It's All Hillary's Fault!

It's convention time. Woo-hoo! At last we have some relief from gazing at those shame-spiral-inducing perfect Olympic bodies and from those many, many hours watching newsmen interview Michael Phelp's mom in her living room.

The Democratic National Convention has kicked off and it's time to feel good!

But what if - horror of horrors -- our candidate doesn't end up winning in November? You know, the way our candidate didn't win in 2004 or 2000 or, for that matter, in 1988, 1984 or 1980.
We don't want this to happen . . . but it could. If that sad day comes to pass, we already know why. Just ask the blogosphere, Maureen Dowd, Chris Matthews or legions of Obama supporters: it's all Hillary's fault!

If Obama loses the much-lusted-after-but-usually-disappointing swing states of Ohio and Florida, it's all Hillary's fault!

If our party's dream of turning Colorado, Virginia and New Mexico from red to blue just doesn't pan out - it's all Hillary's fault!

If two-thirds of white men vote Republican this year, as they have done in election after election, don't blame the residual effects of 300 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow laws or some kind of weird white-male identity politics. Blame Hillary! Because it's all Hillary's fault!

If John McCain's campaign plotters examine thousands of clips of Hillary Clinton speaking, string together a few decontextualized phrases and facial expressions, and turn them into an attack video, you might be tempted to blame McCain as a mudslinging cynic - but you would be misguided. Because it's all Hillary's fault!

If the 48% or so of primary voters who favored Hillary are kind of pissed off, grieving, and desiring respect, Obama supporters might think about reaching out to these voters, sharing their love for their candidate, and doing their best to make the Democratic party a big family again! (Maybe not the most functional kind of family, but one that can pull it together for family reunions and Thanksgiving.) But reaching out takes a lot more work than just trashing Hillary and her supporters. And why bother? Because it's all Hillary's fault!

The primaries have been over for a really long time. Maybe it's time to turn our attention our collective enemy - the Republicans. Not so! As HP bloggers like David Sirota demonstrate, it's important to keep informing the world about the horrors of the Clintons. Because it's all Hillary's fault!

Nutty yet strangely influential Republicans like Peggy Noonan are calling on John McCain to limit himself to one term. Since he's really old and stuff. Might be a clever move - but according to a recent column by Maureen Dowd, this bizarre scheme is actually all Hillary's fault!

Those three tiny Chinese gymnasts are still clutching their gold medals, even though by our carb-inflated American standards those girls look closer to 6 than 16. If sports justice is not served, the reason is quite obvious -- it's all Hillary's fault!

It rained today. It's all Hillary's fault!

Your cable box isn't working properly and your service costs too much. It's all Hillary's fault!

Our galaxy will eventually collide with another, thereby ending all life. It's all Hillary's fault!

Blaming Senator Clinton for everything that could go wrong with the Obama campaign has the weird effect of emasculating and weakening our candidate. But if Obama loyalists persist in this kind of counterproductive and election-losing behavior , don't blame them - it's all Hillary's fault!

Comments

[LeeScho]

02:50 PM on 08/30/2008

I will make a deal with you: You not judge the majority of Obama supporters by that anti-Hillary faction, and we won't judge you, Hillary and her campaign by the small-faction PUMA's who would vote for McCain before they vote for Obama.

[henrytcasey]

06:09 PM on 08/26/2008

Yeah ... tonight will prove whether or not Hillary actually deserves blame. Hill, prove me wrong.

[loriholland35]

03:45 PM on 08/26/2008

I for one will NOT blame Hillary Clinton if Obama loses the presidential election. I happen to believe that MANY factors will contribute if Obama loses including his own lack of grit, anger, fight and indignation at Repub attacks. Nevertheless, I'm happy to know that REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME the Clintons are - and will remain - a distant memory. If Obama wins (he will), Hillary will NEVER be POTUS. If Obama loses, Hillary will NEVER be POTUS because many loyal Democrats (African Americans) will take their revenge on her for cruelly diminishing the prospects of the 1st realistic African American Democratic presidential nominee long after her defeat was certain. I am African American. I WILL NOT BLAME HILLARY CLINTON if Obama loses the presidential election. BUT, I won't vote for her either.

[Jeffomil]

02:17 PM on 08/26/2008

Hillary has not done NEARLY enough to support the candidate who won the nomination. Both she and Bill just can't get over her loss, and are attempting to make this convention about themselves. They need to step back, FULLY endorse Obama, and GET LOST! Otherwise, were going to have McCain. (Which may be what these two secretly want since they probably think this will prove that SHE should have been the nominee. GET OVER YOURSELVES, and let the rest of us get on with WINNING the presidency this time.

[tedbear]

01:41 PM on 08/26/2008

It is Hillary's fault! Ha!

[Charmed]

12:56 PM on 08/26/2008

Michael, you didn't get the memo...."NOTHING is every Hillary's fault".........Obama stole the nomination from her remember.

[Patrick McCabe]

09:59 AM on 08/26/2008

It all started to go south in South Carolina -- the family feud -- the food fight. Bill Clinton was there. On Wednesday night his address to the democrats will be the difference. Will he attempt to reconcile and unite the party ? That means more to me as a democrat.

There was Teddy Kennedy, to start the healing, on Monday. On Wednesday, former two-term president, Bill Clinton needs to give us his A-game.

[SensibleAmerican]

02:27 PM on 08/26/2008

In 1984, Reagan knocked Mondale of the Electoral Map winning a never before seen landslide of 49 out of 50 States! In 1988, Bush Sr. became the Reagan "3rd term" and in 1994 Republicans took over Congress after almost 4 decades

But something happened in the meanwhile that the Republicans could not have fathomed and/or were prepared for, a Democrat became President! A very young ex Governor of piddly AK with an established reputation of being a major league womanizer, defeated the "party of American values"! How could he and how dare he?!

