I see Hillary doing the gracious move
For all the craziness going on, I don't see Hillary pulling a Lieberman. Anymore. I went there once, in my paranoid, desperately critical mind, that she would be so maniacal and bent on winning at any cost.
But not anymore. This will play out through the primaries, and she'll be forced out by her peers. She'll have been given the support of nearly half of her party's followers. She'll have given it a full court press – a strong, old-politics dirty alley brawl of a try.
But then she will bow to the side, and eventually campaign for Barack Obama when the time comes.
The press will play the story of her pulling a Lieberman, and use her words against Obama in a ploy to keep the illusion of a broken party. And there will be healing necessary. But Hillary will not dump on her party.
Hillary isn't evil. She's incredibly compassionate, determined, and calculating. Her calculations have been wrong, unfortunately. She listened to the wrong people, took the wrong advice, and said too many wrong things. She turned a presumptive nominee standing into an unpalatable disconnection with the public, and with her own base.
She thought she had to be tough and nasty to win... from the beginning, she thought she needed to show a masculine, strongarm style, a style that isn't really in her heart. She voted for an unnecessary and brutal war, and the potential for another one. She's pissed off Iran. She's lost some close allies, as they increasingly see her tactics and rhetoric as destructive.
There was something I saw in her pathetic gasoline trip pander-play... something in her eyes, in her voice, something that told me she knew she was out. Her heart is not in this thing anymore. How many days has it been since we saw her shrilly shout to a crowd, or chastise either of her opponents with her own voice? She's been absent for the past week, at least, in the eyes of the news.
There are many of us who wanted to like her, who gave her an honest shot. My wife wasn't one of them. I remember hearing her early on about how she just didn't like her, and feeling like it would take a while to convince her that Hillary was worth a vote.
But over time, I stopped liking Hillary, too. It was her incredible falseness – the persona that she donned in attempt to win. Comparing that to a genuine person like Obama, my choice was clear.
That she's being fake now is calming me to believe she will not destroy what Obama and the DNC have built, in the end. In her heart, she is a great patriot, and a person who cares about the people of this country. She will calculate that there is no more wind in her sails, and 2012 is better than nothing. She's playing this now for the next fight... the one she will pick when the opportunity presents itself.
But not anymore. This will play out through the primaries, and she'll be forced out by her peers. She'll have been given the support of nearly half of her party's followers. She'll have given it a full court press – a strong, old-politics dirty alley brawl of a try.
But then she will bow to the side, and eventually campaign for Barack Obama when the time comes.
The press will play the story of her pulling a Lieberman, and use her words against Obama in a ploy to keep the illusion of a broken party. And there will be healing necessary. But Hillary will not dump on her party.
Hillary isn't evil. She's incredibly compassionate, determined, and calculating. Her calculations have been wrong, unfortunately. She listened to the wrong people, took the wrong advice, and said too many wrong things. She turned a presumptive nominee standing into an unpalatable disconnection with the public, and with her own base.
She thought she had to be tough and nasty to win... from the beginning, she thought she needed to show a masculine, strongarm style, a style that isn't really in her heart. She voted for an unnecessary and brutal war, and the potential for another one. She's pissed off Iran. She's lost some close allies, as they increasingly see her tactics and rhetoric as destructive.
There was something I saw in her pathetic gasoline trip pander-play... something in her eyes, in her voice, something that told me she knew she was out. Her heart is not in this thing anymore. How many days has it been since we saw her shrilly shout to a crowd, or chastise either of her opponents with her own voice? She's been absent for the past week, at least, in the eyes of the news.
There are many of us who wanted to like her, who gave her an honest shot. My wife wasn't one of them. I remember hearing her early on about how she just didn't like her, and feeling like it would take a while to convince her that Hillary was worth a vote.
But over time, I stopped liking Hillary, too. It was her incredible falseness – the persona that she donned in attempt to win. Comparing that to a genuine person like Obama, my choice was clear.
That she's being fake now is calming me to believe she will not destroy what Obama and the DNC have built, in the end. In her heart, she is a great patriot, and a person who cares about the people of this country. She will calculate that there is no more wind in her sails, and 2012 is better than nothing. She's playing this now for the next fight... the one she will pick when the opportunity presents itself.
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I certainly hope you're correct about this, but she seems to me to be having the time of her life on the campaign trail lately. I notice they've got her wearing a lot of pink to heighten her femininity, thus freeing her up to say the occasional aggressive lie about Obama and continue to lull listeners that she's just "a tough little lady".
Unfortunately, the less-educated folk who are falling for this act of hers (that she actually has some real understanding of their lives, not just her usual insincere manipulations).
She's getting down that "acting sincere" bit, because once you know how to do that, you've got it made.
She started out this campaign with many months of resume-padding and a manipulative stance designed to stampede the voters to her (specifically that "inevitable nominee" label her campaign sold to the media for so long). Perhaps it's the contrarian in me, but those things just made me so angry from the beginning.
Then she added on to her record of deception and maipulations by flip flopping issues, (on some issues -- like illegal immigrant driver licenses -- this showed up as long-term stands on both sides of the same issue) and downright lying about her record regarding NAFTA, negotiating peace in Northern Ireland, facing sniperfire in Bosnia and negotiating border crossings there. That's before even discussing her unwarrented attacks on the character of her fellow Democrats.
I can scarcely believe the voters have such short memories, but she has worn out my good will. Hillary, for you and Bill, my give-a-damn's busted.
