April 2008

I don’t even own an American flag lapel pin, let alone wear one. I guess this proves I hate America! I’m against torture and warrantless wiretapping — but no lapel pin…

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In other news, I love this Obama ad. It shows Obama’s best trait, his insistence that politicians start treating the American public like adults:

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And here is blue-collar Hillary, woman of the people, native of Scranton (er, this week she’s a native of Illinois), Ready to Lead on Day One — completely befuddled by a convenience store drink dispenser. Is this her George Bush grocery store scanner moment? Maybe political handlers need to teach a course in the daily life of ordinary Americans so embarrassing things like this don’t happen to candidates:

It’s not her gender.

The Hillary Ministry of Misinformation is in full force. Now she’s claiming she leads in the popular vote (she counts Florida and Michigan with her special math). Release the surrogates! Spin away! I wonder how many surrogates will push this line with a straight face. How proud Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter must be.

In Pennsylvania, Hillary complained about Obama complaining about the awful Gibson-Stephanopoulos debate by saying, “If you can’t stand the heat…get out of the kitchen.”

I’ve got some new slogans for Hillary Clinton:

If you can’t stand the heat…cry.

If you can’t stand the heat…whine that the boys are ganging up on you.

If you can’t stand the heat…make up a Romantic tale of adventure about dodging sniper fire and repeat it several times.

If you can’t stand the heat…have your husband tell everyone you were tired when you screwed up even if it makes a mockery of your 3am ad.

If you can’t stand the heat…tell everyone the leading contender for the Democratic nomination is not qualified to be President but would make a great VP on a dream team.

If you can’t stand the heat…spin like your life depends on it!

Obama has gone to great lengths to not play the race card. In fact, it would doom his candidacy to do so. Hillary, on the other hand, wears her gender on her sleeve. She embraces the role of the victim, as when Elton John attributed her failure to win the nomination to pervasive misogyny. The truth is Hillary is still in this race only BECAUSE she is a woman. She has a built-in core constituency that is keeping her alive — older women who support her because they have known discrimination.

Most blacks support Obama because he’s black. Most older white women support Hillary because she’s a woman. Both groups have good reasons for supporting the person like them. All things being equal on policy issues — and they pretty much are equal — who can blame these groups? I don’t. But I wish women who support Hillary would realize what a terrible example she is setting as a politician and a woman. By constantly playing the gender card, she is setting feminism one step back for every two she walks it forward.

Hillary is a formidable campaigner. If she had adopted the Obama approach to politics early on she would probably be the first woman President. But she stuck to the tried and true Clintonian politics that, to be fair, worked for so many years. She stuck to the old Clinton politics of saying and doing anything to get elected, the old Clinton spin game. She continued to surround herself with the same old political hacks and apologists. Dick Morris may be on the outs with the Clintons but is the nation ready for more “consultants” of his ilk? The Clintons treat the voters like children and it has often worked. This gas tax holiday is a case in point. Obama treats voters like adults. Is the American public ready to be treated like adults? We’re about to find out.

There will always be spin in politics but the Clintons take it to a new, absurd, championship level. The only thing we can be sure of is that whatever the result in Indiana and North Carolina, Clintonland will say the result is exactly what the Clinton campaign expected and exactly what they needed. It’s comical. The circus troupe of Clintonians will continue — Lanny Davis, Anne Lewis, Terry McAuliffe, Mark Green (from Air America radio) — they seem to have no shame. Or like the Clintons they believe the means — any means — justify the ends. Whatever it means for the country, whatever it means for the Democratic Party.

Hillary Clinton’s 35 years of experience led her to make a complete moron and asshat her chief strategist. How’s that for the judgment to lead on day one? Despite her 35 years of experience, she did not “find her voice” until a few months ago. The truth is, she still hasn’t found her voice or, more accurately, she has suppressed it for years.

I believe Hillary is a good person. I believe she could be a good President. But she has been twisted. She has been twisted by the haters on the right who attacked her for so many years. She has been twisted into a woman who trusts nobody, including the voters. She is afraid to show us who she really is and what she really believes. She’s afraid to approach politics in the same way Obama does, with honesty. In short, the right wing haters have beaten her.

Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee and she has only herself to blame.