More Obama chic

Via Lowry.

Two thoughts.

First. Until this past month, the strategy for the Democrats in '08 was simple: find someone who could win every state that Kerry won, plus either Ohio or Florida. In the aftermath of the mid-terms, suddenly the Mason-Dixon line (Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri) is now in play, plus Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, maybe even (unless McCain is nominated) Arizona.

The up-for-grabs blue states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota) seem further out of reach for the GOP.

Meaning? Meaning someone who could win a few borderline and Rocky Mountain states 51-49% may the Dems' road to the White House. And a Mark Warneresque clone may not be necessary. If 150,000 American troops are still in Iraq in October 2008, or if an American withdrawal has led to a perceived Saigon 1975 Part II, sheer revulsion toward the GOP may be enough for 300+ electoral votes.

Simply pointing at Obama and chanting "liberal, liberal, nyah nyah nyah," won't cut it.

Second point. Should Hillary win in 2008, and serve two terms, the country will have been treated to 28 straight years of uninterrupted Clinton/Bush rule stretching over parts of four decades. This would mean the tied-for-second most dominant political families in US history--more dominant than the Adamses, the Harrisons, the Kennedys, second only to the Roosevelts--will have occupied the executive branch of government from the retirement of Ronald Reagan to . . . whom? Someone thirty-five years old in 2016 would have been eight when the Reagans boarded Air Force One for the Palisades.

I'm all for who the people want. But truly, is this what they want? Jeb Bush, who has never drawn a stupid breath (and for want of a few thousand votes in Florida in 1994, would probably be heading toward his own last two years in the White House), has, correctly I think, sensed a certain Clinton/Bush fatigue, and has taken himself out of the race. The thought of nine months of questions about Halliburton must exhaust Jeb as much as nine months of questions about the Rose Law Firm's missing billing records (never mind the thought of her husband set loose on the East Wing, playing slap-and-tickle with the interns) must appeal to Hillary.

So? So Obama is in play.