April 7, 2008 [LINK / comment]
Clinton campaign aide quits
Mark Penn, the lead strategist and pollster for Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign, resigned after it was learned last week that he met with Colombia's ambassador to the United States. Sen. Clinton is against the proposed free trade agreement with Colombia, putting him in an awkward position because his lobbying / PR firm Burson-Marsteller was retained by the Colombian government last year, for the express purpose of promoting U.S.-Colombian free trade! The Washington Post reports that he had created friction within the Clinton camp because of his personality, but it's really a question of fundamental policy choices. With his rhetorical and semantic wizardry, Bill Clinton could always manage to pander to his party's base without doing too much damage to U.S. national interests, but Hillary just doesn't have the same knack for double-speak as he does. People loved Bill even though they knew he was lying to their face, because he was so good at it, but Hillary doesn't enjoy that degree of rapport with Democratic voters. And so, without a clear vision of where she wants to take America, her campaign organization steadily crumbles...
"Punished with a baby"??
On Laura Ingraham's radio show this morning, I heard a voice that sounded like Barack Obama saying that he wouldn't want his daughters to be "punished with a baby" if they were to make the mistake of getting pregnant out of wedlock. I could hardly believe it, but it's true. See Washington Times, via Prairie Pundit. The idea that a having baby is something bad or to be avoided -- What an awful thing to say, and to think!