Posted on 02/20/2008 1:15:58 PM PST by libstripper
Niccolo Machiavelli was a political philosopher who expressed his thought in a campaign manual for scoundrels. When a threat to your success is small enough to be dealt with, he shrewdly warned, it is all too easy to ignore. When it has grown too large to ignore, it is often too late to do anything about it. So even the most unscrupulous ambition needs at least this much scruple: never take your position for granted.
If you were preparing a new edition of "The Prince," you could illustrate this advice with Hillary Clinton's picture. As results came in on Super Tuesday, the Clinton campaign seemed to be holding a slight advantage. Barack Obama had won more state contests, but she had netted the big prizes of California and New York. By Feb. 12, seven days later, she had the look of a politician with a great future behind her.
(Excerpt) Read more at aberdeennews.com ...
When Obama became the 2008 version of the 1992 Bill Clinton, she was in for trouble.
That's some pretty good prose.
Now she knows how GHW Bush felt..............
The rumors of her death are greatly exaggerated.............
Osama had better hope she doesn’t turn to Machiavelli for further advice. Not that she needs to. The instincts seem to be built in.
Hillary! is Machiavelli in a pantsuit. That’s why I fear her more than Oboyobama.
Agreed.
Sen. Clinton's campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, was obviously incompetent. She had no genius for political strategy. She wasted tens of millions on Sen. Clinton's reelection bid, when there was virtually no opposition. She so badly mismanaged the millions raised for the present campaign that Ms. Clinton was left helpless in the recent string of state contests. She was put in charge of persuading John Kerry to endorse Ms. Clinton. He endorsed Obama.
Solis Doyle firmly backed the decision to delay Ms. Clinton's official entry into the race until after her reelection to the Senate. That allowed Obama to get first crack at the big donors, and that is how the small threat was born. It is only now, when her nomination is in grave peril, that Solis Doyle has been sacked. Why did it take so long? Clinton valued Solis Doyle's perfect loyalty
You always think you’ve killed the vampire...then She comes back.
Machiavelli can work in reverse too.
I think you are right about that.
Many of the Clinton moves over the years have struck me as obvious and crude yet the media fell all over themselves in defending or ignoring these things. Sometimes the media would actually put out commentary about how “brilliantly” they were being spun. Bill displays real talent for manipulating crowds and off-the-cuff oratory (though sometimes he makes amazing gaffs too) but Hillary is just lame. As far as their attack methods go these were exposed very early on and today are not only caught as they occur but frequently derided for the crude manipulation that they are.
To be a Machiavelli you have to take care of the small things when they are small. All things start out small. The trick is to notice them when they ARE small.
My own gut says that if Obambi wins the nomination, the Krintong Syndicate will try to sabotage him in general election, so to assure itself another chance in 2012 when a Pubbie (McCain't or Huckababy, or Julie Annie) is runing for re-election.
Hillary is violating the most important of Niccolo’s tenents:
Must be all charity all honor all kindness all generosity and indeed to be so, but that should not keep a “prince” from being able to act in a completely different manner.
In theory Hilde was supposed be the Clean Face and Bubba was to be the Hit Man and it just hasn’t worked out like that, Bubba if anything, is a hinderance to Hilde..
I think with vampires, you need the shadow of a cross on them, then you need a gun with a silver bullet in it, to ensure that you have killed the beast.
Hillary’s big problem is that it is very hard to exploit Obama’s weak points. Hillary can hardly call him too liberal and its hard for her to jump on the corruption or drug use charges either, given the comparison to Bubba.
McCain will have an easier time taking on Obama, other than the sure to come racist charges for simply criticizing an Obama position.
Hillary and Bill meticulously follow one of the most basic machiavellian principles: The end justifies the means.
The other principle they follow with fervor is hitlerian: The bigger the lie and the more you tell it, the more the masses will believe it.
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