Best of the Web Today

by JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:53 p.m. EST

Roll Over Reagan
The New York Philharmonic has gone ahead with its concert in Pyongyang, North Korea, which drew our attention earlier this month. Back then we scored music director Lorin Maazel for hiding behind America's imperfections in refusing to make moral judgments about North Korea's totalitarian regime. In an Associated Press dispatch from Pyongyang, Maazel tries a different tack:

Before the concert, Maazel said the orchestra has been a force for change in the past, noting that its 1959 performance in the Soviet Union was part of that country's opening up to the outside world that eventually resulted in the downfall of the regime.

"The Soviets didn't realize that it was a two-edged sword, because by doing so they allowed people from outside the country to interact with their own people, and to have an influence," he told journalists in Pyongyang. "It was so long-lasting that eventually the people in power found themselves out of power."

When asked if he thought the same could happen in North Korea, he said: "There are no parallels in history; there are similarities."

Still, he said, the concert could spark other cultural and social exchanges.

"We are very humble. We are here to make music," he said.

Is it possible that, through some sort of delayed reaction, the New York Philharmonic's 1959 appearance helped bring about the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years later? It seems a stretch, especially since the Berlin Wall wasn't even erected until 1961. Just imagine what kind of outlandish claims Maazel might make if he and the Philharmonic were not so "very humble."

Odor of Doom
Maybe Hillary Clinton is just playing the expectations game. With the crucial Ohio and Texas primaries just a week away, her campaign looks increasingly hopeless. Now all she needs is a pair of "surprisingly strong" second-place showings, and she's still in the game.

Nah, too late for that.

She's not through yet, of course, but her campaign is giving off a distinct odor of doom. "Looking backward, interviews with a cross-section of campaign aides and sympathetic outsiders suggest a team consumed with frustration and finger-pointing about the apparent failure of several recent tactical moves against Barack Obama," reports the Politico:

Looking forward, it is clear Clinton's team has only a faint and highly improvisational strategy about what to do over the next seven days. Simply put, there is no secret weapon.

At Tuesday night's debate in Ohio, aides are mapping plans for drawing persistent attention to Obama's record without attempting any knockout punch theatrics that could backfire.

Many recent decisions have done exactly that. This has left the campaign awash in anger over who is to blame.

The New York Times reports that Mrs. Clinton "is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a "kitchen sink" fusillade against Mr. Obama." She does make one good point:

"We've seen the tragic result of having a president who had neither the experience nor the wisdom to manage our foreign policy and safeguard our national security," Mrs. Clinton said in a speech on foreign policy at George Washington University. "We can't let that happen again."

The problem is, it's a good point that is essentially useless to her in a Democratic primary. The best example of the "tragic result" to which she refers is the presidency of Jimmy Carter. One could also make a case that it describes Bill Clinton. But of course she is referring to George W. Bush.

But this argument seems unlikely to resonate with the voters who will choose between Mrs. Clinton and Obama. Ask a Democrat to list the things he hates about President Bush, and it's unlikely that "he lacked foreign-policy experience before taking office" would break the top 10. Meanwhile, Obama's anti-Bush credentials are in no doubt, so attempting to link him to the incumbent does not seem likely to succeed.

ABC's Jake Tapper reports on a curious rhetorical device Bill Clinton is employing on his wife's behalf:

He precedes a pitch by saying something along the lines of "This is what my wife says" and then he launches full-throttle into the pitch.

It can get confusing if you tune out for a second.

Today in Portsmouth, Ohio, he said, "So Hillary says, in 2005, the United States Congress adopted the Bush-Cheney energy bill, which gave $27 billion in subsidies to nuclear, oil, and gas and coal. The only thing that was justified was clean coal, because countries are going to be using that. We have to figure out how to take the carbon dioxide out of it. The rest of it is waste. If you elect me, I'll repeal those subsidies. And put them into a strategic energy fund that will create American jobs for America's future with clean energy."

It seems to be a subtle two-for-the-price-of-one offer. And of course they did elect Mr. Clinton, so maybe he thinks conflating the two of them is the best way of persuading them to elect Mrs. Clinton.

But maybe he's wrong about that. There were people who liked Bill Clinton but didn't care for Hillary, and there are people who like her but are put off by him. Their partnership gives people in both groups a reason to vote against her.

Nervous Officers
"Members of Washington's military and defense establishment are expressing trepidation about Sen. Barack Obama," reports the Washington Times:

The mostly conservative retired officers, industry executives and current defense officials interviewed by The Washington Times cite Mr. Obama's lack of experience in national security. They also point to his determination to pull American combat units from Iraq at a time when a troop surge has reduced violence, damaged al Qaeda and allowed the Iraqi government to progress toward Sunni-Shia-Kurd reconciliation.

