Please Just Shut Up

As I wrote a couple of days ago, Michigan and Florida, for whatever reasons, screwed themselves out of delegates, not the other way around. Calls from the Clinton camp, who “won” those delegates without any real campaigning to seat the delegates as they are, are starting to make me really angry. Then I saw this yesterday.

It seems that Clinton Campaign Chair, Terry McAuliffe had the same problem back in 2004 with Michigan, except he was singing a different tune then. From the post:

“The closest they’ll get to Boston will be watching it on television,” McAuliffe vowed. “I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules.”

Ahh the exhuberance of youth…McAuliffe seems to have changed his tune now, in his new role, ready to throw the baby, bathwater and bath basin out for a return to that old “uninevitable” place in history.

Then there’s Geraldine Ferraro, who seems to think that it’s harder being a White woman than an African-American man, and I’m not apologizing for it dammit. Are Democrats REALLY GOING THERE? JESUS!

The two or three Obama people who got the axe last week, may have said some dumb stuff, but nothing as dumb as some of the things that come out of the mouths of Mark Penn, Howard Wolfson, Harold Ickes, or any other Clinton surrogate. This lady called Clinton a “monster”. Monster can mean a lot of things, like in baseball, a monster hitter, or whatever (though that clearly wasn’t her intent). It doesn’t have to mean that she’s the thing under the bed that scares children, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a firing offense, but in Obama land I guess it is.

So that raises the question, if someone in Obamaland can get fired for using a word in the vocabulary of the average 5 year old to describe an opponent, what is the standard for Clinton land? Apparently, anything goes.

Since Iowa, the Clinton campaign has levied a series of ever-escalating attacks against Obama, some legitimate, many not. From the early policy questions (legit) to Bill’s S. Carolina whoopsie (poor judgement), to the more recent declarations of not ready for primetime, but ok for number 2 bull, which has been called out as exactly that. The Hillary campaign stays just inside the lines of what may be acceptable, leaving the really dirty work to outsiders that can’t be fired like Ferraro.

Clinton says that the MSM is harder on her, than Obama. I say that her “experience” is one of the reasons. She has been front and center in the national public eye since 1991. That’s 17 years. Not to mention the 12 or 15 as first lady of Arkansas. So her experience is 20 odd years as first lady/corporate lawyer, and 8 years as Senator. Clinton’s claims to foreign policy experience seem to focus on her time as First Lady, rather than her time in the Senate. That’s unfortunate considering this rundown of her foreign policy experience as First Lady.

As Hillary has exaggerated her role in Bill’s Administration, she’s minimized her Senatorial experience. Why? Because she hasn’t done much in the Senate either. Clinton regularly votes with her party, but rarely uses her position to get out in front of an issue for the party. Hillary has had the opportunity to get out in front, but has made a conscious decision to stay in the shadows. That’s leadership!

Many will say I’m being unfair. Obama hasn’t really gotten out in front of anything either. Obama has also been in the Senate less than half the time of Clinton, and does not have the luxury of being a former First Lady, and all the media pull that her former position brings. Until the past year, Obama was just another Freshman Senator, navigating his way through his first term.

The final analysis is that while Democrats may be longing for another Clinton and a redo of the fiscal security of the 90’s, we’re in a much more difficult state now. Neither Obama nor Clinton will have an easy go at revaluing our currency, one of the biggest fiscal issues facing the nation, nor fixing the borrow and spend policies that have been the hallmark of the Bush administration.

This borrow and spend mentality has carried over to every single segment of the population and righting that ship will take a lot more the economic stimulus packages and leveling out the tax situation. It will require a whole new way of dealing with the problem.

My point, Hillary’s campaign is based on a fairy tale, built on the deeds of her Husband’s administration, and supported by a slew of exaggerations and carefully worded “stories”. In nearly every sentence of her rhetoric she has propped up right wing talking points that will surely come back to bite her in the ass should she make it to the general. If Hillary truly wanted to lead, she would have been leading all this time rather than staying out of the public eye to re-invent herself. Further, if she were a true Democratic leader she would have never begun taking plays out of the Republican handbook, as she baselessly accused Obama of doing back in December.

Hillary Campaign, stop talking about how everyone is out to get you. It sounds like whining. If you’re really a leader then lead. If not, then just shut up.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.