A Noteworthy Day

Whether one is talking about current or past events, February 27 is a noteworthy day.

* For starters, today is the 75th anniversary of the Reichstag fire. Hitler used that event as the pretext for grabbing power in 1933, but, as Deutsche Welle observes, the fire only "accelerated" Hitler's rise. "[H]e would have seized power even if the blaze hadn't occurred."

The Reichstag fire occupies an important spot in the 20th century history of the world. But if one could go back in time and somehow prevent it from happening, that wouldn't keep the Nazis from taking over Germany or putting the world through the pain of the Holocaust.

* Perhaps the most legendary living conservative, William F. Buckley Jr., died today.

Joe Lieberman, a senator from Buckley's home state of Connecticut, offered some thoughts in the publication Buckley founded, the National Review.

The one-time Democrat, now Independent, wrote, "There's so much I could say about Bill Buckley’s contribution to our country, about his openness to ideas, about his civility.

"One could disagree with him -- as I did quite frequently -- and never lose respect or affection, dare I say love, for a wonderful human being."

Lieberman had Buckley's support when Lieberman successfully challenged incumbent Republican Sen. Lowell Weicker in 1988.

* The battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may be about over. The general consensus is that, in last night's debate, neither candidate won a clear victory. And Clinton needed a clear victory to change the dynamics of the race.

The two candidates have now taken part in 20 debates. There doesn't seem to be a good reason to have any more. The voters have seen both candidates and they've apparently made up their minds.

The latest delegate count, according to CNN (and I presume this accounts for the defection of super-delegate John Lewis of Georgia from Clinton to Obama), has Obama with 1,365 and Clinton with 1,268.

Dick Morris, who once advised President Clinton, left no doubt what he thinks in The Hill: "Whether one likes, dislikes, loves, hates, admires, fears, despises, or envies them, every Clinton watcher has this in common: They are dumbfounded both by the incompetence with which Hillary has run for president and her intransigence at sticking to a failed message. ...

"Even now, with her back against the wall, fighting for her political career, Hillary, presumably with Bill’s acquiescence, insists on making the same mistakes that landed her in the soup. No new tactics, no new strategy, no new message emerges."

* Obama is getting some negative press today as well.

In The New Republic, Sean Wilentz says Obama has played the "race card" in Ohio, but it's a continuation, he says, of a tactic that has been in use at least since before the Iowa caucuses at the start of January.

"It may strike some as ironic that the racializing should be coming from a black candidate's campaign and its supporters," writes Wilentz. "But this is an American presidential campaign -- and there is a long history of candidates who are willing to inflame the most deadly passions in our national life in order to get elected."

I don't know if the accusation against Obama's campaign is correct. But I do know that, in my attempt to learn more about the two candidates who want to be the Democratic nominee for president so that I could make an informed choice when I vote in the Texas primary next week, I've been accused of sexism by Clinton's supporters and racism by Obama's supporters.

Now, that hasn't been true of everyone. But it has been true of several of them.

Hey, all I asked for was some information! As Steve Martin used to say, "Excu-u-u-u-use me!"

So if the accusation is true, it wouldn't surprise me.

And then there's the matter of what Byron York of National Review calls "the Farrakhan trap."

In the debate, Obama tried to sidestep it by saying it was a matter of "semantics," but York makes a valid point, wondering what the response would be if one substitutes the name John McCain for Obama and the name David Duke for Farrakhan.

A little hypothetical reverse racism appears to be the result.

One may not like the presence of race or gender as factors in this campaign, but they won't be ignored, will they?

What will it be like if voters choose Obama or Clinton this fall? After they ponder the matter for the next several months, will voters decide to elect the old white guy rather than put up with frequent references to race or gender for the next four years?

* That leads us to something else. The Wall Street Journal is wondering if McCain is too old to be president.

But the Journal answers its own question by providing a list of people who rose to leadership positions at advanced ages -- including Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Golda Meir and Charles de Gaulle. In addition to that, McCain's own mother is still alive at the age of 95, which, as the Journal points out, indicates that "Mr. McCain's own genetic material appears to be strong."

Even so, I think McCain needs to prepare himself for this kind of question on a regular basis. He'll be 72 by the time he gives his acceptance speech at the Republican convention.

* Attention, Texas Democrats:

Read this editorial from the Dallas Morning News.

Thanks to a complicated process, delegates will be committed in part based on the results of Tuesday's popular vote and in part based on the results of caucuses to be held after the polls close. You almost need an advanced degree to make sense of it all.

"Why does the Texas Democratic Party insist on giving its voters such headaches?" asks the Dallas Morning News. "The idea is to promote participatory democracy, not drive voters to the point of exasperation."

(By the way, I like the word "exasperation" because it implies -- to me, anyway -- that the speaker is deadly serious. I suppose that harkens to my childhood. When I was a boy, there was a mother in my neighborhood who had a rather extensive vocabulary, and most of it seemed to define her level of annoyance with something we kids were doing -- whether we were being too loud or running too much in the house or whatever it was.

(When she told us she was "exasperated," we knew she was running out of options and her next move would be to start calling our parents.)

Amen to that. Read the editorial, do your civic duty -- and then contact the party leadership and demand a process that encourages participation.