WaPo still trying to hype Obama-Clinton rivalry; still failing badly

Didn't anything important happen yesterday?

The Washington Post must not think so. Otherwise, why would the paper devote nearly 700 page-2 words to Anne Kornblut's idle speculation that there may be unpleasantness between the Obamas and people who supported or worked for Hillary Clinton when they encounter each other at events at Sidwell Friends, the Washington school the Obama children will attend alongside the children of a wide variety of other DC luminaries?

Kornblut suggests the Obamas could have some awkward encounters in their future because Sidwell

is also home to some of the very strategists who once worked to defeat Obama's presidential bid (one or two of whom, despite the recent Obama-Clinton detente, are rumored to carry a lingering grudge). Obama's older daughter, Malia, is about to enter the fifth grade at Sidwell alongside the child of Lissa Muscatine, a speechwriter for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Numerous other Clinton loyalists are Sidwell parents as well, among them Mark Penn, the former Clinton chief strategist; Mandy Grunwald, the ad maker; Capricia Marshall, the senior adviser; and Beth Dozoretz, the prolific Clinton fundraiser.

Given that Barack Obama will be the president of the United States, and that there will be people who supported Clinton's primary campaign in a variety of influential positions around Washington, including within Obama's administration, I have a hunch that Obama would encountered one or two of them even if his kids didn't go to Sidwell. Hell, he chose Clinton herself to be his Secretary of State. Shouldn't that be enough to get Kornblut and the Post to drop their middle-school obsession with who is in whose clique?

Worse, Kornblut implies that Muscatine, Penn, Grunwald, Marshall and Dozoretz might in some way behave negatively towards the Obamas when they run into each other at school plays and soccer games. What is Kornblut basing this on? Not. A. Damn. Thing.

She quotes no one -- not a single person, not even anonymously -- who suggests that there could be any kind of unpleasantness when such encounters occur. She doesn't even paraphrase anyone making such a suggestion. There is, in short, absolutely no indication in the entire article that it is based on anything other than her own fevered imagination. And Kornblut gives no indication that she made any attempt to contact Muscatine, Penn, Grunwald, Marshall or Dozoretz for comment.

The one and only person Kornblut does quote is Patti Solis Doyle, the longtime Clinton aide who worked for Obama during the general election. And that quote pretty thoroughly undermines the premise of the article.

Having taken the meanspirited and baseless speculation that Mandy Grunwald and Lissa Muscatine would cause a scene at a grade-school recital about as far as it can go (and then some), Kornblut turns her article into an apparent attempt to audition for a spot writing for the society pages. Her last three paragraphs consist of simply listing famous (for DC) people whose children attend Sidwell. Howard Fineman's kids go there! Katty Kay, too! And Jay Carney, Bob Woodward, Nick Baldick and EJ Dionne!

That's news you can use.