Now that Snipergate has temporarily shoved aside Racegate in the furious media death spiral characterizing the Democratic presidential contest, it's premature to assume that McCain's big bounce in the national polls will hold fast once Obama closes the super-delegate deal. Until then, it will be awhile for the campaign curtain to close, for Hillary to take her final curtsy, wipe away the bitterness, and bravely soldier on like she's done her entire life.
In the waning months of the primary season, she's become like an old Pink Panther movie, in which the same scene goes on way too long. (This would drive film critics like Pauline Kael nuts. "Director Black Edwards simply doesn't know when to quit!") Neither does Hillary.
At least, Al Gore had the grace, decency, and dignity not to fight the Republicans after the Supreme Court handed Bush the 2000 election under dubious circumstances. Gore placed country over ego, national interest before self-interest, and belief in the sanctity of law instead of personal ambition, even though he was cruelly deprived of own, rightful place in history as our forty-third president.
Because Hillary steadfastly believes in her own predestined role in history, she will carry on until the convention, dragging around the carcass of her campaign like the body in Weekend at Bernie's. It's not so much that Ms. Comeback Kid will stage a miraculous return from the dead in Denver; it's that she refuses to relinquish what she's see as her unique historic calling to fix the country.
Her memoir was called Living History, though she habitually fails to live up to the title's grandiloquent claim. Whether fictitiously dodging bullets in Bosnia, fixing the mess in Ireland, or whitewashing the facts about Whitewater or commodity trading, she maintains a con man's flexible and utilitarian approach to truth-telling. This Yale-bred lawyer parses with the best of them -- and that includes husband Bill. If he is the syntactical master of "is," she is the mistress of "was."
The past is continually re-invented and re-imagined by her, because she believes it suits a higher purpose. She's a know-it-all who knows what's best for the rest of us. That is why she comes off sounding like either a hectoring scold or smug policy wonk on the campaign trail, except in those rare instances when that austere mask drops, and the light of human warmth briefly flickers.
Ironically, though politics is so very personal for her, she refused to adopt a more personal, relaxed campaign style. Whereas Obama is cool and loose, she's tight and rigid. As others have amply noted, the blueprint for her campaign was scripted and focus-group tested by her chief strategist Mark Penn who wanted voters to always see her as an experienced leader, ready for Day One.
Well, Day One for Hillary will almost certainly be taking place in Chappaqua, New York -- and not 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. America won't regret this. It will spar us another prolonged episode of Clintonian dysfunction on the national stage. Nor was it ever a matter of "her time" to be president, that she somehow earned the right to be the nation's first female president until Barack jumped the line. How did she earn this right? Hillary's team seethes with red-hot anger at the prospect of Mr. Benneton in the Oval Office.
Just maybe, only when the Democratic Party's tangled electoral string is nearly played out, the Clinton campaign coffers are bone-dry, and the few remaining uncommitted super-delegates refuse to take her 3:00 a.m. call, Hillary will concede defeat. But until then, things will probably get nastier and uglier. Anything to sully Obama's glistening robes. Following her odd and politically convenient rapprochement with right-wing bagman Richard Mellon Scaife, it will be sheer poetic justice when Hillary, in her concession speech, blames her loss on "a vast left-wing conspiracy."
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If it had been Hillary vs George in 2000, she would not have waited for the Supreme Court to make a decision...she would have been fighting the Florida returns from the Oval Office and daring anyone to drag her from it!
If Obama is so inevitable, why the mega line diatribe response posts? Are you trying to convince yourselves?
Hillary's supporters make me feel guilty. They sound so pathetic: "thank you for keeping me motivated!"
Clinton Supporters have no REAL motivation, just life-has-passed-me-by spunky sadness. The Clinton's are such corrupt, lying, manipulative people, and The Clinton Army turns out in the rain to cheer as The Clinton's drive by in their (separate) limousines to be with their beloved wealthy sponsors.
Then The Clinton supporters head over to Talk Left and Taylor Marsh because "someone has attacked their imagination (Dylan)."
The Clinton's are soooo squalid. Ozamerican provided the context for Hillary's "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" quote, Clinton used a white house intern as a concubine, including making her and her Blue Dress a prop in his sex addiction/exploitation. When discovered, he gets angry and wags his finger and denounces the girl, a silly/young/powerless intern as "THAT WOMAN!!!!" How Presidential/moral/decent.
