY: yes, Obama's relationship with Wright may undermine his appeal to certain white voters, and will certainly lose him the racist vote. But he's shown he can take the punch and shake it off in the polls.

BUT WILL NOT HILLARY CLINTON'S RELATIONSHIP WITH BILL CLINTON energize a currently disinterested Republican base? And won't constant attacks on this front undermine her support among Independents?

And wouldn't you like at least some preview as to what her strategy will be for fending off these attacks?

I, FOR ONE, AM VERY CONCERNED AND TROLLISH.

That is all.


* (Although most polls suggest that for Democrats at least, the issue has indeed gone away. And double indeed, there is reasonable debate as to whether it deserves the word "issue" at all, as opposed to a simple character smear--except among those within the Clinton campaign who wish it to BE an issue.)