Home
In this issue
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 7, 2008 / 30 Adar I 5768

The lively corpse in the parlor

By Wesley Pruden


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The Hillary Clinton campaign was nicely laid out in the parlor only days ago. But somebody forgot to drive the stake through the corpse's kind and gentle heart.


The big poohbahs of the Democratic Party were so sure that Hillary had succumbed in the dust of Barack Obama's that after Texas and Ohio the only task left would be the delegation of one of their rank to go to Hillary (and Bill) and tell them it was time for the undertaker to close the coffin lid and the preacher to read Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar."


Someone suggested that Al Gore was the man for the job, but he didn't want it. If he went on such a fool's errand, to tell Hillary to give up the ghost, he knew he would soon be delivering lectures on global warming in high soprano.


Now we're not quite back to where we were, but close. Maybe now we can expect better entertainment. Tom Hanks, the Hollywood movie star, says he's ready for the campaign to be over because he's bored. He probably speaks for the masses. The good news is that short attention spans are about to be rewarded. A survey by the Associated Press, out late yesterday, finds that neither Hillary nor Obama is likely to get the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, and if the superdelegates remain deeply divided, the Democratic National Convention, opening Aug. 25, will be the best show in Denver since the Unsinkable Molly Brown played to SRO.


This frightens the party pols, who thought they had prevented everything bad, with superdelegates standing by only to adjust an unfortunate decision by ordinary people. Modern conventions are meant to be coronations, deprived of controversy and suspense, which explains why the television ratings sag lower with each election year. The pols are afraid that a real contest would further divide their constituents, forgetting that Democrats have always taken brass knucks to unity meetings. The best cure for disappointment, frustration or blighted hope is a bracing saloon brawl. Hand-to-hand combat always results only in more combatants. (You should ask your daddy why.)


It's a puzzle why a media that can't get enough fire and wholesale death on the television screen should demand such mild entertainment on the hustings. Maybe the assignment editors should bring in their political reporters for counseling and therapy and send out the TV critics, accustomed to rowdy mayhem, in their place.


The mildest questions posed by Hillary and Barack Obama to each other are cited as insult worthy of satisfaction that can be obtained only by pistols at dawn, except that no Democrat can admit knowing which end of a pistol is the business end. Howard Wolfson, invariably described as Hillary's attack dog, fiercely decried the dents in Hillary's honor yesterday, attacking Sen. Obama for attacking Hillary. He invoked the name of the dreaded Ken Starr to show how serious he is.


"When Sen. Obama was confronted with questions over whether he was ready to be commander in chief and steward of the economy he chose not to address those questions, but to attack Sen. Clinton," he said. "I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president." Has crying out "George W. Bush" in a loud, angry voice lost its power to set Democratic passions aflame?


The party rules, written to assure the nomination of Hillary Clinton no later than Super Tuesday on March 4, created the unelected superdelegates to top up the count if Hillary needed a few more to clinch the nomination. But the authors of those rules did not foresee Barack Obama, nor the delicious dilemma posed by renegade primaries in Florida and Michigan. The contest, with the man from Illinois still the favorite, comes down to who has "the big 'mo." Maybe it's still Barack Obama, but the corpse in Hillary's parlor is nevertheless up and walking around.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

Wesley Pruden Archives

© 2007 Wesley Pruden

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Michael Barone
  Dave Barry
 Tony Blankley
 Andy Borowitz
 David Broder
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 John Fund
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Lloyd Garver
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Lewis Grossberger
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 David Horowitz
 Laura Ingraham
 Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ed Koch
 Ch. Krauthammer
 Michael Ledeen
 John Leo
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Dick Morris
 Bill O'Reilly
 Jim Mullen
 Clarence Page
 Kathleen Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Jonathan Rauch
 Celia Rivenbark
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Pat Sajak
 Debra J. Saunders
 Culture Shlock
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
  Lisa Benson
 John Branch
 Gary Brookins
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holber
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Ranan R. Lurie
 Jimmy Margulies
 Rick McKee
 Michael Ramirez
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Ed Stein
 Danna Summers
 John Trever
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters

Lifestyles
 How 2
 Lori Borgman
 The Savvy Consumer
 Elder matters
 Fixit
 Dr. Peter Gott
 GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
 Richard Lederer
 Tech Maven
 Every Monday Matters
 Nutrition Myths
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams
 How Stuff Works