I'm confused.

My wife and friends will volunteer, a little too eagerly, that this is not unusual.

However, help me out here.

I'm seeing three (at least) general themes emerging now about the Clinton campaign strategy. It can't be all three at once.

One, which can fairly be described as the Clinton's most positive argument (CMPA), is that there is still a good chance that the super delegates will swing over and support her, and that in the end the party will unite behind her as the nominee and all this unpleasantness will be forgotten.

The second theme, most prominently proposed by Maureen Dowd on Wednesday, is that Hillary and Bill are setting out to damage Obama as much as possible so that he will lose against McCain and she'll have a clear shot in four years to run again. Hence the repetitive negative attacks (Rev. Wright, he's just a 'black' candidate, etc.) (Scorched Earth)

The third, which I saw floated on Andrew Sullivan's site this morning, (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/dissent-of-th-9.html)  is the idea that we're witnessing delusion and madness of epic proportions, namely "a woman who’s incredulous at finding herself in the losing position and
who hasn’t shaken the assumption that the nomination is her destiny,
reality and consequences be damned." (The Madness of Queen Hillary)

Personally, I believe it's a combination of "Scorched..." and "Madness," with a fair amount of the sense of entitlement clouding their otherwise excellent political judgment, making them believe that imitating Sherman's March to the Sea is somehow OK, and missing the backlash against any future plans that's rising rapidly.

What say you all?

Excerpt from Obama's remarks at a town hall in Indiana.

One is free, of course, to read this and conclude that it's all an elaborate lie by an "empty suit," but if that's your viewpoint then you're not really open to anything, anyway.

I believe cynicism and partisanship are what're really tearing our soul apart as a nation. I'm appalled by the raw, elemental hatred that seems to be welling up everywhere, on these boards and elsewhere, as a result of the Ferrarro and Wright instances. I'm deeply offended by the tone of the campaign managers and the nasty and evil willingness to do anything to win.

I'm not offended by the candidate, Obama, though. I'm still inspired.

"In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart
and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the
awful grace of God." quoted by Bobby Kennedy in Indianapolis, 1968, on the occasion of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The video:
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Just words....

"Barack Obama addressing: Town Hall Meeting at Plainfield High School, (Plainfield, Indiana)

Just words...

March 15, 2008

Let me just close my initial remarks by talking about bringing this
country together. You know, Bobby Kennedy gave one of his most — gave
one of his most famous speeches on a dark night in Indianapolis. Right
after Dr. King was shot. Some of you remember reading about this
speech. Some of you were alive when this speech was given. He stood on
top of a car. He was in a crowd mostly of African Americans. And he
delivered the news that Dr. King had been shot and killed. And he said,
at that moment of anguish, he said, we’ve got a choice. He said, we’ve
got a choice in taking the rage and bitterness and disappointment and
letting it fester and dividing us further so that we no longer see each
other as Americans but we see each other as separate and apart and at
odds with each other. Or we can take a different path that says we have
different stories, but we have common dreams and common hopes. And we
can decide to walk down this road together. And remake America once
again. And, you know, I think about those words often, especially in
the last several weeks - because this campaign started on the basis
that we are one America. As I said in my speech at the convention in
2004, there is no Black America, or White America, or Asian America, or
Latino America. There is the United States of America. But I noticed
over the last several weeks that the forces of division have started to
raise their ugly heads again. And I’m not here to cast blame or point
fingers because everybody, you know, senses that there’s been this
shift. You know, that you’ve been seeing in the reporting. You’ve been
seeing some of the commentaries of supporters on all sides. Most
recently, you heard some statements from my former pastor that were
incendiary and that I completely reject, although I knew him and know
him as somebody in my church who talked to me about Jesus and family
and friendships, but clearly had — but if all I knew was those
statements that I saw on television, I would be shocked. And it just
reminds me that we’ve got a tragic history when it comes to race in
this country. We’ve got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and
misunderstanding. But what I continue to believe in is that this
country wants to move beyond these kinds of divisions. That this
country wants something different.

I just want to say to everybody here that as somebody who was born
into a diverse family, as somebody who has little pieces of America all
in me, I will not allow us to lose this moment, where we cannot forget
about our past and not ignore the very real forces of racial inequality
and gender inequality and the other things that divide us. I don’t want
us to forget them. We have to acknowledge them and lift them up and
when people say things like my former pastor said, you know, you have
to speak out forcefully against them. But what you also have to do is
remember what Bobby Kennedy said. That it is within our power to join
together to truly make a United States of America. And that we have to
do not just so that our children live in a more peaceful country and a
more peaceful world, but that is the only way that we are going to
deliver on the big issues that we’re facing in this country. We can’t
solve health care divided. We cannot create an economy that works for
everybody divided. We can’t fight terrorism divided. We can’t care for
our veterans divided. We have to come together. That’s what this
campaign is about. That’s why you are here. That’s why we’re going to
win this election. That’s how we’re going to change the country."

Just words...

There are two issues super delegates and other elected officials ought to be considering, and suspect they are even in the midst of this incredible snow job Bill and Hillary are staging for our stunned amazement and entertainment.

One is that, as the example in Denny Hastert's former district proves, Obama's coat-tails are going to be a lot longer and wider than Hillary's ever can be. If you all want to increase the Democratic margins in Congress, and even get yourselves elected down-ticket, you probably ought not pick the wrong horse to back now. The clock is ticking. Hillary's not going to pull this one out, but she may make you wish you'd decided to back Obama sooner after she makes us all suffer through a few more weeks of crazytown stuff.

The second point is in reaction to that Ioway congressman's stupid little publicity stunt... You know, Obama's name is gonna make the puritanical jihadis dance in the street and all that.

He's not to be taken seriously. But what is to be taken seriously is the definite strategic advantage Obama as president will represent. This is the second thing I wanted to point out to you.

Muslims aren't as stupid as our Congressmen tend to be, and they know perfectly well that an Arabic middle name doesn't mean squat. He's not one of them. They know it. We don't, apparently, but they do. Some of them would rather kill him than a Marine, because he is the apostate son of an apostate father, and that's really bad, I guess.

But what IS important, were we to actually elect the man, is that this would send a tsunami around the Middle East, which has been fed a diet of propaganda that America is a hater of Muslims, is a nation of crusaders, is a nation that hates anyone who is not white.

What do you think Al-Qaida's best recruting argument has been, after all, if not this very argument? Abu Gharab was just gravy, a gift that keeps on giving.

If America elects a black man with his background and outlook, we will have given ourselves the greatest strategic advantage we've had since 9/11, when BushCo pissed away what sympathy we had.

We would suddenly no longer be quite the racist, bigoted, imperialstic nation of Crusaders. (OK, I realize Osama is not gonna listen, but a few million ordinary Jordanians, and Palestinians, and Iranians, and a bunch of others would feel like they just got smacked with a truth stick. At the very worst, the election would cause some serious rethinking overseas about us, and we sorely need the benefit of the doubt about now. Is that really such a bad thing, now. Really?

Of course it isn't.
So to the superdelegates, even if you don't have much of a spine and only care about yourselves, you've got a reason to back Obama. And if you do still have a spark of patriotism, you have another good reason. Win-win.

What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Try to keep up with us, the people, too, will you? We're getting kind of tired having to drag you along to do the right things all the time.

Thank you for your kind attention.