Hammer Mill Days

There's the old lumber storage shed. Then there's that ancient grain silo - hasn't been used for years. Oh, yeah... and that little room in the north corner of the foundry - forgot about that. Oh, hi. Welcome to the land of a thousand compromises. (Notice that the word "promise" is embedded in "compromises" - coincidence?) What is it this time, you may ask? Well... just trying to accommodate a few visitors. Actually, more than a few - a whole herd of visitors. No, the mongooses have not returned... they've clearly found richer fields of breadfruit elsewhere. This has more to do with the various negotiations we have to engage in around this place to keep all of our constituencies happy. (It gets goddamn tiresome sometimes, I can tell you, but would you want to listen? Be honest!) You got to give a little to get a little, right? That's our credo. I know what you're thinking. (I'm quite gifted that way, actually. Your favorite fruit is cant...

Well, the Clintons won Pennsylvania by nearly ten points, so I guess all that slamming, sliming, and race-baiting was well worth it. Or sort of, anyway... since it's still hard to see how Hillary can walk away with this nomination short of spontaneous combustion on Obama's part. No matter - the race continues. In a year when a Democrat should certainly walk to victory in November, the party is inventing a way to lose against a pretty lame candidate on the G.O.P. side. Start with two parts ambition - the kind the Clintons pursue at the cost of all they claim to believe in. Certainly, I've never been a fan of theirs, but I would dislike them a whole lot less if they simply stuck to articulating their positions, outlining policy differences with their opponent in a civil fashion, and refrain from all the exaggerated accusations about sixties radicals, anti-American (Marine veteran) preachers, and out of context remarks worthy of Sean Hannity or Matt Drudge. Are the Clintons cr...