Hillary rushesd out to defend him.
The Clinton's have contempt for everyone. When you factor in how blind the Taylor Marsh ditto-heads are, it is no wonder they do. Pitiful, sad, lonely people worshiping Hillary and Bill, and in return they get nothing. At least Clinton's wealthy friends get favors, pardons, white house bedrooms.
Hurry over to Taylor Marsh or Talk Left. Don't bother to think or pass go.
I take it you're not voting for Hillary?
Ha! KDH. That was funny, and unlike my remarks brief. Thank you for the laugh.
I wish you knew me. For almost 17 years I defended Bill and Hillary (voted for each twice) and then I watched her twist Obama's words about Reagan out of all sense.
I remembered how Bill made Reagan seem like Thomas Jefferson at Reagan's funeral, and I wondered why she couldn't be honest; and then, something snapped. I just thought, "Why do I defend these people? They just lie and lie. And WE defend them over and over. Why? What do we get?"
Since that Debate, my WIFE has turned against Hillary and The Clintons, also. Not only didn't Hillary expand her base, she shrunk it. And we are real peole with jobs that have nothing to do with politics. Living in New York State, we have defended Bill and Hillary thousands of times. People here often hate her and him.
If Al Gore had stood up and fought for himself, we would all be better off. Yes, he decided to step aside for the good of the country. Except it turned out to be not so good for the country. How I wish that he had dug his heels in and said, "No, I won't let you steal this from me." The world would be a better place today.
Hillary is a fighter. She is tough, determined, focused, and she never gives up. And, believe it or not, those qualities are actually useful to have in a president.
You want a fighter, Yosemite Sam McCain is your man. Hillary is a liar and says anything, does anything to get naive people to vote for her.
Her campaign is a new low - one Rove must be proud of.
Experience? It's a hologram.
We've have 7 years of a president who creates and lives in a false reality, and fights determinedly to reject facts. I've had enough of that.
I want change. With Hillary funded by lobbyists, it's laughable to think she'd bring change.
I want Intelligence, Integrity, and Judgment. Hillary only brings intelligence.
The media picking up this bullshit story that Hillary should drop out with a 16 point lead in Pennsylvania, proves that the "left wing conspiracy" is more real than you are willing to admit. When you have Matthews Olberman, MoveOn and most of the Huffington Post continually praising Obama for attending a racist anti American church and how brave he was to give a speech that he read from a teleprompter, then you take a step back and say "What the fuck is going on?" Is this the same media that said Imus was the Devil and should never work on television again! I am one that thought Imus should have been fired but he wasn't running for president. Obama's associations are very scary. Just the ones that the media has told us about (Rezko, Wright, his wife and the Iraqi that gave the money to Rezko to give to Obama) are pretty bad when you are running to be the most powerful man on the planet. The far left has caught on to his words of hope and unity while his actions say something completely different. Just remember for lefters, George Bush was a "uniter not a divider" Look where that got us.
The problem is, a 16-point lead in Pennsylvania doesn't put her ahead of Obama. In fact, she can NEVER get ahead of Obama. Which is the point, of course. Other candidates had the grace and dignity to drop out when the numbers went irretrievably against them. But no, not Hillary.
And what's with this business about Obama's "associations" being scary? The guy's about as wholesome as apple pie. We all have friends or know people or even have family who've done bad things. So what? What matters is how he deals with it, and he's done okay so far.
That's a lot better than can be said about Hillary, who won't even provide copies of her tax returns from 2000 on. And what about the Clinton Library donor list? I'll bet there are some genuinely scary associations lurking there!
So, by implication you are mocking her claim of a right wing conspiracy against the Clintons in the 1990's? Your really believe one did not exist? Obama supporters seem to love parroting every right wing distortion.
I think she will correctly say the left wing opposed her, and attacked her using Rovian tactics and right wing talking points, because the left wing opposed her stance on Iraq. Sort of like your attack here.
Hillary used the term "vast right-wing conspiracy" in 1998 on the Today Show in an interview after Bill Clinton had denied--under oath--having had sex with Monica Lewinsky.
Matt Lauer: "You have said, I understand, to some close friends, that this is the last great battle, and that one side or the other is going down here."
