Obama Takes on the Queen of Hearts

At one heated point in Monday night's Democratic debate, a perturbed Barack Obama finally blurted out to Hillary Clinton what millions of others have been thinking these past weeks. After Clinton said that what her husband says might be different than what she says or what her campaign says, Obama disgustedly said "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."

Sorry it's come to this, but this Democratic primary nominating process has, indeed, become all about Bill Clinton. Thanks to Hillary Clinton.

The ex-president has been rolled out as campaign attack dog to bark, bite, snap and tear away at Obama in a way that Hillary -- as candidate -- cannot and will not.

Hillary can't have it both ways. You can't deploy the clout of your husband the ex-president in the middle of your campaign and then not take responsibility for every word he utters, every action he undertakes. Right down to his shameful direct intervention in a crucial polling place in last Saturday's Nevada caucuses.

But there's deeper point. Who exactly is Hillary Clinton anyway if not someone who has parasitically attached herself to the legacy and record of Bill Clinton? Without having been his First Lady, if not exactly his only lady, Ms. Clinton would be but a corporate lawyer turned junior senator from New York and with a less than sterling voting record -- including her authorization of the war in Iraq, approval of a war-mongering resolution on Iran and an inglorious bill to criminalize the national epidemic of flag-burning.

"Elections are about the future," Clinton said tonight, parroting the most moth-eaten of campaign clichés. But Hillary has made it strictly about the past as her only affirmative argument for the future is to resurrect the politics of the previous decade.

In Monday night's debate, all three candidates went at each other. But Obama finally opened up some cuts on the Clintons, calling out Hillary for lecturing him about supposedly being soft on Reagan. "While I was working in the streets watching those folks watch their jobs shift overseas," he said staring at Clinton and referring to those who suffered under Reagan's policies, "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart."

It might be too little too late on Obama's part. But it was absolutely the right thing to do. Hillary has made Bill, his record, his approach to politics, his policies, his style and her embodiment of all the above the central issue in the campaign. The only honorable position for any opponent of Clinton's is to take her -- and him -- on.

Comments

[DietrichMoody]

correction-
Some firmly believe that this Dem. nomination will not be rapped up until the Convention in Denver come August 2008. Proof behind this is that neither candidates are running away with any states, so far.

There is still a long way to go, and the Ghettoizing of Obama, per se as Pat Buchanan put it, will be on the minds of many delegates and voters come November. When Brarack trascended race in Iowa, why did Bill and Hillary Clinton help to make sure this transcendence was one their Democratic followers would not take? Its the Democratic party after all, ??. If the Clintons do this to the Black candidate just think of a viable Hispanic or Asian candidate, or ethnic female in the future???

Maybe in some unintentional way the Clinton's will have created a viable Independent party by destroying the Democratic party. As a conservative thinking but forwarding thinking white male, I get it and i'm not falling for media or Clinton manipulation, and a Dynasty, Queen or King is something I do not want in my nation of laws.

[darthmaul]

"Do anything you can to win, but win." That's the motto that Bill Clinton lives by. It's been said that many of the democratic party leaders have asked him to tone down his attacks on Obama. From what I have heard, he in impolite terms, told them to forget about it. George Stephanopoulos pointed out last Sunday, that regardless of the questionable ethics, Bill's strategy seems to be working.Er­go, he's going to continue on saying anything he can get away with. Notice that when he's called on it by major black leaders, he will sort of apologize, backpedal, or say that he was misunderstood. The nest day he will be back at it. Politics is hardball. Obama is learning this the hard way. Obama bring up Clintons Chief Strategist Mark Penn and his affiliation with Blackwater.

[scandals&skeletons]

november 28th 2007“
Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers,” Clinton said.
bill is a serial liar or a pathological liar, take your pick. way too many to list here. if hillary gets nominated, sen. pat leahy said today that the republican machine would get a 2 for 1 because bill has been so outspoken in her campaign. the evangelicals will come out by the droves, and her nomination would certainly galvanize the republicans. they will smear the clintons like nothing america has ever seen. and...once again the dems will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
i don't get it. why would the dems not be full force behind obama or edwards or both? it is clear that hillary will get beat in a general against mccain or romney. i have only been reading the posts in here for about a week and it seems like a good 1/4 of the dems in here refuse to vote for hillary. that is huge when you consider that if you are posting on a political website then you are very likely to vote. there is no other candidate that comes close to attracting the venom of the clintons (lets face it biil thinks he is running or certainly talks in the first person alot)
again i just don't get it.

[DietrichMoody]

Some firm believe that this nomination will not be rapped up until the Convention in Denver come August 2008. Proof behind this is that neither candidates are running away with any states, so far.

