Poor Butterfly

Poor Butterfly.... 'neath the blossoms waiting...
Poor Butterfly.... for she loved him so...
The moments passed into hours...
The hours passed into years..
And as she smiles through her tears..
She murmers low...
The moon and I..
know that he'll be faithful...
I know he'll come ... to me by and by..
But if he don't come back...
Then I'll never sigh or cry...
I just must die..
Poor butterfly...

Damn you, New Hampshire, can't you see that she's serious? “Some of us are ready, and some of us are not. Some of us know what we’ll do on day one and some of us don’t.” Evidentally, Hillary Clinton is the only person on the planet that can save us from the long night of barbarism-- as if we hadn't taken the last exit on that highway a long time ago. Voters have been "seduced" (the words of Clinton supporters broadcast on All Things Considered without rebuttal) away from Clinton by "beautiful words" and "false hopes".

Ordinarily I'd be defending her. I defended Ed Muskie and Pat Schroeder for their tears; my own father used to call me "Arthur Godfrey" for tearing up at sad songs, and none of us hold a candle to crybaby John Boehner. I agree with Clinton that the press has been piling on to declare her finished before the second primary is even decided. I even agree that this isn't a game, and we all take this country's regression to barbarism personally. George Bush and the Republicans have done everything to shame this country but roll it in broken glass and turn it out for tricks in a Mexicali whorehouse owned by Halliburton.

But... I've been sober the whole time, with my knees together, and an Obama supporter since the New York Review of Books profile described his experience TEACHING CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (emphasis mine) and working as a community organizer. Frankly, I want a constitutional scholar in there. Obama's ability in his writing and speeches to admit the existence of contradictory or negative thoughts and emotions cemented me there. No seduction or beautiful words needed.

And the woman complaining about falling behind in the popularity contest is the same candidate who makes veiled references to Obama's drug experimentation, compares Obama (unfavorably) to speechmaker King and herself to dealmaker Lyndon Johnson (favorably), keeps hitting the note that her experience counts more than his experience, then shifts from choking up to warning us that she's the one to keep us safe from scary bin Laden... shades of Rove begin to gather around the slipping boomer. Maureen Dowd hit it when she said "... there was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up. What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her. In a weirdly narcissistic way, she was crying for us. But it was grimly typical of her that what finally made her break down was the prospect of losing."

Ever since Obama showed up, Clinton and her campaign staff have shown themselves as bullies and sneaks who expect an anointment. Her competence is not the question; hell, she might yet win the nomination yet and I'll have to hold my nose and vote for her in November; but I don't have to like it.