Tag Archives: Barack Obama Hillary Clinton

Remember them Super Delegates? Back when change had trumped experience and the numbers pointed in only one direction, Hillary Clinton made a plea to the Super Delegates to ignore the math and consider her prophecy: Barack Obama was unelectable. White women wouldn’t vote for him, Hispanics wouldn’t vote for him, and as Bill Clinton said, “hard-working Americans, white Americans” wouldn’t vote for him. Then there were the big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio that only Hillary could carry. And finally, by following the Democratic Party rules, Michigan and Florida would surely go to the Republicans.

There was a moment, after McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin, when everyone questioned whether Obama should have picked Hillary (though I stuck to my original position that she was too divisive for Obama’s message). For all of Billary’s cynicism, I am proud to say that Americans proved the duo wrong. Obama dominated the female vote, held his own with the white male vote, and prevailed in the keys states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Colorado. He took Michigan and Florida, and even stole Virginia and possibly North Carolina. Party unity? Not a problem, even with Bill and Hillary barely breaking a sweat.

There is even a little irony in the prophecy that Obama was unelectable because he was not vetted. Hillary’s negative attacks solved that problem, and there is a strong argument that the net effect of the Billary smears only made Obama stronger and more resilient for the general election. By the time McCain Palin were palling around Billary’s sludge, the American people had already made up their minds about Obama.

After all the prophetic claims of unelectablility, Obama went on to become the first Democrat to win more than fifty percent of the vote in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter. So much for prophecies. Continue reading →

One thing that we’ve learned over the course of the Democratic primaries is that people are incredibly predictable. Regardless of the pandering and negative attacks and endless press coverage, people did not change the way they voted. Wright didn’t hurt Obama and the Gas Tax didn’t help Hillary. We are demographically conditioned. White women over 60 and uneducated white men voted for Hillary. African Americans, educated whites, and younger Americans voted for Obama.

So don’t even try to fool yourself and think that you have free will. Look at your ballot, and face the truth — the mirror doesn’t lie. Ironically, last night I had a wonderful dinner at my friends’ house, they didn’t serve squirrel, and I didn’t even know that they were white trash until we discussed politics.

Hillary goes back and forth between saying that she’s vetted and complaining that the press is too hard on her. The problem is that she has a tendency to avoid the truth, to say anything, and to associate with anyone. This means that she is always open for a fresh vetting.

The most recent absurdity is or was her Senior Campaign Strategist. It just doesn’t quite pass the smell test that he suddenly resigns right when Bush is about to present the Colombian free trade bill to Congress. Clinton should have done her research and know (i) that the vote was coming up and (ii) that the Senior Campaign Strategist as a mercenary representing a foreign nation against what Hillary argues is in the best interest of the American people. You can’t dump on Obama for his choice in former preacher when you’re right hand man is lobbying in the present against what you’re saying in public. She’s not even firing, but only demoting the guy. It just doesn’t fly and only enhances Hillary’s reputation for truth aversion. George Will had this to say about Hillary,

She favored the North American Free Trade Agreement until she opposed it: She favored it back when she was a Cub fan, before she imagined being senator from New York and discovered, or remembered, that she had always been a Yankee fan. She opposes NAFTA and the Colombia agreement now that she is a presidential candidate, but her views might change again in a few weeks, when her status does.

With all due respect to Hillary, the conservative Will also trashed Obama in the same article for Obama’s position on trade. Personally, I don’t agree with either Hillary or Obama’s trade protectionism. I also don’t agree with the Washington Post’s assertion that somehow Mark Penn was right on trade. Penn is a lobbyist. His job isn’t to believe in what he is selling but to sell. Don’t confuse the two. Continue reading →