Second Edwards Blogger Quits

"One Democratic strategist, thinking ahead to the '08 general election, tells me that the Hillary camp wants to allay the (unfair) suspicion, especially among some white male voters, that a woman might be reluctant to use military force in a crisis. Hence the desire, during this campaign, to avoid any incident that would allow rivals to paint her as irresolute. Hillary's people would prefer that she head into a general election, presumably against a tough-guy opponent such as John McCain or Rudy Giuliani, with the kind of tough-lady image that worked for Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain and Golda Meir in Israel."

And that's always the trick: winning the nomination without badly damaging yourself for the general.

But neither Maggie nor Golda had to deal with controversial husbands. Which reminds me: Are we back to the days of "buy one, get one free?" The NYT observes that Hillary "mentioned Mr. Clinton at least eight times on Saturday -- at one point talking about 'Bill's heart surgery' to illuminate her own travails with health care bureaucracy -- and a few times on Sunday, most memorably when she said of Republicans, 'Bill and I have beaten them before, and we will again.'

"For the first time in her bid for the White House, Mrs. Clinton directly laid claim to the legacy and popularity of former President Bill Clinton -- and did so in a crucial primary state where her husband showed his resiliency in 1992, when he finished second despite weeks of troubles . . .

"Her advisers say it would be folly to minimize Mr. Clinton's role in her life: as a potential first gentleman, as her 'full-time political counselor' (as she called him on Saturday) and as a source of emotional support."

Well, she can't exactly run away from him, can she?

Did you catch Obama on "60" last weekend? Power Line's Paul Mirengoff jumps on his wife:

"At the outset of the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton introduced herself to the nation on '60 Minutes' with the false claim that her defense of her husband in the face of allegations of his womanizing was not a case of 'stand by your man.' Now, Barack Obama's wife apparently has introduced herself to the American people on the same show with the ludicrous claim that 'as a black man, Barack can get shot going to the gas station.'

"Hillary was lying; Mrs. Obama must just be a fool. The fact is that, but for his race, no one would even consider Barack Obama presidential material in 2008. So it does not behoove his wife to pretend that he is Martin Luther King and the U.S. is Memphis in 1968."

But here's why that is badly out of context. Michelle Obama was responding to the following question from Steve Kroft:

"This is a tough question to ask, but a number of years ago, Colin Powell was thinking about running for president, and his wife Alma really did not want him to run. She was worried about some crazy person with a gun. Is that something that you think about?"

"I don't lose sleep over it, because the realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station." So it wasn't like she was volunteering this out of the blue.

By the way, the transcript identifies her as Michelle Robinson. Is she not using Obama's name?

The Washington Post story that greatly upset the senator from Arizona--"McCain Taps Cash He Sought to Limit"--had a "misleading" headline, The Post now admits: "As was clear in the story, McCain is seeking contributions for his presidential campaign from donors who once contributed 'soft' money or who contributed to nonprofit political groups known as 527s, not from the groups themselves."

What would Abraham Lincoln think about the Iraq war? I generally hate questions like that, but Andrew Sullivan has found an interesting 1848 letter in which the future president responds to an argument for a preemptive strike against Mexico:

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, -- 'I see no probability of the British invading us;' but he will say to you, 'Be silent: I see it, if you don't.''

Such an approach, wrote Abe, "places our President where kings have always stood."