in every possible way (and she sucked apparently, too, so it's not even because she's an able administrator of anything)

the best part is that because the Vice Presidency is a constitutional office, Obama can't decide who the VP's CoS will be.

in other words, this is just a pure "fuck you" to Clinton and her supporters.

That's part of the problem, IMO. Obama's campaign struggled until last October when Obama announced in the NYT that he would attack Hillary personally and then did just that (as Bob Somerby pointed out yesterday, Mark Penn is right about that). Axelrod is a corporate astroturfer, that's what he knows. That's why this is what we're going to continue to get - it's the only thing they know how to do that's worked for them.

They have no idea how both reach out while not giving up too much power to Clinton and her supporters. That, and they're, like, 12 years old.

david axelrod has run a number of big city mayoral campaigns. i don't know what these campaigns have been like, but i wouldn't be surprised to learn that the tactics used nationally by team obama are those that axelrod has employed in his long career as a "campaign strategist".

furthermore, for all i know, obama himself may have become accustomed to using aggressive, dismissive tactics in his two sets of elections in illinois.

but, whatever the explanation, the end result is this,

as summarized by a lady who commented on another weblog following one of obama's undiplomatic put-downs (maybe the middle finger episode):

"senator obama is an incompetent politician".

that's all she wrote in her comment.

it was clear from the context, though, that this commenter felt that a competent politician does not go out of his or her way to make enemies or exacerbate conflict.

i agree. an experienced politician knows that he will make enough enemies doing what he feels needs to be done. gratuitously adding to that list is folly, folly founded on lack of experience and hubris.

the nation is just emerging from a disastrous two-term presidency by an inexperienced, in-your-face, middle-finger-to-the-law president whose hubris knew no bounds.

now we face the happy prospect of eight more years of the same.

Who is scared of this petty, vindictive pattern of behavior?

(nodding)

Sorry, I need a link or a quote from someone, other than bloggers and commentors saying that Obama hiring Patti Solis Doyle is a "fuck you" to Senator Clinton.

I get your anger, don't share it, but I get it. But until I see more than angry people telling me 1) how Senator Clinton feels and 2) how Senator Obama thinks, I'm not buying it.

Nothing makes me angrier than to have someone decide how I feel about a situation without checking in with me.

Now, I also get that Senator Clinton, if she does feel dissed, isn't going to say so. But someone has to.

I see Patti Solis Doyle as a Latina who has worked on political campaigns for a long time taking a job in a presidential campaign. I don't know how competent she is or isn't. I do know that most of the insane comments I heard from the Clinton campaign were coming from Mark Penn and he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who shared glory; only the hardships.

So, while I'm not from Missouri, I still say - Show me.

Is a long-time friend of Hillary Clinton (see, e.g. here) and a huge fundraiser for Clinton and the Democratic Party. If she sees this as a dis and is willing to go on record? Then that's probably how a lot of other folks close to Clinton see it, too.

As for Patty Solis Doyle, her main experience is working for Hillary Clinton. Although, interestingly, she's from Chicago and started her career with Richard Daley and has known David Axelrod for 20 years.

So let's recap the events, shall we:

Clinton fires Patty Solis Doyle from leading her presidential campaign among claims of incompetence (related primarily to Solis Doyle running through Clinton's war chest by Super Tuesday which was reportedly a surprise to Clinton and yes that was her job and not Mark Penn's).

It was widely reported the firing was accompanied by a break in their friendship.

Obama's campaign hires Patty Solis Doyle, not for any old position, but for Chief of Staff to the VP nominee, even though there isn't any VP nominee right now.

Kind of hard to see how that's not a slap at Clinton and a signal about her chances at being VP.

Obama = Passive Aggressive.

A match made in Heaven, but more likely made in Hell.

clinton booed loudly

though, to his credit, senator obama is described as not encouraging the booing.

how to get a nice big house in a good neighborhood.

obama real estate

is that it comes as news, or a surprise, or leaves an iota's doubt, in anybody else's mind about Obama.

If we didn't need Rick Noriega so damn bad in the Senate, I'd stay the hell home. Another W is on the way, boys and girls, no matter who wins in November.

It's gonna SUCK.

We can admit that we're killers ... but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes! Knowing that we're not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0

to the assholish behavior surrounding the Obama campaign, especially on the internets, but I report it for your information anyway. Via Shakesville, a new Computer World article relays the following findings:

We found that 63% of women in science, engineering and technology have experienced sexual harassment. That's a really high figure.

They talk about demeaning and condescending attitudes, lots of off-color jokes, sexual innuendo, arrogance; colleagues, particularly in the tech culture, who genuinely think women don't have what it takes -- who see them as genetically inferior. It's hard to take as a steady stream. It's predatory and demeaning. It's distressing to find this kind of data in 2008.

This is believed to be the most important factor driving women from tech jobs.

But, hey, at least they can leave. Check out the Newsweek article also cited in Melissa's post that indicates that there's no glass ceiling in the military even though 1/3 of women are sexually harrassed - apparently they've exchanged the risks of sexual harrassment and assault for a "level playing field." As Melissa points out, it's apparently a "level playing field" if women have to run the risk of harrassment by the very people they are competing with. But thank goodness there's no glass ceiling.

Suck it, Newsweek.

I've said it before, but our culture has a sickness around male identity (I'm talking about the culture generally, not every man in it).

delegates booted