I've been scanning lots of blogs about the recent Mark Penn situation in the Clinton campaign. The comments, pro and con, for Clinton or for Obama, are as interesting and rancorous as usual. But now Senator Obama has come out and said that he would have fired Mark Penn if in Senator Clinton's position. This is of course hindsight and political talking-pointism (did I invent a word!?) at work, but I think he's telling the truth.
Clinton supporters are trying to sell the idea that she was never aware of Penn's relationship with Colombia and that he wasn't "in line" with her on this issue. On the contrary, I think Penn was entirely "in line" with the campaign and Clinton. I'm certain Clinton was completely aware of his relationship with Colombia. She is on record as being against the trade deal only on human rights issues, not because she thinks it will hurt American workers - the opposite of her newfound stance on NAFTA. That Penn hasn't been fired is indicative of how close their relationship remains and will remain if she - magic ring & pixie dust time!!! - gets back into the White House.
What about us, though - how does this relate to Joe and Jolene Voter?* We need to think not just about the candidates we are standing by as voters but about the people these candidates have chosen to have stand by them. If you can still say "I'm with Hillary" after you've done this, then good luck to you and to the country - because we're all going to need it! Remember that these are the people she'll be bringing with her into the White House. Does Penn on Pennsylvania Ave sound good?
If Clinton wins, be prepared for another presidential term (please! - not terms!) of corruption, denial, swindling, lying, incompetence and political malfeasance taken to gross extremes. You can bet that Clinton has been watching Bush expand the "Imperial Presidency" very closely, taking notes about what she could and would do with the kind of powers Bush has invented and invested himself with.
Empress Hillary the First, anyone?
* Stupid, eh? But it made me chortle. Yes, I chortle.
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Now playing: Fairport Convention - Night In The City
via FoxyTunes
Friday, April 11, 2008
All Hail...the Queen?
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3 comments:
Should have made it "Joelle". I'm just sayin...
Funny - you seem as anti-Hillary as you are pro-Obama. It's easier to slam her than to objectively confront his naivete or possible racism. He's run a good campaign (with a little luck and some help from the media) but he is still a politician. Hillary's problem is she is has been slandered for 15+ years and Barack is simply a fresh face selling basically the same product. He's just not the Second Coming.
Yeah, I am anti-Hillary. I don't like Bill either. Voted for him in '92 but not in '96 because I think he failed the electorate who put him in office. He seemed to me then to be the best pro-business but anti-worker Democratic president ever. Best Republican president they never elected, as I've said here before. NAFTA was the nail in that coffin for me. And Hillary's bungling of the national health care initiative has left a bitter taint in my mouth ever since.
As for Obama being the Second Coming, as an athiest I find that a laughable idea. I'll agree with you that he's "still a politician" - but he's the freshest political animal we've been presented with as voters in decades.
I'm a few years too young to even have been alive during JFK's presidency, and I have MANY issues with him, but I'm intensely interested in seeing if we can re-energize ourselves as a nation the way so many people who experienced it have told me that JFK did. The enthusiasm - often far too blind but understandable - of youthful voters and their active participation in the current political fight, is startling to me. It's energizing too. It makes me feel that there is still hope, that we can turn this nation back from the course it has been on under our current president.
I do not believe for one second that Hillary Clinton can do this for the nation. And every day she continues her campaign, I think she shows more and more how willing she is to fracture the Democratic party, using any and all tactics available to her. Her current use of Republican "elitist" name-calling of Obama is a perfect example. This is the tactic of the right against the left, the Republicans against the Democrats, has been for decades. It's sickening to hear her speak the word. She is echoing every Right-wing Demagogue by doing so. And stooping to doing shots with the guys? - even Bush didn't do that! That is pandering at it's worst. Next she'll be going to frat parties and doing beer-bongs to court the youth vote.
I have problems with a number of things Obama has said and done on the campaign because my personal politics are far, far to the left of his - I'm almost right next to Hillary, coming around from the right as she is! - but I'll still back Obama over Clinton in this contest because I cannot believe she will bring anything but further division and rancor to Washington if she gains the White House. And we don't need any more of that.
You're point about Hillary being "slandered for 15+ years" is dead-on. We don't need a President with that baggage. It's also part of a wretched and change-stifling continuation of the generational conflicts of the 60s, of the Boomers. A race between her and McCain will be "The War at Home" all over again. And while I like a lot of 60s music/literature/design and ideas about social change, I don't like that particular part of 60s culture as its been playing out in our political lives for the last 40 years. Been living with that crap my whole life and it's time for it to end.
So, VOTE OBAMA!
Thanks for coming, too. I appreciate your comment and I hope you will be back.
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