A History of Sex and Journalism

"But it's the Clinton strategists, not the Obama voters, who drank the Kool-Aid. The Obama campaign is not a vaporous cult; it's a lean and mean political machine that gets the job done. The Clinton camp has been the slacker in this race, more words than action, and its candidate's message, for all its purported high-mindedness, was and is self-immolating."

There is still a little bit of MSM skepticism toward Obama, as in this Washington Post editorial:

"When the Illinois Democrat talks about bringing together red and blue America, does he mean that he will persuade the red (Republican) part to come around to blue (Democratic) policies -- or does he mean that he will forge a new, centrist answer that will bridge the red-blue divide? Is he a liberal at heart who tacks occasionally to the center or more of a centrist capable of suppressing leftist instincts when political circumstances demand?

"It's telling, at this relatively late stage in the nominating process, that the answers are not clear -- at least not to us."

Peggy Noonan tries to deconstruct Obama's appeal:

"His big draw is this. In a country that has throughout most of our lifetimes been tormented by, buffeted by, the question of race, a country that has endured real pain and paid in blood and treasure to work its way through and out of the mess, that for all that struggle we yielded this: a brilliant and accomplished young black man with a consensus temperament, a thoughtful and peaceful person who wishes to lead. That is his draw: 'We made that.' 'It ended well.'

"People would love to be able to support that guy.

"His job, in a way, is to let them, in part by not being just another operative, plaything or grievance-monger of the left-liberal establishment and left-liberal thinking. By standing, in fact, for real change.

"Right now Mr. Obama is in an awkward moment. Each day he tries to nail down his party's leftist base, and take it from Mrs. Clinton. At the same time his victories have led the country as a whole to start seeing him as the probable Democratic nominee. They're looking at him in a new way, and wondering: Is he standard, old time and party line, or is he something new? Is he just a turning of the page, or is he the beginning of a new and helpful chapter?"

In her zipless analysis, Erica Jong wonders about the Obama/Hillary contrast:

"What is this foolishness? Obama is pure and not a politician and Hillary is 'tainted'?

"Does anyone get to be a presidential candidate in our country without being a politician?

"Does anyone run for political office -- a humiliating and exhilarating marathon -- without wanting power more than sleep?

"Come on. Get real. You and I could never endure the punishment of debates, of columnists who don't fact-check, of swift-boaters, of dumb pundits and corrupt colleagues, without the lust for power being the overriding emotion in your life.

"I do a book tour of six cities and come down with the flu -- and I'm pretty strong and healthy. I can hardly imagine what candidates go through. Yes, they fly on private jets. Yes, they don't take their shoes off at the airport, but they don't sleep either. I'm amazed they can even croak a coherent sentence."

And in the can-that-really-be-true category, Michael Medved looks at presidential history: "It's worth considering one striking trait that nearly all these men seem to have shared --an astonishing 38 of our 43 presidents had blue eyes." (His definition includes gray and hazel.)

In case you were wondering, McCain's are blue and Obama's are brown. And I just did a search on Hillary and came up with this breathless Drudge report from 2003:

"Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has settled on a fresh bright baby-blue hue for eyes in recent photoshoots and public appearances -- a dramatic transformation from her natural hazel tint!"