Letters to the Editor
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These tactics will come back to bite them
in the ass. Hillary will need all the support she can muster in the general election, especially if McCain is the nominee. The Democrats and independents that she and her husband are offending now will be much harder to rally when she needs them most.
(John Edwards is consistently shown to be the one Democrat who can win the general election -- things have gone awry....)
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Admiration for Bill Clinton?
when bill clinton was running for his first term, i had an immediate and visceral gut reaction when he first began to appear as a strong candidate on the national scene, and it was not a positive reaction... to this day, i still can't put it into words or make real sense out of it... terms like "slick willy," and "too smooth" come to mind, but still don't really capture it... however, i was convinced by my first cousin's husband, an accomplished attorney and a southern democrat, that clinton was the man to support, and i reluctantly jumped on the bandwagon...
life during the 8 years of bill's reign was at least ok, if not great, but i remained uncomfortable and there remained a strong underlying suspicion that, at some level, the american people were being sold out just as effectively as we were under george h.w., altho', in grand democratic tradition and in contrast to the r's, there was at least no sand in the vaseline...
hindsight is a wonderful thing... as i look back on bill's tenure, i now see clearly the many ways that he took america to the cleaners, from nafta to the quiet and inexorable seizing of ever more executive power... i see how we were craftily led down the economic and financial rabbit hole, a descent that is paying its horrible dividends today... and, as if to cement my concerns, i've watched in fascinated horror at the blooming, but, i suspect, far from new, love fest between bill and george h.w...
given bill's role in his wife's campaign, and given his wife's noxious roll of national security and foreign policy advisors, to say nothing of her despicable campaign manager, mark penn, i believe the only thing worse for the united states than a hillary presidency would be another republican president... bill and hillary are a team aligned with dark forces and, as a country, we are long overdue in recognizing that fact...
http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/
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For a study in glaring contrasts
I suggest glancing at the mewling commentary at TalkLeft. Absolutely nothing on Clinton's remarks about Jesse Jackson--that would undermine their message that the media hates the Clinton's.
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What will be interesting to me
nowhere near what the Republicans will do if Obama is the nominee, but he's nonetheless unquestionably on the wrong side of it.
will be to see if thre is a similar cost of going negative in the general.
Contrary to the impression one sometimes gets when one hangs out here too long, there are a lot of potential Republican voters who are NOT ogres or blatant racists and if the RNC and their surrogates end up facing Obama in the general, they're going to have too thread the needle.
It will certainly be interesting to watch. And it may have the unexpected effect of actually exposing the ugly side of the far Right in ways that have been ignored (can you say Howie Kurtz?) until this point.
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Paul Dirks:
It will certainly be interesting to watch. And it may have the unexpected effect of actually exposing the ugly side of the far Right in ways that have been ignored (can you say Howie Kurtz?) until this point.
I agree they'll have to be careful, and will be, but it's not that hard. They've perfected the tactics -- you just have the ugliest attacks come from untraceable, distant sources. That way, for your supporters who are offended by it, you have the candidate and campaign disclaim responsibility ("we had nothing to do with it and I reject that"), but at the same time, those who are moved by such themes hear the message loud and clear.
The "Obama-is-a-Muslim" campaign is a good template for how that works.
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Anonymous Liberal
Has a severe case of cranio-rectal inversion induced myopia.
It pains me greatly to write this post because -- despite his many faults -- I have long been an admirer of Bill Clinton. He's a man with enormous political talents, and I think he has used those talents over the years to advance progressive notions of justice and equality in a significant way. And I think his commitment to these ideals is genuine and deeply held.
And here is why.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/salespos.gif
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I'm not a big Hillary booster,
nor do I necessarily disagree with the point of your post; frankly, I haven't yet read enough about what Bill Clinton said to have formed an opinion. However, I do know, that I would not base my opinion primarily on what The Anonymous Liberal (much as I admire his blog in general) and Andrew Sullivan wrote about Clinton's remarks, since both are extreme Obama partisans. I'm a bit surprised and disappointed that you are not being a little more objective about this. As an Edwards supporter, I don't really have a dog in this hunt, but my general feeling about what I've seen of all of this so-called nastiness between the Clinton and Obama campaigns is that most if it is either manufactured or blown way out of proportion by a media that has nothing else of any substance or interest to talk about. It's all very tiresome.
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Bill Clinton and his tactics
Mark Sheilds said some time ago that the Clinton camp had decided to brand Obama as the Black candidate. But isn't this just the pattern of the Clintons right back to Bill as governor of Arkansas allowing the execution of a retarded man to go forward just to appear tough on crime
I am a far left Democrat who lived for twenty-seven years in South Carolina. I have since moved to Canada but before Gore won. I always supported Bill Clinton, and one reason was the quality of his opposition. If there had ever been a proper alternative in the Democratic Party to the Clintons, I would have voted for that. To return to the Clinton years with Hilary is indeed dispiriting. But then I have the luxury of living in Canada.