The Anderson Debate

Left-wingers are trying to drive a stake through the heart of a poll purporting to show that Hillary would lose to several Repubs next year. Kos tees off:

"I know Hillary's opponents are jumping on Zogby Interactive's latest poll showing Hillary doing substantially poorer than her opponents in head-to-head matchups than her opponents.

"Let me make this as clear as possible: Zogby interactive polls are JUNK. They are about as solid as the Daily Kos cattle call polls would be if we were trying to claim the community represented all Democrats.

"Witness this little bit of disclaimer:

" The poll of 9,355 people had a margin of error of plus or minus one percentage point. The interactive poll surveys individuals who have registered to take part in online polls.

"How a poll that is essentially a web poll can be considered credible is beyond me."

Did Obama insert all five toes in his mouth? The New Republic's Noam Scheiber thinks so:

"I think he's homing in on an effective response to Clinton's experience argument. But, if he's going to get over the hump in Iowa, he may need tone down the ego a bit, and what seemed like a whiff of condescension. You've probably already seen his line about how 'Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there.' This response also stood out for me:

" ' I think there's no doubt that the fact that my name is Barack Obama and that my father was from Kenya and that I grew up in Hawaii that there's that whole exotic aspect to me that people, I think, have to get past. But they also, surprisingly enough, even in rural Iowa, recognize the opportunity to send a signal to the world that, you know, we are not as ingrown, as parochial as you may perceive or as the Bush administration seems to have communicated, that we are, in fact, embracing the world, we are listening, we are concerned, we want to be engaged.

"I suspect the 'even in rural Iowa' part could stick in some people's craws."