Ugly Coverage

"All things considered, this has not been an ugly primary."

I must admit, though, that aides really ratcheted up the rhetoric yesterday. As Slate reports, Obama adviser David Axelrod "spooled out a string of accusations about her undisclosed tax returns and White House records as if he'd been holding his breath for the last 12 months. In fact, he has. This was a public attack unlike any the campaign has issued before. 'She is a habitual nondiscloser,' said Axelrod, even as he criticized the Clinton campaign for running a 'scorched earth' series of attacks on Obama recently."

"The next day, Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson, followed with the political equivalent of Godwin's law by charging that the Obama campaign was imitating Ken Starr. At this rate, the campaigns will be trading expletives by April (that's already happening inside the Clinton campaign)."

That last reference is to a lengthy WP examination by Peter Baker and Anne Kornblut of how the Clintonites all hate each other. For those who missed it, this will give you the flavor:

" '[Expletive] you!' Ickes shouted.

" '[Expletive] you!' Penn replied.

" '[Expletive] you!' Ickes shouted again."

The rest is detail.

Conservatives, oddly enough, have been more likely to credit HRC, such as National Review Editor Rich Lowry:

"I couldn't help but be delighted by Hillary's comeback and not for calculating, this-will-divide-the-Democrats reasons. I truly admire politicians (well, except maybe for Mike Huckabee) who keep on going even though everyone counts them out. The disdain directed toward Hillary by the elite media was unmistakable, and I'm glad she fought through it (in the process ruining the vacation plans of countless journalists who wanted nothing more than for her to get out of the way). I directed my share of disdain at Hillary, and thought her Cleveland debate performance was so pathetic, it had to signal the beginning of the end . . .

"We saw Tuesday night that 'Yes, we can' doesn't have quite the same resonance when you've just suffered two big losses. How long before some journalists start writing that Obama's oratory is boring? What Obama has to worry about is the Sanjaya effect. Young girls swooned for him when the crooner was on American Idol and he was swarmed as the hottest celebrity at the White House Correspondent's Dinner last year. Now, if anyone remembers who he was, they have to wonder, ' What the hell was that all about?'

"Obama's a talented guy with formidable advantages in the nomination contest still, but when people are routinely fainting at your rallies, it's probably a sign that you're a craze, which is wonderful--while it lasts."