Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hillary is Sybil

If there was any doubt in your mind as to whom Hillary Clinton is, well, I may have the answer. She's Sybil. Multiple personalities galore, all on view last night during the Democratic candidates debate. It was hard to keep up with which personality would pop out next.

The outcome? Stick a fork in her. She's done. She was aggressive right out of the box then she was whining. She complained about the injustice she imagined over being asked to answer the questions in the debate first. What? Don't you want the first shot at a question if you are forging your own path and showing thoughtful leadership? Do you want to be in the position of having to agree with your opponent's answer, especially since these two candidates have very little that they don't agree on? Then she mocked his treatment by the press, which I agree with her on, but still. It looked petty and it fell flat with the audience. She got into a parsing of words over 'reject' and 'denounce' with Obama concerning the endorsement by Farrakhan. It was a waste of time.

I think we are witnessing the end of the Clinton grip on the Democratic party. They both have been masterful in convincing the party loyals that they are the smartest people on earth, the only ones who can win elections and lead the party. They installed their big money guy, McAullife, as the head of the national party organization and Clinton was re-elected for his second term. We can see all along the plan has been for Hillary to take the baton and win Bill's third and then fourth terms, establishing a legacy for him after all this time.

The unpreparedness of Hillary's campaign to see past Super Tuesday is mindboggling. Isn't that a favorite criticism of hers towards President Bush? That his administration doesn't plan properly for everything? She was so convinced that she was the inevitable nominee that when she didn't have it all wrapped up right away, her campaign looked incompetent.

A major area I don't understand why she doesn't challenge Obama is his claim he will bring everyone together and have bipartisan leadership as President. There is absolutely no history of his voting record in the U.S. Senate on any substantive issue that he is interested in working with the other side of the aisle. She can show the opposite. Even more telling of Obama's true nature is the fact, for example, of his telling John McCain that he would support legislation by McCain and then at the eleventh hour changing his mind and introducing poison pill amendments. One major slap to McCain, the actual Senator that does work with both sides to get legislation done, was on the issue of judges. Obama was to be on board with the Gang of 14's recommendations then at the last minute pulled away from them. And, he didn't think the judicial issue was a big enough issue for him to join with the Senators involved. If he is President, how do you think Obama will feel if the Republicans chose to behave as he and his fellow Democrats have towards President Bush's nominees? Obama votes against Bush's nominees each and every time. Bipartisan?

Hillary Clinton is done. The interesting development now among polls and voters responding to reporters is the uncertainity about Obama. Yes, there is enthusiasm in rally events. When questioned, however, those supporting Obama cannot refer to his positions that they specifically support. It's all the 'change' word and how charismatic he is with audiences. Polling shows McCain beats Hillary in the general election. Polling now shows Obama beats McCain by 4 points, according to the CBS/NYT latest numbers. This is within the margin of error. As time goes on and it is a two man race, both Senators, the clear divide will be shown. It's going to be a real race between two distinct platforms. The Republican will be shown, for a change of pace, to be the common sense choice, the ability to lead with both sides of the aisle following, not just empty platitudes.

And on foreign policy? I know the Democrats don't enjoy the focus on the problems of the world, it's all about us here at home as if the world doesn't play into us here at home. But Obama was winging it last night, especially on the Russia/Putin successor question and it showed. You have to give Hillary her due on being a policy wonk and she knew the guy's name. Doesn't matter that she couldn't pronounce it off the top of her head. It was a gotcha moment by Russett and she was better than Obama. McCain must have been smiling.

This election season just keeps getting better. Just sayin'.

4 comments:

Jolene said...

I think taps will be playing over the Clinton camp come March 4th. Maybe now she'll get that divorce and disappear into a woodline in NY somewhere.

Beverly said...

I love your ocmparing her to Sibyl. Perfect.

GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD said...

Hey! I was with you all the way on the Serbia/Putin's handpicked cat and the poss of Mother Russia deploying troops for a blitz. BHO totally blew it - acting like NATO was fully crunked to handle it - and that is a laugh. NATO is split about protecting tiny baby democracies in scary places in the world, they couldn't be bothered to take an 8 hour panzer ride to Belgrade a decade ago - and he's going to use internat'l consensus to handle it by outsourcing stuff to NATO?

Glad he's peaking now!

Good take on this Karen.

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

I'm thinking (and hoping) that by November, the novelty effect wears off, and independents and moderate Democrats will start experiencing buyer's remorse. Scratch the surface, and I really don't think there's much there to rest one's trust in.

Who knows? Maybe he'd turn out great. But where is the evidence of that, based upon his past experience? Voters are gambling on faith and hope.