The Low Road to Victory

[flpoljunkie]

Source: New York Times Editorial for Tomorrow

Editorial
The Low Road to Victory

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned.

more...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/opinion/23wed1.html?hp

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Amazing coming from her hometown newspaper

[JeanGrey]

1. It'll be over soon, not soon enough for me. Shortly after

North Carolina.

[onehandle]

2. Editorials are not allowed in the LBN forum. nt

[blayne]

17. I don't know how articles get in the coveted top right spot,

but I am guessing someone here disagrees with you. Does anyone know who cherry picks the articles and places the chosen ones in the top right spot?

[onehandle]

18. It's in the rules. Try reading them.

The mods may be too busy or just asleep.

For the moment.

[blayne]

22. Sorry. I thought that I had read them.

In fact, I know I did, but I don't remember reading how one article gets placed in the top corner. I will read them again and hopefully not have to be taken behind the wood shed again.

(edited out an errant comma)

[xxqqqzme]

3. very interesting. I have not seen the ads, nor

do I want to see them. I am so disappointed in this mud wallowing. It is tiresome & non-productive. It brings to my mind all the money raised and spent on nothing! We need clean money campaigns.

[Doctor_J]

4. Is Rove on her payroll now?

It wouldn't surprise me, unfortunately, since Mellon Scaife, Murdoch, and Fox News are all working for her.

[kath]

10. Is that true?

that Mellon Scaife, Murdoch and Faux are working for her? If so, eeek.

(I confess, I've been so disgusted with this disgusting primary season, that has been going on for well over a year now, ie ENDLESSLY, that I have tuned out in disgust.)

did I mention I'm disgusted? :-)

[truedelphi]

29. She sought and was delighted by Scaife's endorsement. n/t

[kath]

30. Jeebus H. Christ on a trailer hitch.

I'm speechless. And utterly disgusted. :puke: :puke:

[trickyguy]

5. They stole this one - Hillary and her "kitchen sink" gang.

:grr:

[FlaGranny]

6. It DOES work, unfortunately,

at least in Pennsylvania. Hillary voters - large percent will not vote for Obama if he gets the nomination. To me, that is a large percentage of Americans who are still bigots. That's just the way it is. The statistics prove it. I'm very disillusioned with this.

[bigscott]

12. you cant be serious

most who wont/dont vote for Obama are bigots?

I dont support HRC but dont you think that is a pretty strong generalization?

What statistics? that BHO lost in mostly white (more white than the national average) part of PA? Please realize these are mostly older (older than the national average) and less educated than the national average parts of PA as well.

peace

[SleeplessinSoCal]

15. Not so much bigots, but believe the negative accusations Hillary is using

[longship]

7. Woof!!!

Now *that's* an editorial!

Recommended and :kick:ed

[AngryOldDem]

8. Just as you can't kid a kidder, you can't beat someone at their own game.

"Right from Karl Rove's playbook."

Keep it up, Hill...it's all going to be coming back on you if you get the nomination.

[ingac70]

9. ....

[Pastiche423]

14. I am so stealing that photo

[ShaneGR]

11. The last line DISTURBED ME, because I immediately thought of race

"If she is ever to have a hope of persuading these most loyal of Democrats to come back to her side, let alone win over the larger body of voters, she has to call off the dogs."

Black man and dogs, who is playing the race card? Seriously, that's overt racism.

[guruoo]

13. Edwards to campaign for Hillary in NC?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5634129

[Baby Snooks]

16. "White voters will not vote for a black candidate in Pennsylvania"

That is basically what the governor of Pennsylvania said and the Clintons smiled to themselves and said nothing. They have not played the race card. But they have had others play it for them.

Most expected Pennsylvania to vote for Hillary Clinton but you do have to wonder if the voters in Pennsylvania who did realize that they endorsed the racism of her campaign.

She may become the nominee but unless she can pull some significant Republican votes I doubt she will become president. I have good friends all around the country who are "good" Democrats who all say they will vote for John McCain before they will vote for Hillary Clinton. After all, one pointed out, he has more experience than she does. As she pointed out about Barack Obama. Her comment may come back to haunt her.

[sushi]

19. Congratulations

to Senator Clinton. Women should support the woman candidate. Women are better than men in many things!!! Men have made a big mess! Give a woman the chance to show what she can do. Britain had Margaret Thatcher, Germany has Angela Merkel, India had Indira Gandhi, Pakistan had Benazir Bhutto, Israel had Golda Meir, etc. etc.
I repeat - Women are better than men in many, many, MANY things. We are the stronger sex!

[swag]

20. She's a flat-earther at this point in the delegate math.

She needs to:

1. pay her enormous past-due debts.

2. bow out and endorse Barack Obama.

[sushi]

23. Why?

No1. is her business. Why No.2?
He tried to buy votes in Penn. It didn't work. He couldn't close it, so she has to bow out? The truth is they both have supporters. It's most unfortunate that voters have to choose between two exciting firsts, first woman or first African-American. Que sera sera!

[swag]

24. As far as No 1., it's not just her business, she owes big past-due bills

to many people that were promised money for long-ago-delivered goods and services to her campaign. Until she pays those, she's a deadbeat. She leaves small delis and municipalities to hang for her campaign's unpaid bills.

2. The delegate math leaves her no path to victory. It looks as though she's still trying to scorch some very damp earth at this point, as though she would rather have McCain win than Obama, so she can come back and attempt to exploit her (increasingly well-deserved) "huge negatives" (in the parlance of public opinion) in 2012.

[blayne]

21. Alas, nothing has changed on this great decision day.

I would have settled for a landslide in either direction. A landslide win by Hillary would have legitimized her claim that this isn't over, and with landslide victories she still might be able to pull of an upset in the end. A landslide win by Obama would have sealed the deal and surely meant an exit by Hillary. Although, one would be wise not to bet their house, or even one American dollar, on it. But the month and tens of millions of dollars that have past in the latest primary has left us in the same awful spot we found ourselves in months ago. In fact it only means the blood bath will continue, and that is very sad indeed.

[Baby Snooks]

25. No, it wouldn't have mattered...

Had she lost Pennsylvania, suddenly Pennsylvania wouldn't have mattered.

Reality is all Pennsylvania has done is give her a "wild card" to play with the superdelegates. She is not that far behind. In the states where she has won, well, obviously that is reflective of the country.

And the country will not vote for an African-American Muslim terrorist sympathizer and racist. As she will have her minions point out for her. While she smiles to herself. And says nothing.

I really hate predictions by pundits but since I am not a pundit I will predict the superdelegates will give her the nomination. And she will lose half her own party's support as will the superdelegates like Sheila Jackson Lee who have made it perfectly clear that the people don't matter. Very few of whom will survive the firestorm.

The people don't matter. That is the message now from Democrats as well as Republicans. We are no longer a democracy.

[bjobotts]

26. What horseshit. That ad was really tame and you make it sound insulting. Obama did ok

without you conjuring up all this.."that's why Hillary did bad" crap instead of just saying Obama did well. NYT editorial wants to keep the negativity alive for lack of a better story...let's peddle anger.

[FVZA_Colonel]

27. You're right, he did do well; much better than I expected considering the past couple of weeks.

I believe this is because of his strengths as a candidate, and this is what his supporters should be focusing on right now.

[bjobotts]

28. I seldom see Obama does good, it's always Clinton does bad, which means

Without her mistakes she'd beat Obama hands down right?, because it's always that she's messing up not that he's doing well. Focusing on the negative empowers it.