Letters to the Editor
Ricardo Malocchio
Published Letters: 197 Editor's Choice: 3
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Wes...
[Read the article: Mr. Penn, pot and kettle called]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... interesting advice, and certainly a hard-though-fairly-fought primary is likely good prep for the general.
The problem is that Hillary's campaign has been terrible. She's gone from overwhelming inevitability to significant frontrunner to neck-and-neck to falling behind. During all this she's lost her voice, regained it, lost it again to her proxy spouse who then thoroughly embarrassed her. She's shaken up her campaign on several occasions while still retaining the biggest deadweight, and has had to fire local staff and bigwigs for embarrassing statements and passing along the "madrassa smear" email. Shockingly, she was plagued with serious money issues of which she also was unaware, has reneged on her pledge regarding MI and FL, and made the bizarre decision not campaign in a variety of caucus states despite her need to lock-up every spare delegate available under the proportional allocation rules. Now, she's shedding superdelegates that were once publicly committed to her. As bad a candidate as McCain may turn out to be, thusfar he's been far better than Hillary. If this is the best campaign she can run, she'll be a disaster in the general.
Methinks you Clinton supporters should hope she learns a lesson or two from Obama. If there's one thing that her campaign has taught us so far, it's that she'll fritter away every single advantage she has in a series of unforced errors, tone-deaf campaigning and noxious associations. Roll the words "President McCain" around in your mouth for awhile as you contemplate the bumbling Clinton campaign.
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Shapiro lives in bizarro universe...
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's Texas-size moment ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...aka HRC-campaign bubble.
While there are fewer and fewer reasons to be concerned regarding Obama's chances in the primary or general, I think we've all begun to realize a few things that run counter to the conventional wisdom thusfar. The Clinton campaign has been a bumbling goof all the way back to Iowa, each mistep frittering away every institutional advantage she once had, along with that once "insurmountable" lead, and the result is that Obama hasn't yet had to face a suitable challenge in preparation for the general.
On the other hand, Obama's campaign has been letter-perfect, even in the absense of strong opposition. We all know Obama has run circles around Clinton when it comes to the "vision thing", but surprise of surprises, he's got a stronger groundgame, a better fundraising machine, and a far more successful longterm strategy. By contrast, the Clinton campaign was caught flatfooted after Super Tuesday when it became clear that there was no strategy through November beyond "inevitability", has brought in no new voters, has misspent her camparatively small war-chest, and inexplicably failed to campaign in key states. There is apparently no point to her campaign other than to provide a feeding trough for her overpaid and inept operatives and hangers-on. If "35 years of experience in politics" can produce this level of ineptitude, what are we to take away from this? That she's an exceptionally slow-learner easily outpaced by a supposed neophyte?
The problem, to the extent we have one, is that Obama simply hasn't had the benefit of a strong opponent and one must assume that even John McCain could do better than the Clintons. Perhaps Obama should simply acknowledge all those years of Clintonian (and McCainian) experience along with his much briefer sojourn into national politics, and slam the point home that he has the intellectual and political acumen to easily outdo the old-hands and even teach those doddering dogs a few new tricks.
This should have been the emerging meme out of super tuesday. That it was not speaks only to the persistence of false impressions and the emptiness of conventional political wisdom in 2008.
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Read Saltypappy's thin gruel...
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's Texas-size moment ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...and rejoice Dems. Despite drawing far fewer voters throughout the primaries, despite raising far less money, despite failing to ignite passion even among the most hardcore reactionaries in the party, despite recognizing a demographic shift that will leave them on the dustbin of history.... despite all this, they believe that the "Real America" will come rushing to their rescue come November.
The sallow, malicious, schmelly dick-breath gentlemen you see surrounding McCain at every post-primary podium are the relics of Saltypappy's "real america". Welcome to Maccacca-ville, assholes.
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This is the meme that should have emerged months ago...
[Read the article: No Hail Mary for Hillary]
[Read more letters about this article: Here][i]Hillary Clinton has run the Iraq invasion of political campaigns, displaying the arrogance and shortsightedness of George W Bush and the failure to plan beyond the horizon that has wasted Billions of dollars and thousands of lives.[/i]
It's an apt metaphor, and her (in)ability to run a coherent, effective, even just-barely-competent national campaign suggests that she's nowhere near ready to "govern from Day 1". In contrast, Obama's campaign may well go down in history as not merely one of the great modern democratic insurgencies, but the new template for early 21st century political campaigns. It's clear that his team is not only leagues ahead of Clinton's, but way out in front of the rest of us, public and press. Looking back, I can only marvel at its brilliance.
And, sadly, I continue to run into Democrats who are convinced that the general election will be a cakewalk, and that Clinton is plenty good enough to take on McCain. I'd love to believe this, but it's bubble-talk. We can't kid ourselves. The Republicans still hold the advantage, the nation is still extremely conservative, and this election will go down to the wire.
Even as I perceive Democratic complacency setting in, along with the concomitant schadenfreude regarding the perceived weakness of the GOP, I am ever more thankful that our likely candidate is the one most capable of taking them on, of not underestimating the task before us, and possessing of the organizational and intellectual capacity to follow-through on the promise of his campaign.