To me, The Twilight Zone was one of the great television series of all time; because it portrayed the alternative realities that can exist in people's minds. In one famous episode, a pre-Star Trek William Shatner played Don, a newlywed who gets caught up in the answers doled out by a little "Ask me any question. I have the answer" machine in a diner where he and his new wife are eating. Although these answers are very general (as they would have to be for a machine like this), they get twisted by Don's superstitious mind until he thinks they mean much more than they could ever realistically mean.
Well, something similar has happened with how Hillary's campaign sees Obama campaign manager David Plouffe's March 12th Memo.
With her campaign's pre-existing determination to find any weakness in Barack Obama that they can exploit... any reason to claim that Barack Obama is less qualified to be president than she is... or any reason to say to the Super Delegates that Barack Obama is less electable than she is, David Plouffe's memo is being treated as a document that reveals that Obama has given up on Pennsylvania... thrown in the white flag... and once again shown he has no winning strategy for the November election.
Now, if this was just about the funny similarities between a classic TV show and Hillary's mind (and, I'm sorry, but unlike Keith Olbermann, I am unwilling to say that Hillary's campaign people are doing things on their own that she has not already authorized them to do), this spinning of an opponent's words and intent wouldn't bother me.
But I've just realized that Hillary's twisting of Barack's campaign's words and documents has another much more serious parallel in how George W. Bush twisted the words of Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. When Saddam Hussein said "I no longer have weapons of mass destruction," George Bush said "That really means he's hiding them really well. When we attack him, we'll find them." (I'm paraphrasing here, but these links will take you to the original February (Hussein) and March (Bush) 2003 statements.)
Well, we all now know who was really telling the truth back then.
And, based on the ease with which Hillary's campaign says "Barack has given up on Pennsylvania and has no solid general election strategy" when he and his campaign have said nothing even vaguely similar to that remark, I will now issue a strongly cautionary statement - not a declaration that I know something for sure - but a strongly worded cautionary statement:
Beware of a politician who - in order to achieve a victory she believes she is destined to achieve - says that a candidate has given up a fight when he has in actuality done nothing of the sort. That candidate may just turn out to be as dangerous as George Bush - who said Saddam Hussein was looking for a fight when he was, in actuality, doing nothing more than seeking to remain in power in his own region and country. Destiny-based thinking is a dangerous mindset. It can cause one to unnecessarily blow up a country... or a political party.
Yesterday, I suggested that some reporter ask Hillary is she'd campaign for Barack if he gets the nomination... work really hard to help him win those big states we all know are important (although some of us know that smaller states are important too).
Today, I'd like to suggest that some reporter ask Hillary if she thinks she is destined to become President of the United States.
Because I do not know the answer to this question, I wrote above that I am offering a strong caution to people... a yellow alert, so to speak. Were I to know for sure that Hillary thinks it is her destiny to be president, then I would change what I am saying. But for now, I am keeping open the possibility that this is all just some game she and Bill are playing to "toughen up" Barack for the general election in case he gets the nomination.
In a world full or different spins on reality, Hillary saying "You survived everything I could throw at you, Barack. Congratulations! Now, you go beat John McCain!" is one Twilight Zone episode surprise ending I would be very happy to have happen for real... in Hillary's speech at the Democratic Party's convention.
And now, so you can read it yourself, here is David Plouffe's entire memo...
I think that you will agree that there is no "white flag" in this memo. It is an appropriate effort to balance out the reality spin of the Clinton campaign, which wants people to think that only the upcoming Pennsylvania primary counts.
Memo from Obama Campaign Manager Plouffe
To: Interested Parties
From: David Plouffe, Campaign Manager
Date: March 12, 2008
RE: Moving On to the Next 10 ContestsWith his overwhelming victory in the Mississippi primary, Barack Obama's lead in pledged delegates is now wider than it was on March 3, before the contests in Ohio and Texas. He netted more delegates in Mississippi and Wyoming than Senator Clinton netted on March 4. Obama now holds a pledged delegate lead of 161 with a total of 1411 pledged delegates, while Senator Clinton trails with 1250 pledged delegates. As the number of remaining pledged delegates dwindles, Hillary Clinton's path to the nomination seems less and less plausible.
Barack Obama has now won nearly thirty contests, over half the states in the country, including critical battleground states like Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Missouri, Washington and Colorado.
Now that Mississippi is behind us, we move on to the next ten contests. The Clinton Campaign would like to focus your attention only on Pennsylvania - a state in which they have already declared that they are "unbeatable." But Pennsylvania is only one of 10 remaining contests, each important in terms of allocating delegates and ultimately deciding who are nominee will be. Senator Obama campaigned in Pennsylvania yesterday and will do so again later this week, but he will also campaign aggressively in the other upcoming states - he will travel to other upcoming states in the very near future.
We have activated our volunteer networks, are putting staff on the ground, and building our organization in every one of the upcoming states. The key is not who wins the states that the Clinton campaign thinks are important. Throughout this entire process, they have cherry-picked states, diminished caucuses, and moved the goal posts to create a shifting, twisted rationale for why they should win the nomination despite winning fewer primaries, fewer states, fewer delegates, and fewer votes.