Destroying the Democratic party in order to save it.

[bklyncowgirl]

Hillary Clinton's scorched earth campaign has come out full blast in the last couple of days and it is not a pretty sight.

Here's a few highlights.

Saying that she and John McCain have the experience to be President but Obama is nothing but empty speeches--how's that going to look in a McCain attack ad if Obama wins the nomination.

Being ever so coy on the subject of Obama's religious affiliation when she knows damn well that the man is a Christian and has always been a Christian.

Getting by with a little help from her friends north of the border--that would be the conservative Harper government--to paint Obama as two faced on NAFTA--as two faced as she is. Perhaps her slogan should be. "Obama rails against NAFTA but our friends in Canada tell us a different story. Obama secretly supports NAFTA. Vote for Hillary, you know what you're getting, everyone KNOWS SHE'S lying!

The tale of the darkening Barack. How DID Barack Obama suddenly turn darker in this campaign ad taken from actual debate footage showing him several shades lighter? Would Hillary pull an OJ on Obama? Oh dear me, perish the thought.

Moreover the corporate media seems to be doing an about face. Perhaps Clinton's poor poor pitiful me performance bolstered by a couple of Saturday Night Live skits portraying her as a victim of a hostile press have turned the tide. Perhaps the "Powers that Be" are getting a little nervous about an Obama presidency ("I say, Wilton, what if that Obama fellow actually believes in all of this change folderol?" Perhaps the word has gone out to take Obama down a peg or two (tinfoil alert)

Perhaps Hillary Clinton has the best interests of the Democratic party in mind. Perhaps she truly fears an Obama presidency. Or perhaps she is determined that if she does not become the next President than no Democrat will become the next President. The problem is, that if she wins, she has to hope that Obama supporters--and Obama himself--will come back to her in the fall. The problem is that she's gambling that independent minded voters who love Barack Obama--will suck it up and vote for her in November. With John McCain as the Republican nominee--that is by no means a given.

[mattclearing]

1. Sounds like Nader's rationalization in 2000. He said Bush would be a provocateur.

Well, it certainly worked, but I doubt the likely 200,000 dead people feel it was worth it.

[bowens43]

2. Hillary doesn't care about or even think about the people or the party.

Hillary cares about Hillary and she firmly believes that she is owed the presidency. The saddest part of the fiasco she has created is that if she somehow manages to get the nomination, we will lose the presidency, probably lose control of the senate and maybe even the house. A hillary nomination will also mean the appointment of at least one more conservative supreme court justice.

Hillary can not beat McCain.

[Window]

4. I just hope the Democrat party as a whole doesn't suffer due to

Hillary's 'kitchen sink' strategy. We absolutely must take back the White House in November.

[pampango]

19. "you don’t give that up just because some people say it would be better for the party."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/8817_Page2.html

“It’s not like he’s getting closer to 2025 than we are,” said a consultant to the campaign, citing the total number of delegates needed to clinch victory. “If you’re within 100 delegates of being the nominee of the Democratic Party you don’t give that up just because some people say it would be better for the party.’

Of course, in terms of pledged delegates the difference is more than 150 delegates and he is, in fact, closer to 2025 than she is. Since neither candidate will have enough pledged delegates to wrap up the nomination prior to the convention, both will, at least theoretically, have a shot at winning the nomination at the convention.

AFAIK, close nomination battles, in either party, that have gone to the convention (1976 Ford/Reagan, 1980 Carter/Kennedy, and 1984 Mondale/Hart) have all ended up with their candidates losing in the general election. That does not automatically mean that our candidate would lose, but it wise to understand history even if you decide to ignore it as irrelevant to the present or outweighed by other factors. On a purely personal level, most candidates want to battle for the nomination until it is hopeless (Reagan, Kennedy, Hart) without regard to the party or any "bigger picture".

