Barack Around the Clock

Mark Steyn hits one out again, though he probably wrote this before Hillary announced her online candidacy and stole some of Obama's thunder:

Did you see that poll about Iraq suggesting that . . . What's that? Barack Obama? Oh, sorry. According to the new rules from the American Media Practitioners Association, we're obliged to make at least one flattering reference to Barack Obama per column, preferably accompanied by that picture USA Today used with his head framed by a kind of luminous halo thing. So OK, all together now:

Barack Obama!

What a wonderful phrase!

Barack Obama!

Ain't no passin' craze!

It means no worries

For the rest of your days!

Barack Obama announced last week that he was forming an exploratory committee to explore whether he can really be as fabulous as the media say he is. And happily the answer is: Yes! He's young, gifted and black, and white, and Hawaiian, and Kansan, and charismatic, and Congregationalist, and Muslim. He rejects the way "politics has become so bitter and partisan,'' he represents "a different kind of politics." He smokes, which is different. He was raised in an Indonesian madrassah by radical imams, which is more than John Edwards can say. And he looks totally cool when he smokes! I haven't smoked since I was 14 but I'm thinking of taking it up again just because the sophisticated refreshing nicotine taste helps take the partisan bitterness out of the atmosphere. Barack Obama is Lauren Bacall to America's Humphrey Bogart. Lauren Barack coolly blows smoke, leans against the wall and purrs:

"You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."

Read the whole thing.

To look at the Drudge Report this morning you wouldn't even know Obama was running. It's all Hillary all the time with links to no less than six Hillary articles. That won't continue, but I think it shows just how powerful the Hillary presence will be in the campaign. And in keeping with the press, I'll do a little more on Hillary.

Announcing your campaigns on the internet is all the rage these days, and for Hillary probably had a hidden benefit. Those slightly fuzzy internet images can sure to wonders for 59 year old faces. It's almost as good as a couple shots of John Kerry's botox.

At least to her credit she hasn't gone the Pelosi route and numbed her face into a plasticized permanent look of surprise. That seems all the rage among the more vain aging female crowd. There's a play on in Los Angeles right now featuring former Dynasty stars Joan Collins and Linda Evans. Evans was always a beautiful woman, but when I saw her on the morning news this week I was horrified at what she had done to herself. She had fallen prey to the notion that women have to shoot up their faces until they don't work right anymore while at the same time pumping up their lips to Ubangi proportions. All she needs is a couple of plates to finish the look. I can't believe she thinks that this new look is preferrable to what she'd look like if she'd just let nature take its course.

Stay with what God gave you, Hillary. Those lines and wrinkles add character - something of which the Clintons are generally short.