Message Redacted

Some thoughts:

It was difficult for me to watch the questioning and not slide back toward the belief that Hillary Clinton is clearly the best-prepared person among the trio from who the the next President will likely emerge. So I’m back on the fence.

I would really, really hope that someone will report what exactly was so important that Barack Obama had to rush in and rush out of the hearings, sort of like a Hollywood star doing a bit part but not really committing. His questions were good, his lack of interest in not being there all along or hanging around and following up was telling.

Comes to that, how long were John McCain, Clinton and Obama in the room except for their TV face time?

Seriously, is it unfair or merely reasonable to think that Joe Lieberman, Lindsay Graham and James Imhoff are so obviously assholes that it’s okay to say so, even in polite company such as this?

Gotta run. Some Republican guy is on the Hardball with Chris Matthews thing getting all stern and firm about Johnny Mac’s “Straight Talk” and I have to a) switch it off and b) go throw up.

The Sunday New York Times Magazine will have a cover feature on Chris Matthews and his Hardball TV embarrassment this coming weekend. Can’t wait? You can read juicy parts here here. Sadly, from what those show, it doesn’t look like writer Mark Leibovich really takes a serious look at Matthews’ role in turning our political discourse into infantile and obsessive blather about everything but the issues facing the country. And if Matthews does somehow end up as host of Face the Nation, just go ahead and start partying hard. There couldn’t be any clearer sign that the end of civilization is nigh.

UPDATE: For them as cares, Liebovich’s entire Matthews feature is now online.

I don’t know what all the confusion is about the Bush Plan for Iraq, it seems pretty clear to me.

We can’t cut back on our troops because conditions will get worse if we do, which means we certainly can;t cut back if things get worse either. On the other hand, if things somehow get better, we can’t back on our troops then either because things might then get worse again.

There is no plan, of course, no timetable, no end game, no idea of what the hell we’re doing. Or why.

Simple as that. Why is anybody confused?