Letters to the Editor
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Heads should roll
It would be nice if Walter Shapiro and whoever wrote the headline for this piece could manage to get on the same page next time. Twilight? Why not just stick "Clinton Dead Again (Read No Further)" on any and all accounts of the senator's campaign?
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Twilight Headline?
I thought the headline the clever part. Nobody knows yet if the twilight will lead to a new dawn or if darkness will fall. But the article itself, Hillary is a fighter, and she is fighting now. Not exactly advancing the story...
Maybe Salon should lighten up on the political coverage until there is actually something to report. There is plenty of other stuff to write about. Turkey is invading northern Iraq, what about post-election Pakistan. Is that surge really working?
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Tiring
It really is tiring to hear so many reporters casually casting aside Senator Clinton's very real chance at success. If there truly were objectivity in reporting, she would be seen as the formidable opponent that she is. During this whole campaign there has been an easy dismissal of her by the press. I really have to wonder if there is subliminal misogyny going on here.
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Obama by default
Responding to this article is proof that I need to find something better to do with my time. The likelihood, given the times we are in, is that Barack Obama will have a very difficult presidency, saddled with a collapsing economy, occupations of two very difficult countries, global warming threatening to do away with our entire species, and a thoroughly corrupt political and business class.
He still has what I believe to be the only chance to begin the rescue of the country from all these ills. I say this because of the attitude, the manner, and the approach he takes.
Hillary Clinton would be in way over her head, relying on confrontation, anger, and threats. As "Commander in Chief" she would find the military joint chiefs to be an unending challenge, having to overcome the disrespect they would heap upon her at every chance. I think Bill would find the experience life-threatening. He would be in a powerless position in the building where he once ruled, having to sit by while his wife suffers through a heartbreaking tenure as president.
McCain would actually have a more disastrous presidency, and would likely die in office. He stands for nothing, is really a weak candidate, is ethically challenged, and has neither the intellectual talent nor the force of character to get anything done that needs to be done. He also carries a boatload of post-traumatic stress.
By default and by necessity being the mother of invention, Barack Obama is our only hope for rescuing ourselves from what promises to be a very dark future. Ihope he can pull it off.
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It's like the movie PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
Like those Australian schoolgirls, she's going to disappear. (Couldn't resist it.)
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There is no Real "Hillary"
The American People see through Hillary now, and how all of her "experience" did not help her manage her money (and she wants to manage America's economy) or campaign.
Obama offers more than "hope." He offers solutions. Obama's plan of a $4,000 per child per year college tuition credit is a solution to a dying middle class...anyone out there really believe he isn't getting votes from Democrats and Republicans and Independents alike with promises like those? How else can one explain Hillary losing twenty point leads to be crushed? She isn't offering the American People anything. Too bad...she could have been great had she spoke from her heart rather than from the scripts of her paid advisors to the tune $200,000.00/mo.
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A DIfferent Connotation
I agree that the Clinton campaign probably chose the "Hanging Rock" context for a reason, but I suspect it was not a comment on the precarious state of her candidacy. Rather, they were probably attempting to prime the association with our national situation--we are hanging on the edge in terms of physical and economic security. The overuse of the word "Safe" is probably a Mark Penn tested way to enhance the subtext.
Yes, this really is the way marketers think and operate...
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"casting aside Senator Clinton's very real chance at success."
"casting aside Senator Clinton's very real chance at success."
Ok two points . . .
1. Even if Hillary won every contest from here on out and got 100% percent of the votes, she would still need super delegate help to win.
2. If the shoe were on the other foot, if Barack Obama had lost 11 straight contests, had every double digit lead disappear on him after his opponent spent 2 weeks or less campaigning against him. do you think he would even still be in this race? Do you even think that he would even still be a candidate?
I am not saying she should get out before March 4th of course. But if she loses Texas and only wins Ohio by less than 20% than I really don't see any other argument supporting her candidacy other than some fast and loose maneuvering with super delegates (who seem unwilling to go along).
Right now, I think she's got a right to say, if I win Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania big, then it's on but if she loses any of those states or even fails to win a significant delegate advantage than she's going to look less and less like a committed candidate and more like someone who just can't face reality.
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Hillary derailed
As a feminist, I started off being a Hillary supporter in spite of both the Clintons having moved the Democratic party to the right and in the greedy hands of corporate interests. I saw Obama as a modern day Elmer Gentry, full of crowd pleasing platitudes and no meat.
I could not shake off my anger at the Clintons for marginalizing the left wing of the party; for dissing Lani Guineer and Joycelene Elders; for signing into legislation the worst omnibus crime bill that has now incarcerated 1 in 100 Americans; for the don't ask don't tell policy in the military, going back on their campaign promise to gays and lesbians; for moving the DNC so far to the right that the lines blurred into the GOP agenda; for ending welfare as we know it. They triangulated but triangulation is a dysfunctional behavior pattern that leaves innocent people disenfranchised; Hillary also voted for the war on Iraq - she not only voted for the war on Iraq, but was instrumental in persuading hesitant Democrats such as Patrick Kennedy and others to go along; Hillary also sponsored a bill to criminalize flag burning, thereby attempting to encroach on our right to free speech. The Clintons, both Hillary and Bill can never be accused of having courage of their convictions.
So I started to listen to Obama. His words did not sound empty anymore. He does have the courage of his convictions and does not cower every time the right wing takes a swing at him or his wife Michelle. The ground swell of the movement is the rise of the left wing of the Democratic party that Hillary cannot stomach much less acknowledge. The downfall of Hillary Clinton is the rise of the people that she so gleefully left behind. Obama is reaping the rich rewards for speaking to the dreams and desires of this electorate that has been marginalized for over 30 years in this ocuntry. He did not start this movement. He just happens to be there at the right time and the right place.
Obama will win the primaries and the general election. He will bring with him the truest cornerstone of democracy, for the people, by the people and of the people, and not by, of and for dynasties, moneyed interests and carpetbaggers where corporate welfare bloomed as welfare for the poor got demonized.
I will not cry for the Clintons. Their time is up and I hope that they leave the primaries with grace and a little bit chastened. But their dysfunctional behavior played out in the pubic arena only makes me cringe to think that they will rather tend to destroy any chances of a unified Democratic party than hand over the mantle to Obama who so richly deserves to be the next President of the United States of America.