"We're very concerned about his apparent lack of understanding on the threat of radical Islam to the United States," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, who is pro-Iraq war and a Fox News analyst. "A lot of retired senior officers feel the same way."

Not all of them, the paper hastens to add. Gen. Merrill McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff, backs Obama: "Any military person who concludes he's a left-wing, hair-on-fire, Kumbaya child of the '60s has sadly misunderestimated him, to use George Bush's term."

The paper says another Obama backer, Lawrence Korb, "rebutted the lack-of-experience complaint, saying neither President Bush nor John F. Kennedy could claim an extensive national security background before entering the White House." But in the liberal Washington Monthly, Ted Widmer in turn rebunks the JFK comparison:

The more one looks into Kennedy's lifelong preparation for the job, the more one realizes how misleading it was, then and now, to describe him as inexperienced.

Kennedy, of course, was a decorated veteran of World War Two, which he fought in the South Pacific. But before and after the conflict, he had acquired travel experiences that most people take a lifetime to accumulate, richly detailed in biographies like Robert Dallek's An Unfinished Life. His father was ambassador to the United Kingdom in the pivotal year 1938, and young Kennedy was in the audience of the House of Commons as the Munich deal was furiously debated (the experience shaped his first book, Why England Slept). As a young man, he made American officials uneasy with his relentless desire to see parts of Europe and the world that few Americans ever encountered. In 1939 alone, he took in the Soviet Union, Romania, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Greece, France, Germany, Italy and Czechoslovakia. As the war was ending, he attended the San Francisco conference that created the United Nations, filing seventeen dispatches for the Chicago Herald American.

He maintained this lively interest in world affairs as a young Congressman. In 1951 he went on two extraordinary journeys, the first a five-week trip to Europe, from England to Yugoslavia, to consider the military situation on the continent. Then, a few months later, a seven-week, 25,000-mile trek that included Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, Singapore, Thailand, French Indochina, Korea and Japan. It was this trip, in particular, that awakened a sense in him that the old colonial empires were doomed, and that the French effort to keep Vietnam was especially futile. In the aftermath of his trip, he gave speeches that ridiculed the French (and by extension, the American) position, and proved that he was no simplistic Cold Warrior. In 1957, he continued to chart a maverick's course with a deeply-informed speech on Algeria that criticized France and the U.S. for trying to sustain an unsustainable conflict against an insurgent population. It infuriated both Democrats and Republicans, and France, a NATO ally at the time, was enraged--but obviously he was correct.

Assuming that Obama wins the nomination, what will his campaign against John McCain look like? Jennifer Rubin, blogging on Commentary's Web site, sees difficult times ahead for him:

There seem to be three possibilities. First, he will describe how horrible the Bush years have been. There is always a segment of the population who will nod approvingly when told things are bad and getting worse. However, you cannot do this for long without sounding like a depressing scold. Moreover, with Bush not running it has limited utility. (This is especially true since McCain has not been a cheerleader for many of the Bush positions which Obama will attack--e.g. energy policy, torture.)

Second, he will talk about leaving Iraq. Or will he? If military and political progress continue, does his insistence that everything is just a mess begin to look as out of touch with reality as he is accusing the Bush administration of being? At some point it may be better to say as little as possible.

Third, he can talk about all the things he wants to do. However, unless he is content with trimming and hedging (not a good thing for a "change" guy) it is going to sound fairly far Left. He does not have much that is not out of the liberal playbook and that rarely wins elections.

Or is it possible that Obama will be able to keep running the way he has--essentially substance-free all the way through Nov. 4?

Wannabe Pundits
Here's a great one. Guess the topic of the article from which this excerpt is drawn:

After shaving its head and driving drunk around the globe with no panties, calling itself the Antichrist, and finally abandoning its children, totaling its SUV and getting its ass kicked in the parking lot of the Persian Gulf, America is realizing that it is internationally loathed, broke, soulless, tasteless, fat, drunk, malicious, greedy and stupid, and has been generally behaving like a lousy excuse for a world superpower for long enough to lose all its friends and position.

OK, we'll just give you the next sentence from the Salon article by Cintra Wilson: "So, since America hates itself this year, Oscar gave the biggest trophies to foreigners."

