Or even moreso, the fact that Palin is trying to compare herself to Clinton, which is just a joke.  I, too, have been hoping that the Clintons get out in front and start attacking Palin for misappropriating Clinton's track record and accomplishments.  I can't imagine that Hillary Clinton is anything but offended, and I can't began to conceive Bill's reaction to this.

I can't believe that their strategy included whining this early in the process.  I mean, I thought that it was inevitable, but not before Palin had even spoken at the convention.  

I eagerly await Sen. Clinton dressing down these mor(a)ns.

citing her unsourced "Clinton advisers" saying that HRC was furious at Palin for trying to appropriate her campaign theme about the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling and that she might increase her campaigning for Obama/Biden.

Her initial statement was fine; what the heck did you want Orton, for her to say that Palin was trash and completely unqualified?  She would have come off a bully and people may have thought that she was just upset that she wasn't on a ticket.  I thought her statement was sufficient and it seems kind of tacky if her assignment is just to hit Palin, though it seems as if HRC herself wants to embrace that role if you believe the NY Times article.

The ball is not in Hillary's court. Of course, Hillary is going to rebut Ms. Palin's shameless latching on of her VP candidacy to Hillary's umpteenth years on the national stage, but I don't think Hillary is obligated to come out and specifically rebut--categorically--Palin's comments out of the box. Hillary will be a major surrogate for Barack, and her rebuttal of Palin's coattail clinging to Hillary will be part and parcel of Hillary's campaigning.

Wow, you'd think Hillary was paying me...

It's not her job to be the bad guy and attack Palin, while Obama "takes the high road".

Josh,

After the things you said about HRC don't you think it a bit much to tell her how and what she should do to help your candidate.  I am just saying.

And how dare you say this "Clinton's response to Palin was lukewarm at best".  No candidate who lost a primary has done more that HRC to help the winning candidate.  Just my opinion but my guess is you will have nothing but criticism for HRC not matter what she does.  I think before you post nonsense like this you should start my apologizing to both HRC and her supporters for you conduct.

And this is not about who we support in the fall because we all support BO now but this is about your poor conduct.  WHO are YOU to stand in judgement of HRC.  Sorry i forgot this is what you do.

david

The firing squad needs to stand down and quick. I am warning you now folks feminists are watching and documenting all that is being said. Don't expect them not to just because she's a republican. There will be comparisons made and if we are not careful the Dems could look like real assholes. I can't believe the democratic strategists did not see this coming. It has the stench of Karl Rove all over it and many of you are playing directly into his hands.

I find it highly ironic how Hillary will now have to do the heavy lifting when it comes to Palin and blunting the GOP influence on women in the swing states. The feminists are right on this one. Sad time for democraic women.

Palin strongly criticised Clinton for using the gender card during the primary season.   She talked about Clinton being whiney.    Palin seems to have no trouble attacking Democratic women, it is only Republican women that are above attacks.

Let's see, I lost my ratings here, not exactly sure why, but I guess it's cause I suggested Barack has some work to do to win over women and show he's not sexist and will pay attention to the issues women care about. Now I get it, it's Hillary that has to get to work.  Speaking out against sexism is wrong of her?  Suggesting Barack run smarter if he wants to win the women is wrong of anyone connected to her?  Interesting, offensive and weird, but interesting.

Because she did it when she ran HP into the ground and then blamed "sexism" when the board finally canned her incompetent ass. She's using the same playbook this time and it won't work. It didn't save her back then either.

As I've pointed out in previous comments, I believe that the McCain advisors-and Karl Rove in particular-intentionally picked a candidate with no experience and no obvious gift to the ticket so that they can label every lack of experience arguement as a sexist attack.  Every surrogate seems to have received that talking point.  While they were initially uncertain of how to defend her "record", they now appear confident in labelling every skeptic with the sexist moniker (including staunch Hillary supporters like Carville).

So it appears that while they didn't bother to properly vet her, they certainly had a strategy in mind for her.  And even though they've yet to create an ironic name for their pioneer brand of feminism (the kind where you do absolutely nothing for women's issues), they are certainly making a risky attempt at co-opting feminism--possibly even with an agenda to move some of those voters for good.

I would prefer that this didn't happen and I'm offended that it did--but it will make for an interesting rendition of "Trilby".  Forget the fact that Palin will make a much more compliant Trilby, just imagine how perfectly McCain would fit that role:

"(He)would either fawn or bully, and could be grossly impertinent. He had a kind of cynical humor, which was more offensive than amusing, and always laughed at the wrong thing, at the wrong time, in the wrong place. And his laughter was always derisive and full of malice."

