NP: John Cage, 4'33"

It was the teaser of Maureen Dowd's column in today's New York Times e-mail, but I think it hit a certain nail on the head:

The fact that Obama is exceptionally easy in his skin has made Hillary almost jump out of hers. She can’t turn on her own charm and wit because she can’t get beyond what she sees as the deep injustice of Obama not waiting his turn.

This has always been one of my problems with the Democratic Party, at least post-Bill Clinton. There's something about the internal pecking order among the Democratic machine that seems to run totally at odds with what the actual voters want. With both Al Gore and John Kerry, I felt like the machine got behind them and put them over the hump, largely because it was "their turn." So on the one hand, it's hard to begrudge Clinton her current consternation, although I'm ecstatic that this model may be broken, at least this time around.

Of course, you could argue that the GOP has had the same problem, at least in certain elections. Bob Dole, and even John McCain this time around, spring to mind. This is one of those things that makes me wear my independence so fiercely.