Spin Cycle

Bill Clinton, in from the post-South-Carolina cold -- apparently now useful to woo rural whites with 'Bubba' riffs -- delivers a pretty blunt message in West Virginia that rough waters are ahead -- with a little edge that Obama is a wuss who picks on girls, to bring home the point.

In Parkersburg: "If a politician doesn't wanna get beat up, he shouldn't run for office. If a politician doesn't wanna get beat up, he shouldn't run for office. If a football player doesn't want to get tackled or want the risk of an a occasional clip he shouldn't put the pads on."

And this: "I don't give a rip about all this name-calling that's going on. They've been going on ever since Iowa. I've heard them say all these things about her. Apparently it's okay to say bad things about a girl."

And, the kicker: People shouldn't have to resign -- ie Geraldine Ferraro, Samantha Power -- for insulting the other candidate: "They oughta stay right where they are. Let's just saddle up and have an argument. What's the matter with that? That's what America's about, right?"

The answer is that playing dumb little political insult games is fun for operatives and politicos like Clinton, but it doesn't do much to reveal who will be a good president.

And by the way -- for all the ready-to-rumble bravado -- wasn't it the Clinton campaign that called on Obama to get rid of Power when she called Hillary a monster? And wasn't it Bill himself who once complained about the politics of personal destruction?

Oh, well.