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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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Clinton's Grim Scenario
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, May 27, 2008; A13
If this campaign goes on much longer, what will be left of Hillary Clinton?
A woman uniformly described by her close friends as genuine, principled and sane has been reduced to citing the timing of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination as a reason to stay in the race -- an argument that is ungenuine, unprincipled and insane. She vows to keep pushing, perhaps all the way to the convention in August. What manner of disintegration is yet to come?
For anyone who missed it, Clinton was pleading her cause before the editorial board of the Sioux Falls, S.D., Argus Leader on Friday. Rejecting calls to drop out because her chances of winning have become so slight, she said the following: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it."
The point isn't whether you take Clinton at her word that she didn't actually mean to suggest that someone -- guess who? -- might be assassinated. The point is: Whoa, where did that come from?
Setting aside for the moment the ugliness of Clinton's remark, just try to make it hold together. Clinton's basic argument is that attempts to push her out of the race are hasty and premature, since the nomination sometimes isn't decided until June. She cites two election years, 1968 and 1992, as evidence -- but neither is relevant to 2008 because the campaign calendar has been changed.
In 1968, the Democratic race kicked off with the New Hampshire primary on March 12; when Robert Kennedy was killed, the campaign was not quite three months old. In 1992, the first contest was the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 10; by the beginning of June, candidates had been battling for about 3 1/2 months -- and it was clear that Bill Clinton would be the nominee, though he hadn't technically wrapped it up.
This year, the Iowa caucuses were held on Jan. 3, the earliest date ever. Other states scrambled to move their contests up in the calendar as well. When June arrives, the candidates will have been slogging through primaries and caucuses for five full months -- a good deal longer than in those earlier campaign cycles.
So Clinton's disturbing remark wasn't wishful thinking -- as far as I know (to quote Clinton herself, when asked earlier this year about false rumors that her opponent Barack Obama is a Muslim). Clearly, it wasn't logical thinking. It can only have been magical thinking, albeit not the happy-magic kind.
Clinton has always claimed to be the cold-eyed realist in the race, and at one point maybe she was. Increasingly, though, her words and actions reflect the kind of thinking that animates myths and fairy tales: Maybe a sudden and powerful storm will scatter my enemy's ships. Maybe a strapping woodsman will come along and save the day.
Clinton has poured more than $11 million of her own money into the campaign, with no guarantee of ever getting it back. She has changed slogans and themes the way Obama changes his ties. She has been the first major-party presidential candidate in memory to tout her appeal to white voters. She has abandoned any pretense of consistency, inventing new rationales for continuing her candidacy and new yardsticks for measuring its success whenever the old rationales and yardsticks begin to favor Obama.
It could be that any presidential campaign requires a measure of blind faith. But there's a difference between having faith in a dream and being lost in a delusion. The former suggests inner strength; the latter, an inner meltdown.
What Clinton's evocation of RFK suggests isn't that she had some tactical reason for speaking the unspeakable but that she and her closest advisers can't stop running and rerunning through their minds the most far-fetched scenarios, no matter how absurd or even obscene. She gives the impression of having spent long nights convincing herself that the stars really might still align for her -- that something can still happen to make the Democratic Party realize how foolish it has been.
Clinton campaigns as if she knows she will leave some Democrats with bad feelings. That's the Clinton way: Ask forgiveness, not permission. But every day, as more superdelegates trickle to Obama's side, it becomes a surer bet that she will not win. She and her family enjoy good health and fabulous wealth. They'll be fine -- unless, while losing this race for the nomination, Hillary Clinton also loses her soul.
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Wow hows that for a 180 turnaround. For as long as I can remember all we heard from the lib press, the democrats, the femnists and other like minded folks was "Hillary is the Smartest woman in the Whole World". She has the presidency locked up even though her name like Baracks has never been attached to any major piece of legislation. She is unbeatable they may as well just skip the election and give her the keys. Man how wrong these folks were about Hillary after the dumb things the smartest woman has done such as the RFK assasination comment. Now of course we are to believe their same orgasmic asessment of a virtual unknown senator with no track record to judge other than his antigun stand . Well if they were so off the mark with Hillary what makes you think they have it right this time with Obama????  |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue May 27, 2008 1:13 pm |
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Demeralda
F L I N T O I D
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Saying something that is ill-timed and in bad taste doesn't mean her IQ suddenly got lowered.
She is smart, I don't think anyone would argue that.
I absolutely loved that piece, but to be fair, it's just one writer's opinion. He hardly represents all the "lib press". |
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I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing. - Mae West |
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Tue May 27, 2008 1:48 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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She is smart based on what? Her failed healthcare fiasco that even the dems couldnt stomach. Her insisting that Willie hire the worst Attorney general in the history of the US that being Janet Reno. How about her making Joycelen Elders Surgeon general now that was genius. I gotta say though she is smarter than most investors by turning $1000 into $100,000 in a couple of months. If shes so damn smart how is a virtual unknown whos only credential is his race kicking her ass in an election that she had locked up. And the biggest one of all not being aware of Willies little mishaps with other babes for the last 40 years or so when everyone else including most of Arkansas state police knew every detail.  |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue May 27, 2008 3:13 pm |
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Demeralda
F L I N T O I D
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You and I both know that winning an election has nothing to do with intelligence. I need not point to the obvious example of that.
She's outperformed investors for nearly 20 years.
First senior ever asked to give commencement address at Wellesley.
Oh, and she went to Wellesley.
Yale Law School, that in itself is a feat.
And most importantly, all the other smart people say she's smart. |
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I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing. - Mae West |
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Tue May 27, 2008 3:58 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
First senior ever asked to give commencement address at Wellesley.
Oh, and she went to Wellesley
Yup back when she was a repub before the drugs blew her mind. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue May 27, 2008 4:07 pm |
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david
F L I N T O I D
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oh yeah, she is sharp as a tack. why else would she have stayed with slick willie all through he mongering? she was smart enought to know she could never get elected to national office without old willie boy's coat tails to ride.
i for one am enjoying watching the demoncrats tear eachother up.
david
san diego |
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Tue May 27, 2008 9:59 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
i for one am enjoying watching the demoncrats tear eachother up.
You aint alone and its about to get even better.
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_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Wed May 28, 2008 7:06 am |
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