All I have to say is that if you watch the interview, it's one of the few times I've seen the Big Dog not be smooth.  If it's supposed to be a hit job of any kind, it's a really, really bad one.

Hm.  Should Obama have responded?  I'd say maybe with one sentence.  More than that is out of proportion to the so-called "attack".  It isn't worth the time.

...the most recent Democratic President, overwhelmingly approved by Democrats everywhere.

I agree it wasn't the most sure-footed response, but you don't just roll over.

I also agree that the "blood sport" reference was weak, but I think the "politics of personal destruction" reminder was strong parry.

The truth is that Hillary Clinton is a complete unknown, as president.  But of course we do know exactly what she did in the Senate, capitulate to the Republicans at almost every opportunity apparently thinking it would give her a lock on the nomination, and four years ago perhaps it would have.  She should've run her campaign in 2004, but apparently she wasn't interested in a real challenge, she preferred to wait for the easy win.  

Excuse me for taking satisfaction in watching her bleed a little, because she left us with that stiff John Kerry, perhaps counting on him to lose.  I see what's happening to her campaign now as rather well-deserved.  And now that she's under real pressure, she doesn't look quite so good, now does she?  I'd be willing to bet that Clinton's advisers told her that if she ran in 2004, her government experience would've been brought into question by the Republicans, in much the same way she's done with Obama.  Sorry Hillary, it's too late to use the tactics out of the Karl Rove handbook.

  And Hillary has the nerve to tell us that her perpetual acquiescence in the Senate was a sign of strength and stability, please!  I see her tactical approach as very similar to those used by her husband and it seems likely that she would govern the same way.  

In my opinion the William Jefferson Clinton presidency was hardly more than a slowdown of the conservative movement.  Bill did little more than stave off the nightmare we have now.  We lost the Congress because the Democrats were weak, their ideas were badly lacking, poorly articulated and even more poorly executed.  And the only reason the Democrats regained the majority in the House and Senate in 2006 is because we have an incompetent moron in the White House, who usurped the People's sovereignty, crapped on the Constitution, and started a war with a country who was no threat to us, damaging this country and our economy immeasurably.  With the money we've blown, and are going to blow, we could already had national health care for everyone.

(This thought continues after a short two paragraph trip into bizarro world, and the undeniable fact that the incompetence of George W. Bush has become the savior of the Democratic Party)

Just imagine what this political race would look like if George Bush had listened to the right people from the start, and been able to create some kind of corporate capitalist paradise in Iraq, and the price of gas was back to $.89 a gallon with the help of cheaply acquired Iraqi oil, and the economy was humming along and growing nicely.  The Republicans would still have the majority in Congress, and the Democrats would have little or no chance of winning this election.  Hillary wouldn't be running, and neither would Obama, they'd both be waiting for a better opportunity to go for the gold.  Al Gore would be running for president, along with John Kerry again.  Gore would get the nomination, and then lose badly in the general election, even with his Nobel prize.  Thankfully we don't live in that bizarro world, but if Bush had been a competent administrator like his brother Jeb, the Democrats could very easily have found themselves in that situation.

The truth is George W. Bush has done more to help the Democratic party than any president since Nixon.  It seems the Democrats need Republican screw ups to make them look good. It's just too bad that our country and its people have to pay the price for their gains.  Now I understand why those who once claimed to be progressives, crossover and become conservatives Republicans, apparently it's about being able to wake up and respect yourself in the morning.

(Continuing my original thought)

After the Bush debacle of course the people switched over to a party that they hoped would remember who they work for, unfortunately we now know that pretty much both parties in Congress have sold us all down the river like slaves on this corporate plantation. In a sense, the people/slaves are like a giant sleeping Leviathan, and our representatives just do the absolute minimum that is required to keep us sleeping and placated.  The only time they even think about really paying attention to us is when we are roused from our slumber. Then our representatives begin acting out of the fear of losing their jobs, so it's no wonder that they continually resort to similar tactics when dealing with us.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see Hillary Clinton doing much more than continuing this appeasement of the minority Republican Party, and the all-powerful forces of mutated mercantile capitalism, where the government works for the corporations, and the people are just an afterthought.  With the Clintons in the White House, before you know it, they'll be telling the American people that the the sow's ear were being sold is in fact a silk purse, and we should be damned grateful for it.  

And of course we'll get a guaranteed continuation of the partisan games we've all come to know and love.  The Republicans will do everything in their power to undermine the Clinton presidency in the hopes of regaining the House and Senate, which they will probably do, without the war issue and a rapidly failing economy weighing them down like a loadstone the way it is today.  Instead it'll be hanging around Hillary's neck, and it will drag her down along with the Democrats in Congress.  Bill will be doing damage control, as he is now, and the Clintons will be lucky to get one term in the White House because the American people will not tolerate Iraq going on endlessly, and inflation spiraling out of control while people lose their houses and can't find anything but crappy service jobs, servicing a shrinking middle-class who will watch as the buying power of their dollars shrinks as well.  They'll be marching on the White House with pitchforks and torches, calling for the head of the monster.

I don't need some half assed journey back to the 90s, minus the economic growth and relative peace, and neither do the American people.  But the Republicans would love it because it will once again give them the opportunity to show how weak the Democrats are, and before you know it we'll see yet another resurgence of Reaganomics, privatization, deregulation, and the American people left to swing in the breeze while our elected representatives keep this sick little game going until the United States really is a third-rate power, the mere remnants of a once proud empire, just another failed Republic waiting for its imminent collapse. In the end we'll find ourselves begging help from China, India and perhaps even -- tucking our tail between our legs -- Venezuela.  :-)

And maybe in a hundred years or so, Americans will find themselves getting on boats to flee this failed state, to become skulking illegal aliens in Africa.  Just imagine, white folks working in the kitchens and produce fields of an emerging prosperous United Africa, desperately afraid that they'll be discovered and deported back to the abject poverty and squalor of the US. Even better, I'd really love to see Americans killing themselves to reach the shores of Haiti, in the hopes of providing a better future for their children (okay well not really, but you take my meaning).  Now that would be a real measure of karmic justice.

I'll tell you what, Obama's inexperience doesn't frighten me, but the thought of such scenarios terrifies me, and it should terrify all of you as well.