Hillary

I have never been a Hillary Clinton fan before, but I thought she did a really good job tonight. I heard some pundits say afterwards that they thought she could have gone further to renounce her comments in the primary about Obama's lack of experience, but I thought she made it abundantly clear that the distance between her and Obama is much closer than her and McCain. Obama and McCain both said at the Saddleback forum that "it's not about me." Clinton said the same thing, and time will only tell if her supporters will heed her call to fall in line behind Obama.

Susan Faludi wrote in the New York Times today about the Clinton die hards. I thought her most interesting comment was on the lack of women in the political pipeline. For instance, state legislatures are still overwhelmingly male. My take on this is that its about egoism. You have to think pretty highly of yourself to run for elected office, and many men (and women) have a hard time with confident and brash women. The sin of the electorate is not that we punish arrogance in women, but that we accept it and reward it in men.

What's the solution? Term limits and public financing for a start. More turnover means more opportunity and public financing would allow principled people to run without selling their souls to moneyed interests.