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Lessons Learned - Upside of Being Knocked Around
NYT ^ | May 11th, 2008 | MARK LEIBOVICH

Posted on 05/11/2008 1:07:08 PM PDT by The_Republican

So, now that it might finally be over (or maybe close to it, possibly, perhaps), does Senator Barack Obama come out a bloody mess, or a battle-tested warrior?

In recent weeks, a wiseguy consensus seems to have settled on the former: the idea that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has so weakened Mr. Obama in the race for the Democratic nomination — so diminished him, distracted him, exhausted him — that he could be a grievously damaged nominee.

The wiseguys invoke the Republican race of 1976 and Democratic contest of 1980 as examples of what happens when candidates — Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, respectively — get battered in primaries, emerging damaged in the summer and losers in the fall. They mention surveys showing almost 50 percent of Clinton supporters in Indiana telling exit pollsters that they would sooner vote for Senator John McCain or stay home than vote for Mr. Obama. They suggest that by staying in the race, Mrs. Clinton is playing a spoiler’s role.

But there is a competing view that says that Mrs. Clinton, rather than being a spoiler, has in fact been an unwitting mentor to Mr. Obama, a teaching adversary who made him better. Could competing against Mrs. Clinton have improved Mr. Obama as a candidate in the same way that competing against Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980s made Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan champions in the 1990s?

1. SHE MADE HIM A GIANT KILLER

2. SHE MADE HIM ANGRY

3. SHE LED HIM TO THE WORKING CLASS

4. THE WRIGHT FIGHT

5. SHE HELPED DEFINE HIM

6. AND HAS THE RACE BEEN SO BAD?

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: knockedaround
Some edits.
1 posted on 05/11/2008 1:07:09 PM PDT by The_Republican
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To: The_Republican

The NYT’s keeps rolling along,bless their little hearts.


2 posted on 05/11/2008 1:33:10 PM PDT by BARLF
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Hillary did Obama a lot of good.

A few more months of it and he might even have become a man.

3 posted on 05/11/2008 2:29:33 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: The_Republican

Well, the NYT can keep twisting their liberal messiah into a pretzel, for all I care - the Democrat party is still going to nominate George McGovern redux despite their rationalizations.


4 posted on 05/11/2008 3:14:40 PM PDT by Baladas (M)
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