Having just re-started my blog I didn’t get to ramble about the fun to date, but now we’re down to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Democrat side, and John McCain on the Republican side. Oh yes, and now Ralph Nader as an independent. 🙂
Hillary Clinton (and Bill) are certainly not about to go down without a fight, but she’s looking increasingly like a flailing wrestler pinned to the floor. She’s being outspent, outperformed, and outclassed. You’ve got to hand it to Barack Obama and his team – they’ve done an amazing job. It’s not over yet, but if Hillary Clinton doesn’t win the Democrat nomination, I think it’s safe to say she blew it in many ways. Let’s go through some.
- Massively overconfident. With a former President for a husband who had and has high approval ratings (despite scandals), with tons of money when they started, with huge leads in all polls, and with little apparent competition in sight, how could she lose?
- Letting Bill Clinton play the attack dog. After her surprise loss in Iowa (of all places!), she ‘unleashed’ Bill. Problem is, when you unleash a pit bull it doesn’t always bite or fight in the way you expect. Well he went wild alright, and his angry comments, picking on audience people and the media, all made him look not only NOT Presidential, but just a rank amateur. Maybe he’s just been out of the arena too long or maybe he didn’t have enough ‘handlers’, but I think he is a HUGE reason she may lose. I think voters began to think… oh yeah, that’s the other side of the Clintons.
- Dirty tricks. First it was Barack’s use of drugs decades ago. Then it was (ugh) race (thanks Bill). Then it was some tawdry barely reported scandal about Barack having gay sex in 1999. And now we get the picture of Barack in Kenyan garb put out by the Clinton attack team to make people think he’s Muslim and ‘scary’ and not ‘one of us’. These are despicable and may have worked in the past, but many of the old operatives don’t get the fact that the internet, bloggers (hey yeah), youtube, and the massive interest by the public in this race have changed the game forever.
- Mismanagement. They thought they could deliver a knock-out blow on Super Duper Tuesday (Feb 5) and spent like mad, but it didn’t work. This left Hillary in a world of hurt.
- And finally, I lost most of my respect for her when she DIDN’T dump Bill after the Monica Lewinsky saga. She might have stuck around until he left office. Maybe even used him to became a Senator. But to STILL be with him? WHY? It can only be because she believed he was very useful in her quest for the White House Part II.
A little part of me feels bad for Hillary if she doesn’t get the nomination, because she’s dreamed and schemed of this, and has worked tirelessly for this. But the much bigger part of me is ready to sing “Ding Dong The Wicked Witch Is Dead!” 🙂 Have you watched her early speeches? The definition of vacuous, pandering, and insulting. She believes she’s smarter than everyone else, including Bill. She walks around, head stuck up, in her bumble bee yellow and black outfits (hello advisors? WHAT are you thinking?) pontificating about how great it’s going to be.
If she loses, my faith in the American public will be re-enforced. She deserves to lose.
I believe she is going to lose and while you note she deserves to I honestly believe she doesn’t deserve the chance to run at all.
Without the last name being Clinton she was nobody, that alone tells me she is not fit to become president. I have had enough of bloodlines running the White House.
Well she doesn’t just have the last name Clinton and that’s it. Being a former First Lady and a U.S. senator is certainly decent experience. I’ve no doubt she also learned a great deal about the job from Bill during the 8 years he had, and I don’t deny she’s a very very smart person, so I guess I don’t agree with your comment.
My complaint is because she thought she was inevitable she basically said NOTHING and did no hard interviews during the first several months, and she still doesn’t really say much. She’s all spin and manipulation and doesn’t really seem to have any principles except for whatever will get her what she wants.
I guess for me being the president’s husband doesn’t account for experience just as a wife of some CEO wouldn’t automatically gain my respect. As far as being a senator some will question what she accomplished but I still honestly believe she would not be thought of as “president material” without her husband being a well liked president before with the same base. That is one reason why I like Obama if I had to choose a democrat because he has risen off of his own intelligence and work.
And I agree with your second statement. That same point is why in my opinion her numbers are beginning to fall off. Personally I like how she is quick to fire off her 35 years experience spinning it like she is so seasoned but I really scratch my head when I try to find what she has done that was so profound in those 35 years