Thursday, March 13, 2008

Dyspeptic Old Bint Heard From


Film at 11 (which, although a classic, is also So Very Not Work Safe)

And then is shocked -- shocked! -- that her comments could possibly be taken oh so woefully out of context.

Film at 12.

Maybe it's just 'cause she's white!

Film at 1.

And then film at 2.

Then at 5.

Then again at 6:30.

Then at 9:00.

And so it goes and goes and goes: just another day riding the Clinton-Go-Round.

Which leads this po’ Midwestern working man to ask:
Does anyone remember these guys?



Remember that – policy issues aside -- the Clinton Machine is basically running on the argument that its Clintonian Machininess is so fucking awesome that it cannot be defeated or denied?

Which leads one to ask: “But isn’t this is the machine that lives and dies on the motto "Speed Kills"? The machine that became famouser even than other famous machines like “HAL 9000” and “Herby The Love Bug” and “The Master Cylinder” for its command of message discipline?”

Famous for not letting anything ever go unrebutted for the length of a single news cycle?

And yet that message -- that the Clinton Juggernaut firing on all cylinders is the only unstoppable vehicle Democrats can rely on to get them to the White House -- is starkly and fundamentally (and now almost daily) contradicted by the fact that, from Bob Kerrey to Hillary to Geraldine Ferraro to the Big Dog himself, Very High Level people associated with the Clinton Campaign -- people for whom I have had some degree of respect at one point or another -- have done a truly spectacular job of shitting all over themselves in what can only be interpreted as a near-hysterical desperation to get the Clintons back in the White House.

Where was that ferocious “War Room” Rapid Reaction Team spirit and that Commander-in-Chief instant decisiveness when Bob Kerrey was tossing stink bombs?

When Husband Bill decided to freelance?

When Howard Wolfson decided to drop a piano on Senator Obama and declare that he was nothing more than another Ken Starr?

Where was all of that hair-trigger readiness to snuff problems the minute they surface while Gerry Ferraro’s nauseating bullshit and equally-nauseating “apology” was allowed to sit stinking in the noonday sun,

day…

…after day…

…after day…

…after day?

Where is the Senator Clinton’s much-ballyhooed C-in-C DNA as her generals and admirals hand over ammunition and “How To Arm and Fire” manuals to the GOP?

Because now that the “3 A.M.” bar has been set by the Clinton Campaign, the only question that needs to be asked about their farrago of Ferraro-isms and Ferraroish behavior is this: Is Senator Clinton in command and control of her own people, or not?

If not – if Senator Clinton’s people are just running wild -- then what kind of C-in-C will she make when she gets real guns and real armies to play with?

If Senator Clinton is in control, then she is responsible for the messes her surrogates are making. If Senator Clinton is in control, then she is telegraphing that she is now openly embarked on a strategy of taking the whole Party hostage. Of telling every Obama supporter “Fuck him. Fuck what you want. Fuck hope. Elect me or I swear to God I'll burn this whole fucker down, down, down.”

For Senator Clinton’s hard-core supporters – many of whom I know and like – amazingly this does not seem to be an issue.

Or, as Honor de Balzac famously said:

“When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes;
“When they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues."

But for the rest of us –Obama supporters or undecideds – this is a problem.

A Very Big Problem,

Because the choice of a strategy based almost wholly on
1. No one but Hillary is an acceptable candidate.

2. No secure this objective, Obama must be driven into the sewer regardless of the long-term cost to Party and principle. Because;

3. Only then can the Clinton Campaign relax into its natural posture of the aggrieved victim who, for honor’s sake, is now free to fight back hard and dirty. Who can finally say: "See! See! He does it too! No we can unleash the hounds!"


…is the sign that Senator Clinton is in fact wildly flunking her first President leadership test.

Because the first test of a President is not how well you answer the 3 A.M. call.

God knows after eight years of Dubya and five years of Iraq no one should have to explain this to Senator Clinton, but Senator, the first test of real leadership is not just how well you fight the necessary and unavoidable battles, but how well you keep us the Hell out of stupid, unnecessary conflicts in the first place!

I swear by God’s Baby Blue 1964 Corvette, after eight years of Dubya and five years of Iraq how much fucking clearer does it have to be that the worst possible trait to have in a leader is a willingness – an eagerness! -- to fudge facts, gin up divisive brawls out of thin air and lob bombs to advance their personal political agendas and fortunes..

