Posted on 02/22/2008 5:54:48 AM PST by Kaslin
Hillary Clinton’s recent primary losses to Barack Obama may say as much about Democrats’ desires to be done with the Clintons as they do about the cult of personality that is Obama.
Some say Hillary is now paying for the sins of her husband. I agree that may be true to some degree, but in many cases she was an accomplice to those sins and has only herself to blame. I have wondered for some time whether or not Americans would want another soap opera presidency and I think we are seeing the answer in the most recent primary vote counts. There are many reasons Democrats have to send the Clintons packing. Here are a few:
1. Democrats don’t want a return to non-stop scandal defense mode. Democrats like to wrap the Clinton scandals up in a blue dress and say they were all about sex, but that is ridiculous. There were numerous scandals in the Clinton White House well before anyone knew who Monica Lewinski was and many of them involved Hillary. The travel office firings, subpoenaed billing records, Whitewater, and FBI files are only the beginning of the list. It goes on for a while and includes names like Vince Foster, Johnny Chung, and the FALN.
Why on earth would Democrats want to sign up for a second ride on the Clinton scandal train when they could opt for a clean slate candidate? Besides, it would not be so easy to deflect future scandals as it was previous ones. I don’t think Ken Starr will be making a repeat performance as boogeyman and he was a necessary element to the Clinton scandal survival strategy. Without a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to oppose, there is not so much enthusiasm for defending the Clintons.
I believe there is a whole group of Democrats out there who are secretly enjoying being able to vote against a Clinton. They can take out their frustrations with the Clintons and still vote for a Democrat. For the first time in 16 years, Democrats can vote against a Clinton without having to vote for a Republican to do it.
2. The Clinton is no longer the hip one in the race. Think about it. In Bill Clinton’s presidential primary he was up against Paul Tsongas, Tom Harkin, Bob Kerrey, and some other people I don’t even remember. In the general elections he was up against George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole. Hillary, in sharp contrast, is up against the Obamassiah who makes women swoon.
It is 16 years later and she is now the establishment candidate. What it comes down to is that even though Hillary was married to the “Man from Hope,” now she faces a candidate much better at Hope-A-Dope (as Jon Henke calls it) than she and her husband ever dreamed of being. Instead of the Man from Hope that Bill Clinton was, Hillary is in many ways just “The Man” who stands in the way of the first black President of the United States. (Yeah, that’s right – it wasn’t Bill Clinton, regardless of what Toni Morrison said.)
3. Not only is Hillary not hip enough, but she is not liberal enough for the Democrat base. Democrats, like Republicans, will settle for a moderate if they are desperate enough for a win and if they believe that person has the best chance of getting elected, but not if they have a more liberal candidate who appears to have just as good a chance to win in the general election. Hillary is far from a moderate. She is definitely liberal, but on some issues she has angered her base by not being liberal enough, or at least not being in step with the far left in the base – most notably on the issue of Iraq. Barack Obama has the distinction of having the most liberal voting record in the Senate.
Although things look really bad for Hillary Clinton at this point, and many have said she is done, I will never count a Clinton out until the last vote is cast. But even if Hillary pulls a rabbit out of her hat on March 4, and some super delegates out of it after that, a statement has been made by many Democrats. The Clinton magic as we once knew it is gone. The Elvis in Bill Clinton left the building long ago and Hillary’s inevitability went with it. I suspect many Democrats are cleansing their political souls in the process.
Hillary is starting to look as if she will go quietly into the night. Last nights contest was like a friendly sparring match, not a fight where the manager is in the corner telling his fighter that a knock-out is needed or they lose.
Remarkable piece; well done.
One is a lying corrupt Leftist, the other is a empty head vacuous Leftist. That the only difference between the two. Hillary is just better at lying about her agenda then Obama is.
“Cleansing their souls”?.....I think they would rather jump off a cliff than vote for another Clinton. Just watch the Clintons..........when it becomes clear that they aren’t going to win, they will blame everyone and run off with the money. The Democrats better lock the safe and give out the money a little at a time or the Clinton’s will take it.
and there it is ... - the democrat party, unmasked and proud.
Like so much that passes for “analysis” these days, this is just opinion and intuition, short on cause and effect.
But who cares? It makes sense and I want to believe it, so I will! ;-)
I can’t see Clinton and all that power slipping quietly away. I suspect that she’s onto Plan B—we just don’t know what it is yet.
bttt
The Clintons will NEVER let a BLACK GUY BEAT THEM....NEVER!!
Are you kidding me??What you saw last night is what Vince Foster saw the night before he ended up in Ft. Marcy Park. When the Clintons look conciliatory. ..that’s the time to don the kevlar body armor.
bump
If Obama gets the nomination but loses to McCain badly, I fully expect to see Hillary as the Dem candidate in 2012. The party leftists will throw up their hands and let her have the nomination because they would want a winner despite their misgivings about the Clintons. I'm not saying she'd win, but most of the other Dems are inconsequential clowns.
Democrats are the ultimate Kool Aid drinkers. They are just going from one cult (The Clintons) to another.
Hillary's got hips alright....very wide ones at that
Hillary may very well love her husband and wants to stay married to him for life, but if she has only stayed married to him out of spite for her opponents or to ride on his coattails, that has been a big mistake.
She would be in much better stead if she had stopped defending him, split up with him and gone out on her own. Her husband is a like a block of concrete in a lake to her.
In last nights debate Hillary reminded me why I hate her so much.
Speaking of George Bush she said this:
CLINTON: “The world will breathe a sigh of relief once he is gone. We all know that.”
What a horrible thing to say about the outgoing President. It sounds like she is speaking about a notorious dictator, like Castro, Ahmadininejad, or Kim Jong II, but no, she said that about George W. Bush – the man who by tradition will be sitting on the same podium at the inauguration when the next President is sworn in – a display of great respect and of a peaceful transition for all the World to see. It is shameful on her part to have chosen those words.
If Obama loses in November...I think it would depend on how he looses. If he looses in a squeaker then I don’t hik he’ll pay a very heavy political price. If he gets beat convincingly, then there will be hell to pay and your assertion may very will come to pass.
Consider though, in 2012 she’ll be running for re-election to her senate seat so it will be do or die time then.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.