Last night Barack and Hillary finished their 20th debate and, as usual, Barack was cool and Hillary tried to melt him with fiery accusations. Is anyone buying the humorless Clinton fire sale that Obama is unqualified to be president of the United States and Commander-in-Chief?



Maureen Dowd, in today’s New York Times, pinpoints the problem with Hillary that stings to the core with recognition:

The fact that Obama is exceptionally easy in his skin has
made Hillary almost jump out of hers. She can’t turn on her own charm
and wit because she can’t get beyond what she sees as the deep
injustice of Obama not waiting his turn. Her sunshine-colored jackets
on the trail hardly disguise the fact that she’s pea-green with envy.

I am still amazed the Clinton campaign refuses to recognize the
overwhelming good spirit and the meaningful rising tide of Obama’s
drive to the nomination that is washing out her dreams and wiping out
any good will she previously created.

The longer she sticks around without a way to win, the worse she looks
in the adoring eyes of her personal history.
If you examine how both campaigns have been run, can anyone claim
Hillary has created the better, or more competent, campaign?
Barack proves every day he is a meticulous manager of people and he
knows how to stay within a budget and on message without getting lost
in ceremonial garb or the mocking of his Hussein middle name.

With
Barack’s impending nomination as the democrat candidate — should we be
more concerned with the rise of John McCain, or with the inevitable
demise of Ralph Nader?

Will
Nader’s black horse candidacy once again ruin the democrat chances for
ascendancy to the presidency by narrowing the field with unrealistic
whispering and false hope against a nation that cannot be proven beyond
the notion?

34 Comments

  3. She’ll be pushed down the stairs. Only person she’ll listen to is Bill and he won’t let her quit.

  4. I don’t think she’ll leave with any charm left. She has everything to lose and nothing to gain by leaving. She won’t ever have another chance again unless something disastrous happens. Sometimes I think she’d prefer to stay in as long as possible just to make sure Barack doesn’t win so she can run again in four years.

  5. Well that’s it isn’t it. She’ll have to be clubbed into leaving and she’ll leave a stink behind.

  7. I am hoping that the might of Obama will overcome even Negative Nader. 🙂 I was pleased to see donors hit 1,000,000 sometime last night. 1,000,000 small donations mean more than 100 people donating 100k.

  8. Hi Gordon —
    Isn’t there a $2,300.00 per-person cap for donations in the primary?
    Most of Barack’s donors are in the $25 to $50 area while most of Hillary’s are/were right at the cap.

  9. I don’t know how she did it or sought to do it but she asked 100 people to give $100k. There was an email from the Obama administration called 100 vs. 1,000,000 – and we made that 1,000,000 happen! I gave 36 last night. 🙂

  10. Gordon —
    Individuals are limited to $2,300 for the primary and $2,300 for the general election. That’s why wealthy donors are only helpful — individually — when they get their friends and the friends of their friends to donate…
    Hillary made $10,000,000 from 100,000 donors. That’s an average of $100 per donation.
    http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=5890
    Obama made the million donor mark today:
    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/obama-reaches-1-million-donor-mark/

  12. Right, Gordon!
    Barack has all the small donors on his side in massive quantities. Some people even have a payment plan set up where they give $50 a month to the Obama campaign. Now that’s dedication to a cause!

  13. Hi David,
    I was catching up on some of the debates on youtube and it seems to me, one of the things that sets obama apart is that he actually seems to care about how he wins. it isn’t about winning at any cost. And this sets him apart from clinton and i believe will set him apart from mccain if he wins the nomination. and somehow i think it makes a difference to the kind of president a candidate can be expected to become.

  14. That’s an excellent analysis, Dananjay! We call that “Obama cool” where he can’t get pushed off his game or rattled into getting steamed. I agree it is refreshing and calming.
    The conservatives are going crazy with McCain at the top of the ticket and now McCain is sounding like those wacky right wing radicals he’s always despised when he attacks Obama on “Al Queda in Iraq.”

  15. David,
    yes! if your getting to a position involved a long and slimy climb up the greasy pole interspersed with liberal amounts of kicking, punching and skulduggery it’s going to affect the way you conduct yourself and handle that position.
    and obama’s “i won’t play that way” stand is unnerving his competitors. and he’s unflappable when he gets kicked in the shins. just because he doesn’t hit back doesn’t mean he’s not a fighter. it’s probably a sign that he’s much better.

