Lighten Up, Francis *

by dday

I can almost hear the political consultants throughout Iowa reacting to the news of Benazir Bhutto’s death with admonitions that their candidate has to “own it.” But there’s something rather unseemly about using it as some sort of club to bash their opponents with. The media isn’t solely to blame for the politicization of absolutely everything; the candidates themselves can shoulder some of it.

Mind you, I’d much rather have candidates argue over US policy in Pakistan than, say, which candidate wrote what essay in kindergarten or did drugs or got a haircut or wore a low-cut top. But shouldn’t that argument have something to do with the ACTUAL US POLICY in Pakistan and not this crystal ball formulation of how Bhutto’s death reflects on various election messages and themes?

* Stripes is actually a movie equally good to watch and quote, at least until the disappointing third act when they graft a plot on to it. Discuss, again, if you wish.

P.S. The real coup de grace of this comes from Slummy Joe Lieberman, whose campaign email for St. McCain is nicely deconstructed by Matt Yglesias. Shorter Joementum: “Bush-Cheney caused a lot of problems. That’s why we need John McCain to use the same policies to fix them!”

UPDATE: Krugman:

If you’re a tough guy (or gal) who believes in exerting US power — never mind, there are just too many heavily armed people in Pakistan for anyone but Norman Podhoretz to believe that we could throw our weight around. If you believe you can bring new understanding to the world through your enlightened outlook — sorry, there are too many people in Pakistan who don’t want to be enlightened. If you believe that we’d have more influence in the world if we hadn’t squandered our resources and good will in Iraq (which I do) — well, sorry, that influence wouldn’t extend to being able to bring peace and light to Pakistan.

.