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Hillary is Secretly Helping Obama
You Obamaniacs better quit your whining about Hillary acting as a McCain surrogate. This helps Obama. This is a huge help to Obama.
"Hillary can't win, so she should just drop out and let Obama focus on McCain!" The moment that Hillary drops out of the race, McCain will start saying the same things about Obama that Hillary is saying -- except worse and much more forcefully. And the media (and public) will pay a lot more attention, because the general election will be officially on. Hillary insulates Obama by giving him similar but gentler criticisms than will come from the GOP.
"But Hillary is hinting that Obama isn't qualified to be Commander in Chief!" Yeah, well, McCain is going to come right out and claim that Obma isn't ready to be Commander in Chief. If Obama can't defend himself against an insinuation, how is he going to defend himself against an accusation?
"Hillary's criticisms of Obama are fodder for the general election!" Do you really think McCain needs Hillary's authority to attack Obama on anything? The volume and intensity of GOP attacks will dwarf Hillary's soft digs. And since when do swing voters take Hillary's word on anything?
Sure, you can criticize Hillary for being a win-at-all-costs meanie. But I suspect that Hillary knows she can't win and is staying in the race to help Obama. Frankly, he needs some toughening up. Hillary staggered him with her "kitchen sink" attack. He needs more practice defending himself and punching back when attacked. If he can't knock out his sparring partner, he's not ready for the big fight. He needs to spar a few more rounds.
So say what you want about Hillary, but her staying in the race benefits Obama. Quit your whining. If Obama is the guy, he can take whatever Hillary throws at him. It's just practice -- and will hopefully turn him into a lean, mean, campaigning machine.
Comments (10)
Very good points. I think you're right. After a couple days of frustration, I think this is starting to sink in for most Obama supporters.
March 6, 2008 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe.
Good points, though. Good practice for Obama. I'll buy that, for the moment.
Personally, I like Dean's comments on NPR yesterday. He believes that a prolonged Democratic primary is a perfect implementation of his "50 State Strategy."
Works for me, as long as my guy wins.
March 6, 2008 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
An inane post, verging on insane. Did Kennedy "toughen up" Carter in 1980? Did Eugene McCarthy "toughen up" Johnson in 1968? Did Reagan "toughen up" Ford in 1976?
If Hillary is not ultimately the nominee, then her supporters shouldn't kid themselves that her internecine attacks won't hurt Obama. They will.
March 6, 2008 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are on crack if you think Hillary is covertly trying to help Obama.
March 6, 2008 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Point that it toughens him up taken.
But puhleazzzze on the assertion that Hillary is staying in to help him. Where do you come up with that idea?
March 6, 2008 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm fascinated by this view that some Clinton supporters seem to have of Obama as some sort of delicate little child, all wide-eyed idealism and naive shallowness. Poor lil' guy isn't ready for the big bad world - it'll just eat him up.
Imagine how shocked and dismayed our sweet little trooper would have been when he encountered the Right-Wing smear machine for the first time. Thank the good Lord that Hillary the Magnanimous has spared us all the indignity of having to sit through that first awkward presser, as Obama bawled uncontrollably when he first realized that the world isn't all flowers and sunshine and puppydogs and unicorns, and that Republicans can be big mean poopyheads.
Folks, perhaps Obama's message doesn't resonate with you, and perhaps you have doubts that he is the best candidate for president. Maybe you doubt the country is ready to vote for a Black Man. Maybe you even feel like he hasn't properly been "vetted", or have lingering doubts that he really might be a Muslim after all, or you want to hear him repudiate Minister Farrakhan after he's through renouncing, rejecting, and denouncing him. Good. Fine. Whatever.
But you just look silly when you infantilize him to the point of insinuating that he would be somehow caught off guard by Republican smears, or that appealing to people's basest fears and instincts somehow serves to "toughen him up". Really, the very idea is just ludicrous.
Or do you think that the fact that the other side doesn't play fair is some special insight that only you and your clever friends have gleaned?
March 6, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
The idea that Hillary Clinton's attacks are making Barack Obama a better candidate has some validity to it. But only to a degree. There does come a point that the damage from negative attacks overcomes whatever upsides comes from being "toughened up". I fear we have reached this point in the past few days with the increased level of negativity.
I think you are completely wrong about Hillary knowing she can't win and is staying in the race to help Obama though. Part of being a win-at-all costs meanie is being winning to win at all costs. Her comments bordering on saying that Obama is not qualified to be commander-in-chief isn't just talk that will be forgotten in a few weeks.
It is devastating to have a prominent member of your party say something like this, and much more damaging than any Republican making the same claim.
March 6, 2008 9:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
She knows she is going to lose and is trying to take Obama down with her so she can take on McCain in 2012.
All she cares about is power for herself, not the country or the Democratic Party.
Shame on Hillary Clinton
March 6, 2008 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
The reason why I think this is a facetious argument is because of the way Hillary is staying in the Race. She is employing (in my view) underhanded/dirty tactics that have appalled and even insulted many an Obama supporter.
From her utterances, we can expect more of these sort of tactics, and Obama is necessarily gearing up to attack her in kind. The problem with this situation is that whoever wins the nomination might find he/she has alienated the supporters of their opponent so much that they might not have the necessary support to beat McCain in the fall.
Obama does better in this scenario because his unfavorability ratings among democrats are lower than Hillary's (17% to 30%+ last time I checked) and because of his support amongst independents ... but its still a problem worth thinking about.
March 6, 2008 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
You miss the point. By Hillary doing McCain's initial dirty work, she is actually FINDING Obama's weaknesses FOR McCain. He'll have ALL summer now to get commercials and speeches written to attack him with -- putting Obama in what NO other candidate has had to face a DOUBLE WAMMY situation.
If Hillary wasn't attacking Obama on these things as she is, McCain would be where HILLARY is today -- trying to figure out what HURTS Obama.
Don't you get it?
March 6, 2008 11:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
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