And then to reflexively hunker down and double-down on those Very Bad Habits the minute the pressure is on.

The 2008 Primary Campaign has been Senator Clinton’s first test as a potential President. In some ways – her command of policy issues, her mastery of detail and the higher, nobler notes she does manage to hit from time to time – she has done admirably at what is an insanely tricky task.

But in marching her campaign into the sewer, Senator Clinton has decided to make what could have been a vital debate over policy and vision into her own dirty little War of Choice.

And in deploying the likes of Bob Kerrey, Ferraro, Husband Bill –as well as her own comments regarding Senator Obama’s unfitness to lead -- Senator Clinton has tried to trashbomb her opponent into submission with her own brand of Arkansas Shock and Awe.

And after eight years of Dubya and five years of Iraq, these are absolutely not the kinds of references and judgments I want to see on my President’s resume.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good one, drifty.

Between you and KO's "Special Comment" last night, my feelings have been fully covered. What has happened to her. She's making it harder and harder to feel I could even vote for her. Kerry Redux! I didn't feel that way six weeks ago.

Anonymous said...

She's just running with an old copy of Karl Rove's play book, well thumbed by all of the party hacks who were trying to figure out what the hell happened to them.

pwapvt

Unknown said...

Thank you, Drifty!

I had been mulling over exactly what needed to be said and done with on this most disgusting political development (which is becoming synonymous with the entire Clinton campaign) before reading your brilliant take.

Nothing else needs to be said.

Suzan

Welcome to Pottersville

Phil said...

The Clinton Machine has a couple of stripped gears and is bleedin' oil.After the last round of clutch smoking fits and starts it seems she is pedal to the metal fish tailing it straight for the guardrail.After her team mate Ferraro inexplicably turned right with no one around her, it left her all alone in turn two with no one to draft with.That little bump and run with McStain on the back stretch has got the left front fender rubbing on a tire whenever she tries to flirt with the inside line so she can pit and refuel and her spotters are obviously blinded by the sun coming out of turn three so there is no communication for guidance.
Team Clinton is going to need a miracle to pull this one out with the laps counting down.

Anonymous said...

Thank you. It needed to be said.

Anonymous said...

Good stuff, Mr. Drift. :o)

And that clip of Olberman righteously nailing Hillary's ass to the wall for all of this, as far as I know, has yet to show up on a couple of blogs which shall here remain nameless, as they parse and split FISA-hairs 'til hell won't have it. That IS important, but not nearly as important as getting rid of the republican-lite "progressive" whose GOP shitspeak they have been low-balling up one side and down the other.

In other news-that's-lacking, Mssrs. Gore and Edwards are two (pardon the expression) savvy politicians; and they surely understand and appreciate the...uhhhh...triangulation that the Senator from New York has been indulging in, especially, of late.
And they surely understand what it is doing to the party.

And they surely understand that it's looking like no do-over, of ANY species,may happen in Florida and Michigan, with all of the horrible implications of that hanging over our heads until Denver.

And they surely understand the bitter irony of Clinton's ass-licking of McCain and the republicans, at the same time she is the only candidate in this election who can save them. The sooner we nominate Obama, the sooner John McCain and his "100 years of joy!" plan hit the reality-wall of what is going on in Iraq. (Hillary, clearly, is untroubled by McCain's idea of what "supporting the troops" really means.)
Lastly, Gore and Edwards surely understand that the best way to solve this would be for Obama to have the delegates in hand to make that do-over Gordian Knot largely irrelevant, and for Obama to have a commanding lead, instanter.

And the very best thing they can do to assist that process would be to hold a joint presser and lend their weight to the campaign of the only candidate in this election who doesn't have the blood of hundreds of thousands of human beings dripping from his elbows to his fingertips.

And whom, incidentally, is far more electable than is Hillary Clinton. Her playing tweedle-dee to McCain's tweedle-dum is, as Drift points out, a prescription for disaster, and for the permanent enshrining of the corporate 4th Reich that has brought us to the point where we are today.

There is nothing "neutral" about allowing Hillary to continue pandering to the most stupid and sleaziest levels of the democratic voters. At this point, sitting on your hands is aiding and abetting the kind of lowest-common-denominator campaigning that the GOP has used for decades, and which bush and the petro-turds have parlayed into the clusterfuck; in and OUT of Iraq, that we're looking at.

