How Low Will Hillary Go? Her Negative and Gotcha Campaign Is Beneath A Presidential Contender
Ronald Reagan used to say he believed in the 11th Commandment when he was running for president which was to never speak ill of your fellow Republicans.
It seems as if the Democrats and Senator Clinton in particular do not have any such 11th Commandment in this year's contest for the Democratic nomination for president.
The Democratic campaign has become one big "gotcha" and negative event. Being upset at your opponent is legitimate and disagreeing on issues is also okay but the fake attempts at outrage on Clinton's part about some of Obama's remarks and actions smack of total political opportunism.
Senator Obama's remarks about people in small towns being bitter and clinging to religion and guns to compensate for their anger actually made quite a bit of sense.
I went back to my small town in Indiana recently and the main factory which once employed 5000 people has closed down. Don't you think the former employees were angry and bitter at this turn of events?
When I was a teen-ager growing up in Indiana I had a rifle, a shotgun, and a BB gun. This was very normal as was the fact that the town of less than 12,000 people probably had more than 50 churches. People went hunting and went to church. And, they became angry or bitter if they lost their jobs--in this case at a car factory-due to conditions beyond their control--including bad management and globalization.
So, Obama's remarks--which may have been stated better--were--no pun intended--right on target.
What was odd was how indignant and upset Senator Clinton appeared to be by his remarks. Of course, she most likely was not that upset at all but saw an opportunity as her campaign struggles to find a reason to continue.
She pandered to people in small towns extolling their great virtues while basically sounding quite elitist in her own remarks.
And, then in the ABC News poorly constructed debate--which was the worst debate so far of this long year of debates--what were the ABC correspondents thinking? --Hillary and also Obama pandered to the gun owners in the upcoming primary states of Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina.
You would have thought both of the candidates were going hunting the next day the way they were afraid to speak out forcefully on what they truly think which is a belief in strong gun control legislation.
Senator Clinton in the ABC News debate continually made snide remarks and nasty digs at Senator Obama. Teaching a course now on presidential campaigns from 1960 to the present, I was sadly reminded of how Richard Nixon used to criticize his opponents and then pull back and say he would never criticize his opponents after he had done just that.
The implication in all of her supposed outrages at Obama is that she is a better person who deserves the Democratic nomination for president. She continually says that voters know everything there is to know about her record meaning that we do not know everything there is to know about her opponent.
The former First Lady is getting good at throwing out doubts about Obama and letting them linger. She has gotten her anger and sadness at his actions and remarks down to a science.
However, the voters are not being taken in by her actions of despair over Obama and his choice of a church or choice of being on a committee with a former Weather Underground person who is now a professor in Chicago or his "elitist" remarks on small towns.
Clinton certainly has chutzpah but she is sounding so unreal in her comments of late. She is adding an unnecessary bit of phoniness to the campaign which should be focused on issues, issues and issues.
One wonders if we want a person as president who cannot remember what the conditions were on the ground when she landed in Bosnia. Most people would remember if they landed in a war zone with bullets flying or whether they got out of the plane and all was peaceful. Do we want someone in the Oval Office who is this forgetful?
Remember the furor caused when President Reagan couldn't remember the details of Iran-Contra? That was much more complicated than landing in an airplane in Bosnia and trying to recall what actually was happening outside.
And, it is upsetting for Senator Clinton to be looking backwards so often to her husband's administration. While her husband was trying to build a bridge to the 21st century it seems as if she is trying to build a bridge back to the 1990s.
What good does it do to look backwards? This won't help America solve its many domestic and foreign problems of today.
Her looking back takes away from her stature and makes it look once again as if she is only running because she has had a husband who was once president of the United States.
You cannot have it both ways--either run on your own record and accomplishments--or say publicly that this is a joint effort and tell all of us what role Bill Clinton would play in her administration.
Clinton is not running an uplifting campaign. Her anger at Obama appears totally fake. Her looking back to her husband's administration is meaningless for voters today.
