Thursday's links and comments

A few more articles about 2008 presidential candidates and non-candidates that some people want to see run.

Hillarymania by William F. Buckley Jr. Buckley is a very smart guy with a great vocabulary, but read this paragraph and tell me whether he used the word traducing correctly.

But she not only married him, she stood by him athwart scandal after scandal. This is taken as fidelity of a singular sort, and it is exactly that. But does such fidelity imply a surrender to relativism? The adage is: I am for Harry through thick and thin. But being a faithful Mrs. Harry is a feat of personal durability not always admirable. If Bill had been caught traducing not Monica, but the local bank, would Hillary have been expected to stand by him?

That is one thing I like about his writing - it makes me reach for my dictionary.

Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun-Times has a column titled "Why are black lawmakers already jumping on Clinton bandwagon?" My initial reaction to the title question was maybe they agree with her on certain issues or maybe they feel she has a better chance of winning and want to be on the winning side early. I was dismayed that the question would be asked in that manner. Is the author presupposing that black lawmakers should automatically support Obama? It will be interesting to watch how the dynamics of race and gender play out in the months leading up to Democratic primaries.

Maybe there is another reason for the early endorsement. From The Hotline we get this article "An Endorsement, And A Consulting Contract."

Yesterday, Jackson confirmed that he had decided to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton, less than six days after his public relations firm, Sunrise Enterprises, agreed to a contract with Clinton's campaign worth at least $10,000 a month through the 2008 elections - a total of $210,000.

A few days before that, Jackson was deep in negotiations with Steve Hildebrand, a senior strategist for Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. On the table was a contract worth in excess of $5K a month, beginning on 3/15/07. Separately, Obama was personally soliciitng Jackson's endorsement.(ed. sic)

"It's not about money," he said. "Quite honestly, I've turned done more money from some of the other candidates." Jackson said that when he told an official for another campaign about his Clinton endorsement, the official offered to "double" whatever Clinton offered him. Jackson told the official, whose name and campaign affiliation he declined to identify, that he was offended at the thought that his endorsement was bought.

Regardless of whether you are talking about politics or an athlete leaving Kansas City to play in New York, when they say "It's not about money," you know for sure it's about the money.


Mallory Factor writing in the The State states the case for Gov. Mark Sanford running for president.

McCain acts to soothe his online critics. Too little - too late.

From CNN: Schneider: Giuliani's got the 'Big Mo'

Jennifer Rubin of The American Spectator examines "Rudy's New Social Conservatism."