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• Wednesday, June 4, 2008 05:26 AM

  How Hillary could have won...

  It really wasn't Bill that made Hillary unelectable, as one reader here has claimed - it was actually Hillary that made Hillary unelectable! (True enough, Bill did manage to contribute quite 'strongly').

  Hillary probably would have won the nomination had she right at the start of her race accepted her gross error of judgment in voting for GW Bush's phony war in Iraq.

  What prevented her from saying something like the following:

  "I was mistaken. I was lied to by GW Bush and Gang, just as all US citizens were. And just like most US citizens (and most members of Congress), I too fell for the lies. (That should be translated into proper 'American', of course).

  I would guess Hillary's underlying problem would have to be the difficulty we all face in making such admissions about errors of judgment, at all the forking points we come across in our journey through life.

  True enough, that strategy of accepting her Iraq error in the face of GW Bush's lies would have provided a strategic starting advantage to Obama in that he had not allowed GW Bush and Gang to pull the wool over his eyes. But it seems clear (to me, at least) that such a starting advantage would have been strongly countered by Hillary's actual strengths versus Obama. In the event, what happened was that Hillary was always playing to her major weakness - that idiot vote permitting the Iraq war - and not to any of her real strengths which were pretty sizable vis-a-vis Obama's inexperience.

  But all said and done, it is probably the best thing that could have happened for the US and for the world that Obama has won the Democratic nomination. Now the Obama campaign has to ensure that he now wins over McCain in November, for sure, whatever Rovian tricks the Republicans may come up with (and they're already coming up with plenty!) Best not to be too complacent: In 2004, Democrat voters (if not the whole Kerry-Edward campaign itself) lost the election in good measure on account of complacency: I think they believed it was impossible that a proven liar like GW Bush could win. But it turned out he could and he did - was it Josef Goebbels that said something to about the willingness of people at large to accept 'the big lie'?

  -- GSC

  —gs_chandy Read gs_chandy's other letters
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