And, finally if she feels Obama can beat McCain in the fall and Obama is ahead in delegates, the popular vote, and in the number of primaries and caucuses won, then what is her reason for staying in the race?
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A Mission for Bush
In Wednesday night's Clinton-Obama debate, one question to Sen. Clinton was 'how would she use soon-to-be-former President Bush?
Clinton missed the obvious answer: George W. Bush should be sent to Baghdad to reconcile the Sunnis and Shiites. After all he has been preaching and waiting to accomplish this feat, undoing 1350-year-long history of mutual hate. He needs to be on the ground there to accomplish that feat, hands on. - Perhaps he will be more effective as he was when he claimed to be a "uniter", when he became President.
Dick Cheney could be appointed ambassador to straighten out the rest of the government in his own inimitable manner.
Gunther Steinberg, Portola Valley
Hillary should just join the republican party.
We don't need any attack dogs over here.
Maybe McCain will accept her as his running mate.
Hillary Clinton will go to hell and back and take everyone with her if needed in order to win. She especially wants to destroy Obama so should McCain win she can come out of the ashes and take over to build her dream which is new neocon democratic party that will look and sound like the republicans.
Obama supporters are always complaining that Clinton is wrong to attack him, but they never seem to mind it when Obama attacks her.
You guys are such hypocrites! This is nothing compared to the general election to come.
Obama's performance on Wednesday was terrible on gotcha and substantive questions. In the real world a candidate has to be able to deal with both.
You are not doing your candidate much good trashing Hillary Clinton for what all other candidates do. Howard Dean is not helping the party by pressuring superdelegaters to cut the process short.
Disenfranchising Florida and Michigan will come back to haunt the Democrats in November.
When John McCain takes the oath of office next January you will all blame Clinton, but the blame will rest clearly with Obama and the Washington pros who jumped on his bandwagon and tried to push her out of the process.
Michigan and Florida is not Obamas fault its their own.
Hillary is a phony and a liar who will go to the gutter to get power. She has turned every sensible democrat and even women who once respected and supported her. She needs to get out of the race. She has done enough damage and now does not even seem to have a campaign message except to claim that she is electable and has been vetted. Last month she could not talk straight about Tuzla and sniper fire, now she is talking about hunting at Lake Winola is Scranton as a little girl. This is another fat lie. She was aked by Brian Williams about guns and said it was an irrelevant question..
You are lying. Clinton never said she hunted. She said that when she a little girl her father taught her how to hold a gun. For your information that is a common occurrence in hunting families. Your diatribe against her is just the sort of thing that's driving me to consider voting for McCain. What's wrong with you people? You have built a false stereotype of her and you cling to it (if you'll pardon the expression
He is not likely to win, and of course all you Obama nuts will blame Hillary Clinton. What nonsense! As if the GOP needs help from Clinton to find all the dirt on Obama.
Uh, I believe she said she shot a duck. If that ain't huntin', I don't know what is. You sound pretty riduculous trying to blindly defend your candidate - when your memory is just as bad as hers. If you would vote McCain over either Democrat, you were never going to vote Democratic to begin with, and are just a plant. Nice try, thanks for playing.
It is almost as if, when Hillary is telling a tale, that she is chuckling to herself about how totally stupid the American public is; as if, she is standing in front of the entire world, smirking, thinking to herself "I can put on this half baked acting job and the most ignorant of the population will believe me, ha ha."
What I have to say to the "most ignorant of the population" is: don't believe a word she or her husband says. Anyone who stands before the world ,and lies about being shot at ,is an embarassment to the entire country ,and in no way can further our position in the world. We are a laughing stock for even keeping her in the running this long.
Wonders never cease, Robert Guttman finally said something sensible!
Watch a JED movie, the evolution of a liar. I think this could be a good teaching tool of how not to lie.
http://www
Why will Hillary Clinton wear a beret after November 4th? Because she's fed up with all those bills.
