Reader Posts
« previous | TPM CAFÉ READER POSTS HOME | next »
Three Reasons why Hillary Disqualified herself from the Nomination
Nomination= You are Presidential Material
Here are the Hillary reasons:
1. Plain contempt for truth: The amazing Bosnian sniper fire fiasco. She even admitted in the penultimate debate she knowingly lied about the incident having written about the same incident in her book.
She somehow got let off the hook for the audacity of that lie. Three times at least she repeated it and had her husband weave another untruth --she was tired. What a victim!
2. Gross Lack of Integrity: She has used the Race-card one too many times--too many times to recall--she has written off the black vote and sought to divide the country. She is running to be President of the entire nation--her notion that she can attract whites-better than Barack is another way of saying there is a justifiable reason why whites should not for Obama other than sheer racism.
3. Lack of Judgment: Her words recently that she would "obliterate" Iran should they attack Israel was simple pandering to a knee jerk war mongering minority in this nation and inflamatory. Strong countries and strong people dont indulge in this kind of gutter language. Presidents and would be world leaders most definitely avoid sounding like a playground bully.
Haven't we had enough already?
Comments (5)
In the interests of unity, I really think that any post mortem of her campaign should really be coming from a Clinton supporter. Either that, or at least wait until tempers have cooled.
May 9, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ben,
I disagree. That's like saying only Democrats have an insight into the Democratic Party.
Some of the people on TPM now have blurred the line between baiting and commenting. And if you comment, you are accused of baiting. This is a kind of dangerous group-think that is anti-intellectual and shouldn't be tolerated.
Here is what I believe should be the response to any Hillary Supporter TPMer who threatens to hold his breath until they feel their ass has been kissed sufficiently (and note, this is the type of thing to people like Otto, with their vitriolic comments and snipes, not to people who aren't raging):
Dear ________________,
Vote for the candidate of your choice in November. Since I never expect people to vote for Party, but rather candidate, you will hear the same arguments as the registered GOPers and Indies. I encourage you to do what you feel needs to be done to get the best POTUS in the White House.
I wouldn't begin to insult your intelligence by pandering to you. If you feel that Obama is now the Dem nominee, please go to these websites and look at the policies:
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
http://www.johnmccain.com/
I'm not saying to vote based on policy alone, but it's important to become educated about, at very least, the two major party candidates.
I look forward in having discussions with you in the future.
May 9, 2008 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't have a problem with commenting, but phrases like "contempt for truth" and "gross lack of integrity" are likely to fan the flames right now. I'm not saying we can never comment; I just think that the timing is not right for us to make such comments now.
I agree with your suggestion on how to respond to it. (I hate it when people say stuff like "Fine, go vote for McCain, we don't need your [insert insult] attitude anyway.")
However, I feel that a lot of people read TPM that don't leave comments, and we will therefore not be able to have a dialog with these people. (And, some people aren't really amenable to dialog in the first place.) As Poor Richard told us, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
May 9, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Despite the feelings of many of us concerned about Democratic prospects in November, a Hillary post-mortem is premature. That's not because it isn't interesting and can't be done yet. She really should have won. In my opinion, she would have won if she hadn't gone negative. But there I go with my own post-mortem. I'll try to keep my mouth shut.
Indulging in early post-mortems may make it even harder to move forward, heal wounds, and get the Democratic nominee, Obama, into the White House. It would therefore be best if we could treat this as a quiet period, like the ones before a public stock offering. If you're invested in Obama, that seems best.
It's a scary situation though. As you watch and read about Hillary, you get the feeling she has one of two things in mind. Either she truly expects her tactics to make the impossible happen, overturning a precisely defined selection process stretching over a year and involving more than 30,000,000 voters, or she understands that Obama will be the nominee but wants to ensure his defeat. What would she be doing if she wanted to exacerbate divisions and make her followers believe she has been cheated of something that is rightfully hers? Acting as though she won legitimate victories in Florida and Michigan and rejecting compromise proposals because they disenfranchise voters, stating that she won the nomination long ago by the Republican rules that should apply, and emphasizing that she's winning now in the eyes of the voters who really matter, the whites purged of unsavory characters like eggheads, activists and affluent liberals. Hmm. That's exactly what she's been doing.
At this point, it seems clear all Democrats on the national stage are handling Hillary with kid gloves in the hope she will do the right thing. No effort is spared to avoid giving Hillary any pretext for crying foul. Many Obama supporters are trying to take the same attitude toward Clinton supporters.
I agree that's the right approach. I wish I had more confidence that it will work. I wish it was easier to do with so much at stake.
The longer the superdelegates and other prominent Dems wait, the more likely Hillary, if she stays on her current course, will leave the party in ruins. On the other hand, moving rapidly to shut down the race in the hope of preventing further damage will likely cause an immediate Hillaryite explosion at least as damaging as the scenario for prolonged division.
Our fate is in Hillary's hands. So is Obama's. That's not comforting. Many of us who post at TPM seem to match the demographics Hillary holds in contempt. Obama himself isn't exactly a working-class white guy. What if Hillary's strategy is to lurch almost as far right as McCain and write off everybody who finds that unpalatable? What if she intimidates enough superdelegates to put her strategy into action?
We should probably wait to see whose post-mortem we need to do. It depends on who's dead, doesn't it? Will it be the post-mortem of the TPM/Kos wing of the Democratic Party? The Democratic Party as a whole? Hillary's post-mortem? Obama's?
Will Lanny Davis explain it to the world?
May 9, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
"she would "obliterate" Iran should they attack Israel "
Her statement reveals the sort of brainless bigotry that is responsible for much of the suffering in the world. By her logic the USA twice deserved obliteration, for attacking Vietnam and Iraq. But she is too busy admiring her own faux toughness and brilliance to understand that.
May 9, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Post a Comment