DRJ noted how Hillary had some remarks today about Obama, the relentlessly positive candidate who recently sent out some negative attack mailers against Hillary. By taking exception to the attacks, Hillary is now being portrayed the same way as Republicans are portrayed when they defend themselves . . . she is being called an attacker by the L.A. Times (and pretty much the rest of the media as well). Here is from the L.A. Times story:

An angry Hillary Rodham Clinton scolded Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama today for campaign mailings that she described as false and shameful attacks on her record.

Clinton’s rhetorical blast, the most bellicose of her campaign, came 10 days before Ohio and Texas primaries that could doom her candidacy if she fails to stop her 11-contest losing streak.

What is she saying in the “rhetorical blast”? That Obama attacked her, and that the attack was unfair. Put aside the truth or falsity of the attacks, and just look at the language used by the media to describe the dynamic. Mr. Positivity sends out some mailers including accusations, like the one that says Hillary “was not with Ohio when our jobs were on the line.” Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong — and I think pointing out differences on issues is legitimate . . . but it is undoubtedly negative campaigning, and the mailers are undoubtedly attacks, whether fair or not. Hillary thinks they are unfair, she defends herself — and suddenly she is the attack dog. Obama is allowed to portray himself as the guy who is attacked:

Obama waved off the sharp criticism in a hastily arranged news conference at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus.

“We have been subject to constant attack from the Clinton campaign, except when we were down 20 points,” he said

The Deciders have decided who the winner should be, Hillary. And it ain’t you. They’re already writing your obituary.

Sucks, don’t it?

Welcome to our world. This is how Republicans get treated by Big Media every day.

I don’t feel sorry for you, Hillary. Not one bit.

I told my friends that Hillary’s closing remarks at the debate, widely interpreted as a mini-valedictory address, were calculated. It was nothing more than a premeditated attempt to recreate her New Hampshire miracle without the tears — a bid to create another dramatic turnaround by revealing her alleged human side. The theme of her debate remarks sprang directly from the “How do you do it” New Hampshire question: everyone wants to know how I do it, but believe it or not, there are people out there who have it harder than I do!

Guess what? She’s using it in ads now:

Clinton also released four new television ads today. One of them features her closing remarks in a Texas debate last Thursday.

So yeah, this was calculated. But she also miscalculated (misundercalculated?) in not realizing that it would look like her farewell to the race.

[Guest post by DRJ]

Today in Ohio, Hillary Clinton issued one of her strongest criticisms to date of Obama and his theme of change:

“She compared Obama to President Bush during the rally, suggesting the country had already taken a gamble on an inexperienced candidate who promised change.

“People talk a lot about change. We have lived through some of the worst change that anyone could imagine the last seven years,” she said to loud applause. “People thought we were getting a compassionate conservative, didn’t they? It turned out he was neither. We have lived with the consequences of those mistakes.”

She also criticized Obama for mass mailings to Ohio residents that she argues misrepresent her policies on health care and NAFTA, and are “tactics right out of Karl Rove’s playbook.”

I don’t know if voters will see the parallels but it seems to me that highlighting comparisons between Obama and Bush is a good strategy for Clinton. Both are/were regional candidates who were largely unknown during the primaries and whose policy positions were not clearly articulated. It might have been a different race had she identified this comparison earlier in the primary season and hammered it home.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

It’s not what you think:

“The Florida Marlins are looking for some footloose fat men. The National League team is creating an all-male, plus-size cheerleading squad to be dubbed the Manatees. Tryouts were scheduled for Sunday.

The team hopes to recruit seven to 10 tubby men to dance, cheer and jiggle during Friday and Saturday home games this season.

Real manatees, 1,200-pound mammals sometimes referred to as “sea cows,” are not considered the most agile of creatures and often get caught in boat propellers.”

The Manatees will join the Mermaids, the Marlin’s svelte female cheer squad. They will be unpaid but will receive free game tickets and, presumably, adoration from the crowd.

However, the Manatees won’t be the first of its kind. The Chicago Bulls basketball team already has a plus-size male dance troop, the Matadors.

— DRJ

At Pajamas Media. Excerpt:

It was a funeral befitting a great man: 10,000 mourners packed into the biggest church they could find, poignant eulogies, glorious music, a grand procession through a grateful city to a final resting place amid rolling hills and a view to the sea, all of it carried live on television. Sadly, it was only after Randy Simmons was killed that most of us came to learn just how great he was.

. . . .

Before leaving home, Simmons gathered his family for a prayer, not only for his safety and that of his fellow officers, but also for the man he would seek to arrest. It was a familiar ritual for all of them. Simmons had been a cop for 27 years and a member of the SWAT team for 20. His children had grown to be teenagers without ever having seen him do anything else. Dad’s cell phone rings, he goes out and gets the bad guy, he comes home. Though a SWAT officer had died in a training accident in 2000, none had ever been killed on a call-up in the unit’s 40-year history.

So off Simmons went on a code-three run from his home in Palos Verdes to the incident command post in the San Fernando Valley. This time he did not come home.

Read it all.