[reddit-me]From End Politics as Usual:
In a move that’s sure to be seen as controversial, Hillary has contacted the NCAA Board of Directors to argue that Memphis is actually better qualified to be National Champion.
Ms. Clinton stated that Memphis, while losing the game, had actually shown more ability to act like a National Champion on Day One.
The comparison helps put Sean Wilentz’s attempt at creating a coherent argument in his recent Salon article, which has been skewered all over the blogosphere for its circular firing squad of arguments, in perspective. Mr. Wilentz asks midway through the article:
[W]hy are the rules suddenly sacrosanct and the popular vote irrelevant [to the Obama campaign]?
It might be an interesting point to make – about how Obama’s campaign uses whichever rationale is best to make it’s case. Except Mr. Wilentz forgot to lead up to that turn by mentioning that the Obama campaign was promoting a view based on the idea that the rules were unimportant – or even point to a single instance in which the Obama camp was arguing that the rules for the contest were irrelevant. There’s a reason for this. Mr. Obama decided to run his campaign according to the rules set down by the Democratic National Committee. He had his staff analyze every contest, every primary, every caucus – and he began organizing and strategizing for the contest last year. He decided to play by the rules and win by the rules – and he’s done a good job of it. Ms. Clinton on the other hand was unaware of the rules of the Texas caucus-primary a week after her husband had said it was essential for her to win there and a week before the caucus-primary itself.
Mr. Wilentz – in trying to defend Ms. Clinton – fails to make a coherent argument – seeing in the Obama campaign’s consistency a reflection of his own attempts to defend a candidate with mangled rationales, conflicting and conflating. Mr. Wilentz is typical of many of Ms. Clinton’s supporters – who at this point are stuck attempting to flesh out the arguments behind an increasingly discordant set of talking points:
Meanwhile, below the jump under the fold if you click the “More” link if you read on you can find ((These edits are an attempt to conform this site to the “Reddit Style Guide” culled from numerous reddit comments.)) , a video parable of “The Logic of Hillary ’08″… (h/t The Grandest Panjadrum.) Enjoy.