Hillary Clinton: "Well, I don't know if I've been that dramatic. That would sound like a good line from a movie. But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this " they have popped up in other settings. This is " the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."
Of course, as we now all know, there was no vast right wing conspiracy conspiring against Bill Clinton. There were just a lot of people who continued to demand facts and evidence.
Seems like the only conspirators were the Clintons.... conspiring against the truth.
Well said!
I DID belive in the "vast right-wing conspiracy". I USED to. However, since her campaign has been nothing but hypocrisy and lies and smears and "misspeaking" and harsh scolding and accusing her opponent of things that she is doing herself, I find I can no longer trust anything she says. Past conspiracies included. And THAT'S the worst thing of all to realize.
That is why she comes off sounding like either a hectoring scold or smug policy wonk on the campaign trail . . .
Interesing statement. My husband and I were just discussing the fact (watching a snip of Hillary's campaign in Indiana on CNN) that we feel like we're being scolded by a certain type of female teacher in our childhoods! Only a few of our teachers were like that - but we can remember their names 50 years later!!
I hope she would understand that there is a movement sweeping the country a movment her campaign fail to understand or address. A movment that they basically ridiculed. Hopefully she will learn that speeches are not merely words. That her time unfortunately came too late. That this isnt just about a man its about a message that is inspiring the American people. A partnership that they can finally share with their government. A partnership that treats them like an adult not like children who have no role in decisions that affect their life. A partnership that is open not shrouded in secrets and lies. A partnership that works from the bottom up not the top down. Its sweeping the country everyone is seeing it but some reason she refuses to open her eyes to whats going on prefers instead to work 24/7 to tear the messenger down. That won't kill the message. It might instead make people not like you.
Carol
You can hope, but her campaign, as you noted, stamps on and ridicules hope. Her slogan should be, "abandon hope, all ye who enter here..'
You know, I actually liked Hillary at the last debate, which was civil, and when she said "I am really honored to be seated here next to Barack Obama".
Within a week, she was scolding "Shame on you", then the fear ad, then Ferraro, ....
Her lies about N.Ireland, Bosnia, NAFTA, SCHIPS,...no thanks.
Oh happy days ahead for the Clintons if they just stay in the race and eviscerate Obama for McCain.
To thank Hillary for staying in the race President McCain will nominate Hillary to the Supreme Court. Justice of the Supreme Court is what Hillary wants more than to be President. To retaliate against the democrats and independents Hillary will prove to be more rightwing than Scalia, once a Goldwater Girl always a Goldwater Girl. The republicans will be very happy.
President McCain will thank Bill by appointing him to be US Ambassador to the UN. Bill will eventually become UN Secretary General. Bill will be happy in the UN it's the closest thing being president of the world and, the place is awash with interns which Bill will really enjoy. The republicans won't care they hold the UN in contempt.
Chelsea will become the first female president and the youngest president at the age of 40.
What more could the Clintons ever want? There isn't any reason for Hillary to drop out.
It seems to me that the most glaring example of Hillary Clinton's poor judgement (more so than her nuanced Iraq War vote) is the personnel choices she made to staff and manage her campaign. The top tier operators know everything about squeezing every dime from the rich and powerful interests because they are of the cow they milk. None of these movers and shakers have any associative experience with regular folks; yet are so smug about their expertise at manipulating our hearts and minds.
The reason Obama is winning is because people sense his connection to us is real. The speech in Philadelphia revealed his lifelong ponderence of the human condition for solutions__not for useful insights on political gamemanship.
Mark Penn is a brilliant idiot. By listening to him Hillary Clinton became a souless handpuppet__she and Bill a twenty-first century "Punch & Judy Show"__while we have put our money down on the guy that speaks to us, not screams at us.
Every time I think I don't want to write another post about the failed candidacy of Hillary Clinton, some new outrage arises. Last week, Hillary's big donors were trying to buy a new election in Michigan. This week, they're trying to extort Speaker Pelosi and good old Hillary has been ducking sniper bullets.
And then there is Bill. Bill has a new way for his wife to become the nominee. This morning on 'Good Morning, America,' Bill said to only count the 40 primaries not the 18 caucuses. In a call with supporters in Texas, he said: 'Hillary's gonna wind up with the lead in the popular vote in the primary states. It's the caucuses ... that have been killing us.' I live in a caucus only state - does that mean, while Hillary is screaming about disenfranchising voters in FL and MI, my vote will no longer count? Somehow the Clinton's figure they can have it both ways.
