The Hillary Show

Months ago I said that Hillary was beginning to remind me a lot of George Bush, and my husband looked at me a little askance (though no more). It was that arrogance she projected, especially in debates, that every other candidate was less savvy, less knowledgeable, less entitled to be president -- but especially to her biggest rival, Barack Obama. It was that smirk on her face that was beginning to look more and more like W.'s. It was that attitude of "my machine is going to run you all down and smash you, because no one can beat Bill Clinton. And I'm riding in on his tail."

Besides all the Clinton "friends" (where is tax evader and illegal oil runner Marc Rich these days?), who had been whipped willingly (or not) into line to support her candidacy, Hillary had a bunch of old white women signed up to be outraged at other women who didn't want to vote for her. Women whose only goal seems to be getting a woman elected -- period, end of story. Not that there's anything wrong with getting a woman elected -- but if we're building the egalitarian society we want to live in, there should be more. If we really want equal rights, then we should think equally about who would make the best president. And in these worst of times that we Americans have endured over the last seven years, I see part of the job of our next president as letting loose a canon of sweeping change. (Yoo hoo, you Democrats in Congress who have voted like Republicans, I'm talking about getting rid of you.)

And frankly, Hillary didn't vote the wrong way just one time. She's had a hell of a run at voting like and with the Republicans. If followership is what she considers leadership, then she is not what our country needs.

Her highly paid spin-doctors, who have had their ups and downs, manufactured the core of her whole campaign on 35 years of experience that she never had. Okay, life gives us all experience, but this is not what she claims. She's wiping out the 15 or so years she worked for the distinguished (and haulers-in of big lawyerly income) Rose Law Firm, sitting on boards and the like, though she also participated in the Arkansas public good and went through campaigns with Bill while she was there. In Wikipedia, Hillary is said to have been "considered a 'rainmaker' at the firm for bringing in clients, partly due to the prestige she lent the firm and to her corporate board connections." Of course, there were her years as First Lady. How should they count? Should we see if Nancy Reagan wants to run as well? She surely was as influential with Ronnie as Hillary was with Bill.

There has always been much to admire about Hillary Clinton (Notice, fellow feminists who are screaming about others not voting for Hillary, that she dropped her Rodham maiden name for political expediency -- first for Bill's and then hers), but it wasn't her vast experience as an elected official. Because she never was -- until she was elected to the New York Senate. What was that, seven years ago?

And I'm sorry, but that journalist's question about Chelsea's parents pimping her in some weird way was so what. Pimping is the name of the political game, isn't it? All you too politically correct people go ahead and get all up in arms, but when you dig into all the dirty tricks the Clinton campaign has done -- for one example (if true and this is par for the political course), releasing that photo of Obama in the African garb to the bottom-feeding slime ball Drudge Report -- it's far worse. The fact that Chelsea is an accomplished 28-year-old and is out campaigning for her mother makes her a party to the whole shebang. She's a big girl. She's well-educated. My guess is she can take care of herself while she's working for her hedge fund. But those Clinton spinners spun that one well. Poor Hillary again.

What is the big whine of the Clinton campaign saying she gets treated so unfairly while Obama doesn't? The press and public seem to love it when she uses those feminine skills she tries to hide most of the time. She complains about this press double standard, and suddenly the press, which apparently is incapable of discerning the difference between spin and news anymore, is in a discussion about whether or not Hillary is being treated unfairly by them. Oh yes, the press is bad for covering the Hillary stories that stare them in the face. She deserves their sympathy for all her ill treatment. Poor Hillary. And the public responds with their votes. She cried before New Hampshire, and they voted for her then, too. She loses a string of primaries and caucuses, and they feel sorry for her -- and vote for her again. Poor Hillary. Do you think this works the same way for the male candidates?

Yes, in some ways, Hillary has had an uphill battle because she's a woman, but she thought she was going to be carried all the way to the top in the wake of the organization Bill Clinton built and by the citizens who held him in such high esteem, though those are getting fewer and fewer by the minute.

