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Hillary Agonistes ... (nomination gone from "inevitable" to "doomed")
American Thinker ^ | December 17, 2007 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 12/17/2007 7:21:46 AM PST by IrishMike

Has Hillary Clinton's candidacy for the Democrats' nomination gone from "inevitable" to "doomed" in the space of a few weeks? Momentum always is a precious factor as the compressed primary season looms, with undecideds making up their minds and contributors wanting to back the likely winner

But special circumstances surround the junior senator from New York. For years she has exercised what seem like special powers, as well-entrenched Clinton allies in the press and a political machine unmatched in resources and ruthlessness served to support her version of the narrative in major conflicts with her enemies. Generous use of victim status also has always been a winner for her in then past.

Think of the treatment poor Rick Lazio received when he "violated her space" during a debate in her run for the Senate. I have never, before or since, heard of another candidate using the concept of personal space to target and demonize an opponent. But with Hillary's superpowers, such narratives could be made to stick, at least among those members of the voting public who don't expose themselves to much beyond the New York Times/CBSNBCABCCNN media bubble.

But the old tactics she has used with success no longer work against Barack Obama. Hillary's superpowers have met their version of kryptonite.

Obama is a seemingly nice guy, inspiring to some with his rhetoric of change and hope. And of course he is black. She can't really out-victim him. To switch metaphors, his victim card is a King, while hers is only a Queen. And being a sympathetic character to many, attacks on him, such as the accusation of little Barry being a kindergartener consumed with ambition to be president, have a way of backfiring on her.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; clinton; democratparty; democrats; electionpresident; elections; hillary; hillaryclinton
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To: Ouderkirk
Really? The Clintons are masters at the politics of personal destruction. I think she's goin' down... but if that happens she's going to make sure every one else is left damaged goods. That's how destructive the Clintons have been to our public life.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

21 posted on 12/17/2007 7:49:35 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Vaquero

Clinton Struggle Schadenfreude (Rush)

CALLER: I don’t want to make a big spectacle of this Obama thing and the drugs, but if a Hillary staffer leaked the information, isn’t it the seriousness of the charges that should be investigated?

RUSH: Well, see, now, it’s interesting, because, in a campaign, these kinds of standards sort of evaporate. In this instance, I tried to explain this yesterday, you have a black Democrat, a liberal black Democrat who is the first legitimate top-tier presidential candidate. You have liberal to the core Drive-By Media types who have their roots as liberals in the civil rights movement. That’s where they came of age, and then you couple their education at journalism school and you get the typical Drive-By reporter today. Then you have Mrs. Clinton and her campaign, which these people have been whoring for since 1992. I think they’re getting tired of being whores. They’re stenographers, they’re rubber stamps, whatever the Clintons have said about people, they accept it as truth and go ask the people that Clinton are talking about, “Why would you sell cocaine, Senator McCain, or Governor Huckabee,” instead of, “How dare you say that! Where’s the evidence?” They’re doing what they should do, because this is the first black, legitimate liberal black presidential candidate that we’ve had here. Clean and articulate, as Joe Biden said. So I think Mrs. Clinton doesn’t get away with this.

If this were being said about a Republican candidate in the general election, and they leaked something like this, the Drive-Bys, ah, blood in the water. Then they would accept the fact, as you say, that it is the seriousness of the charge, not the nature of the evidence that requires that we investigate, requires that we pursue. So if this charge were made about a Republican presidential candidate, the Drive-Bys would have a greater inclination to pursue it, and if not conclude anything, just keep reminding everybody that the Republican candidate is alleged to have sold drugs, cocaine. With Obama, they just can’t abide it. They look, and they had all these years of being shloomps for the Clintons, and some of this stuff is starting to offend them, and so the normal rules are being thrown out. I have to tell you, folks, I had a little schadenfreude here. I really am enjoying the Clintons going through this struggle. I don’t believe that this is concocted. I think a portion of it was way back when because she was inevitable, yet they wanted to be able to demonstrate she could overcome a challenge. Did you see her in that debate yesterday? We’re not supposed to be talking about appearances, but the face-lift has fallen. She is showing the strains here. She is showing the pressure, and she’s not responding to it well.

She doesn’t look like she’s enjoying or having any fun with this. She has chosen campaign people not because of their competence, but because of their loyalty, and many of them have jumped ship to Obama anyway. And I think that it’s showing. I’m getting a thrill out of it, because these people have had a cakewalk. These people have not undergone any of the scrutiny that normal public figures go through in times of — she gets away with saying, “My husband didn’t have sex with that intern. There’s a vast right-wing conspiracy out to destroy us, it’s been the case since whenever,” and they just report that, and this right-wing conspiracy stuff gets born. I can give you example, after example, after example, and they would disagree, say, “What do you mean, we have not been scrutinized? Ever heard of Whitewater and this and that and the other thing?” You have been scrutinized not by the Drive-By Media. You have been scrutinized by the alternative media. The New York Times did its due diligence on the Whitewater thing, and there was some damning information, and people did go to jail in that circumstance. But, for the most part, they get a free ride.