Although I've often criticized and poked fun at Sen. Clinton and the lovable, clown-like Bill, I actually have a lot of sympathy for her. She's smart, she's personable, she's put up with more crap from her husband than any three other women could have possibly endured. So, at first I thought it was something as simple as a side-effect of flop-sweat when she kept pulling the glassy-eyed stare bit at some point in each appearance.
Now, I believe it's something more like PTSD and the S part of that occurred well before the current campaign. It's a cry for help. She's been ground down by and played second fiddle to hubby Bill for so long she's grown addicted to the role and is still doing hubby's will in running for the White House. Her friends need to do an intervention if they have any feeling for her at all.
As a woman, I have no sympathy for Hillary Clinton. She does not have a patent on being "wronged" by a man, or a President. Don't forget people, we had a President of the United States who fathered children with his female slaves!!!!
Every day women are being "wronged" by husbands, maybe not in front of the entire world, but in front of their entire world. As women, we must accept responsibility for our actions and lives. We all know that. I, personally, do not believe for a moment that Hillary gave a second thought to Bill's behavior, except to run with it for all the poliltical capital it was worth to her. Call me cold. If I am mistaken, or if this is a "mis-spoke
The Clintons are scorched-earth, shameless, ambitious, arrogant and think they are 'owed' something. They have always been this way. I know having come of age under Governor Clinton. We've met- a number of times.
She's no different than that sickening 'Comeback Kid' Bullsh*t from a couple of years back. They are like a stray that keeps following you regardless of what you do. In their case it's not being clueless- it's blind ambition and arrogance.
I didn't expect anything different from these two.
I think that Hill has been way too kind to Barack Obama. She should have toughened him up (for his own good) by attacking him without mercy on all fronts. Does he think that he is going to be spared scrutiny in the general election? He is the "new guy" - the Pubs will rake him over the coals.
There is something decidedly flawed about a campaign that in no way wants to make a case for themselves, but instead wants to make a case against the candidate that mirrors the bulk of your own policies. "Obama can't win" isn't a polilcy, a principle, or even a well thought out idea - Obama has won more votes and delegates than Clinton. What kind of twisted pretzel logic is Clinton following? You know how you prove you can win a general election? By winning primaries. Not by saying the guy that's winning, can't win.
HILLARY ROVE CLINTON A TRUE DEMOCRAT DOES NOT EAT THERE OWN.WE SAVE THAT FOR REPUBLICANS .OH I FORGOT HILLARY USED TO BE A REPUBILCAN! THAT WHY HILLARY ROVE CLINTON SO CONFUSED!
This fellow Obama is running for President of the United States. Nobody knows who he is. His father came from a tribe in Kenya and went back there to live leaving him to his American mother. His African roots are not known to us so we must find out all we can before having him as our candidate.
Everything good and bad just as everything good and bad about Hillary and McCain will be part of the story sooner or later if he is to be elected.Be
Six weeks ago Hillary was whining because the 'boys club' jumped on her in the debates. And, after she voted for Kyl-Lieberman, any person who votes for her is not a progressive. Hillary is a known quantity - She's a WARMONGER.
You guys get me when you say nobody knows who Obama is. They have went through that man's background forward and backwards. All of the best investigators in the world could find was. Rev. Wright, Rekzo, Ayers. They have went through all of that with a fine tooth comb.
What do you know about Hillary? Oh, so you know she told her husband to screw you guys, You know she was promoting NAFTA, CAFTA and China. You know that her husband gets paid millions for during a speech. The man cannot do a speech for his own wife correctly. They are dirty, and you want to put her in office.
Hillary reminds me of a male passenger on the Titanic who is trying to fight his way through the woman and children to secure a seat in the lifeboat ... It's time for Hillary to be a man about things and do what's right!
How does she want to be remembered in history?
What a PERFECT ANALOGY!!!!!!
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