Week of 04/07/2008

Will Hillary Kill The Democrats?
– by David Matthews 2

Poor Hillary… she just can’t seem to get a break, can she?

I mean that with all sarcasm, of course.

Here’s an ambitious politician who believed that the whole primary process was nothing more than a formality for her. That SHE would not only be the de facto nominee for the Democrats, but that she would BECOME the next President of the United States, and that she could have these things at any time she wanted. All she had to do was say “I’m in” and EVERYTHING would be handed to her.

Sure she would have to campaign. Sure she would have to “compete” against other nominees. But this would all be for show. Just like the storylines in professional wrestling, no matter what happens in the meantime, the ending would still be the same. The people would love her, the media would love her, she would win all of the votes in the primaries and caucuses and all of the other candidates will drop out when they realize that their attempts would be for naught. She would be handed the nomination and she would win in November.

Well as of this column, neither one of these things have happened. Of course it’s still just a few months away from the Democrats having their convention and making everything official. But as it is right now, things are looking bleak for the pantsuit princess.

Sure she has her staunch defenders in the media. She has her friends like Keith Olbermann over in MSNBC who are eager to throw his fellow media personalities under a bus if they ask legitimate questions about the Clintons that the pantsuit princess deem “insulting”. She still has her friends over at CNN, who feign impartiality while going into discussions about whether or not SHE is being given the “proper attention” in the media.

But while the Queen of Carpetbags is sitting around WAITING for that official nomination to be HANDED to her, the voters and the media have noticed this Senator from Illinois – her birth state – named Barack Obama. And they like what he talks about. They like his message of HOPE. They like his idealism and his optimism.

And… perhaps most insulting for “She who will not be denied”… is that they are voting FOR HIM! Which means that they are NOT voting FOR HER!

Oh not a problem, she says… she’ll be a big winner in those “key states” like Florida.

Until Florida broke the rules and held their primary in January, forcing national party officials to strip that state of their delegates… all of whom were pledged to Clinton.

Not a problem there, she’ll get Howard Dean to relent and she’ll have them seated in the convention. After all, Dean is her bitch, right? Well, good luck on that one, but it doesn’t seem likely to happen.

Besides, the whole “key states” tactic is a failure from the get-go. Rudy “The Thug” Giuliani tried the same tactic over in the GOP and it blew up in his face.

Okay, well then she may not have all of the NEEDED delegates, but she will STILL have all of the SUPERDELEGATES on her side! You know… all of those “rockstar” Democrats who hold titles like governor and senator and who were given SUPERPOWERS for the national convention. They LOVE her! Guys like Georgia Congressman John Lewis… who switched allegiances to Obama… and Elliot Spitzer… who was just forced out of office after admitting to hiring a hooker. Oh and don’t forget former Energy Secretary and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. You know… the same Richardson who was running AGAINST Hillary just a few months earlier… the SAME guy who just switched his vote to Obama. Oh, and former President Jimmy Carter seems to be leaning towards Obama too.

Hmm… suddenly that’s not such a good idea either.

And now the best projections are that even if she sweeps the remaining ten states in their primaries and caucuses, she will STILL not have enough to catch up to Obama, much less secure the nomination before the national convention.

“Poor Hillary…”

And it’s not like she hasn’t been TRYING to shut down Obama and sabotage his message of hope and optimism! She’s been pulling every Chicago-style dirty trick that she can come up with.

She can hurl the charge of plagiarism at him for some of his speeches. Never mind, of course, that the words in those speeches were also lifted off other speeches.

She can flat-out accuse Obama of participating in dirty dealings…presuming of course that people will forget about her own scandals of the 1990’s. Remember Whitewater? The Rose Law Firm records? The White House Travel Office?

She brings up the incendiary messages of Obama’s former minister, the Reverend Wright, while passively fretting about the incendiary message of her good friend and former Vice-President hopeful Geraldine Ferraro.

She shrieks “SHAME ON YOU” whenever a demeaning flier is sent out by his supporters but says nothing when her own people accuse him of being unpatriotic simply because he doesn’t wear a lapel flag. She says nothing when Internet rumors circulate accusing Obama of being a Muslim extremist… while at the same time castigating his CHRISTIAN minister for his “God DAMN America” speech.

She accuses Obama of lacking the experience to lead, even though her resume is basically nothing more than being a globe-trotting tourist. That’s about as credible as Paris Hilton’s claim that her “dumb blond” personality is really a marketing tactic. She claims that she would know how to answer infamous “3am phone call”, but doesn’t explain why she would be able to answer it in full makeup and wearing her pantsuit and pearls.