Hillary, every time she’s on the cover of the New York Times magazine, it’s like she’s a queen. Beautiful picture, puff-piece article. It’s been more of the same for the vast majority of the time they’ve been in public life. Now this is not happening to them. They’re not getting the automatic pass. Bill Clinton’s out there screwing things up, like he always has when he is stumping for somebody else. The dirty little secret is he’s a drag on this campaign. He’s not helping. He doesn’t help very many Democrats that he does endorse. Gray Davis, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. You can trace this stumble that she’s in the midst of here to the driver’s license thing, which, of course, was brought to national attention by me and then Clinton getting involved afterwards because it was such a blunder. The more she’s out there speaking, and him, look at what’s happening to the poll numbers of Obama and others and look at what’s happening to hers, the more he’s on the scene. This is the dirty little secret.


22 posted on 12/17/2007 7:50:42 AM PST by IrishMike (Liberalism is Jihad from within)
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To: Just mythoughts

Ditto’s. This is not over and this does not make her a good leader.


23 posted on 12/17/2007 7:51:56 AM PST by gathersnomoss (General George Patton had it right.)
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To: Vaquero

Clintons didn’t do drugs, Obama did...sure. And where is the photo of the two high flying in a photo booth?


24 posted on 12/17/2007 7:53:06 AM PST by gathersnomoss (General George Patton had it right.)
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To: Bahbah

I was thinking about using the song “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” in my Youtube video Imade last night but then changed my mind and went with Uncle Ted.

A little Hillary History

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1940525/posts


25 posted on 12/17/2007 7:56:33 AM PST by april15Bendovr (Free Republic & Ron Paul Cult = oxymoron)
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To: ichabod1

It’s going to be something, and as I said it will be directly proportional to the success that Obama is having.

I don’t know about the drugs business....maybe. But it’s just not enough, unless he was dealing. And dealing in a “for profit” way rather than hooking up a friend.

I have a feeling it’s about something else.

Either he got busted, for something (stealing or ???) and the record was expunged, but never really destroyed.

He has some funny “financial arrangement” ?

Or it will have to do with the muslim angle.

I’m not sure how the Clinton’s are going to play this. I think for right now, it will be a slow drip, by drip thing. It will definitely be out there by Super Tuesday if Obama is still competitive.


26 posted on 12/17/2007 7:57:19 AM PST by Ouderkirk (Hillary = Senator Incitatus, Clintigula's whore...er, horse.)
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To: gathersnomoss

27 posted on 12/17/2007 7:58:18 AM PST by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Heinlein "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas of Sparta)
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To: samtheman
Anyone else remember my favorite Twilight Zone episode?

Sounds familiar...

28 posted on 12/17/2007 7:59:24 AM PST by cspackler (There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)
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To: goldstategop

No doubt they have a scorched earth policy...if it’s not them then it isn’t going to be another democRAT either.

I don’t count out the Clinton’s until I see the box in the ground.and being covered with dirt, and even then, I am still suspicious.


29 posted on 12/17/2007 8:00:35 AM PST by Ouderkirk (Hillary = Senator Incitatus, Clintigula's whore...er, horse.)
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To: Just mythoughts

I am not counting out this women until the votes are literally counted, she and her hubby are well know for ‘miracles’ “you know”.

She is currently still solid in the larger states. I think you are right.


30 posted on 12/17/2007 8:02:54 AM PST by DOGEY
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To: Vaquero
Why doesn’t a candidate, if necessary, run a 50 state ad with this photo posted, highlighting her history of hypocrisy? Any men with gravitas?
31 posted on 12/17/2007 8:04:56 AM PST by gathersnomoss (General George Patton had it right.)
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To: IrishMike

She is not doomed by any means. It is a bump in the road.


32 posted on 12/17/2007 8:08:07 AM PST by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)
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To: IrishMike
But, but, she has a helicopter now.
33 posted on 12/17/2007 8:08:52 AM PST by purpleraine
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To: IrishMike

If it’s doomed, do I have to thank Tim Russert?


34 posted on 12/17/2007 8:16:36 AM PST by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( "Do well, but remember to do good.")
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To: cspackler

Don’t remember it. What was the title?


35 posted on 12/17/2007 8:20:59 AM PST by samtheman
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To: doug from upland

She is not doomed by any means. It is a bump in the road.
...................................................

Agreed, she just stepped on a load of dump in the road.


36 posted on 12/17/2007 8:23:17 AM PST by IrishMike (Liberalism is Jihad from within)
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To: doug from upland
She is not doomed by any means. It is a bump in the road.

Yup. I wouldn't say her nomination is a fait accompli but I wouldn't say it's not, either.

37 posted on 12/17/2007 8:26:00 AM PST by pt17
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To: samtheman
Don’t remember it. What was the title?

The Hunt - Old hilbilly hunter was out with his dog. He didn't know they were dead, Satan tried to entice them into Hell but the dog wouldn't go in, so the old man wouldn't go either...

38 posted on 12/17/2007 8:32:25 AM PST by cspackler (There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)
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To: IrishMike


Is It Really the End for Hillary?
39 posted on 12/17/2007 8:32:45 AM PST by Miss Didi ("Good heavens, woman, this is a war not a garden party!" Dr. Meade, Gone with the Wind)
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To: pt17

A fait accompli??? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1932325/posts


40 posted on 12/17/2007 8:34:55 AM PST by doug from upland (Stopping Hillary should be a FreeRepublic Manhattan Project)
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