  16. Dananjay!
    Yes! Obama doesn’t go emotional. He responds intellectually and in many ways I’m sure that’s part of his upbringing and a consequence of his color.
    I’m he learned early in his life that if he reacts with anger or emotion there is a greater risk of a stereotypical cultural escalation that is dangerous.
    It’s hard to hit back or scold or fight with a guy who refuses to sink to that physical emotional level.

  17. David,
    Yes it’s hard, but i don’t suppose it will in anyway stop the swiftboat from sailing his way. that may well turn out to be the moment of truth for obama.

  18. The republicans are certainly after him already, Dananjay. It will be fascinating to watch him try to stop those nasty attacks. He must respond in some way. John Kerry had no idea he could be painted as a war coward by a war evader when Kerry actually served his country well in Vietnam.

  19. Such are a ways the good are thwarted. but the funny thing, i think, is that obama started out so far back and with so little going his way that i can’t think of anything like that happening to his campaign. Short of the republicans revealing that he has a rat somewhere in his clothing that’s writing his speeches and controlling his public persona.

  20. Dananjay —
    They’re going to beat him on “rhetoric vs. experience” — McCain is a war hero who knows what needs to be done while Barack has no idea what it means to live a military life — that’s an argument Hillary tried to make but she couldn’t make it stick.

  21. David,
    I’m not sure McCain can make it stick either. The war hero status proves McCain’s bona fides but it’s lack is not something you can hold against someone. also that difference shouldn’t count for much among a voting population that just wants out of the war and is not looking for someone who will lead them into ‘victory’.

  22. I hope you’re right about that, Dananjay. McCain’s attacks against Obama yesterday were brittle and unkind and I hope he doesn’t bang that war drum for the rest of the year.
    I do think Obama can make a case that we’re fighting the wrong war. We were pushed into Iraq by deviousness when we should’ve stayed put in Afghanistan.

  23. For now and from what i can make out from what little i’ve seen, obama would have to make an unforced error of judgement to take him out of the running decisively. one by over-reacting to the hate speech that’ll be directed towards him or by getting carried away by his own charisma and letting it go to his head. If he is what he seems to be, neither should happen.

  24. I agree, Dananjay, that the election is his to lose. I just hope he doesn’t pick Hillary as his VP or the entire election will be about her and Bill and a revisitation of all their fiascoes.

  25. David! haven’t stranger things happened? Don’t you think if obama has to fulfill his promise of bringing the country together it’ll have to start within his party? and picking hillary as his VP would be just the sort of thing that he would do to start things off in that direction. also maybe they might actually do well together. the visionary and the one who knows the machinery inside out!

  26. Dananjay —
    No, I don’t think having her as his second is a good idea because she and Bill will overshadow him. If she can’t control Bill, Obama won’t be able to, either.
    Conventional wisdom suggests that Obama should take on a former military general like Tony Zinni who can blunt any McCain charges that Obama won’t be able to handle the military:
    http://www.generalzinni.com/

  27. David,
    pretty impressive record there! obama certainly has a lot of good options. do you think clinton would consider obama as a possible vp option? or will she in turn worry about being overshadowed by obama? i wasn’t aware that bill was such a big factor in this race.

  28. Dananjay —
    Yes, Hillary needs Obama to win. She’ll shatter the party without him. He doesn’t need her to win.
    Bill pushed himself on us in South Carolina in a rotten way and ever since they’ve been trying to hide him. She apologized the other day… AGAIN!… for anything he did that may have offended people… we just want him to go away now…

  29. David,
    yes, that makes sense. not making obama a part of her administration if she gets the nomination will alienate the very people who’ve somehow rejuvenated her party from the bottom up.
    i’m not well up on bill’s antics in the recent past. should make for fun reading!

  33. This all restores my faith in the U.S. political system. Some question the value of these debates, but in this case they proved invaluable; folks saw right through her insincerity. God, I hate when she says this campaign is about the American people. Because “that woman” could care less about the American people.
    I remember when Caroline Kennedy came out in The Times to endorse Obama. I wondered what impact that would have on the campaign, if any. But what a snowball it became . . . Good for sweet Caroline. She doesn’t normally say too much, but when she does . . .

  34. I appreciate your insight, dmtessi, and you’re right it is good to “see them as they are” in real time to get a good sense of who they are and what they really stand for in the larger sense of us.
    Caroline’s endorsement was surprising and stunning and gave the Obama campaign an immediate upward shot from which they have yet to descend.

Comments are closed.