Like many of Hillary's votes in her brief Senate career, her whole campaign hasn't seemed to come from her heart or soul -- her authentic self -- but from the logistical god of what could best get her elected. She and her team made some big tactical errors here. The vote for the Iraq war being Number One.

Last week Bill Clinton, Mark Penn, and other of her handlers were being blamed for Hillary's gigantic fall from grace. (Never is poor Hillary blamed for her own mistakes.) Like Bill Clinton didn't have a gigantic green light to do and say probably most if not all of what he did. Hillary was preaching her scorn of Obama's campaign of hope and inspiration, which the United States of America so desperately needs. And now Mark Penn and the others have won the day with Hillary's commercial squarely hitting on the scaredy cat American public's fear, which was easy enough to take from the Bush/Rove book.

When I've watched the Hillary Show the last couple of weeks and seen the desperate venom in her eyes and voice, it reminds me of the image of her husband as he stood before us and sincerely blasted, "I did not have sex with that woman."

Here we could go again.

If Hillary worms her way into the Democratic candidacy, we better get used to saying President McCain. She will never win.

Comments

[MarkScottish]

Wow. I think in ten years time (when people are analyzing the election that brought two-term President Hillary to power) historians might very well pick this piece as a classic example of the disrespect and disdain with which many Obama supporters treated the Senator from New York.

I know all the Obama folk must be mad since she just won three states and all but let's not go overboard. She will be the Democratic nominee after all. So let's not do the Republicans' job for them.

Hillary has the willpower and intelligence to sort out the economy, the war, UNIVERSAL health care, the deficit and to start a green collar environmental revolution in America.

Obama, though I think he'd make a good President in eight years (once he has gained experience as VP), cannot compete at the moment with Hillary on policy or even on passion for the job - just watch the debates.

Obama also seems to have adopted the Tony Blair school of rhetoric and hand gestures. This does not bode well. Tony Blair came to power in 1997 with the theme song "Things Can Only Get Better" and then governed like a neocon for ten long years (hence his friendship with Bush). Although I don't think Obama is a neocon (though his lack of concern for universal healthcare is worrying... almost forgot his statement on invading Pakistan!!) nevertheless smooth-talking politicians often disappoint and Obama (given his backtracking on NAFTA already) might just be more of the same.

[indc]

Please, you must be a republican neo-con pushing her forward because you know McCain has a very good chance to be elected if he runs against her..... you are perhaps a Limbaugh ditto head, correct... must be.

[WASanford]

Can arrogance be in the eye of the beholder? Are you saying it's OK to imply that YOUR daughter is a whore? Her letter to NBC was a demand to back off not to fire someone! This woman has more than 16 years of Right Wing slime thrown at her and her husband and still the Clintons had a sucessful 8 year presidency. If you could find a way to bottle whatever it is they have that allowed them to accomplish that, you'd be a fool not to bottle it and give it to all of our candidates. I think it should bother you at least a little bit to be joining tthe Republicians in slinging slime at any of our candidates. Up to now, character assassination has been an attribute of the right wing. Has it now to become a left wing characteristic? I certainly hope not!

[books93]

Note from a middle-aged woman who is tired of apologizing for not supporting Hillary
Yes. What she said. All of it. Finally. I'd love to see a woman win, but not this woman. I need more in a candidate than gender. I also need integrity (among other things), and most of all, I need someone who can unite, not divide. Right now we are incredibly divided.
Clinton hinting that she would be open to having Obama run as her VP won't win back those of us whose intelligence and sensibilities she has insulted with her smear and fear campaign. (It's as if she's just now realized that she will need the Obama supporters if she makes it to the general election and is suddenly trying to throw us a bone and get us to respect her again by throwing some nonsense at us. That's so GWB).

[goldstategirl]

Yeah! What she said.

Seriously though, well said.

Because she's gone so ROVIAN in this election -- the very thing she used to speak out against -- Hillary is a huge disappoint to professional women and to the people who were counting on the Dem party presidential hopefuls to get our country's political process out the gutter. She killed that and drug us back as if the Republicans needed her help doing so.

