not burgess meredith, but larry bird

Mark Leibovich in NYT makes my same point from the other day. Obama post-Hillary is stronger than Obama post-sensation-sans-struggle:

Could competing against Mrs. Clinton have improved Mr. Obama as a candidate in the same way that competing against Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s made Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan champions in the 1990s? ...

Mr. Obama’s relentless hope-hope-hope campaign put him in danger of being seen as soft, a 2008 version of the “wimp factor” that haunted George H. W. Bush 20 years ago (before Mr. Bush, then vice president, embarked on one of the most aggressive, some say dirty, presidential campaigns in recent memory). The term “Obambi” entered the lexicon late last year, but has barely been heard of late.

Indeed, a candidate gains a certain political street credibility by being in a fight. Aides to the current President Bush when he was governor of Texas said he was greatly enhanced by the challenge posed by Mr. McCain in 2000.

“One of Bush’s liabilities coming in was that he was seen as a silver spooner who had lived a charmed political life,” said Dan Bartlett, a top aide to Mr. Bush in Texas and in the White House. Overcoming Mr. McCain, Mr. Bartlett said, was a show of toughness. “He took a punch and got up off the mat,” Mr. Bartlett said of Mr. Bush. “You could argue the same about Obama now.”

obama by 210,363 combined

Can this be the end of the beginning of the end for my party and their chances in November?

Tonight, many of the pundits have suggested that this party is inalterably divided – that Senator Clinton’s supporters will not support me, and that my supporters will not support her.

Well I’m here tonight to tell you that I don’t believe it. Yes, there have been bruised feelings on both sides. Yes, each side desperately wants their candidate to win. But ultimately, this race is not about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain. This election is about you – the American people – and whether we will have a president and a party that can lead us toward a brighter future.

This primary season may not be over, but when it is, we will have to remember who we are as Democrats – that we are the party of Jefferson and Jackson; of Roosevelt and Kennedy; and that we are at our best when we lead with principle; when we lead with conviction; when we summon an entire nation around a common purpose – a higher purpose. This fall, we intend to march forward as one Democratic Party, united by a common vision for this country. Because we all agree that at this defining moment in history – a moment when we’re facing two wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril – we can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush’s third term. We need change in America. Full Obama remarks as prepared ...

podcast: oil companies graded on transparency

New audio from Revenue Watch, with comments from my boss Karin Lissakers and Juanita Olaya of Transparency International on a new TI report that finds most oil and gas companies don't do very well when it comes to reporting what they pay governments, how their operations are structured or what anti-corruption measures are in place.

You can play or download the audio here, or read more from Transparency International.

Hillary=Burgess Meredith

Hillary is methodically taking away Obama's inexperience as a national candidate.

Her bruising, all-out, sometimes inexcusable campaign against him is providing a clinic in how to fight off a big dog. When he faces McCain he'll have savvy, resiliency, poise and a willingness to get a little dirty that he wouldn't have had if she'd gone away quietly in February.

The Clinton campaign is handing the GOP its tactics (as well as borrowing from them), yes. Money is getting squandered, yes. We're eating our young and looking like idiots yet again, yes. But we're also registering voters at 10-20 times the rate of the Republicans, and stealing airtime that they might have used.

So maybe this ridiculous brawl can also help as a sparring match before the big fight.

rich on clinton on bosnia online

From Sunday's NYT:

The Clinton campaign’s cluelessness about the Web has been apparent from the start, and not just in its lagging fund-raising. Witness the canned Hillary Web “chats” and “Hillcasts,” the soupy Web contest to choose a campaign song (the winner, an Air Canada advertising jingle sung by Celine Dion, was quickly dumped), and the little-watched electronic national town-hall meeting on the eve of Super Tuesday. Web surfers have rejected these stunts as the old-school infomercials they so blatantly are.

Senator Obama, for all his campaign’s Internet prowess, made his own media mistake by not getting ahead of the inevitable emergence of commercially available Wright videos on both cable TV and the Web. But he got lucky. YouTube videos of a candidate in full tilt or full humiliation, we’re learning, can outdraw videos of a candidate’s fire-breathing pastor. Both the CBS News piece on Mrs. Clinton in Bosnia and the full video of Mr. Obama’s speech on race have drawn more views than the most popular clips of a raging Mr. Wright.