Proper care and feeding

Oh, I do enjoy Gail Collins on a sunny Saturday morning. Her latest gift to political discourse is this memorable analogy:

picking a running mate is — no disrespect intended — like picking a pet. How much time are you planning to spend with the little fellow? How much exercise will he be getting on an average day? On one extreme, you have the William Wheeler model (“There’s the living room. Go find a corner and sleep in it.”) On the other end, there’s the Cheney version in which the pet takes over the checkbook, diversifies the family investment portfolio and starts strafing at the neighbor’s cat.

Of course, flip is not always fair:

And then there was Charles Dawes, Calvin Coolidge’s veep, who wrote the melody to the song “It’s All in the Game” and got a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on stabilizing the German economy after World War I.

Yes, I know. That last one didn’t work out too well. The song is nice, though.

Stabilizing the German economy after the post-WW1 hyperinflation was a tremendous achievement, whoever deserves the credit. It was the Depression that kicked the continent back into crisis.

Exit, slashing

New York, June 3, 2008 -- Well, what did you expect? She stood up there and sabotaged the nominee. She patted him on the head like a prize pig, or like a defeated rival, and then she did her best to undercut his candidacy. Her speech was a trip down memory lane, a review of her most toxic fratricidal messages....who will be the strongest candidate and president? Who will be ready to lead? To her followers: you're the hard-working men and women...no one could hear "hard-working" without filling in her prior poisonous appositive, "white." The dishonest boast: we won more primary votes than any candidate ever. The argument the party rejected: we won the swing states necessary to get to 270. Then came the address to her 18 million supporters as if they were a nation apart. In answer to the question, "what does Hillary want?" her answer: I want the 18 million woho voted for me to be respected, heard, no longer invisible." That was a stickup, pure and simple.

Who else would seek the vice presidency with a bludgeon? Who else would put the nominee in a position where he has to reject her bid or else signal to the world that he can be rolled? Always, always always she overplays her hand. She brings herself down...but she brings others with her.