No one's naieve about politics getting dirty sometimes but she's over the top against members of her own party, whom after 11 losses she should've come together with to make a deal and shuffle around cabinet positions with...we could've had a team in place before the GOP solidified McCain and been ahead in the public's view...but NO. Now the GOP is in a great position to possibly win again?? She's like Nader 2000 on steroids.

There are lady senators and governors aross the nation who don't have 8 years as First Lady to trump up their years of experience who certainly would make better, more honorable Commanders-in-Chief.

Can anyone imagine Barbara Boxer or Nancy Pelosi, Condi Rice, Claire McCaskill and such having so many "Sybil" moments as Hill has lately?

Life's hard with planet-sized chip of undue entitlement on your shoulder and the loose cannon lips of a husband to muzzle. I voted for Bill twice and sadly, I'm done with both Clintons.

[ordinaryguy]

the hillary lovers are going to roast you, and tell you about how they will never read your articles again.

[Moose49]

Excellent piece.

To reiterate or expand upon your point, here are my top 10 reasons Hillary Clinton is like George W. Bush?

1) Same sense of entitlement to office (one my birthright, one by marriage-right, for lack of a better term).

2) Same willingness to go in the gutter and do whatever it takes to slime their opponents.

3) Same willingness to game the system or try to change the rules in the middle of the contest when they don't work to your advantage (see Bush in Florida, Hillary's complaints about caucuses and the Michigan/Florida situation).

4) Hiring sleazebags as their chief strategists (Rove, Penn, two peas from the same pod).

5) Associating with slimey characters (Jack Abramoff, Norman Hsu).

6) Supporting the war in Iraq.

7) Supporting the resolution threatening force against Iran.

8) Weird family dynamics in which the nation pays a price for them working out their personal issues and demons (Bush trying to prove he's tougher than Poppy, Hillary trying to prove she's better than Bill).

9) Benefited from family connections earlier in life (Bush's failed oil ventures bailed out by Poppy's friends, Hillary bringing in clients to Rose because her husband's governor).

10) Neither ever admits a mistake (Bush on everything, Hillary on Iraq war vote).

Is this really what we want?

[altohone]

Despite the coverage we see in the papers, the REAL headline should have read-

Establishment wins big in Ohio and Texas with the help of Limbaugh, a conservative Canadian official and fearmongering!



I won't vote for anybody that supported Bush's illegal war of choice no matter how they spin it.
The defense contractors and their media and comedy shows can make do.

[mediamarv]

"She will never win."

And what, pray tell, will you do when she does???
Switch to the Rep party????

[SaltySaltillo]

What will I do when she elbows, pushes and shoves her way into the nomination?

There are four choices in order of feeling good to feeling bad:

(1) Write in Barack Obama's name (or maybe Edwards, my second choice).
(2) Vote for Nader (that always feels good, even when it feels guilty)
(3) Not vote (why bother - that way I can blame others for all of the screw ups that will come from any presidency)
(4) Hold my nose and vote for Hillary (but feel good about the fact that I am a Texan and McCain will carry TX anyway).
(5) Vote for McCain and wait 4 years (cannot imagine him being a 2 term president at his age).

[Countess]

Hillary has built this exciting coalition of backroom bullies, bigots, scared old ladies and now is marching forward in the slime she has created to the nomination from hell. She is so inspiring that even Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter have joined her team to beat up on the uppity black man that stands between her and the nomination. We will all look back with such wonderful memories as Prsident McCain honors her for helping to prolong the war in Iraq and whipping up hysteria for the war with Iran.

[hopeless277]

The election will never happen. Does ANYONE really expect BushCheney to just walk away and let their crimes be discovered? I know I don't. Look for an attack, martial law, and Blackwater in the streets of the good old USA. That's the only way they can cover up their war crimes.

[SaltySaltillo]

Well, you might be going too far, but my conspiracy-theory-loving father thinks a terror scare is in the works for late summer, early fall - something to make national security issue # 1 again (I would like to see Clinton beat McCain in a terror year election) ... I am reminded of Reagan's secret discussions with revolutionary Iran about not releasing hostages until after the Nov. election to make Carter look weak on diplomacy...