Reader Posts

If Obama is McGovern, then Clinton is?

By j pg - April 23, 2008, 11:29PM

Given this currently growing meme of Obama = McGovern or Dukakis I'm curious who Clinton supporters would use to analogize thier candidate (presumably positively)....

As an Obama supporter, I would not be charitable so I'd rather see what other folks would say...

Comments (7)

How about that lesser-known candidate, also from the 1972 election: Skanky McLiar

Posted by InfiniteNether
April 23, 2008 11:42 PM | Reply | Permalink

I've heard Hillary described as "Nixon in a pant suit." I like that, though the personalities may be similar her positions are certainly more laudable.
I have a question for her supporters. If she did somehow get the nomination despite losing the popular and pledged delegate count do you think she would have even a remote chance of getting elected? Isn't it highly likely that the VAST MAJORITY of Obama supporters would be so outraged they would either vote for McCain or simply not vote? While it is highly unlikely Hillary will get the nomination, I will concede it is at least theoretically possible. What I can't see as a possibility is Hillary getting anywhere near enough Democratic support in November to win the general election. Frankly, I think if she is given the nomination there will be riots, at least at the convention. Am I off the wall?

Posted by garage3d
April 24, 2008 12:50 AM | Reply | Permalink

I'm on record saying early on that Obama's candidacy reminded me of McGovern's. I was as strong a McGovernite as the worst deer-in-the- headlights Obamaite on this site.

I remember being amazed and disheartened that my father, who had always voted democratic and would become a democratic party loyalist again and die as one, became a hard core Nixon Democrat.

I've also said, long before the "bitter" comment, that Obama would be hit hard on gun control and anti-crime/death penalty issues (see the demagogic repub ad in NC) and painted as a McGovern/Dukakis radical liberal. Some of the people who've sparred with me (Ben Hocking) probably remember these comments.

To answer your question, I would say that Clinton's closest parallel would be Van Buren.

Posted by redstateleroy
April 24, 2008 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink

Van Buren? Unfortunately I know nothing about his presidency...please elaborate (or did you mean it sarcastically? I'm moving a bit slow today)....

Posted by joypog
April 24, 2008 1:32 AM | Reply | Permalink

I was raised on Vietnam and . I had my first drink on August 8, 1974. When Patrick Buchanan appears on television, I can still hear the anchorman saying he'd been called to Camp David on August 4.

As a young mother I put my four-year-old daughter on my lap for a re-broadast of the 1960 debate, and pointed to the candidates saying "Good President" and "Bad President."

When said daughter asked me to compare Iraq and Watergate, I admitted that Iraq was by far the greater scandal, but knew it still didn't feel that way in my bones.

And then, the other day, I looked at a picture of Julie Nixon Eisenhower, no longer a teenager or a young bride, over a caption about her maximum donation to the Obama campaign.

And I realized that I was through with Nixon. He did some seriously bad stuff, but not in the same league with the current President. Not by a long shot.

And then I realized that it wasn't really George W. Bush who had pushed him aside. The ruthless, reckless, rule-breaking opponent role had been taken over by the junior Senator from New York.

I hate knowing that, for her sake. I hate it for my own sake. I hate it for our party and our country.

But she's Nixon now, and I may not live the 48 years it take to let go of my disgust.

Posted by Sporcupine
April 24, 2008 1:06 AM | Reply | Permalink