And, to top if off, her people then claim that although Obama lacks the “experience” to be president, that he could somehow get the “qualification” to become her Vice-President if he can somehow pass some kind of “threshold” that would be determined by “She of the Shrieking Banshees” some time after the primaries and caucuses but before the national convention. A claim that even supporters like Olbermann have to look at and say has more manure in it than a fertilizer factory.

She is hurling everything she can at Obama… and yet SHE is the one getting the calls to drop out.

“Poor Hillary…” indeed.

Now the talking heads are asking if Hillary’s ruthless ambition to become the next President will actually destroy the Democrats as a national party. And given her campaign tactics to date, it’s a pretty legitimate question to ask.

It was, after all, Hillary’s group that have been telling folks in Florida and Michigan to hold their primaries in January anyway, in outright defiance of national party rules, and that she will personally ensure that they will be seated in the convention. It was her group that pretty much shot down any attempt to hold a second vote in those two states that WOULD allow delegates to be seated in the convention, believing that since she won those states by hook or by crook that she should be allowed to HAVE those delegates backing her in the convention. She has been shrieking about the national party “disenfranchising” voters… even though her groups has had more to do with that than does the national party.

There’s even talk of Clinton pulling “a Lieberman”, which means to run as an independent candidate, much like Joe Lieberman did in 2006 when he lost in his state’s primary and ran for his own re-election against the Dems. That would certainly fragment the Democrats much like they were in 1860 when the issue of slavery split their party in half and Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans first scored their official win.

And the longer that her people and Obama’s people are busy snipping away at each other, the more polarized the factions are getting within the party. Now voters are talking about actually voting for a REPUBLICAN or not bothering to vote at all if either Hillary or Obama become the nominee.

Now it’s one thing to hear that sort of talk from the Republicans… the conservatives have long held a ruthless control of their fictional “big tent” party, and they have made it clear that they really DO NOT want the presumptive candidate, Senator John McCain, to become president. That, of course, has led to neo-con talking heads to vow to vote for HILLARY (but not for Obama) in November.

But let’s get brutally honest here… the 2008 Presidential Election is the Democrat Party’s election TO LOSE! It’s been that way since McCain picked up the Bush Imperium’s banner and ran with it as the unofficial “third term”. It’s a losing strategy because the voters are sick and tired of hearing fear-mongering masquerading as policy, especially when they’re hearing it amidst a sinking economy. They are HUNGRY for change, they are THIRSTY for an alternative, and the Democrats are in prime position to capitalize on that IF they can provide someone who IS that alternative and not just claiming to be one. The voters heard that in 2006 and ended up with a lemon of a Congress in 2007.

In truth, my friends, the atmosphere is ripe for a THIRD PARTY or INDEPENDENT candidate to come in, but that is a subject for a different time. Right now we’re looking at the Democrats and their viability in the short run, and right now that viability is about as strong as the US Dollar.

That probably explains why the talking heads are also floating a few alternatives around. The Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama idea is pretty much a dead subject as neither candidate want to be the co-star, so they are talking about possibly talking former Vice-President and 2000 wannabe Al Gore into being the “dark horse” candidate for the party. Maybe third-tier wannabe John Edwards could be “the uniter”? How about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg? He just stepped away from an independent run. How about a bi-partisan ticket? A Democrat with a Republican running mate?

Unfortunately all of these ideas are ultimately meaningless if it doesn’t involve one Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton. This is HER ruthless ambition that we are talking about here. Everything that she has gone through since 1992 has ALL been the groundwork for her to become THE FIRST Woman President of the United States of America. Every pain that she endured… all of the allegations made against her and her husband… all of the embarrassing moments of her husband’s peccadilloes either alleged or proven… her claims of being the “co-president”… the careers and bodies that have piled up since 1993… her entire career as a United States Senator for a state that she didn’t even LIVE in before 2000… have ALL led her to THIS campaign. Right now. 2008.

And SHE WILL BE DAMNED if anyone or anything gets in her way! That is the message that the Democrats are being told. This is HER campaign. HERS. Not the Democrats. Rules don’t matter! Laws don’t matter! VOTES matter, and specifically VOTES FOR HER.

And as long as that is the message being given, that the party is there for HER and not the other way around, then not only will she ENDANGER the chances of the Democrats to win in a race that is theirs to lose, but she could very well be the fracture that splits the Democrats apart and eventually KILLS it as a political party.

Will Hillary Clinton kill the Democrats? Well the only one who can truly answer that question is the one wearing the pantsuit and pearls. As long as she places HER ambitions and HER desires over the party that she claims to cherish, she could very well be the one that costs them far more than just the election.