2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary is not "entitled" or "anointed", she's the front runner and has earned that [View all]Carolina
(6,960 posts)We've heard that all before... past is prologue, so let's examine HRC's:
She was inevitable in 2008, too. She was in it to win it. She was assured that her name and money were sufficient, until Super Tuesday proved her wrong and she resorted to kitchen sink tactics against BHO, even going so far as to praise McCain. Then, still not knowing when to quit despite running on empty money wise, she proceeded on to California because you never know, remember Bobby Kennedy. That was the straw for many, including the Democratic leadership which asked her to bow out in summer 2008. She gracelessly did so, on condition that Obama and the party pay off her campaign debt. Wow, what great leadership skills, what sound management! Screw up, squander a formidable campaign war chest on a 1992 style campaign, then demand that someone else bail you out... kinda like Wall Street which is quite appropriate.
In 2008, HRC also touted her 20 years of experience -- 12 as first lady of Arkansas and 8 as first lady of the US. But if she was, and is, to claim the Clinton legacy, then she has to assume the blame for that job sucking travesty NAFTA, for the Gramm-Bliley-Leech Act which overturned Glass-Steagall, for the Telecommunications Act which has produced the horrid consolidated media of today, and for Welfare Deform which has deepened the abyss of poverty. BTW: imagine the ridicule HRC supporters would heap on Babs Bush if she ever made a similar 'experience' claim based on 4 years as 2nd lady of the US, 4 years as 1st lady of the US and 8 years as 1st mom!
Then theres 2002, HRC's first term in the Senate. How can anyone forget that IWR vote, that callous, finger-in-the-political-wind vote cast because of her POTUS aspirations. That vote makes her ultimately culpable for the death, debt, destruction and destabilization that war of choice has caused. Sure Bush would have gone to war anyway, but without the votes of Democrats like the would-be-presidents Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, Biden and Dodd, it would truly have been BUSHS war. Instead, HRC and the others were profiles in political cowardice displaying politically ambitious calculation, awful judgment, and a stunning lack of morality while providing the liars and thieves in the Bush White House bipartisan cover. Here at DU, we knew better than to believe the Bush cabal. Democrats like Edward Kennedy (a genuine liberal), Bob Graham (of FL), Robert Byrd and others not only cautioned their peers about such haste (casting votes just before the 2002 midterm elections) but warned, like canaries in the mine, about the long term consequences. Never forget Byrds poignant speech about the rush to war, the cost of war, the waste of war... It didn't take a classified report to see the facts. And those who think that vote is outdated, past history, something to be forgotten because HRC apologized for it, called it a mistake
just think, there are no do-overs for votes that cost so much in terms of death and destruction.
HRC is no friend of the common man. She pays handlers and marketing personnel to package her as the peoples champion, but its all smoke and mirrors because Wall Street (the likes of Robert Reuben, Larry Summers, Lloyd Blankfein/Mr. Goldmann Sachs, etal.) owns her. She is the mistress of triangulation who helped found the DLC and who remains 3rd way to her very core. She is tone deaf and thin skinned (see that 2008 primary campaign, again) and lacks the natural political skills and charisma of Bill. On that note, I would even go so far as to say, she is no pave-the-way feminist (like Ann Richards, Barbara Jordan). She is where she is today because of Bill.
After law school, she may have ever so briefly worked on the Nixon impeachment committee, but she was no heavy hitter, she didnt pass the DC Bar, and she didnt last long there. So what did she do? She ran off to Arkansas (to Arkansas
who goes there, who goes from Yale to DC to Hope Arkansas, if they are such a gifted and talented attorney
sorry Arkansans). She followed Bill because she recognized his innate talents and his rising star quality, and she latched on to him. She made it because of being Mrs. Clinton not because of being Hillary Rodham. Her only real lawyering was shilling for Walmart (a corporate lawyer for WALMART
so much walking the talk of being the peoples champion) and at the Rose Law Firm, she relied heavily on Vince Foster!
So now, she has the years as SOS under her belt, but can she really run on those 4 years of non-accomplishments? It'll be a general campaign about Benghazi and emails ad nauseum and ad
Truly, what has she DONE on her own that she can be proud of and lay claim to? She can't even give straight answers on what she supports half the time. If she's the best the Democratic Party can offer at this critical time in history, then we're screwed.
Go ahead and flame me, I really don't care.