I, for one, never thought that Clinton’s election to the Senate was a  difficult one.  Rick Lazio was far from a formidable opponent.  Tapped late into the process to replace Rudy Giuliani, who’d been diagnosed with cancer and who was dealing with his private life not becoming increasingly public, Lazio was an awkward rival who played out as part buffoon, and part goon. I remember cringing in horror as Lazio approached Clinton at the podium during a televised debate. He was so aggressive that I was sure he would take a swing at her. I gave Clinton enormous credit from not cowering at his advance.  That moment was absolutely amazing for Hillary, and clearly the end of Lazio’s bid for office.

Jeanine Pirro, for all of Lazio’s faults, was an even worse opponent during Clinton’s reelection bid.  Pirro’s campaign imploded for a myriad of reasons.  You can view part of Pirro’s announcement  HERE (you’ll see Mika Brzezinski in action as she talks about the match up between the two candidates and the problem each candidate has with a husband who behaves badly).  No one has forgotten, I’m sure, Pirro’s rousing announcement speech ("just words") when, in the middle of discussing her vision for New York, she lapsed into a 30 second pause. She’d lost ‘page 10’ and had no idea what she was supposed to say.  What an inauspicious beginning, one that would be indicative of the campaign in its entirety.  By December of 2005, Pirro’s flailing campaign was over.  Her family’s scandals and being ill-equipped to run for office gave her little to no option but to drop out of the race.

Both of these incidents, I think, help explain the ‘air of inevitability’ that took hold of the Clinton camp.  The camp had conflated the ‘two Hillarys’. There was Hillary the strong woman - as evidenced by the fact that she was able to weather the worst of her husband’s storms and face the public with such steely resolve, no matter how deeply humiliated she’d been.  There was Hilary the politician, who’d never faced a tough opponent.  What Clinton, and Clinton, and Penn, and Ickes, and Lanny ‘Fox News guides me’ Davis, McAuliffe, Garin, Wolfson, and so many others refused to face is that Hillary Clinton is a smart and strong person who, as a politician, has faced weak opponents and is consequently a weak candidate.

Unfortunately for her, Clinton was presumed to be the Democratic Nominee, even from the time she ran for re-election in New York.  The press was filled with articles about the First Lady-turned Senator-who would be President.  The air of inevitability began long before the Presidential race began in earnest.  Here’s why it matters.

I can only imagine that Clinton and long time campaign adviser Howard Wolfson viewed Obama as a cross between Lazio and Pirro.  Young, bold, and perceived as arrogant- not based on his actual behavior, but that he, like Lazio, came out of nowhere to challenge a political machine.  He didn’t ‘go squish’ as easily as Lazio, however.  Pirro, an attorney with relatively decent oratory skills (if you were able to forgive the announcement pause) was a bit tougher. She was willing to take huge swings – some of them below the belt.  She was a fighter. Obama, criticized for not swinging hard enough against his Democratic rival, was still willing to hit back.  I think the Clinton camp assumed they would dispose of Obama in the way they’d disposed of Lazio, and Pirro, with roughly the same effort.  They were ill prepared.  The lack of fight from Lazio and Pirro had dulled their senses.

In the face of tough opposition, Hillary Clinton’s choices leave me questioning just how competent she is to hold office.  I don’t think any of us doubts that she’s a scholarly person.  She’s well read, she’s a great thinker (with regard to issues), and she’s accomplished.  But even bright people do some wasteful and inappropriate things:

1. When faced with what was perceived to be a much stronger opponent, Sen. Clinton caved on the toughest issue of her, relatively short, political career.  Bush’s approval ratings were soaring at the time she voted to authorize the Iraq war, giving a strongly worded speech defending her support of the vote.

1.  A vote for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment which would set the stage for war with Iran.

1.  Supporting Cluster bombing in civilian areas  

Add to the list:

1.  Firing Patti Solis Doyle.  This is the move that should have troubled feminists far more than almost anything else Clinton has done (other than to allow mostly men to run her campaign in the first place).  I don’t understand what’s happened to some in the feminist movement who seem to consistently exchange feminist principles for the "privilege" of being in Clinton’s camp, but this is the point when I was sure that most who were part of her camp had jumped the shark.

Remember, Clinton, the presumed nominee, declared the race ‘over’ by February 5th (prophetic, but not in the way she’d hoped):

Link if the video doesn't work

Solis-Doyle spent and allowed spending to occur based on the projections of the mostly male campaign advisers

Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly. Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s latest campaign finance report, published Wednesday night, appeared even to her most stalwart supporters and donors to be a road map of her political and management failings. Several of them, echoing political analysts, expressed concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s spending priorities amounted to costly errors in judgment that have hamstrung her competitiveness against Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

"We didn’t raise all of this money to keep paying consultants who have pursued basically the wrong strategy for a year now," said a prominent New York donor. "So much about her campaign needs to change — but it may be too late."

The high-priced senior consultants to Mrs. Clinton, of New York, have emerged as particular targets of complaints, given that they conceived and executed a political strategy that has thus far proved unsuccessful.

Sen. Clinton had a choice to make, Solis-Doyle, or Mark Penn.  Penn, she seemed to believe, was the more powerful and successful of the two.  Despite Mark Penn’s misbehavior, despite his failed campaign strategies (most notably the Feb. 5th disaster), despite the fact that he seemed to not understand the nature of Democratic Primaries, loyal long time supporter Solis-Doyle got the boot.  Clinton’s deference to power is also probably the reason she would pay out 2.9 million dollars to Penn while smaller, more financially strapped, vendors continue to wait to be paid.

Add the various offensive statements about Obama, and implicitly about Obama supporters.

Add to that the now infamous Couric interview in which she insists she’ll be the nominee.

Add to that the various ‘misstatements’ like the sniper fire incident to show she was as tough as McCain, tougher than Obama.

Now add the tragic attempt to use the assassination of RFK for the sake of self-promotion and to defend her actions.

Don't confuse what's being said here:  I am disgusted by Sen. Clinton's comments. I've been offended by the way she's run her campaign since S. Carolina.  I think she's a dismal politician and has no idea what it means to maintain the trust of the people.  

I'm not talking about Hillary Clinton the politician.  I'm referring to Hillary Clinton, the woman, when I say this:   I’ve regained my ability to see her as a survivor, and a brilliant woman, I’d lost that. I’d confused the strong woman for the weak politician who floundered when confronted for the first time by a strong opponent.  It doesn’t make Sen. Clinton’s actions over these six months any less repugnant, but I have regained an ability to be sympathetic to her.  The tough-as-nails survivor in her is probably as confused by "Hillary the candidate" as the rest of us are.

Ultimately, I'm exhausted.  I have no more disgust and anger to waste on the Clintons.  I'm turning THAT page and focusing on Nov. and working hard to help Sen. Obama win the White House and take this country forward.

Cross posted at Dailykos.