Here's help, Hillary...

I still say, she should keep on fighting. Remember Cool Hand Luke? Just refuse to stay down, woman. Keep getting back up, come what may. You don't have to be powerful so much -- or angry -- just refuse to quit. Do what you can with what you have. Play the cards you've been dealt to the best of your ability. That's all we can ask... That's what I mean about fighting until the end. Then you can rest easy, if need be, knowing that you truly gave it all you got: that you just would not stay down and let yourself be beaten by perhaps a Bigger lesser... Time will tell; it always seems to work like that.

Now I'm not exactly sure how those debate formats work. If you have to stick to the silly little issues the moderators bring up (and it's Tim Russert tonight, no? Whenever I see that round talking head I think, "Tim. Who died and made you a deep political analyst? Stop telling me." His research and reporting skills are obviously weak, as are so many of these modern-day journalists who think that ratings/blog hits = solid journalism -- "they like me, they really like me!", and that entertainment and not accuracy is what the American public needs.)

Wonder why we're declining in our bullshit-detection abilities? You can't really put all the blame on the modern-day educational system for that one -- the generational loss of critical-thinking skills ...

Anyway, if you get to steer the discussion at all tonight, and if any of you Hillary folks happen to read my humble advice, let me offer an intelligent angle to play. Take the high road, my friends. Even if it doesn't "work" because the average Obama supporter thinks like this (Amba currently is an Obama supporter*, correct? Or will she change her mind -- again -- to be in with the in crowd? :) That's what happens when you've got no capacity for independent life judgment, just tend to do what you're told and fall for anything if the words today sound promising.

It's really not about who likes who. This group, or that. It's okay -- sometimes indeed the honorable high road, in fact -- to have an educated, deeper understanding of what makes a neutral "ref". Sure, it's tempting to want to choose somebody who you think will have your special back. Because everybody wants to win, right, no matter the ultimate price?

But if I've learned one thing in my continually plodding life, one is really much better off putting their faith in a person of solid principles. That is, if you have to trust your fate to the hands of another, it's better to choose someone not biased for you, but capable of exercising independent judgment based on some higher principles.

Why? Because if you choose the opposite, once you start to play that way, surely one day you will be in the minority, the "out" group, the one who can't get a fair shake because the refs are biased -- this time perhaps, against you. Better to go with an honest judge, not operating out of sympathy for this one or that. Don't take the cheap advantage, looking to game the system, so to speak. You might not win as much, or immediately, but if you have a shot at controlling your own destiny, earning your way up, so to speak, you won't be so discouraged and find that one day the tables are indeed slanted against you. And even if you think that is the way the game has always been played in the past, make tomorrow a better place for all. Including yourself; you and yours...**

Here's Orin Kerr, writing in today's Volokh blog:

Who Would Barack Obama Nominate to the Supreme Court?: When asked back in a November primary debate to say what kind of Justice he would want to nominate to the Supreme Court, Barack Obama responded:

I taught constitutional law for 10 years***, and . . . when you look at what makes a great Supreme Court justice, it's not just the particular issue and how they rule, but it's their conception of the Court. And part of the role of the Court is that it is going to protect people who may be vulnerable in the political process, the outsider, the minority, those who are vulnerable, those who don't have a lot of clout.

...[S]ometimes we're only looking at academics or people who've been in the [lower] court. If we can find people who have life experience and they understand what it means to be on the outside, what it means to have the system not work for them, that's the kind of person I want on the Supreme Court.

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You know to me (Mary), that is some mighty scary stuff. We really have been down that road before judicially, and it leaves a hell of a mess that others in society are called upon to deal with, clean up. Usually, they're not the powerful elite who are affected either it seems, if you're a student of history and capable of analyzing from a less biased, real-world perspective.


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* Quoting amba: "Obama getting awfully friendly with Jews in Cleveland. Tsk tsk. ... Read the whole thing. It lets Marty Peretz at the New Republic sleep peacefully, but some of his commenters are trying to kick him awake."

I don't care what your group identity, or past history of discrimination or victimization, your game surely will be better for the honest competition, having to earn your way in and not play the special treatment card. In fact, I truly believe in the long run, that only continues to hurt the "disfavored" group, who believe themselves "owed" advantages because of that legacy. And you know what? That's what I think regardless of the particular group in question. So please don't try and play the racist, or anti-Semite card on me.

**In my humble observation, nothing does as much harm as those people well-meaning and determind, out to correct the wrongs of the past by aiming ill-advisedly and causing more damage to innocent others today with their good intentions...

*** Note: Barack Obama was an adjunct professor of law at the University of Chicago, if you can recognize the distinction. I suspect it is important when considering his judgment for helping select who would serve as a quality judicial mind for lifelong appointment to highest Court in the land. "Know Your Role", so to speak...


UPDATE: I just realized, this post dovetails nicely with my reasoning of why football fans shouldn't be content to just allow Bill Belichick off with a Half Million Dollar slap-on-the-wrist, or be satisfied with a Superbowl loss. It's all in how you play the game, man. And the message on display to those still coming up...