On the other side of the political spectrum, a true fighter for the middle class and "have nots" in America, Ralph Nader, started nursing Presidential ambitions. He was obviously more "left than right"!

Bill Clinton's ascendancy in American politics destroyed the ambitions of both the "far right and the far left" leading to the beginning of serious polarization and internecine politics. Hillary was one of the main cogs in Bill's governing wheel. Thus started the demonization of the Clintons. After $40 plus Million of tax payers' monies were spent on endless "witch hunting" by a political hack and zealot posing as an "independent counsel", all they came up with was a "stained blue dress" ... Bill Clinton left office leaving behind two major landmarks/milestones: 1) The only Dem President to serve 2 terms since FDR and 2) with one of the highest favorable ratings in political history. Nevertheless, the inane and insane demonization continues ...

[standard]

07:35 AM on 08/26/2008

Hillary's last few supporters seem to live in a fantasy world in which a self-important woman who has a law degree and was once First Lady is, somehow, the center of the universe. But she's not.

Hillary's tenure at political center stage is almost over, ruined by her own foul words and ill-chosen tactics, by her early support of an ugly war and her striking lack of actual accomplishments. After November, whether the Democrats win or lose, she will remain what she's become: irrelevant. Blamed for nothing, she will simply fade from mind: a footnote, no longer a focal point.

Why will no one blame her if Obama were to lose? Because they will have moved on and she will be just another Senator or, like her husband, just another option on the lecture circuit--on occasion faintly praised. And why? Because the opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference.

From the movie "Casablanca":

Ugarte: You despise me, don't you?

Rick: Well, if I gave you any thought, I probably would.

[JimR]

06:16 AM on 08/26/2008

Actually, if there's anything we've learned about the Clintons, it's that NOTHING is EVER their fault! Poor campaign strategy? Not Hillary's fault! Using race-baiting tactics in a desperate attempt for votes? Not Hillary's fault! Going back on her agreement that votes in Michigan and Florida wouldn't count? Not Hillary's fault!

[Whinger]

05:30 AM on 08/26/2008

It is the people who must decide who to vote for, I blame the constitution for that!

They who would lead have been measured and tested, the results of that should be bourne in mind for future reference, things like, were they a team player, or, were they a lone wolf howling at the moon!

As they have sown, so shall they reap, they deserve no less than that!

[Project4NuBostonTeaParty]

04:58 AM on 08/26/2008

Michael, you have stated the obvious so perfectly -- which is exactly why the Obama devotees will slam you for it (as 99% of the posts here indicate).

Some even have the audacity to call themselves reality-based. (I think that's simply synonymous with being under 22 years old.)

But it truly is becoming a tiresome repetition throughout the HuffPuff community and much of the commercial media: the continued trashing of those whose votes Obama most needs.

Makes sense, right?

Oh, but wait -- it's Hillary's fault that Obamatons can't look in the mirror!

[ghenry]

04:44 AM on 08/26/2008

Stop already with the Hillary vs Obama story. This is about putting a sane President into the White House. Stick with the message.

[RealityBaseCamp]

01:31 AM on 08/26/2008

Let's see, a bunch of things she IS to blame for, surrounded by stuff that has marginal or no connection to her? Is that like a murderer who becomes a serial killer to mask what's really going on? Very bad reasoning, to say that because she isn't to blame for EVERYTHING, then she must be completely innocent! Hear that everybody? We're just nuts! Move along, nothing to see here . . .

[Bulldoglover]

01:21 AM on 08/26/2008

It is Hillary's fault if Obama, and the Dems, lose this election. No 2 ways around that one regardless of how you try to couch it with your amusing blatherings.
She carried on when the only way she could win would be to get the super delegates to over ride the will of the people. She did not win the popular vote and everyone with a brain is well aware that thousands, if not millions, of her "votes" were republicans who were voting against Obama...so her real nimber? will never be known. She ran a shoddy campaign, wasted money and lied, more than once, and got caught. She rages against Obama gave inteligent women eveywhere a bad name not to mention her inability to lose with grace. All the way to the end it was all about "What does Hillary want". It should have been what the majority of democrats wanted.
She handed the repugs the ammuniton to beat us...and you think we are stupid enough to not realize where the blame goes? LOL Just ask old Bill what he thinks? He is still unable to support the nominee. Neither of them put the party first or this country.

[cluesearch]

01:19 AM on 08/26/2008

I don't blame Hillary for everything... I started out as a Hillary supporter. She, her husband, and her campaign talked me out of supporting her.
She will be blamed if Obama loses and here is why--she had the audacity to state that her democratic oponent was not prepared to be CIC but her rupublican oponent was. That was simply unforgiveable. She continued to destroy Obama when she knew she would not win the delegate fight, but most unforgivable of all is that she and her campaign did not read the mood of the party who wanted to take the high road and embrace change. She ran a shoddy campaign that changed messages daily. She couldn't manage her funds and when her message didn't work she played the victim card.
All this I could forgive if she wasn't negotiating the convention as if she was somehow deserving of something more than the rest of the other candidates. I certainly hope and pray that she and Bill come correct in the next couple of days and hit the campaign trail with the full force of their support working tirelessly for Obama. If she does that then she will not be blamed. Anything short of that and she will be.
As for the Hillary supporters who just can't muster it up to vote for Obama--victimhood reads as failure and you have now proven both.