Hillary Clinton - The Debbie Downer of American Politics

stevenleser

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Wed Mar-05-08 04:41 PM
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Hillary Clinton - The Debbie Downer of American Politics

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_steven_l_080305_hillary_clinton___th.htm
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March 5, 2008

By Steven Leser

For one ugly moment in this race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, cynicism, negativity and the politics of personal destruction won the day. It took three weeks of mud-throwing by Hillary Clinton's campaign, combined with help by attacks from the likes of John McCain and Mike Huckabee and George W. Bush for Hillary Clinton to hold on to the shreds of a 20 point lead in the Texas Primary. Even that wasn't enough for Hillary to eke out a victory in the Texas Caucus.

In contrast to the hope, vitality and vision of the Obama campaign, Hillary countered with fear, accusation and innuendo. Hillary crossed a very real line of touting the Republican nominee's attributes over her Democratic opponent, an act that even longtime Clinton family supporter Paul Begala had to admit was a mistake during the CNN March 4th evening broadcast.

Observers have characterized Hillary's attacks as "Everything including the kitchen sink" and "Scorched earth". Indeed, Hillary's campaign since the February 5th Super Tuesday losses have metaphorically reminded me of the Russian and Soviet tactics against the Napoleonic and German invasions of 1812 and 1941 respectively. Burn all the crops, shoot the horses, blow up the houses and destroy everything as you retreat. If you can't have it, ruin it for your rival too.

There is another metaphor that comes to mind, Dick Gephardt's campaign in Iowa in 2004 which many describe as a "Murder-Suicide" since he effectively destroyed his own campaign and that of his main rival, Howard Dean, allowing John Kerry and John Edwards to place first and second in the Iowa caucuses that year. For an example of how the Clinton campaign has done this, one only needs to look at Hillary's three am call commercial which has the Republicans cackling with glee. Obviously, if experience is the sole or even the prime measure by which we should choose the next President, neither Hillary nor Obama can hope to compete with John McCain. McCain's campaign has already said that the Hillary three am commercial will figure in prominently in their general election campaign no matter which of the Democrats prevails.

Hillary has become the Debbie Downer of American Politics. http://www.buzznet.com/tags/debbiedowner/video/ Obama and his speeches and his energy make people feel good, positive and like rolling up their sleeves and going out to work or vote or to accomplish something. Hillary's main actions during the last few weeks have only been to try and throw a wet blanket over the Obama party. Hillary has no vision for how she wants America to be and has given no real reason for why she is running for President. The cynical argument Hillary and her campaign are trying to make is "Vote for me because there might be these things out there that could suggest that he may not be as great as he seems to be." Hillary even looks a little like a blonde Rachel Dratch. You can almost see the two of them at a party, Obama talking about Hope and about taking care of the poor and his health program, and Hillary saying "Why, we are all only just going to die anyway" (Queue the two note muted lament sounding trumpet).

The ultimate joke about Hillary's tactics and many accusations against Obama is that now she is suggesting that they run on the same ticket together. If ANY of the harsh accusations she is making is true, why would she want to run on either the top or the bottom of the ticket with Obama? There are two possibilities and both of them say really bad things about Hillary Clinton. Either the accusations are true and it is just fine with Hillary that such a bad person would be Vice President or President and she would be fine with working hand in hand with such a bad person, OR, she knows the accusations she is making are lies and the truth is that Obama is the great human being that he appears to be.

Besides that, if she thinks she may run on the same ticket with Barack, why is she tearing down her likely running mate? That is sheer idiocy, but it typifies the short sightedness of the Clinton campaign to date. They thought they would walk away with the nomination, they didn't. Then they thought they would wrap it up by February 6th and spent all of their money as if that would happen, it didn't. They throw everything including the kitchen sink at Obama to try to stay alive past March 4th and they end up making themselves unelectable and hurting Obama. Now they are saying Obama should be their running mate, they just need to figure who is going to be on top and who on the bottom.

These are the people who are saying they are the better and more experienced choice for President? Does this suggest to anyone that Hillary exhibits the judgment and wisdom to be President? I think it is clear that she doesn't. People should reject the ugly, negative and cynical Debbie Downer attitude of Clinton and her campaign. As Bill Clinton said in 2004, "choose Hope". Vote Obama!