SUnday AM in NE- After the South Carolina Primary

I drove, bad boy that I am, to the local equivalent of a seven-eleven to check out the Sunday papers this morning. Since I am something of a political junkie I thought I might want to read the print media take on the latest events. It had just started to snow, our NE Patriots were about to get a send off to the Super Bowl, and, more importantly, Barack Obama had just thrashed Hillary in the South Carolina primary by more than 25 points. THE Clinton spin machine has been in high gear since last night, barely acknowledging the Obama victory and busily comparing Barack to Jesse Jackson. It is sad to watch the former Prez soil himself as he turns his ire and his pique on at members of his own party after being thwarted in his attempt to get what he wants. But I had forgotten what a truly nasty and masterful belittler Bill is.

W. J. Clinton has always assumed that since he is beloved among the faithful that the Dems would just roll over and coronate Hillary, thereby putting him back in the White House as well. Of course the Clintons may still retake the White House, but it won't be a simple or a painless exercise. If they do manage to pull it off we will be stuck with at least four more years of divisive and bitterly partisan politics. We will also have to suffer through yet another Administration that will do virtually nothing to set this nation on the course to renewal and sustainability.

While he was in office Bill Clinton proved that he was as adept at sleeping with the corporations as anyone. He did manage to make us either ignore his peccadilloes or at least forgive them since he seemed not only like such a nice guy, but he also managed to feed the illusion that some of the money that was changing hands for all these favors got spread around a little more widely than it does under Republican administrations. But other than that he made no fundamental efforts to change the way things work in the USofA. In fact, he not only oversaw the single most important program of corporate giveaways and exportation of real jobs, i.e., NAFTA, he was its staunchest supporter. Though he is clearly less of a venal character than GWB, there is absolutely no reason to think that his wife will be any less of a fox in the hen house than he was. The only change she really supports is moving the corporate payoffs from Republican pockets to Democrat pockets. Plus ca change. Hillary should be running on the 'spare change' ticket. No matter how hard I try I can’t avoid seeing her as a prudish, hectoring, self-righteous elderly aunt who disses everyone when their backs are turned. She also has the phoniest smile on the planet; well, no that’s not true. Dubba’s is still the winner in that category.

After checking out the headlines and scanning the promised contents inside, I avoided giving money to the NY Times corporation. I ignored not only their namesake flagship paper and but their local rag, the Boston Globe as well. I also avoided the urge to buy a bag of crispy cheese doodles..... though I'm a little sorry about that. So it’s a day of homemade bread and smoked salmon from a trip to the coast of Washington. Things could be worse; and no doubt they will be soon enough.