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Farewell Hillary, Hello Bill

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Hillary Clinton's popularity dropping significantly, even in the midst and in the wake of the Obama/Rev. Wright debacle. Not good news for Hillary, whose chances now seem very slim. Even a win in PA, unless a landslide (defined as 60+% of the vote), cannot save her campaign now.

I would have to count myself among those whose regard for the New York Senator has dropped. She's proven herself Old School, and I don't want Old School. She may be on the right side, and her politics are perhaps capable, but they're not attractive. She's not got the air of high statesmanship. She's a wonk in the trenches, and that is where she needs to be. She will, after her run, thrive as a notorious and increasingly powerful Senator, a la Ted Kennedy, until she retires.

As long as Clinton has been running for office, I have wanted nothing to do with her husband, Bill. He's been a pain. But that could change.

If Senator Clinton were to win the presidency, Bill's presence, and even more so any actual involvement, would be seen as cronyism. We'd never hear the end of speculation and investigations into his role in a Hillary White House (which should, like wedding dresses for second and subsequent marriages, be repainted off-white, if not yellow or pink).

But if Senator Obama were to win the presidency, any involvement by Bill would be seen as resourceful team-building, as reaching out, as a la Martha Stewart cleaning house, a good thing.

And so let's hear it for some positive team-building.

And the good news for Hillary: with the end of her push to be president, her negatives will sink, and her positives will go up. Her slightly martyred and slightly heroic stature will rise and stabilize.

The 55th Governor of the State of New York

David Paterson may not be the light at the end of the tunnel for New York, but he is at least a light in the tunnel, a significant, symbolic, inspirational, comforting light (irony perhaps intended for the blind and yet hardly disabled man from Harlem). He is, especially in contrast to the fire and brimstone that preceded him, a beacon of hope, of some reconciliation, if not outright peace. And Paterson's reaching out, his deft touch and his very welcomed tone, encompassing and non-threatening, bode well for what might happen in New York and elsewhere, even on a national and global scale if we elect politicians who want to serve the people, as in all of the people.

Welcome, David Paterson.

Bush wins Brown Thumb Award

Well, as if there were any doubt, this is the clincher: The EPA comes out with tougher standards for air quality in 20 years, and at the last minute, the White House and President Bush kneecap the deal. MSNBC posts the AP story here.

Two days ago, some of us were thinking things were looking up. Some presidents, desperate to put a more positive "legacy" spin on their final years in office, sometimes do some encouraging things, things which run counter to their generally corrupt corporate/good ol' boy favoritism.

I was even about to blog on the idea that Bush might pull out his best year yet, though that would not be saying much. The man hasn't really had a good year, I'll bet, since he somehow snared Laura to be his lucky wife or way back when he was yucking it up at Yale.

The man does not have a gold thumb for business, a gold star for good behavior, or even a tin star for the law. And he certainly doesn't have a green thumb for the Earth or anything growing on it. More like a Halliburton-steeped/Brown & Root Brown Thumb.

By undermining the EPA, Mr. Bush proves he is an enemy of our health and well-being. His bitter legacy is cynical, insulting, snide, poisonous, noxious, toxic. Surely, there must be a law -- or should be -- to stop such wanton destruction, such woeful corruption.

Corporate greed may be public enemy number one, but Mr. Bush, you are number two.

And therein, Mr. Bush, can be found your Brown Thumb.

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