I had a dream............
Posted on 05/12/2008 6:55:11 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
Now that we have a fairly good idea that the candidacy of Hillary Clinton is finished, let the afterglow begin. That is, let begin those few moments when we reflect on a news story that has occupied us for what, in terms of news coverage, was an eternity.
The Democratic nomination was this year not supposed to be the big story in the race for the presidency. That was supposed to be the Republican nomination, where the once-dead John McCain came back from the grave and won the nomination with what appeared to be relative ease. It was supposed to be Hillary Clinton who was the anointed Democratic candidate, with this year meant to give some campaign time and experience to Barack Obama.
That was, of course, before anyone cast a vote. When people began to have a say, it turns out that they were of a very different mind. (This raises the question, the answer to which threatens to refute Clinton’s argument that she’d be the best suited to beat McCain come November. If she can’t win her nomination using her own party’s rules, why should anyone expect her to beat the Republican in November according to a different set of rules?)
The problem is that Clinton should be approaching as perfect a candidate as you can find. She’s capable of raising huge sums of cash, has good name recognition, is well aligned with popular opinion and the issues, and Republicans essentially threw everything and the kitchen sink at her during the ’90s. Plus, there is the tenacity that is keeping her in the race even after basically everyone else knows that she’s finished.
How she let it all slip away will no doubt keep a generation of political junkies interested. Hindsight will provide some valuable insights, but it will also allow important impressions from the moment to slip away. Those impressions are important.
What you hope isn’t lost in time is the feeling that Clinton turned into the sort of politician who would nakedly give voice to whatever fool notion came to mind in order to win. This was most notably on display towards the end of the race for Indiana and North Carolina, when Clinton endorsed a gasoline tax holiday. An idea panned by both auto industry insiders and economists, it also promised next to nothing in real savings for American taxpayers who understood they were being pitched a hustle.
This, too, was expressed by the campaign’s war on the English language. Politics the last few years have become especially diluted by jargon and double speak, and after it became clear that superdelegates would be necessary to give Clinton the victory, her camp started attacking the term superdelegate as not the official terminology of the Democratic Party. Rather, they argued – including the online encyclopedia Wikipedia – that the correct phrase was “automatic delegate” to soften the term describing people whose support came to be the lynchpin of the Clinton strategy.
Early on, the knock against Hillary Clinton was what appeared to be a shameless ambition.
Everyone understands that you don’t accidentally become a front-running presidential candidate, but there is also looking too much like you want something. Anyone who paid moderate attention over the last decade already knew Clinton coveted the Oval Office, having won a place in the Senate as a carpetbagger to New York.
Her “say anything” campaign contributed to that, making it look like her desire to be president was the only reason she sought the office, not that she wished to help the nation solve its problems.
This is the kind of thing that can be expected to turn people off, and it’s a helpful lesson for future campaigns. You can be the front runner, but you ought to hold off on declaring yourself the victor until at least the voting starts.
I had a dream............
Like I’ve said from the beginning...If she wasn’t married to Bubba, we’d all be going “HIllary who?”
I’ll vote for the RIGHT woman for president. However, the jury is still out as to which sex Hillary! truly is.
(Sorry for using “Hillary” and “sex” in the same sentence, LOL!)
The left never completely forgave Hillary for her Iraq vote. So now they are stuck with a far-leftist who will have a very difficult time winning in Novemeber, despite what some polls show.
I had a nightmare
She’s still going to win. Somehow, someway, pressure will be brought to bear on the Superdelegates and FLA/MI.
Anyone who watched Bill and Hillary in the "stand by your man" interview in '92, the one which saved his candidacy, and did not figure out that they would do anything to get the Presidency was really not very astute.
Whoever designed Hillary 2.0 is a genius. That person almost made her likeable. Was it her muslim girlfriend?
Hillary did enough to alienate the Democrats’ leftist base. Then Obama came along, and became their new hero.
Its the pantsuit...
Without the 100% full support of the media, the Clintons can easily be seen as the shiftless grifters that they truly are.
