Fascinoma

Hillary squeaks out a win in New Hampshire after being counted out by so many newsreaders. It betokens a rent in the time/space continuum sufficient to cause this headline in Glenn Greenwald's column: Chris Matthews is right. Of course Greenwald means it snarkily, Matthews is right when he says his ilk should "just stay home" and in essence shut the fuck up and quit fouling the nation (planet, universe) with their inanities. Matthews was apparently sniffing, incensed at Tom Brokaw's notion that maybe the newsreaders shouldn't be trying to prescribe reality at the polls, and maybe like, wait for actual results.

I turned Matthews off last night after about 5 seconds when he uttered a bizarre bit of revisionist history, 'Bill Clinton lost in New Hampshire, but declared himself the Comeback Kid and a compliant press made that the story so he went on to win.' Get that: a complaint press, in Matthew's view, made Bill Clinton. Somehow Chris doesn't see his own frequent licking of Bush's ass as "compliant," and so he's able to slag others for this failing.

Now as to Hillary herself, who knows why she won? Maybe, as some are saying, the independents broke for their second choice, McCain, figuring Obama had it in the bag -- since the newsreaders had been saying that for seeming eons. That seems...plausible, anyway. But independent of that, here's my amateur prognostication: Hillary is going to do for the country what Janet Reno did for Florida. She is so banal, and yet so hated. She certainly doesn't inspire or uplift. Should she get the nomination nobody will be going to the polls for her with a spring in his (or her) step. But many, many will go in a brown funk of Hillary Hatred (because she's a "librul feminazi," and worst, a Clinton) and so, she'll put a lot more Republicans in the booth -- with vile consequences for every other sort of race on the ticket. Hillary might yet snatch the Permanent Republican Majority back from the downward flush-spiral it seems to be in. And why? Because she's entitled to the job, in her mind. Period.