Dirty Pool 2008: How Did We Get Here?

As I thought about what to write for our 2,934th story, one question stood out, the one above. How did we get here, how did I get here? It really hit me last night when George Stephanopoulos asked Barack Obama about William Ayres during last night's debate, and about his American flag pin, then once more when Senator Clinton tried to conflate Barack Obama with Lewis Farrakhan.

It seemed to me that this campaign had started off so happily, with the Democrats assured victory in November, and the biggest problem being deciding how big a Democratic majority in Congress was too big?
In fact, until January, I barely paid attention to it, rarely writing about the primary. In fact, when I did write about it, it was to criticize the craptitude of the coverage.

I mainly wrote about policy and legislation as they relate to people's lives, some media criticism, some human interest stories. Nobody was reading it. I took solace in the feeling that I was above all the silliness.

But then, I noticed something that woke me up to the importance of joining the fight, and it might surprise a lot of you to know what that was.I noticed two things simultaneously. First, there were a massive number of Hillary Clinton stories being written here, almost none by me, and seemingly all, or most, negative (my own, unscientific impression). The other thing I noticed was that if you put Hillary Clinton in your headline, the story got huge readership, more so if you included a slam.

It pissed me off a little, as I remembered all of the shrill insanity that was thrown at her in the 90's, and I had always admired her for the way she handled herself. Being a good liberal, I set out to make things right, and being a high-minded prick, I did it in the most self-satisfied, overly clever manner I could muster. I wrote a satirical piece called "A Clinton Presidency Would Be a Disaster," hitting the 2 prerequisites for a big PM story.

The story was huge for me at that time, garnering a whole 99 comments! I started writing more and more about the primaries, and I found myself trying to act as a one-man balance to all of the irrational hatred and misogyny that was being directed at Hillary. Even though I liked John Edwards better, I really wanted to see Hillary get a fair shake.

When race first reared its ugly head in this contest, I defended Hillary's tone-deaf comments about LBJ, and condemned Barack Obama for not putting out the fire when given the chance to. At the same time, I criticized the Clinton campaign's defense of Bob Johnson's remarks. That same week, I had my first press conference, and my first taste of Clinton-style unfair politics, as senior adviser Ann Lewis distorted Barack Obama's record on choice.

Oh, how I long for those innocent days. My friend, Jay Allbritton, saw the whole thing coming, but I was off in some dreamworld where all Democrats were dedicated to righting the wrongs of the Bush Administration. Then, all hell broke loose at the South Carolina debate. When Hillary brought up Tony Rezko, I almost fell out of my chair, as the thin sauce that Rezko is now hadn't even gotten warm yet back then. I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, that a Democrat would throw something like that at another Democrat. What an infant I was.

I continued to write about the race, giving each candidate the benefit of the doubt whenever I could, and writing one of my most popular stories ever, a valentine to Hillary called "The Greatness of Hillary Clinton," which I still stand behind, every single syllable.

It wasn't until March 5 that it hit me, like the proverbial brickload. In one fell swoop, Hillary's "3am" ad and endorsement of John McCain's "Commander in Chief" cred completely destroyed the universal presumption that the Republicans could not win in November.

And that is how we got here, because someone who has been the recipient of lifetimes worth of unfairness has taken that experience and filtered it through some crazy reverse-Golden Rule. To have a Democrat question another Democrat's patriotism, and for not wearing a pin?

Clinton spokesman Jay Carson was scornful, almost mocking, when he answered my question of whether a McCain/Clinton ticket was possible. Just like readers of that first Clinton story, Jay just didn't get the joke. It's ok, because I do get it, and I'm not laughing.