There is still a long way to go, and the Ghettoizing of Obama, per se as Pat Buchanan put it, will be on the minds of many delegates and voters come November. When Brarack trascended race in Iowa, why did Bill and Hillary Clinton help to make sure this transcendence was one their Democratic followers would not take? Its the Democratic party after all, ??. If the Clintons do this to the Black candidate just think of a viable Hispanic or Asian candidate, or ethnic female in the future???

Maybe in some unintentional way the Clinton's will have created a viable Independent party by destroying the Democratic party. As a conservative thinking but forwarding thinking white male, I get it and thing its possible.

[Lisette]

Barack Obama and his wife have oodles of class.

The Clintons are low class, 2 ambulance chasers.

[EvoMan]

Obama myths debunked:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703200011

Rezko thing is pretty much trumped up. Barack didn't do anything wrong. Nice try, Hillary.

[Lisette]

I totally agree with you!

Bill, Bill Bill, Bill, So, you know who the President will be. Hillary is not capable to do anything by herself!

No more Clintons, they scheme and lie and harrass and fight. They lack dignaty or class.

In fact they are a disgrace. After Bush, who needs this?

[givemycountryback]

I listened to the debates last night, and clearly Obama was rattled. He simply is not experienced enough, and just because Oprah backs him, that is not enough. I will support ANY Democrat who is nominated, however, Hillary is my gal. She is smart, articulate, very very knowledgeable. And why shouldn't Bill campaign for her. Some of you people here forget what a great president he was and is loved the world over. If you keep this crap up you get what you deserve, another repug in the White House and probably the end of the world. A woman in needed to clean up the men's mess in Washington.

[flabingo]

Hillary is "the uniter". She will unite the Republicans and will lose in a year that the Democrats "CAN'T lose with any one else
The idea of a right wing court for twenty years should bother every American. To suggest that their "open marriage" will not come up in the general election is naive. With Utube we will see the pictures of Bill and many females. "Hope is the source of all happiness" and the possibility that the Clintons will be back back in Washington makes me very ill.

[sjl106]

And the Queen of Hearts laid the smack down on him too. LOL

In obama's own words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAkIidChxic

[broadbrush]

Lies unanswered are taken as truths.I agree he should have developed the contrast long ago.Wall Street vs Main Street.Pri­viledged vs prejudiced. This is not over and when " the first black-eye to the United States of America President"awakes from his disrespectful slumber during Dr Martin Luther King III memorial to his father, he will resume his unpresidented undignified slander of a fellow Democrat.Y­ou can't take the high road with a low
life.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

The Rezko "slum lord" comeback was the equivalent of Obama hitting Hillary with a cattle futures or Whitewater reference.

Read about the Rezko thing and decide for yourself:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UB3IVG0&show_article=1

And here's Wikipedia on Hillary's Wal-Mart connection:

Clinton was the first female member on Wal-Mart's board, added when chairman Sam Walton was pressured to name one; once there, she pushed successfully for the chain to adopt more environmen­tally-frie­ndly practices, pushed largely unsuccessfully for more women to be added to the company's management, and was silent about the company's famously anti-labor union practices.

[TotobiAyokoh23]

I have a dream: Bill Clinton promised Hillary that he will help her win the White House if she decides not to divorce him after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And Bill will do anything to help Hillary get to the White House. I have a dream.

[rucognizant]

"You can't go home again!"
All of you who wish to re-experience the CLinton economy, will be disappointed.
Contrary to Rudi's statement: HISTORY has NOT Stood still,! It's a completely new ballgame now!
That said......­....Obama scares me, his poandering to the chrstian thing the reagan thing, and his goal of bringing people together, sounds good; BUT I think it is completely unrealistic! The neo-cons have invested too much time energy & money into their project, to turn it around quickly. They have carefully sculpted the younger population, ( for several generations) to a set of beliefs, that will be hard to overturn. I have had the unusual experience of spending a year in college ( at age 57) with the Gen Xers, and subsequently spent 2 years as an AmeriCorp VISTA, with mostly 20 year olds working with children grades 6 - 12. Frusrating and scarey, I came out of it with high blood pressure ( 20 years before my Mother needed B P Meds, at 80.) IT TAKES A LOT TO REDIRECT A SOCIAL SITUATION AS ENTRENCHED AS OURS.
I'm still undecided as to candidate.

[Seattlelite]

I find it very disturbing that a women running for the highest office in this nation needs her “husband” to fight her battles.

And if anyone thinks Senator Obama should not vigilant in defending himself against the “Clinton’s Attack Machine”, just remember what happened to the last democratic candidate who felt he could rise above negative attacks (John Kerry) he was “swift boated” straight back to the Senate.