Hillary Get Your Gun

Are you a Hillary fan? Then put ZZ Top's "Gun Love"¹ on the turntable and let 'er rip. Sen. Clinton is, in that song's words, "running with the wild bunch, makin' like Robert De Niro." And when it comes to this primary race she's decided, in the words of that song, to "play Russian Roulette but she'll load all six."

This isn't a primary race anymore. It's a suicide pact. It's Gun Crazy II, starring Sen. Clinton as the gun-totin' candidate who fought her way up from her hardscrabble origins. There, where the tears and Pabst Blue Ribbon flowed, she learned the skills that later made her leader of the pack at the Wellesley Rod and Gun Club ...

The Democrats have two candidates whose policies are very similar -- and, despite claims to the contrary, are equally well-detailed on their websites. It was inevitable, then, that the race would become about personalities and biographies. With one candidate symbolizing minorities and the future, and the other representing women and the perceived good old days, there was no way things weren't going to get personal and weird -- not just between the candidates, but their supporters too.

All of a sudden Hillary's a born-again redneck, throwing shots back at an Indiana bar and bragging (excuse me, make that braggin') about her gun history. But will it play? Mitt Romney trashed his presidential chances, in part by portraying himself as a "varmint"-huntin' regular guy -- who just happened to be the son of a Senator and car company CEO. Romney claimed his "varmint" of choice was squirrel, however, while Hillary suggested that ducks were her "target of opportunity."

Hillary waxes nostalgic about having hunted once as a little girl. Guess she wants us to know she has the common touch. In fact, her father was a wealthy Republican textile wholesaler who moved to the tony environs of Park Ridge, Illinois, where Hillary lived until leaving for an Ivy League college where she joined the Young Republicans.

Or, as country singer Gretchen Wilson says, "Let me get a big 'hell yeah' from the redneck girls like me."

Hell, yeah.

Sensing opportunity, Sen. Clinton decided to rail against "elitist" Obama. Will it work for her? Yes, no, and maybe. It has definitely hurt Obama, which was her main objective. It gives the Republicans yet another talking point, one she herself observed they've used year after year against Dems: namely, that they're elite and out of touch.

Will this gambit persuade any of those non-Democratic blue collar Americans -- the ones that Obama was so truthfully describing in those much maligned remarks -- that she's one of them? No. Will it backfire, Romney style, and make her look phony? That's a toss-up, although she's already "ducking" (sorry!) embarrassing questions about when she last went to church or fired a gun. That's "not relevant," she says.

Here's the main reason attacks like these alienate the majority of Democrats who are not Hillary supporters: They know Obama's comments about disillusioned white voters were both accurate and well-intentioned. They know that Hillary knows they were accurate and well-intentioned (especially since Bill said virtually the same exact thing when he was running). They don't want a candidate who says whatever they need to say to win -- even if it cheapens the discourse and hurts the party. Statements like these make them feel that, for the Clinton team, the low road is the scenic route. Should Hillary persuade the superdelegates to give her the nod, a large chunk of her base will be alienated and discouraged.

Is Pyrrhus the newest member of her turbulent team?

Actually, this latest attack bears the hot sauce-stained fingerprints of Mark Penn, whose "firing" from the Clinton campaign we have since learned was yet another deception. The "elitist" gambit is one more attempt at victory by division -- a trademark Penn strategy that has cost her dearly. But the Clinton campaign seems optimistic that it, like other leaves from the Rovian playbook, will work out in the end.

And it might. The Clinton campaign could yet ascend to electoral heaven on buffalo wings. That's why she continues to insist she's a plain-speakin' American. But what about that nagging question -- when she last went to church or fired a gun?

"We can answer that some other time," Clinton said at a press conference held in a working class neighborhood here. "This is about what people feel is being said about them. I went to church on Easter. I mean, so?""

Let me get a big 'hell, yeah' ... I mean, "so?"

There's a part of me -- a bad part -- that likes the notion of a president who knows her way around a Remington 870, or is even willing to pretend. (Although the 870's a pump-action shotgun, if I recall correctly, and I think you'd need two hands to fire a repeat shot. I can't remember for sure, since I'm just an elitist -- but I'm sure Hillary knows.)

