Watching Keith put Hillary in her place was a long awaited moment as this campaign has gotten more hateful.

Yes, it reminded me of Olbermann's great comments slamming Jesse Jackson, Jr. for comparing Obama to his father in making him the black candidate.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/jesse_jackson_jr_cuts_ad_for_b.html

And I also liked it when Olbermann slammed Oprah for comparing Obama to "The One", the black messiah:

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/oprahobama1210

It was especially poignant that when Jesse Jackson Jr. was backhanding Bill Clinton with "some politicians call themselves our friends" and telling him to "butt out" that Olbermann reminded his audience that Clinton had in fact lowered black poverty from 33% to 21% under his tenure, and that this kind of race-baiting identity politics would destroy the Democratic Party.

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/terry-trippany/2008/01/10/congressman-jesse-jackson-jr-says-media-needs-tell-bill-clinton-bud-

It's good to see that Olbermann has been nothing if not consistent. His direct address to Obama to stop the divisiveness of his followers helped calm the race-based furor that raged towards the latter days of the South Carolina campaign. Thank you, Keith. You are a true credit to your kind. Where would we be without you?

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Call me reality-challenged, but I spent the last year with a weird cacophony in my ears - that Hillary was unelectable with all her "baggage" and "divisiveness", not that it was quite all her fault, she's "likable enough", but with voters still remembering her husband's blowjobs (which of course weren't quite her fault, but.... you know how the public is and can't fight city hall...), and how her international experience was a bunch of glitter over stage appearances with Sinbad and Sheryl Crow, and her career experience was about funny goings-on at Rose Law, and besides everything she ever had was thanks to Bill, not her.....and saying the moderators and other candidates were beating up on her in October but she could take it, that was playing the gender card.... (like when her eyes teared up)

And then there was the needing to do something about the "crisis" with Social Security, and how Reagan was such a change-maker, and how we can do without universal health coverage if we get say most covered, and how it would be great to reach across the aisle, it would be even greater if Republicans would cross the aisle and vote for me in the primaries/caucuses, and by the way, how dare someone compare me, a black man running for President,with a black man who ran for President whose son I had out promoting me the last few months as the next better incarnation of his father.... and may I not too subtly hint that should I not get the nomination, don't expect me or my followers to be out campaigning for someone else....

So why exactly should I give a jolly goddamn that Hillary pointed out that McCain has a century or so worth of experience, and she had quite a bit herself? Building up the Admiral? Well, she can take him down too - a few videos like him chuckling over "how do we beat the bitch" or raking over a female reporter, perhaps a timeline showing his service dating back to Herbert Hoover, perhaps some clips of him promoting the Surge and singing "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran" with a graph showing the continued violence in Iraq for the last year....

But what would another opponent do - one who said before inspectors returned that Saddam was absolutely no threat to his neighbors but who voted against a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq and says we now need more troops for Afghanistan and who even gave a caveat about how he'd consider re-invading Iraq if things went all to hell and "al Qaeda was planning attacks on America from there" (nice George Bush talking points). So if Al Qaeda is "securing a base in Iraq", we won't withdraw after all? Does Barack think the Surge is working too? Would Barack supporters vote for an AUMF to back into Iraq under those circumstances? Would this be 5 years of wanting to withdraw but seeking "Peace with Honor"?

PS - And yes, I'd rather have Obama as President than McCain. Or even as Vice President.

As I think Steinbeck or Faulkner that said, "If you've written a book, okay, you've written a book; but if you've written two books - you're a writer."

But sometimes timing is everything. I've got a manuscript sitting in a box, still waiting for me to revise it, now 20 years on. How embarrassing. How lazy. And it wasn't even that long - think of it as a mini-book.

So I do admire people who can finish writing not just one book, but even two.

Which doesn't mean I exactly admire Hillary for having kind of written 2 books, since at least 1 is famously known for being ghost-written, not that I don't wish I'd had someone to come in and type in my manuscript and at least clean up the obviously rusty parts. But it's not the painstaking love of being a writer. It's kind of like having a nanny to give the kids a bath and then giving the fresh-washed foreheads a peck before packing them off to bed.

But at the same time, I have to wonder about people who have time to write. Especially with a tough job, with young kids, with anything that soaks up time like a sponge. I can just imagine the look from what must seem a mythical spouse - "oh, that's the book they're working on - I'll just take the kids to the shore for the next 3 months till it's finished". Kesey talks about Tom Wolfe's always observing and writing but never being part of, and in some way that was Kerouac as well, living vicariously through Neal Cassidy, though not completely.

So that's why I'm a bit in awe of Obama for having written and published his second book in 2006. Because I know myself with a new job - working 70-80 hours a week, catching up on things I said I understood in the interview, handling crises, coming up with new ideas. And here was Barack, freshman Senator, getting used to the new demands from Congress, commuting back to Chicago each week, 3 or 4 nights in DC, the rest back home with his 2 young kids, settling into his new house, but still finding time to write. Obviously better at time management than me

But then it seems to run in the family. Michelle Obama got her new VP job in 2005 and a month later added on a board position at Treehouse Foods, even while spending half the week as a single mom. When do these people sleep? Probably a good answer to the 3am ad would have been, "No problem, we're still awake folding laundry - can we help you?"

It seems like a fairy tale, but please don't pinch me - I don't want to wake up.