Barbara Ehrenreich: Clinton and Obama: Running on Ambien

[marmar]

from The Nation:



comment | posted October 1, 2007 (web only)
Clinton and Obama: Running on Ambien
Barbara Ehrenreich



Just a year ago the hot question was, Is America ready for a black or female President? As the campaigns wear on, the question has shifted to, Can America survive the tedium of its black and female candidates?

Obama, for example, hasn't turned out to be any more challenging to white America than re-runs of the Cosby Show. He was slow to pick up on the Jena 6 case and never showed up at the rally--although, to be fair, neither did Clinton or Edwards. Like the others, he has refrained from noting that Rudy Giuliani, in addition to being a cellphone exhibitionist and a 9/11-abuser, presided over a New York City police department famed for its torture and killing of young black males.

But it's Hillary who's causing the citzenry's heads to pitch forward and collapse on their chests. Every time she opens her mouth, her flat, monotonic voice lays out yards of opaque white gauze, muffling any possibility of "discourse." Where does she stand? Over here, and a little to the side, and maybe a few steps to the right. Hers is known as the "flawless" campaign, but no one in it seems to be able to turn off the endlessly triangulating tape in her head.

Lately she's taken to emitting to sudden, inexplicable, bursts of deep laughter--known in the media as "the cackle." Whether this is a deliberate "humanizing" touch or a glitch in the computer program no one knows. According to the New York Times, the "weirdest moment" came in response to a question from Bob Schieffer about Republican charges that her health plan would lead to "socialized medicine." As the Times reports, "She giggled, giggled some more, could not seem to stop giggling--'Sorry, Bob,' she said--and finally unleashed the full Cackle."

Maybe she has a better sense of humor than I'd imagined, because the thought that her plan to turn healthcare over to the private insurance companies might be "socialist" has me rolling on the floor too. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071015/ehrenreich

[Captain Hilts]

1. The campaign is just far, FAR too long. Yes, HRC, OB, and JE are boring the hell outta me. nt

[marmar]

2. Agreed. I'm already sick and tired of POTUS 2008.....

.... and we're still several months away from PRIMARIES! :scared:

[depakid]

5. The Ozzie will elect their PM before Christmas

and their campaigns haven't begun yet.

(at least not in earnest).

[illinoisprogressive]

3. Isn't this the lady who begs for approval by the conservatives on Fox?

[killbotfactory]

4. Maybe it's because we are still three months away from the first caucus

Maybe they are waiting for when the most people are paying attention?

[question everything]

6. Neither is my first choice, however

they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

I think that Obama is very careful not to be another Al Sharpton, running on race relations. The Jena 6, let us not forget, also has a badly beaten white student.

And Clinton has to prove that she can be a "Commander in Chief" who knows how to talk about troops and terrorism and military stuff.

They both need to appeal to the general public, not to run as an African American or as a woman, but as a capable candidate who happens to be a woman or an African American.

Funny, in 1996, I think, when Clinton has to cave in to the then Republican majority and pass the welfare reform I heard Ehrenreich on the local Radio Pacifica station and she wondered why Hillary did not divorce Bill for that act. Yes, she was sarcastic, but in those days Hillary was considered to be the leftist of the couple.

I think the general population still thinks of her as being leftist, only on DU she is not.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Same here. nt