Some Dems will rankle at the fact that a white candidate raised in wealth and privilege is mocking an African American raised by a single mother as 'elitist.' But the blow has landed. The problem isn't that the primary campaign is going on and on. The problem is that the primary campaign is going on and on while one candidate wages a relentlessly negative campaign, damaging the probable nominee at every opportunity. But those who can be persuaded by that argument already have been. Apparently, at least for the moment, the Democrats want to play out this destructive charade.

Well, alright then: Lock and load. The party's chances might be destroyed in the process, to which the response will no doubt be "so?" Meanwhile, ask any Republican if they like what's happening to the Democratic Party and they're sure to answer:

Hell, yeah.
______________________

¹(Forget Bob Dylan: That Pulitzer should've gone to ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, if only for rhyming "De Niro" with "pistolero.")

A Night Light

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Comments

[ctom]

Obama is an elitist from the sense that he refuses to go bare knuckles against Clinton.

His turn the other cheek style may work with pew-sitters but in redneck country, that may not pan out.

Clinton has so many weak spots (ie. when's the last time she attended chruch or fired a weapon? how can someone sitting on the board of Walmart call a community organizer an elite?, what's up with Bill's memories and hers?, etc.). He should just go for a gut shot and right hook into her jaw. That will do her under (which I actually like the sound of that.....).

Hillary with all her faults, I don't see why Obama just goes on the offensive.

[Manx]

Last week, among blue-collar workers in Pennsylvania, Hillary was portrayed as Rosie The Riveter. Among the Hoosiers in Indiana, she became gun-totin' Annie Oakley. Why, we have a lot to look forward to. In North Carolina, she'll be a craftin' furniture, and if she gets to Oregon, she'll be wielding a chain-saw as Paulette Bunyan. Can't wait.

[desmirl]

When does Hilary buy the pickup truck with the gun rack in the window, and drive around from one southern roadhouse to another, looking for voters?

[ArchAngel]

The Clintons are now openly running a scorched earth campaign.

If Obama does not have the nomination stolen from him - the Republicans will literally start running clips of all of the Clintons' quotes.

Voters do not have time to process and understand detailed responses and nuanced reasoning to negative attacks. Obama may be pushed into opening the waste plumbing of the Clintons' history.

[morticia]

I think she`s finally cracked. In fact she`s completely freaked out by the looks of things.That shot of crown
royal was of course for show but I think she`s unwinding. needs a drink or two, just like BUSH! Hope she goes hunting with Cheney soon.

[merhoba]

PETER PAUL VS CLINTON 4-25-08

[Montanamotor]

!All of a sudden Hillary's a born-again redneck..." - I'm telling this for half a year, already. But nobody would listen. Hillary is a transformer. She's transforming from a Democratic president's honourable wife into a ranting, drinking, praying, shooting, cursing southern Republican chick without regrets.

This is spooky.I mean, really spooky. Has Hillary been subject to brainwashing, lately? Seems so. Seems very much so.

[LarBear]

Montanamotor....
So everyone who drinks a beer and who have also shot a gun, is a Redneck? Wow! The Pacific Northwest (Including British Columbia, Canada) is Redneck Country for sure... LMAO And those Alaskan Rednecks are something else again...
Whoa doggies... You wouldn't be a Montana Redneck would you... Naw... Never shot a gun? Never drank a beer?
I was shooting guns before I even hit my teens... I suspect that is so with a lot of Farm Boys... (We had a 186 acre Dairy Farm) Never had a beer till my Senior year in High School... Would NEVER mix those two, even if I still drank any alcohol...
Taught my City Cousins to SAFELY shoot, before they were teens also... Both males and females...
Hey... There was a hidden still site on the Farm we bought... Does that help my Red Nekkedness? LMAO Here...
C'mon Obama supporters... Get a life... Life will go on regardless of whom is elected... And I suspect, as usual, until G W (Saddam) Bush was elected, little will change... The Good Older Boys of both parties will still be in Control...