How Many Environmentalists Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
A lot--if it's one of those compact fluorescent bulbs and it happens to break. The Boston Globe reports that they contain potentially hazardous mercury:

If a bulb breaks, get children and pets out of the room. Ventilate the room. Never use a vacuum--even on a rug--to clean up a compact fluorescent light. Instead, while wearing rubber gloves, use stiff paper such as index cards and tape to pick up pieces, then wipe the area with a wet wipe or damp paper towel. If there are young children or pregnant woman in the house, consider cutting out the piece of carpet where the bulb broke. Use a glass jar with a screw top to contain the shards and clean-up debris.

Doesn't sound very energy efficient to us!

Life Imitates 'Saturday Night Live'

• Joy: "Gee, Sparky's been acting dull and listless lately. I just don't know what's wrong with him." Jill: "My dog Skippy used to be like that. Until I found out about Puppy Uppers. Puppy Uppers pep up your pooch, plus, they help control his weight."--from a "Saturday Night Live" ad parody, originally aired Nov. 13, 1976

• "Suicidal Pets Get Anti-Depressants"--headline, News.com.au, Feb. 25

What Was Perrysburg Doing?
"McCain Makes Perrysburg Stop"--headline, Toledo Free Press, Feb. 22

'Get Up, You Lazy Infidels!'
"Iran Says Opposition Group Lies on Nukes"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 25

Sounds Pretty Tame for a Horror Flick
"2 Stabbed During Horror Movie in Fullerton"--headline, KCBS-TV Web site (Los Angeles), Feb. 25

Someone Set Up Us the Bomb

• "Communist Party Crowned Cuba's True Leader in Moves Shoring Up Its Power With Collegial Rule"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 25

• "Clouds Made Yesterday Meant Chill Stuck Aroundly"--headline, Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), Feb. 25

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Ga. Couple Claims $275 Lottery Jackpot"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 25

• "Oscar Snub Leaves Whoopi Sad, Choked Up"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 26

• "Bloomberg: Nader Should Run if He Wants"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 25

• "Governors Want Federal Transportation Funds"--headline, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 25

• "Sen. Dodd Endorses Ex-Rival Obama"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 26

Fighting for Change
A New York magazine article about Hillary Clinton's faltering campaign includes an unfortunate quote:

"A friend of mine told me how the Marines train people in hand-to-hand combat," says retired Über-consultant Bob Shrum. "If your opponent has a weapon and you don't, you pick up an ashtray, a lamp, a chair, anything you can, and keep throwing stuff. It seems to me that's what the Clinton campaign is doing."

Unfortunate because it recalls a Clinton White House anecdote, cited by the New York Times's Gail Collins in her 1998 book, "Scorpion Tongues":

Inaugural week, 1993: Barbra Streisand led the Celebrity Salute to the new president. Barney the purple dinosaur was the star of the parade. The crowds were so dense that people tried to hoist their kids on the Portosans to get a better view. Bill Clinton, contrary to his supporters' worst fears, did not talk too long after he took the oath of office. The insiders exchanged rumors about who was getting what job and everyone else talked about who was going to what party. The gossip du jour, however, was the story of Hillary Clinton and the lamp. The First Lady, it was whispered, had thrown a lamp at her husband during a fight in the White House.

Philadelphia's KYW-AM reports that a supporter of Mrs. Clinton is following her example:

Prosecutors say that two brothers-in-law tried to settle the presidential race on the kitchen floor of a Collegeville, Pa. home.

Jose Ortiz, 28, is now behind bars on felony assault charges after prosecutors say he stabbed Sean Shurelds inside a home in the 100 block of Honeylocust Court.

District attorney Risa Ferman says a heated debate over the candidates escalated into violence:

"One is a supporter of Barack Obama, the other is a supporter of Hillary Clinton, and an argument of words turned bloody when one brother-in-law tried to choke the other and the victim then responded with a knife and stabbed his brother-in-law in the stomach."

One bit of good news for Mrs. Clinton: KYW reports Ortiz, who supports her, is a registered Republican, which shows that she does have crossover appeal.

(See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary on The Editorial Page. Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Adam Phillips, Edward Tannen, Glenn Rubin, Mordecai Bobrowsky, Michael Segal, Kevin Mullaney, Roger Drake, Ed Lasky, Scott Wright, Boze Herrington, Bryan Fischer, Donald Burton, Bruce Goldman, Dale Eesley, Steve Bunten, Dave Gillespie, Ron Durling, Stuart Creque, Roy Cullinan, Jack Freivald, Bill Schweber, John Williamson, Deane Hartley, Dan Tracy, Jan Nicholas, Matthew McInteer and Rod O'Connor. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)