The Mitchell Report

The Speech

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi

The Clinton Genome

The media are marvelling at the Clintons' several near-death political experiences in this campaign. Hasn't it occurred to them how creepily familiar all this is? The Clintons live off psychodrama. They both love to push themselves to the brink of catastrophe and then accomplish the last-minute, nail-biting self-rescue. Before too long the entire story becomes about them, their ability to triumph through crisis, even though the crises are so often manufactured by themselves. That is what last week brought back for me. The 1990s -- with a war on.
Andrew Sullivan
Sunday Times of London
March 9, 2008

Rested, Ready, and Fully Delusional

"You go from Iraq, to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts," in that context, I have decided to run for president."
Ralph Nader on Meet the Press
February 24, 2008

Reading the Fine Print

Today I am officially announcing my withdrawal as a candidate for president of the United States,"
Rudy Giuliani, Wednesday, January 30, 2008

“

Today, I am suspending my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States.”
John Edwards, Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Clinton Twofer 2.0

“

But he didn't come to grips with the way in which he and Hillary set the tone for the Clinton presidency by keeping important parts of their agenda secret, by working through back channels, by purposely making her role ambiguous, and by inhibiting staff members who feared their pillow talk. 'There was an air of distrust in the White House generally,' said a prominent Clinton Administration official. 'It was a world of shadows on the wall. This is very important to realize. You were always trying to read the shadows on the wall. Nothing was ever made clear.'”
For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years
Sally Bedell Smith