Help us put an end to the sorry spectacle of a democratic candidate who assisted george bush in pulling the trigger on Iraq, and who is handing out top-end kudos to her co-enabler, John McCain, while ripping the candidate who had the courage and intelligence, in 2002, to criticize bush's war.

Do it. Now.

Fran / Blue Gal said...

The only valid complaint I've heard about KO's most righteous rant is that it went on for six minutes too long. He could have just read your post out loud and that woulda been perfect.

res ipsa loquitur said...

After BHO takes the nomination we New Yorkers will get busy coming up with a primary challenger for her Senate seat.

WereBear said...

Amen!

Cubed.

If she's such a fighter, where has she been these last few years?

And what has she been fighting for?

This is "bleedin' obvious" to anyone paying attention, but people are having trouble grasping the essences of things, and their surrogate brains, the "authorities," are busy giving equal weight to every side of the argument in the name of objectivity.

How the candidate behaves during the campaign is supposed to be our dry run, our way of seeing how they will handle the big decisions.

Dear heavenly Lord.

Myrtle June said...

res ipsa loquitur - There is suddenly a perfectly positioned candidate in the making who could out "woman as victim" hillary .... and is actually already a resident of that state. The tradition continues.

As I said the other day: Truce numba three by tomorrow from the "woman as victim" crowd.

Hillary Clinton needs to fire herself from her campagin.

Barf bag?

Anonymous said...

Umm, Drifty....

That's six years in Iraq now.

Myrtle June said...

Thank you Sir Driftglass for this most excellent post.

I've calmed down enough from the last couple of days to type an actual sentence. Sort of.

KO was actually quite kind and generous suggesting she can "grab back the reins". I beleive she is in full control of the reins.... and all that implies.

Anonymous said...

Ezra over at American Prospect does a pretty good job at summing up the choices.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_democrats_choice_manager_or_visionary

As an erstwhile Edwards supporter, I have been conflicted ever since his withdrawal. I am in complete agreement with tanbark and werebear. Clinton is the ONLY candidate who can unite the Republicans, and she has spent her time in the Senate triangulating everything and risking nothing. As competent as she may be with policy and mechanics of governing, her campaign seems to be a Democratic version of Turdblossom's 50% plus one vote strategy. Another moderate Republican Clinton administration is NOT going to do it this time.

My greatest fear about Obama is that there may still be too large a segment of the population that will pound their own testicles flat before voting for a black man. The orgy of fearmongering and dog whistle race baiting which will be unleased if he is the nominee boggles the mind. I constantly wrestle with the question: "Can we risk it?"

On balance, I think we must. My gut instinct is that we have a shot at a paradigm shifting election, similar to that of 1932. I think Obama offers the best chance of grabbing that brass ring. He's shown some savvy in knocking down the first few gobs of mud flung his way, and he might just be savvy enough to make the race-baiting the Republicans will unleash boomerang. He might just be smart enough to shine the bright light on them which will ensure their banishment to the political wilderness.

Fuck it, let's go with the visionary.

Selah.
CAGary

Anonymous said...

I agree with the sentiments above, but I'm moved to wonder why, with all the support Obama has among progressives and independents alike, the delegate count is still fairly close. If he were doing even ten per cent better, Clinton would have no excuse to still be in it, but he's not. Having been born and raised in west central PA, let me assure you that whoever said that PA is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between was spot on. Hillary could do well enough in PA to justify her continued presence in the race. We CAN still lose this election, and Clinton is not helping.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Driftglass, for going to the -- how you say? -- meat of the mattah?

Theming all of this Clinton Campaign drek as her first, miserably-failed Big Cheese Test is IT. I, a still-snivelling Edwards backer who now loudly trumpets for The Big O, have been reduced to F-bombs and screeching lately with Hilly Clones. I think your words are more persuasive. :)

Oh, and tanbark's observation above:

And that clip of Olberman righteously nailing Hillary's ass to the wall for all of this, as far as I know, has yet to show up on a couple of blogs which shall here remain nameless,

Oh, fart. I'll name the sad little flea-bitten canine ass of a muddy pond of former Real Thinkers!! After avoiding the muddy dog pit for weeks, I stopped in and got called "asshole" for not drinking the Clinton Cool Aid.

The whole site now smells like a Kewl Kidz page on Facebook ... or Invitation Only Alltel Circle. 'Cept with the nerdy fat kids; not the nice guy.

Sad. And you want them to appreciate Olbermann?? Surely you jest.