Politics Is A Contact Sport

So there seems to be some sort of robocall skulldugery going on in North Carolina by Hillary Clinton supporters.

I'm sure that this isn't officially or unofficially paid for by the Clinton campaign. I'm equally sure that she would be "shocked, shocked" to hear that "over-zealous" supporters were engaged in such tactics. I'm equally sure that the idea of "plausible deniability" is well known to the Clinton team.

Unlike (I suspect) many lefties, I actually don't hold this against Hillary at all. The attack is unfair, possibly illegal, and probably will harm democratic turn out (at least a bit). It's got all the trademarks of a Republican operation. But I LIKE that. Look, Hillary is endorsing (or at least not condemning) all this Jeremiah Wright nonsense and her surrogates are using possibly illegal voter supression techniques, and those are EXACTLY the sort of things that will happen in the general election. Obama or Hillary will be better on the merits. It's not even close. But you must MUST have a winner take all no holds barred attitude about winning. Because you damn sure know that Republicans will. If anything, it makes me more fond of Hillary knowing she's not going to bring a knife to a gun fight.

Look at the Patriots. They had a miraculous underdog victory over the L.A. Rams in Superbowl XXXVI in 2001 and went on to win in 03, 04, and come up just short in 07 (those are seasons, actual Superbowls played early the following year). In the 07 season, the Patriots were caught taping the Jets illegally. Allegations have surfaced that they have been illegally taping opponents for quite some time including in their first Superbowl win.

Are they likely to lose all their glory? No. No they're not. The games have been played, the franchise has become part of the public face of the sport, and the NFL. Going back would call into question so many records, victories and losses, it would be difficult and embarrasing to unwind it all. The same thing is happening with baseball. They are finally getting serious about drug testing, but all those records? Barry Bonds was almost certainly using when he set the single season record, but so was McGuire, Canseco, Sosa, Camenetti, etc... not to mention many of the pitchers that batters faced were using too (*cough*Clemmens*cough*). A few people have had their image tarnished, but no one will be taking back superbowl rings or putting asteristks in the record books.

So too with politics. George Bush has been in office for 8 years. He was placed there in one of the most poorly reasoned and controversial decisions by the Supreme Court ever recorded. He has been no end of awful for the health and well being of our nation on, well pretty much any level. But you know what? He's STILL PRESIDENT. If you want to fight the modern Republican party, the truth is they will cheat. They will work to drive down voter turnout, they will run racist, sexist adds, they will imply that you love Osama, or that you are Muslim or whatever... it doesn't matter. To insist on fighting "fair" is the modern equivalent of a French knight insisting on charging into massed bows at Crecy because it was the "honorable" way to fight.

Hillary is fighting dirty, but in my book that's a virtue not a vice.