To witness Joan Walsh's destruction of a boorish Chris Hitchens on Hardball tonight was to be put in mind of Sarah Palin's infamous pre-Thanksgiving turkey video: as Chris Matthews blathered on apparently heedless of the slaughter nearby, Walsh hoisted the blustering Hitchens over the trough and calmly induced the squawking death twitches of failed Hillary Clinton hatred.
While Hitchens' turkey blood splattered the remote MSNBC sets - clearly Matthews had another outcome in mind (Ha!) - Senator Clinton and President-elect Obama completed their first day as American foreign policy teammates, and the soon-to-be POTUS seemed to enjoy poking a sharp stick in the collective eye of a national media obsessed with personality. Pushed with a few of his own hard-hitting shots at Clinton from last spring's vintage, Obama grinned and made fun of the question - and then he said this:
I believe that there's no more effective advocate than Hillary Clinton for that well-rounded view of how we advance American interests. She has served on the Armed Services Committee in the Senate. She knows world leaders around the world. I have had extensive discussions with her both pre-election and post-election about the strategic opportunities that exist out there to strengthen America's posture in the world.
And I think she is going to be a(n) outstanding secretary of State. And if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't have offered her the job. And if she didn't believe that I was equipped to lead this nation at such a difficult time, she would not have accepted. Okay?
Bob Woodward wasn't in the room in Chicago, but he was letting his disdain show - both for the incoming President and his designate as Secretary of State - and Lance Mannion called him on it.
Think about it. Bob Woodward helped bring down Richard Nixon. Within his lifetime, the country has seen the rise and fall of Joe McCarthy. J. Edgar Hoover headed the FBI. George Wallace ran for President, twice! Jesse Helms had a long career and powerful career as a United States Senator. Tom DeLay ran the US House of Representatives. We are finishing up eight years of the puppet Presidency of George W. Bush.
Throw Lyndon Johnson in there.
And what American politicians have gotten deepest under his skin?
The Clintons.
"She never goes away, she and her husband."
Yep, that's right, Bob. As Taylor Marsh said: "So much for killing off the Clintons."
______________
Note: my new book CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World (Wiley) is available from Amazon.com and leading booksellers.
