Still Don't Get It

Someone needs to clock the Beltway upside the head:

Tim Russert did a great job of pressing the candidates for specific answers to his questions in Wednesday night’s MSNBC debate from Dartmouth College. He drilled in on the front-runner, Mrs. Clinton, and this debate was striking for how often she resisted being nailed down on several topics.

In the earlier debates, when she refused to answer what she said were hypothetical questions, she was praised for her experience and judgment, especially compared with Mr. Obama. But tonight, there seemed to be a pile-up of unanswered questions. No doubt there is a YouTuber out there now who is stringing those non-answers together.

Her final answer captured the dynamic, when she was asked whom she would support in a (hypothetical) World Series between the Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. Well, she said, gazing at the ceiling, she would have to alternate between the two.

If Tim Russert did a great job he wouldn't have dared to ask a question about the World Series. If these sycophantic courtiers could stop their decades-long circle jerk maybe they'd realize how out of touch they are with reality. I know, it's a pipe dream. And then there's gems like this:

Mrs. Clinton may have taken her biggest hits on universal health care, an issue she commandeered 15 years ago but failed to get through Congress. Though every candidate on the stage agreed with Mrs. Clinton's declaration that "I intend to be the health-care president," several of them suggested she was too polarizing of a figure to garner the Republican support needed to pass major legislation in Congress.

It's not that healthcare isn't important, but what our Very Smart People in Washington and the media fail to understand is that there is only one issue that will drive this election: Iraq. I'm no orthodontist and honestly am not sophisticated enough to understand the intrigue and allure of the cocktail weenie world of the Beltway, but I understand that a war that is: 1. Killing thousands and wounding tens of thousands of our troops 2. Killing hundreds of thousands, if not more, and ruining the lives of millions of Iraqis 3. Destroying the U.S.' image in the world and ratcheting up anti-American sentiment, and 4. Breaking the bank at home, which finds its way onto the backs of average Americans, is going to be the most important issue on everyone's mind. The only people who don't understand that are the David Broders of the world who tell us what we should think and the politicans who listen to them.