This was originally comment, but by the time I finished saying everything I felt needed saying (and by the time I'd reiterated it incessantly to make sure I was understood, as I neurotically tend to do), I realized I'd written a diary.

There's a lot of anger out there and frustration over Obama's apparent leap to the center. I've thought about writing about FISA, but the fact is what can be said has been. By the time I got up the confidence to write something, the lines were drawn and that was that.

Well I'm getting in on the ground floor of this Wesley Clark hullabaloo. Thanks in advance for reading. I'm a bit nervous but here it goes:

Her name is Elaine May and she's fantastic.

Reds. Tootsie. Heaven Can Wait.

Really, really smart. Unbelievably witty.

I'd sell my writers soul to be her for a week.

And all her qualifications, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, and 34 million dollars couldn't save it from being a disaster one thousand times worse then your 3rd grade school photos.

Which is why the Clarke dust-up is both irrelevant and a trap.

The problem with Susan Rice's comments about the qualifications of Obama and Clinton is that she is trying to totally discount Clinton's experience while in the White House and at the same time, suggest that neither Clinton or Obama are ready to take that 3 A.M. call in a crisis.

The news conference held by Clinton today was to highlight the fact that Clinton has been endorsed by 30 generals and military people.  This fact has been totally discounted by Rice and others by suggesting that Hillary has no experience any more than Obama.  This is false on its face.  Even if you accept that Hillary did not in fact have the responsibility to answer that phone call, nevertheless, she was there, she was an intricate participant in the policy and efforts to deal with problems and crisis' as they came up during the 90s.  Obama has no comparable experience.  What Hillary was saying, in my view today, was that the question of having the knowledge about the federal government, its agencies, pushing the right buttons, getting the right information and working on matters of national security have already been part of Clinton's experience.  What she was also saying is that Obama needs to present his qualifications.  She did not say he was not qualified, she was saying that she has the experience.  The generals were saying that she is qualified, that she passed the threshold, that they trust her judgment and her vision about the foreign policy of our country.

Update [2008-2-20 19:21:37 by susanhu]:

“The one thing his voters can count on is that they will ultimately be disappointed.” Der Spiegel has it exactly right.

Update [2008-2-20 14:37:51 by susanhu]: Ignore the silly press reports about the Machinist Union president's speech. More here. WATCH THIS VIDEO. Hear about the promises that Obama made to desperate Maytag workers, and how he then took piles of money from the Crown family of Chicago, that owned Maytag -- and the patriarch of that family says that Obama never talked to him about saving the Maytag workers' jobs:

Update [2008-2-20 15:30:41 by susanhu]: I found a Feb. 2 article from McClatchy/Chicago Tribune to which Buffenbarger refers, "Obama's fundraising, rhetoric collide: Union says senator did little to save jobs."

But the union that represented most of those Galesburg workers isn't impressed with Obama's advocacy and has endorsed his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Its leaders say they wish he had done more about their members' plight.

What rankles some is what Obama did not do even as he expressed solidarity four years ago with workers mounting a desperate fight to save their jobs.

Obama had a special connection to Maytag: Lester Crown, one of the company's directors and biggest investors whose family, records show, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama's campaigns since 2003. But Crown says Obama never raised the fate of the Galesburg plant with him, and the billionaire industrialist insists any jawboning would have been futile. [BUT OBAMA COULD HAVE TRIED, DAMMIT]

The article also says that Axelrod had no clue that Crown sat on the board of Maytag. Guess they know now.

ORIGINAL: I already showed you a video of a panel of Obama supporters who were unable -- a single one of them -- to name any of Obama's legislative or other accomplishments. But even his elected supporters -- members of Congress and governors (!) -- cannot come up with anything.  (Uh, you'd think that Obama's campaign would send them some talking points? If they can come up with a few?)  (h/t Taylor Marsh and MyDD's "Breaking Blue")

Then there are Congressman Bobby Scott (D-Va) and Governor James Doyle, Jr. (D-Wisc), who can't think of a thing to say about their candidate's qualifications -- along with the concerns of Der Spiegel ("Change You Can't Believe In") and The Economist ("But could he deliver?"):