And if Barack Obama's father had been a Norwegian graduate student instead of a Kenyan graduate student, we’d all be going “Barry Olsen who?”
She won't step aside until Obama has accepted her as VP... It's the thug way.
Last Tuesday Hillary called in (late) to a NC radio station. Because she was late she talked with the right wing prankster instead of "news" people. He asked her about the Three Stooges and got her to do the "nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" of Curly.
I never thought I'd see the day that she won the "which candidate would you rather have a beer with" contest.
Anyone who didn't realize that Hillary Clinton's entire motivation for the Presidency was power, power, and power, is too far gone for hope - and probably a dedicated Dem!
Why does she keep taking photos with her mouth in an “O” position? This drives me crazy. I can’t stand when politicians do the “O” and the finger pointing thing.
Hillary Clinton has come into her own, gaining poise and style that she didn’t have previously. And her negatives have fallen as a result. Sadly, for her and her supporters, she blew any chance of winning the Democrat nomination by her responses to Bill O’Reilly’s tough questioning in O’Reilly’s second interview with her. But add this to it: She was competing for the nomination with a “rock star” black leftist who happens to be an eloquent speaker and is seen by many in the Democrat Party to be “The Black JFK”.
How did she blow it? In the now-famous second interview with O’Reilly, Hillary had the opportunity to shed her pro-illegal alien/pro-Invasion position she’s held for many years for a “law-and-order” mantra and move to the right. She would have been “alone” among fellow female Dems if she did it, carving out a niche for herself all her own. She also would have moved to the right of pro-illegal alien/pro-Amnesty Sen. McCain. O’Reilly asked her, point blank, “Will you go after “sanctuary cities when President?” Hillary “jumped” all over O’Reilly on the question, answering “No! Absolutely not!” In other words, with her sworn oath “to protect the nation from Invasion”, President Hillary Clinton would leave the illegal aliens in the sanctuary cities alone and would not prosecute those cities’ leaders for aiding and abetting—a felony under Federal Immigration law. Major U.S. cities’ mayors are flaunting sanctuary status. Imagine—a presidential candidate who says she will not uphold Federal law! To a law and order person like myself, that is political suicide.
Timing is everything. Even though she “came into her own” in the past month or so in terms of her speaking and the debates, she did not move to the right on key issues that Indies and conservative Dems are looking for in a candidate.
This is when you ‘really’ don’t want to be Obama. She’s been wounded and he’s munching on her (and Bill’s) bait pile.
If she's on the ticket she'll work to get him off - and if elected she'll work to get him impeached.
The Clinton's want back in the White House - it's the thug-way or the highway... if Grandma was between them and their goal, they'd run her over.
I remember her sitting on her sofa saying she wanted to have a conversation with us. It didn’t ring true, she didn’t want a real back and forth conversation, she wanted to talk down to us.
I certainly would have considered Jeane Kirkpatrick for President. Class, brains and grace.
Not for nothing, but Obama already threw his grandmother under the campaign bus.
The very first time I heard her giving a summary of her health care program...way back when....I remember saying: Hey lady, do you think I’m stupid ‘cause that’s what you just said.
Hey.........Where IS Huma the last few weeks???
Did the advisers say, "Lose the girlfriend"?
Bump for later.
The irony about the Iraq vote is that I think she made it solely to protect herself from the right in a presidential election. She decided that she was more likely to become president by voting for the war than by voting against it and that vote opened her up to attacks from the left.
“Its the pantsuit...”
And as Hillary said this past Saturday, “It ain’t over until the lady in the pantsuit says it is!”
After the nomination, I expect she’ll have the pantsuit bronzed.
Somehow I don’t think starting out with almost 50% of the voters hating you is even near-perfect.
Oh My look at the woman on the far right in the photo.
It the Oh geez not this....again look.
Actually when I see the picture, I can hear her whispering: “the horror... the horror.”
Though in her case it would probably “the whore... the whore...” discussing what people will remember when they hear the name Clinton. (all they’ll remember is Monica)
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