It’s hard to believe that the election in November will feature neither Rudy Giuliani or, very likely, Hillary Clinton. A year ago, both were front runners and both were thought to be well-organized, well-positioned presumptive nominees.

Well, we all saw what happened to Rudy, and we’re all seeing what’s happening to Hillary. How did this happen?

Andrew Sullivan has some thoughts:

Clinton is a terrible manager of people. Coming into a campaign she had been planning for, what, two decades, she was so not ready on Day One, or even Day 300. Her White House, if we can glean anything from the campaign, would be a secretive nest of well-fed yes-people, an uncontrollable egomaniac spouse able and willing to bigfoot anyone if he wants to, a phalanx of flunkies who cannot tell the boss when things are wrong, and a drizzle of dreary hacks like Mark Penn. Her only genuine skill is pivoting off the Limbaugh machine (which is now as played out as its enemies). Her new weapon is apparently bursting into tears. I mean: really.

Shortly after South Carolina, a colleague of mine made the observation that the Clintons got really old, really fast. I’m not sure what the world will look like post-Clinton.

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I feel like I’m doing a lot of Obama blogging this week, but I suppose that’s the flavor of the month right now.

This article from Margery Eagan in the Boston Herald begins to capture what I’m afraid is going to happen with the Obama campaign if there’s not a deliberate shift made from image to content:

I’m an Obama girl and my man throttled Hillary Clinton, again, Tuesday night.

Suddenly, the impossible is real.

Suddenly, I’m nervous. Very nervous, actually.

I’m nervous because an otherwise normal grownup told me yesterday she’s watched the will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) “Yes We Can” Obama video about 100 times and gets “weepy” every time.

…

These true believers “Obama-ize” everything. They speak Obama-ese. Knit for Obama. Run for Obama. Gamble - Hold ’Em Barack! - for Obama. They make Obama cakes, underwear, jewelry. They send Valentine cards reading, “I want to Barack your world!”

At campaign rallies people scream, cry, even faint as Obama calmly calls for the EMTs. When supporters pant en masse, “I love you!” (like The Beatles, circa 1964), Barack says, “I love you back” with that deliciously charming, almost cocky smile.

She’s right, of course, and this should be a wake-up call for Obama. McCain is sitting back collecting money, taking the early shots from the media, biding his time, waiting for this campaign to kick into overdrive. The Obama euphoria is going to get really old really quick. That is, unless Obama can turn the focus away from himself and put it on his ideas.

So tonight, Barack Obama is asked in a debate whether he would meet with Cuba’s Raoul Castro. His respone:

“I would meet without preconditions…but with ‘preparations’ first…We have to talk to our enemies, not just to our friends…” Wants loosening of restrictions on remittances and travel restrictions. “I wouldn’t normalize relations until we saw change…I support the eventual normalization.”

Preparations but not preconditions? What does that even mean. It’s this kind of stuff that drives me crazy.

I couldn’t have said it any better than how Chris Matthews said it in this video clip. (And I’m only slightly stunned that it’s Chris Freakin’ Matthews who pulled this off.)
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I meant to write this up about a month ago (and I actually did, but Wordpress ate my homework). I do a lot of reading when I’m on vacation, so these are the books that I got to over my Christmas break and have since finished.

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