Too Slick Hillary

The start of the storm, more humor from Muir here. Hillary everywhere, but before you read the rest, a diversion. Peggy Noonan's delicious intro to Hillary Reveals Her Inner Self, where she opines on Obama:

The story isn't that the Democrats finally took on Hillary Clinton. Nor is it that they were gentlemanly to the point of gingerly and tentative. There was an air of "Please, somebody kill her for me so I can jump in and show high-minded compassion at her plight!"

Barack Obama, with his elegance and verbal fluency really did seem like that great and famous political figure from his home state of Illinois -- Adlai Stevenson, who was not at all hungry, not at all mean, and operated at a step removed from the grubby game. Mr. Obama is like someone who would write in his diaries, "I shall point out Estes Kefauver's manifold inconsistencies, then to luncheon with Arthur and Marietta."

OK, now read on, but this is key:

The problem for Mrs. Clinton is not that people sense she will raise taxes. It's that they don't think she'll raise them on the real and truly rich. The rich are her friends. They contribute to her, dine with her, have access to her. They have an army of accountants. They're protected even from her.

But she can stick it to others, and in the way of modern liberalism for roughly half a century now, one suspects she'll define affluence down.

Kathleen Parker on Hillary playing the gender card. I wondered about this some months ago--kind of early to play it, don't you think? A little desperate? Has to bring Bill in to defend her? Charles Krauthammer on The Real Hill-Bill problem. (nice twist at the end:)

Blake Dvorak, RCP on Hillary's first show of weakness:

For candidates like Obama and Edwards, the key is not so much to show all the ways Clinton isn't a good liberal on matters of foreign-policy. The key is to show voters that behind the focus-grouped façade, there remains a Clinton -- untrustworthy and ambition-oriented. It is easier to make the case that the country should move beyond Bush-Clinton if you can strip Hillary of the packaging designed to make you think she resembles "change." But since Clinton is unlikely to make the same mistake again, the campaigns will have to get creative. The weakness, however, has been revealed.

And it looks like Edwards is capitalizing on it, not Obama: Having revived Bill's reputation, (at least temporarily) is she in danger of losing hers? (Is Hillary a chump in the end?) We forget about his wrongs, we remember hers, courtesy of the Dems? The conservative revenge, executed by liberals. Sweet.

UPDATE: Obama attacks Hillary. Sort of, as he's not a plain speaker either. The Swamp on his Newsweek interview.

UPDATE: RCP Blog on Edward's efforts to hit Hillary hard.

UPDATE: NY Times, "Different Rules When a Rival Is a Woman?" Choice graph:

Mrs. Clinton denies playing the gender card — at least in the sense of saying that as a woman she should be exempt from the traditional rough-and-tumble of campaigns — and her remarks on the subject have certainly been oblique.

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