Constance L. Lieber

Why all the secret meetings (which everyone knows about) and leaks from the Obama and Clinton campaigns with differing stories, all purporting to be true, and all supposedly leaked by someone "close to the candidate." A little — now what’s the current buzzword? ah yes! — more transparency is in order. Tonight John McCain gave a rambling speech with very artificial-sounding supporters in the room. Might they not have been able to stir up a bit more enthusiasm? McCain needs to find his own voice and not have his thought formations echo Obama’s. Hillary Clinton gave an inspiring talk and had rabid supporters on hand — yet still a relatively small group. Still, Clinton might have done the magnanimous and gracious thing and congratulated Obama on achieving the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination. It’s not like that number was  unknown. However, perhaps holding her rally in a room in the third basement with, therefore, no cell phone access, was simply a sign of her wanting to talk to her supporters symbolically apart from all the buzz "upstairs" where she could not have ignored the obvious.
     How confusing are the VP stories. Either Clinton does not want to serve as VP, but wants Obama to extend the courtosy of asking her (so she can then refuse); or she does want to be VP and so it is unsure whether Obama would extend an invitation because he does not want her on the ticket.
     A nice sign of significant political change in the new millennium would be the candidates speaking out forthrightly and honestly. If anyone want to hold a secret meeting to decide something (not necessarily a bad idea in some situations), do keep it quiet.