Headline of the Day (Clinton legacy edition)
By Michael J.W. Stickings
The NYT gets the nod today, with this:
You think?
The Hillary Zealots can't quite see this, so blinded are they by their delusions and their absurdly irrational worldview (Hillary = good, Obama = evil), but the Clintons -- both of them -- inflicted an astonishing amount of damange upon themselves over the course of the race. Bill seemed to lose his mind at time, not least when, near the end of the race, he claimed that the media were against Hillary, as if there were some sort of vast conspiracy against her candidacy. And of course he also played the race card in South Carolina, questioned Obama's patriotism, and melted down whenever anyone challenged Clintonian supremacy (such as Bill Richardson). As for Hillary, well, suffice it to repeat that she waged a dirty "kitchen sink" smear campaign against Obama (even going so far as to praise McCain at his expense), turned into a Republican faux populist (god, guns, and the gas tax), and, overall, ran a right-wing campaign (even going so far as to cozy up to the vast right-wing conspiracy along the way).
It's not just a blot on their oh-so-cherished legacy that the campaign leaves, that is, that they themselves leave. Their scorched-earth campaign damaged the Democratic Party, the party to which they allegedly belong, leaving it disunited and weakened.
And of course it also damaged Obama, their target. She is now behind him, supposedly, even if many of the Zealots aren't, but in losing the race -- and specifically in doing so so bitterly, so negatively, and so egotistically -- she effectively fed Republican efforts to go after him during the general election campaign, efforts already underway, providing the GOP smear machine with a great deal of ammunition. And so we're going to see a lot of McCain channelling Hillary in the months ahead, taking the kitchen sink, refashioning it according to Republican prejudices, and throwing it at Obama once more, if more brutally.
Thanks again for everything, Hillary. You, too, Bill.
The NYT gets the nod today, with this:
You think?
The Hillary Zealots can't quite see this, so blinded are they by their delusions and their absurdly irrational worldview (Hillary = good, Obama = evil), but the Clintons -- both of them -- inflicted an astonishing amount of damange upon themselves over the course of the race. Bill seemed to lose his mind at time, not least when, near the end of the race, he claimed that the media were against Hillary, as if there were some sort of vast conspiracy against her candidacy. And of course he also played the race card in South Carolina, questioned Obama's patriotism, and melted down whenever anyone challenged Clintonian supremacy (such as Bill Richardson). As for Hillary, well, suffice it to repeat that she waged a dirty "kitchen sink" smear campaign against Obama (even going so far as to praise McCain at his expense), turned into a Republican faux populist (god, guns, and the gas tax), and, overall, ran a right-wing campaign (even going so far as to cozy up to the vast right-wing conspiracy along the way).
It's not just a blot on their oh-so-cherished legacy that the campaign leaves, that is, that they themselves leave. Their scorched-earth campaign damaged the Democratic Party, the party to which they allegedly belong, leaving it disunited and weakened.
And of course it also damaged Obama, their target. She is now behind him, supposedly, even if many of the Zealots aren't, but in losing the race -- and specifically in doing so so bitterly, so negatively, and so egotistically -- she effectively fed Republican efforts to go after him during the general election campaign, efforts already underway, providing the GOP smear machine with a great deal of ammunition. And so we're going to see a lot of McCain channelling Hillary in the months ahead, taking the kitchen sink, refashioning it according to Republican prejudices, and throwing it at Obama once more, if more brutally.
Thanks again for everything, Hillary. You, too, Bill.
Labels: 2008 election, 2008 primaries, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Republican smear machine
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
8:45 AM
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