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How to argue that night is day

Pity the poor spin-meisters, especially when their job requires them to ignore reality (or, more precisely, reality as decreed by pundits aplenty).

A consensus quickly developed in the political world that Hillary Clinton exposed some vulnerabilities during Tuesday's candidate debate. Indeed, as The Times' Peter Nicholas and Michael Finnegan report in today's story here on our website and in Thursday's print editions, her chief rivals in the Democratic presidential race -- for the first time in recent months -- sense a crack in her seeming invincibility.

But lots of folks get paid to bathe her in a positive glow, regardless. So here's the lead from the memo that, playing off Barack Obama's slogan, provided Camp Clinton's view of Tuesday's proceedings: "What happens when the 'politics of pile-on' replaces the 'politics of hope?' Hillary comes out on top."

That, at least, is what was offered for public consumption. We would guess the chatter behind closed doors was less upbeat. You can read the rest of the memo here.

And you can contrast this missive with the memos that came from the Obama and John Edwards campaigns (here and here).

We imagine those two were easier to write.

-- Don Frederick

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Comments

obama amnd edwrds shoud quit now- they dont need to bullying clinton- they didnt do anything in this country ; the clinton is thebest in thois country to rule -the emdia knows it and the people knows it/ OBAMA AND EDWARDS OUT NOW OUT OUT OUT QUIT QUIT QUIT.
MONSTER AND BULLY-DEM DONT NEED THEM. WASTING OF TIME WASTING OF MEONEY AND ITS USELESS.

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Our Bloggers

Don FrederickDon Frederick has served as an editor helping guide coverage of every presidential election since 1984. He is a third-generation Washingtonian, so watching the political world comes naturally to him.

A graduate of Northwestern University, he was a reporter for newspapers in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas before joining the (now-defunct) Los Angeles Herald Examiner in 1983. Hired by The Times in 1989, he has worked in its Washington bureau since 1996 — a perch providing him a close-up view of the impeachment of President Clinton, the government's response to 9/11 and the day-to-day wrangling of the two major parties.
Andrew MalcolmAndrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000.

A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.

The daily destination for breaking news from The Times and other top political sources on the Web.
Political blog from Chicago Tribune's Washington, D.C., bureau.

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