May 2, 2008 2:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can only hope. I think it will depend on voters seeing just how fake she is. Her facade is not new, but it is getting pointed out more as the race goes on and she reinvents herself for each new primary. I mean, how many new Hillarys have we seen? Each one worst than the last.
I'll believe her bowing out when I see it. So far, she seems to have lost all shame and is still WAAC (win at all costs). That's not always bad in politics, but it is bad when it means doing damage to your own party and setting the stage for a continuation of the awful practices that we've been subjected to by Bush Co.
May 2, 2008 2:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
How does one back off graciously from ungracious behavior? My mind will keep going back to "Shame on you Barack Obama!" and the ease in which she lied about her Bosnia trip, as definitive Hillary 2008. Never mind the latest buffoonery with coffee machines, pickup trucks and the Blessed Rich of Herself and Loofa Man as indications of the lowest forms of pandering.
How do you exonerate yourself from the years long and shameless ambition that would demolish the party if left unchecked? And who is the poor soul that will earn the task of telling the Clintons that it is indeed over?
What reparations does the party let the Clintons make without indulging their already insatiable egos once again? What more can it compromise? It should be interesting to watch exactly what kind of latitude Bill will be given to speak at the convention. He's dangerously close to suffering from Zellmania Delirium, with complications arising from Pumphead.
Can you see him with an arm across Barack's shoulder or Hillary embracing the nominee. It's not in the Clinton DNA, but if we should see such sights at the convention, rest assured it will be as staged as the balloon drop-- or the Presidential Swimsuit Dance from the Monica era.
May 2, 2008 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't you send her a postcard telling her to "Just Give Up". I'm sure she'll listen and you'll feel oh so much better.
By the way, what was the party that Hillary destroyed? The one that did so well picking Kerry instead of Dean? Boy, those were awesome years, the hey-day of the party, because the 90's really sucked, cause Bill destroyed the party back then too, and we just managed to re-unite under Kerry and now we're doing it again. See, I'm nostalgic for 2004. And maybe 2000 - kind of sorry Gore lost but he was so close to corporations and friends with Bill who wrecked the party - did I say that already? Oh, sorry. Must hang up now, out of quarters.
May 2, 2008 2:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary will drop out eventually. I just hope she does it soon enough. What's going on now is purely destructive. Obama is being hammered from all sides, and it's only helping the Republicans. Hillary isn't making the case for herself--she's just making it for McCain.
What I'd like to see is for Democratic members of the press to start pushing for a resolution. Screw objectivity. This is war, and somebody's gonna lose. Whether they support Hillary or support Obama, anyone with any influence who cares about the party should be pushing for the superdelegates to bust a move. Now, today.
May 2, 2008 4:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, meant to respond to the thread--not the troll.
May 2, 2008 4:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're mine now - one rabbit stew coming up.
May 2, 2008 6:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I'm wrong if she lets her facade take her over.
As for the poor souls who tell her it's over, I assure you that's already happening in closed door meetings. The difference is they're then brainstorming beyond the numbers. That's how we get the Michigan and Florida bloviations, the anti-Obama emails, the dismissals of facts, the moving of goalposts. They know they're chances are slipping away.
She's got to make her closing argument to the Superdels, and it looks like she will lose that case. I just can't see her going beyond that to some mutually assured destruction scenario.
I hope I'm right, too.
May 2, 2008 3:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Did you miss the latest news?
The Hotline:
Calling out Congressional Dems with a George Bush taunt to try to force a vote on a b.s. and absolutely phony and universally ridiculed "gas tax holiday" proposal is not going to win you any friends.
She's not going to be gracious. She's going for broke. Because if she doesn't win, life back in the Senate will be decidedly uncomfortable for her considering all of the stories about the behind the scenes maschinations, threats and everything else against her colleagues. So she needs to win and it looks like she will do everything possible to get there. Even buring her own party with a bogus issue heading into an important election where the Dems are trying to pick up seats. And all for the reward political posturing to frame Obama as captive of the left and perhaps even lumping a good portion of the Democratic party in what she seems to building up to trying to claim is a "lunatic fringe".
She's not just going after Obama, she's going after the party now. That's the only conclusion I can come up with.
But I will hold out hope that gracious will arrive at some point in the future. But I just don't see it with her new campaign Version 3.0 "The Hee-Haw".
May 2, 2008 5:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
While I find little to admire about the woman, her sheer, self-serving, blind arrogance can be very impressive.
May 2, 2008 5:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Four years from now is a long time and I'd hope that is not what she is calculating for. For one, the Clinton's have used up all of their favors and called in all of their chits and they will not be able to amass as formidable of a campaign next time around. Two, while I honestly believe that this county would have no problems voting for a woman, I do think it would have problems voting for a 65 year old woman, which is how old she will be in 2012. I wonder if the country would even vote for a 65 year old man at this point. Third, the Clintons have lost a lot of their lustre in this campaign and four more years from now the 90's will be even more of a distant memory and even less relevant, but what people will remember is this campaign and then also perhaps the blue dress. Plus, primary losers have a pretty hard time gaining traction for a second run. The last time it worked was Reagan in 1976. But he was running against the incumbent Ford. I hope for he sake that she makes a gracious exit, because if Obama loses in the fall, both Bill and Hillary will go down in history books as sullied.
May 2, 2008 5:21 AM | Reply | Permalink