A Perfect Ad

Not endorsing the sentiments, but you just have admire the sheer brilliance of an ad that has Hillary Clinton supporting $1 million of pork-barrel funding to commemorate Woodstock--and thereby planting her firmly on one side of the cultural revolution--while John McCain was "tied up" as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Leave aside the fact that Hillary Clinton is perhaps the least likely person my age who might have attended Woodstock--I bought a ticket and got to within 17 miles of the show, but was dissuaded from hiking the remainder in the rain by my affinity group (to my everlasting regret)--this ad is a neat summation of the toxic cultural politics of the past 40 years.

This is also Exhibit A of why Senators rarely are elected President: The Woodstock Chamber of Commerce comes to some Clinton staffer and says, "Hey could you get us money for a local heritage museum?" The answer is: Sure, why not? (Some readers will recall the good money spent on the Lawrence Welk heritage museum in Minnesota.) I'm sure Clinton herself didn't give this more than 5 minutes thought--it's the sort of thing Senators regularly do for their constituents. But she's going to pay for it now.