[timm0]

You're passive-ag­gressivene­ss about "rednecks" is noted - but totally misses the point of the comment... she portrayed herself to be a nascent Navy Seal when arriving in the former Yugoslavia and she continuously makes up absurd stories in an effort to make her seem like a larger than life super-hero.

[SubparDude]

:

Brilliant piece. . .captures the true sadness of our situation. Not only is Senator Clinton holding a gun to her own future, but all of we Demos are her hostages for as long as she can kick the can...


:

[orifox]

I'm an Obama volunteer. I can attest to the fact that his and our attempts to reach out to PA voters who were undecided WAS working. We saw a big swing in his direction last week. The economic message was starting to take root. There was a fragile base of people daring to actually start to be optimistic again, after so many years of being totally ignored. Now, I fear they are all going to swing back to the politics of fear and division.

Now, Obama should have just said, it IS working. And left it at that instead of trying to explain how republican wedge issues have made voters take sides against their own economic interests. It was badly worded. But this attack from Hillary is terribly damaging to all of us on the Democratic side.

Hillary Clinton has brought is straight to hell.

I can't believe the cold calculating cynicism on display here. I always liked Bill and Hillary, I have to admit. But not anymore.

Please, my fellow PA voters, see this for what it is. An attempt by an amoral power-hungry political family trying to play at your fears to get your votes.

That move to Obama last week was the right one.

Josh in PA

[rmetz74]

The 'elite' attack cracks me up.

I WANT a President to be elite... Aka, smarter, better educated/t­raveled/re­ad than the vast majority of Americans. Bill was a friggin' Rhodes Scholar. He and Hillary are both lawyers. Both Dem candidates are elite, and thank god.

We've got a pretty solid idea of what happens when you elect a President who is LESS intelligent, articulate, and worldly than most, and most Americans have figured out it's a bad idea. Hillary's attempt to align herself with that sad tradition is yet another reason I don't support her.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

I agree, that's an old Republican canard used against Democrats to draw attention away from themselves as wealthy, over-privileged freeloaders. They use it to distract from the fact that the Rich live off the Poor, not the other way around as the Right Wing noise machine would like you to believe.

It certainly fits the Clinton modus operandi. Vote like a Republican, govern like a Republican and campaign like a Republican. The only reason the Clintons are Democrats at all is even the Republicans could see them for the scoundrels they really are years ago.

[standforpeace]

I knew the world had gone mad when I saw Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia, a Hillary supporter, doing the Sunday morning talk show rounds. In his compulsive effort to defend Hillary, he actually started talking about the value of hunting and gun ownership in Pennsylvania. Perhaps true, but as a big city mayor shouldn't he be working to limit the devastation that guns have brought to his hometown rather than serving as an unpaid spokesperson for the NRA? Just another example of a Clinton supporter willing to throw away reason and integrity in a desperate effort to save the nomination for Hillary. Kind of reminds me of all of the posters here who argue that winning the popular vote and the most delegates in the primaries/caucuses is proof of nothing and that party hacks should overturn the expressed will of the voters (if and only if that means that Hillary Clinton gets the nomination).

[timm0]

WHAT?!?!?! They just had a huge public to-do here on his recent legislation that limits handgun sales in Philly...

[mommadona]

"Anything You Can I Can Do Better...."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9eawRgxuGX0

[Canadienne]

ohhhh, thank you for that one! I'm still laughing.

[rwilliams1961]

Here's the thing that I don't get. The super delegates are supposed to be the wise ones who choose the best candidate for the fall election. Well, these "wise (wo)men" had better get their butts in gear, because if they wait too long to select the "right" candidate, both candidates will be dead, fatally wounded from this now unnecessarily drawn out primary. The people have spoken. Their numbers won't be reversed.

Oh, Wise Super Delegates: Get off the sofas, you all. You have work to do and it had better be done soon. You don't need any more info. You've got all the data you require to make your call. So make it, dammit!

[RobertAndropolis]

"Wellesley Rod & Gun Club"... brilliant!

[ToddD]

RJ: I say right on...or as the talented MS. Wilson says....Hell Yeah!