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Now the Clintons Really Are History …
by Paul Hogarth‚
Mar. 24‚ 2008
I should be careful to write such headlines, especially after the last time I made this pronouncement. Last Friday, however, the Politico finally admitted what those of us who closely follow the presidential race have long concluded: Hillary Clinton cannot win. Of course, the Clintons never quit – but what was once an admirable trait of persistence and tenacity has become a self-destructive path that will tarnish their legacy. Last week, Bill Clinton repeated the right-wing meme that Barack Obama is unpatriotic. Now the main rationale for Hillary’s campaign – “experience” – is falling apart: (a) her White House schedule proves that she didn’t play the role that she claims, and (b) she’s now been caught lying about her “dangerous” 1996 trip to Bosnia. It is past time for the Clintons to throw in the towel – before they suffer any further embarrassments and help elect John McCain.
After Obama won the Iowa caucus, I sensed it was just the beginning of a long and arduous path to disprove the fundamental tenet of American politics: the Establishment always wins. Obama was taking on the Clinton dynasty, and as a friend of mine told me that night: “it’s going to be like killing Dracula.”
Anyone following the race – with Hillary Clinton’s repeated political “comebacks” – can appreciate how prophetic those words truly were. But with the delegate count and the popular vote proving that Obama will be the nominee, even nonpartisan observers can understand that it’s starting to look like watching a TV show that should have long been cancelled.
With refreshing candor, the Politico – an anti-progressive online daily – laid out why the media keeps covering this race as if Clinton could still win. The Clintons have played the media’s need for a story, and have preyed on their insecurity of always underestimating a couple that has withstood decades of bold predictions that they’re on their way out.
“In its zeal to avoid predictive reporting of the sort that embarrassed journalists in New Hampshire,” said the Politico, “the media have tended to avoid zeroing in on the tough math that Hillary Clinton faces.
Avoiding predictions based on polls even before voters cast their ballots is wise policy. But that's not the same as drawing sober and well-grounded conclusions about the current state of a race after millions of voters have registered their preferences.”
Will the Clinton campaign get this message – just because a Beltway-centric website said so? Don’t count on it. Bill and Hillary thrive on their victim status, and will take solace in the fact that people have been writing their obituary for years. But they’ve played this game for so long that they’ve lost sight of how much their goodwill has fallen in the past few months. And even the strongest and most resilient politicians are not invincible.
It’s hard to remember now – but until this year’s South Carolina primary, Bill Clinton was so popular among African-Americans that he was called the “first black president.” The Clintons’ slash-and-burn political tactics changed that, and when it’s all over their reputation in that community will probably never recover.
Now Bubba has reduced himself to attacking Obama’s patriotism, in a vain effort to once again pull the fear card. When asked about the prospect of Hillary Clinton facing John McCain in the general election, the ex-President said it would be great to have a general election between “two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country.”
His implication? Obama does not love his country and is not devoted to America’s interests. At a time when George Bush attacks those who question the War in Iraq as un-American, such language is a serious charge that would offend any reasonable Democrat. It’s also offensive given that it was on the heels of Obama’s powerful speech about race – a candid move on a volatile issue that Bill Clinton never had the courage to do.
But while the Clintons are not likely to lay off their offensive tactics, new problems have emerged with Hillary’s campaign rationale. Despite all the concerns that one may have about Hillary Clinton, the assumption has always been that – unlike Barack Obama – she is the candidate with “experience.” Releasing the 11,000 pages of her schedule as First Lady has undermined that theory …
According to Clinton, she “helped pass” the Family and Medical Leave Act. There’s nothing in her schedule about it before Bill signed it into law. She claims to have been a critic of NAFTA “from the beginning” – but her schedule showed she attended briefing sessions in support of the trade agreement. If anything, the 11,000 pages show that she was more of a traditional First Lady than her reputation would suggest.
As a former First Lady, Clinton says that she has been “fully vetted” and knows how to manage a crisis. On March 18th, she recounted her 1996 trip to Bosnia – where she said that the conditions were so dangerous that the airplane landed under sniper fire. “There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport,” said Clinton, “but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
Now there’s video to prove it was all a lie. The airplane landed peacefully in Tuzla, Bosnia – and there was a formal greeting ceremony at the airport with an eight-year old girl welcoming the First Lady to her country. As comedian Sinbad said – who accompanied Clinton on this trip – “I think the only 'red-phone' moment was: 'Do we eat here or at the next place.”
Enough already. The nomination fight is over – Obama won, Clinton lost, and it’s time for Democrats to come together and take back the White House. The longer that the Clintons stay in this race, the only person who benefits is John McCain. Or is that what they really want? It may be a serious charge, but I’m not the only one suggesting it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In his spare time and outside of regular work hours, Paul Hogarth volunteered on Obama’s field operation in San Francisco.
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May 10, 2008
