The Politics Of Biological Markers

Charles Krauthammer takes a look at the utter mess of the Democratic primary season and pronounces judgment on identity politics. It ain't pretty, folks, but he's spot on.

With no substantive policy differences left, the Obama-Clinton campaign was reduced to personality and identity. Not advantageous ground for Hillary. In a personality contest with the charismatic young phenom, she loses in a landslide.

What to do? First, adjust your own persona. Hence that New Hampshire tear and an occasional strategic show of vulnerability to soften her image. It worked for a while, but personality remakes are simply too difficult to pull off for someone as ingrained in the national consciousness as Clinton.

If you cannot successfully pretty yourself, dirty the other guy. Hence the relentless attacks designed to redefine Obama and take him down to the level of ordinary mortals, i.e., Hillary's. Thus the contrived shock on the part of the Clinton campaign that an Obama economic adviser would tell the Canadians not to pay too much attention to Obama's anti-NAFTA populism or that Samantha Power would tell the BBC not to pay too much attention to Obama's current withdrawal plans for Iraq.

The attack line writes itself: Says one thing and means another. So much for the man of new politics. Just an ordinary politician — like Hillary.

Power, the maladroit Obama foreign policy adviser, is caught calling Hillary a "monster." A resignation demand nicely calls attention to the fact that the Obama campaign — surprise! — hurls invective. And a strategic mention of Tony Rezko, the Chicago fixer who was once Obama's patron, nicely attaches to Obama a whiff of corruption by association.

These attacks have a cumulative effect. Obama mania is beginning to wear off. Charisma is intrinsically transient. But Hillary's attacks have succeeded in hastening its dissipation.

So if there are no policy issues between them and the personality differences have been whittled down, what's left? Identity. Race, age and gender. Is this campaign about anything else?

I, frankly, could not care less about a person's biological markers. I vote for a candidate based on whether I am comfortable with a majority of their positions - or at least more than those of their opponent. But the Democrats are thoroughly painted into a corner of their own making this year. They have competing "identity" candidates, both of whom are running pretty well. 

And so they are staging a full scale production of Riverdance in a minefield. 

Uprising In Tibet?

Things appear to be more than a little unsettled in Tibet at the moment. The protests appear to be led by Buddhist monks - just as they were last year in Burma.  

The protests — initiated by Buddhist monks — have been growing since Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule. Tibet, an autonomous province, has long sought independence from China.

Roughly 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at security forces and military trucks pushing back riot police, a witness told CNN.

Chinese bloggers and U.S.-based human rights groups said Chinese security forces had sealed off the three main monasteries around Lhasa after the violence broke out.

The bloggers also said police wearing armored vests were moving toward Lhasa in armored personnel carriers.

In a statement, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader and the head of the Tibetan government in exile, said he was "deeply concerned" by the developing situation and said the protests were "a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people" under Chinese rule.

Chinese authorities have blamed the Dalai Lama, exiled since 1959, for the unrest.

"I appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence," the Dalai Lama said.

Protesters appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.

My friend Agam , the guy I turn to for all things in that part of the world (he is in Thailand) has a lot more on what has been going on in Tibet, from many sources. This is not going to make China happy. If they brutally repress the protests, there will be real problems with them and their Olympics. If they are smart, they'll start negotiating a settlement now rather than risk that.

Bomb Scares In The News

Staffers at a Fort Wayne, Indiana law office panicked when they found a suspicious box containing an unknown object and called police. After much deliberation, the bomb squad decided to detonate the gift. The turnip did not detonate, however.

Officers then called the city's bomb unit, which brought in a robot to carry the package outside to a parking lot. X-rays showed no signs of an explosive, but bomb technicians decided to detonate the package with a water cannon just to be safe, police spokesman Michael Joyner said.

After that, they opened the box and found the turnip, wrapped in lettuce-green tissue paper inside a sandwich bag.

Turnips only cause detonations when consumed. Or that's the excuse Uncle Guido likes to use, at any rate. Meanwhile, in Corpus Chisti, Texas, the pineapple did detonate.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The police department was briefly evacuated after a woman decided she should bring in a hand grenade she found.

The unidentified woman handed it to an officer Thursday after finding it while cleaning out a relative's belongings. The officer immediately took it outside the building and police cleared the building until the bomb squad took it away and detonated it about an hour later.

The bomb squad supervisor used highly technical jargon to describe the result of his team's efforts:

"When we countercharged it, it went boom…"

Thank heavens for experts.  

Hard Times For Hookers

The oldest brothel in Hamburg, Germany is closing its doors. The madame says that they just can't make money in the hooker business any more.

The family-run Hotel Luxor, established in 1948, is being sold to an investor and will close down for good next month, madam Waltraud Mehrer said, according to the Hamburg Morgenpost and Bild newspapers.

She blamed the decline in business on easily available Internet porn, the rise of call-girl services, and "noisy discos and dance clubs" on the same street as her business, the newspapers reported.

"You can't make any big money selling sex in St. Pauli any more," she was quoted as saying, referring to the area that includes the red-light district. "The only thing still in operation are the table dance clubs."

Well, obviously, Eliot Spitzer hasn't been in Hamburg recently or they wouldn't be closing. They'd be putting on a new wing.