As much as it would behoove our party to solidify around a candidate at this stage, it doesn't seem likely to me given historical precedents and the personalities in this campaign. Obama won't drop out because he will have more pledged delegates under almost any scenario, which is the goal that candidates set for themselves when the primary/caucus season starts. Clinton probably won't drop out, because it will not be mathematically impossible that she will receive enough superdelegate support to compensate for a shortcoming in pledged delegates.

I sure hope the 1976, 1980, 1984 precedents of close nomination battles followed by general election losses, don't repeat themselves this year.

[Saturday]

3. You better start listening to today's news. Obama has a few

problems on the horizon. And skimming over the Canada situation shows you have blinders on.

[bklyncowgirl]

6. Oh dear me, the Canada situation. let's see

One of Obama's economic advisors privately and apparently unofficially assured someone in the Canadian government that Obama was not nearly as anti-NAFTA as he sounded on the stump. The conversation got written up into a memo which was then leaded by the Canadian government. The Obama advisors claims it was a casual conversation and that he was not speaking officially for the campaign.

Yes, it's damaging. No campaign wants these sort of mixed messages coming out.

Like I said, I believe that perhaps the "Powers that Be" have decided that it is time to take Obama down a few pegs. Actually, I predict that he's about to get "Deaned". Obama by bringing more voters into the system and his ability to raise large sums of money from small donors is creating instability in the system. The one thing the Powers That Be cannot abide is instability.

[mac2]

7. Agree.

[Skidmore]

5. Big heaping steaming piles of rancid crap!

Hillary is trying to firmly entrench the DLC. She is the legacy candidate of the Third Way movement. Think corporations are going to suddenly become more regulated and fair under a Clinton administration? I want some of whatever you are smoking. I'll never in my life understand the Edwards supporters who raced to Hillary. I'll never understand the women who think that she is the saviour. I'll never understand how this corporation bought and paid for face has been morphed into the saviour of the working class by some.

She will destroy the party by tacking it further to the right. That is not saving it.

[mac2]

8. Obama was picked by the DLC leader Emanuel here in

Illinois. Don't act like he is above it.

[Skidmore]

9. Obama was one of Dean's choices and sponsored by him.

[mac2]

14. Yes...both of them.

[Vinca]

10. The Clintons are running a Republican campaign.

I'm starting to wish Obama would hop off the high road and borrow the tome of Clinton scandals from Karl Rove's vault.

[bklyncowgirl]

11. It would be nice if they'd run that campaign against the Republicans

Unfortunately Democrats are much better at taking down other Democrats in the most vicious manner and pulling a deer in the headlights stare when Republicans go on the attack.

[Vinca]

13. Sad, but true. nt

[Kittycat]

12. If she doesn't pull out 15% wins tonight - she's done.

No WAY are the party leaders going to stand this bullshit and her lies.

[Craftsman]

15. She will not quit.

I do not think so, she has the money and the drive to keep going. Even if there is no way for her to win she will take this to a floor fight.

[Medusa]

16. She has the money but not the class

to pull out. She can't accept failing. And make no mistake, she has failed spectacularly. How the hell do you go from being "inevitable" to hanging on by your fingernails when hauling in money hand over fist? How do you mismanage a campaign that was pulling in that kind of dough? Answer? Sheer incompetence. And it's that gross incompetence and failure to accept reality that has been her undoing.

[Craftsman]

17. Agreed

But her ego will not let her quit.

[theboss]

18. Why would Hillary want to get into an "who has more experience?" argument with McCain

McCain has exactly two strengths.

1. His rise from POW to Maverick Senator story.
2. His 82 years in the Navy, including time as a squadrom commander and his 962 years in the Senate, in which he has drafted and sponsored numerous pieces of legislation.

She can't beat him in this argument so why go there?

[RememberWellstone]

20. Gasp.

She can destroy the party but not lead the nation? Weird.

[Kittycat]

21. Kind of like bush - huh?

DINO HILL