The Clintons are their own worst enemy. The problem is that they are taking the party down with them.
In your dreams, Mr. Katovsky. I just sent Hillary another donation and all of her supporters are out fundraising for her this weekend.
As far as that left-wing conspiracy? It's interesting. Prior to this campaign, I understood myself to be left of center on the political spectrum, and I deplored the tactics and the language of the right wing. But from following the MSM, the blogs, and the message boards throughout the primary, I've become very nervous around the extreme lefties. You people almost exactly mirror the extreme right (like Ann Coulter), and I shudder to think that you're Obama's primary base along with hordes of youngsters who have never participated in the political process before and have never had to hold a job - hence, they have no appreciation for the value of experience or valid qualifications for the highest office in the nation. They keep parroting the line about the experienced people haven't done a very good job as if that guarantees someone with a skimpy resume and reputation as a slacker is guaranteed to do better - some logic there.
As a result of the above, I've lost all respect for left-wing blogs and the media groupies perpetually fawning over Obama, and I've become even more dedicated to doing whatever I can to support Hillary Clinton, the best qualified candidate in 2008.
Posts like yours with such hostile attacks on Hillary Clinton make me even more dedicated to helping her win.
Thank you for keeping me motivated!!
Hillary is going down in flames and she is trying to take everybody else with her. Hillary won't be President, not this time. So Goodluck with your dedication to a losing cause.
She has brought this upon herself. If not her, her campaign staff. Honestly - I appreciate the dedication, but if you step back and evaluate the rest of the primary season - all 10 contests - she cannot make up the elected delegate deficit, even counting MI and FL. Obama will have won by the rules of the party. The rules of a party that all the candidates agreed to uphold. The idea of Clinton big dollar supporters trying strong-arm tactics on the Speaker of the House, other big dollar donors threatening the DNC - and her campaign won't call them off - they say "the words speak for themselves".
The insanity needs to stop and stop now.
I don't think it's so much a left-wing conspiracy as it is a group of schoolyard children without the maturity to realize this is a Presidential race, not junior prom. Hillary has every right and reason to stay in this race. It's very close. The decision to schedule primaries and caucuses has nothing to do with either campaign and if the Democratic party was so concerned about "this thing going on much longer", then they should have had the foresight to schedule every primary and caucus before the end of February. Then again I could be wrong, maybe most of you go to the races and leave before anyone reaches the finish line.
I hope Hillary does stay in the race - at least until after NC. The longer she stays, the better it gets for Senator Obama. The more she puts her foot in her mouth, the more sniper bullets she dodges, the more stories she makes up, the more her negative ratings will go up, the more Senator Obama's positive ratings will go up. Hillary is the greatest Senator Obama booster around - she just can't help it!
However, there is no mathematical, logical way for her to surpass his elected delegate lead. Should Bill Richardson have stayed in the race, or Dodd, Kucinich, Edwards, Biden, Gravel? They realized they were mathematically eliminated. Clinton needs to do so as well, unless she wants the superdelegates to toss the will of the majority of the people who participated in this primary season into the trash and, as a result, split the Democratic Party in two and lose the election on November - not just the Presidential race, but the ability to pick up Senate, House, state legislature seats, also.
How typically Clinton of you.And how very Republican.Those who don't support her are extreme lefties?Or we're unemployed teenagers?
Abd skimpy resumes are something Clintonistas should not bray about.You candidate doesn't hacve a resume.Her experience,outside of working as a union-busting corporate lawyer,is made of whole cloth.
Actually LoRise, eshalom is being quite specific in her criticism so as to not generalize that all supporters of Obama might be like you. eshalom has made no demand in her outrage that you should support one or the other. You have a lot of gall calling someone who doesn't quite see things your way a Republican. Calling a left of center devotee a Republican is a perfect example of Ann Coulter tactics that have made her and others defiant.
actually yes, and she will be right. because the moment she BECAME PART of the right vast right wing conspiracy, she lost her chance to become the nominee.
Well, her supporters here would have no problem buying it or promoting it.
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Posted March 28, 2008 | 09:18 PM (EST)