You know, I’d think the whole thing had gotten silly if it weren’t for the fact that the last people who liked to compare Democratic presidential candidates to George Bush were Ralph Nader and Howard Dean, and that worked out real well for them — as well as the people so tarred — at the ballot box. Barack Obama may think he’s demonstrating strength in going after Hillary Clinton‘s decision to rub his face in the fact that he answered badly during a question about meeting controversial foreign leaders “without preconditions,” but he’s not. I mean, seriously — the last thing the American people need is a lecture from a political consultant on why they hate politics. Indeed, it is Edwards who will benefit most from the conflict. Edwards hit the nail on the head when he said:

“If you’re looking for what’s wrong in Washington, why the system is broken, one perfect example is what’s been happening over the last four days. We’ve had two good people, Democratic candidates for president, who’ve spent their time attacking each other instead of attacking the problems facing our country,” Edwards, the party’s 2004 vice presidential candidate, told an Urban League annual conference in St. Louis.

Indeed.

You know, I’ve slowly started to realize that the large number of people in Washington region with jobs that require them to wield arms or know how to wield arms means that there are probably a lot of people violating the District’s concealed weapons law. I don’t know quite what to think of this but the recent security issues in my building have made the broader phenomenon more apparent.

Via Andrew Sullivan, “It’s All Because (The Gays Are Getting Married)”:

This has Wigstock anthem written all over it. By Oded Gross.

How are you supposed to feel when a burglar tries to kick down the door to the apartment directly above you, then comes back a couple of weeks later and succeeds in kicking in the door of the one above that? Meaning that your apartment is probably on his short-list of targets, too, assuming he’s gone after the particular tier he’s targetted because of its proximity to exits on each floor, thus facilitating rapid get-aways?

Update: Apparently a person of interest has been identified in the break-in, a convicted burglar released from prison in March. There have been at least 14 daytime burglaries fitting the same pattern in the Dupont/Logan/Shaw/U Street area of late, in at least three different buildings, mainly between 7 and 11 am. The Dupont Forum has more.

Great self-description today in Ruth Marcus‘ column on Clinton: “as a person of cleavage.” Can we get an interest group started? Maybe Obama Girl can head it up?

Barack Obama owned this debate. He started off with a series of clear, crisp answers that deftly turned questions to his advantage, and he was doing that Obama thing that he does where he manages to look luminous and transcendent, as if he just stepped out of a Wordsworth poem, trailing clouds of glory. (He doesn’t do this all the time, but when he does, watch out — this is when he binds people to him.) Hillary Clinton was excellent, as well, and better on the question of meeting international leaders than Obama. She was calm, measured, and certain; her answer about being a modern American progressive should please a lot of liberals. John Edwards seemed to knock her off her stride a little on the question about who was best for women, when a hint of sourness entered her otherwise controlled and regal performance, but she soon regained her composure. And was it my imagination, or did her voice sound more melliflous than it has in the past in answer to all but two questions?

Edwards, for his part, was a clear driver on some of the debate subject matter (poverty), and his warning to those who would vote for him because of the gender or race of the others was first-rate, and worth repeating. The lameness of his response on the gay marriage question was a direct consequence of the debate format — it’s so much harder to explain to real people why they don’t deserve certain rights than it is to talk about issues in the abstract. Joe Biden fought hard for a minority foreign policy view on the stage, and created an opening for others to speak more realistically, too. He also opened up a little about the family deaths in his past, which had to be hard for him. Chris Dodd seemed memorable during the debate, as well, and was endearingly one of the few on stage who felt he could not afford to work for a minimum wage given his kids’ tuition needs. Bill Richardson was fine, but not particularly memorable, and Dennis Kucinich managed to show a sense of humor that made him seem like one of the gang for a change, instead of an angry and resentful outsider.

Mike Gravel was the lone embarassment on the stage until the final question, when everyone got just a little too punchy for comfort. Word to the wise: a debate between Obama and Edwards on what Clinton is wearing is that kind of thing that makes women want to knock their heads together. And I think someone needs to remind Biden that there’s a commandment against coveting another man’s wife.

–Crossposted from Tapped.