I don't think Palin is aimed directly at Hillary democrats. No, its aimed at Hillary independents who do not feel so strongly about abortion and what not.  Those women make up a good percentage of the electorate.

Sarah Palin is apparently a woman, and she is the Republican nominee for VP, so her nomination does in fact honor the achievements of Ferraro and Clinton as women. And I am quite certain that Hillary Clinton will also not tolerate sexist treatment of Governor Palin. So far the sexism is confined to the media and the blogs, Obama has warned against attacks on Palin's family and has avoided explicitly sexist attacks.

The problem with Hillary Clinton defending the Obama campaign's attempts to belittle Palin's experience is that she was accused of using race when she belittled his experience. The Obama campaign put forward the notion that questioning a candidate's experience was de facto evidence of bias, neutralizing Hillary Clinton's ability defend an experience attack.

Quayle: Three times that I've had this question -- and I will try to answer it again for you, as clearly as I can, because the question you are asking is, "What kind of qualifications does Dan Quayle have to be president," "What kind of qualifications do I have," and "What would I do in this kind of a situation?" And what would I do in this situation? [...] I have far more experience than many others that sought the office of vice president of this country. I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency. I will be prepared to deal with the people in the Bush administration, if that unfortunate event would ever occur.

Judy Woodruff: Senator [Bentsen]?

Bentsen: Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy: I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy. (Prolonged shouts and applause.) What has to be done in a situation like that is to call in the --

speak out.  At the very least, Palin is cheapening the Hillary brand name by branding herself as the Hillary Clinton of the right.  If Hillary doesn't speak out forcefully to distinguish herself from this, then Hillary's own brandname will suffer.

This is like Shasta Cola calling itself the Coke of the 21st century.  Coca Cola attorneys would go berserk.

Smells like Karl Rove's dirty tricks, planting nasty fliers in the opposing campaign's garbage, planting fake memos to distract us from the true content, etc.

Big-money media love the back & forth controversy, so once it's out there, it gets big pretty quickly.

What's the most effective way not to get ratf&^$ed?

- Tight discipline on the message, so that there are no "loose cannons" who can in any way be linked to the campaign.

Ironically, part of Obama's success in the primaries was due to the under-the-radar attacks on Clinton:  he could keep the high road for all official public statements while the more vicious dirty laundry on his opponent would get circulated anyway.  

As much as I got tired of everyone on our own side believing that Obama wasn't doing any negative campaigning, that strategy made perfect sense against Clinton.    

This latest GOP dirty trick is attacking that strength, Obama's superiority in decentralized "2.0"-style campaigning.  

Fortunately, Obama is also strong on message discipline, so these nonsensical attempts to link him and his campaign to "nasty Internet rumors" are not working, because nobody believes them.  

However, everyone who enjoyed the free-fire on Clinton may want to dial it back on Palin or the GOP will make a federal case out of it.  Don't give them ammo.  

It's all about McCain's dangerous temperament, his impaired judgment, his imminent (?) senility, his impulsivity, etc. etc. etc.  The less we say about his running mate, the better--she'll sink like a stone unless we let them change the subject to the meanies attacking her on the shady back tubes of the Internet.

Couple of comments:

1.  Questioning Gov. Palin's motive's to run for VP when she has a ill child is not sexist.  It is about concerned parenting.  IF her husband were a stay-at-home dad (which I did for my sick infant son...who is thankfully well now) then this would not be discussed as THEN it woudl be sexist.  Last I heard, he is employed and the child who does need a lot of PARENT attention is not getting as much.  Or being dragged around with mom/dad which I also have a problem with as a concern of GOOD parenting.  Either way, it is career over family.  Not sexism.

As for what to do with this...oh jeeze, this is so easy.  Let them self-destruct.  This is not a over-confidence comment, this is strictly a look-at-the-mess-they-are-making comment.  Rep. Bachmann (from my state to my eternal shame...man she is a whako) is defending her...believe me, that is not a GOOD thing for Gov. Palin.  But they believe it is.  Let them keep Bachmann talking and watch as the voters bleed away.  And Palin making those Pray to God comments, especially on the Iraq war...???  WTF???  Are they TRYING to loose?

And why is the Nat. Enquirer and the other rags going after Palin?  Because it is Conservatives who LOVE to gossip behind peoples backs...I know Liberals who like to hang the opposition by their petard, often in a game of I-told-you-so, but the conservative right absolutely LOVE to gossip about inpropriety.  I just don't see how this can end up being a win for McCain among those who are not already going to vote for him.  (I mean, if there are THAT many uber-conservatives who can be pulled in and can swing the election, we are all pretty much hosed as a country anyhow...)