Hillary's Scorched Earth Tactics
Why would she suddenly decide to rise above it all and put her party first?
By Richard H Collins Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | Barack Obama | Bill Clinton | Hillary Clinton — Comments (18) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Democrats have to be asking themselves how they got to this point. Hopes of a quick and definitive primary have disappeared and they find themselves embroiled in a bitter stalemate punctuated with accusations of racism and sexism while the GOP nominee uses the time to raise money and mend fences.
The irony of course is that Hillary Clinton has gone from being the inevitable and early nominee to waging a desperate battle until the convention; from planning an above the fray campaign with feints to the center to throwing everything she can think of at her opponent no matter the ideological coherence or potential damage to the party.
And with the awkward question of what to do with the delegates from Michigan and Florida still left unresolved, Democrats have to be wondering how far and how ugly this can go.
A few things are clear: Hillary won’t give up as long as there is a slim chance for victory and she will use all available weapons. If there is a remotely plausible scenario where she wins, she will hang on. If a tactic has a chance of giving her an advantage, no matter how temporary, she will use it.
What sometimes gets lost in the mythology and nostalgia surrounding the Clintons, particularly among hardcore Democrats, is that their primary mode of politics is to attack in order to survive.
Read on for more on this pattern and its implications.
The pattern plays itself out with regularity: they overreach politically or refuse to come clean about ethical lapses; their response is to attack the press and their critics; and the goal quickly switches from accomplishment to survival.
The problem is that they have pulled this off so often that they believe they are invincible; that they really are martyrs to a vast conspiracy. Hillary in particular has never been known to reflect on her actions and there inevitable repercussions. Her first response is always: attack!
What did Hillary do when confronted with questions about land deals and investments in Arkansas? She stonewalled, lied, and attacked the press and her critics all the while pretending that she was completely innocent.
When confronted with the Paula Jones lawsuit what was her reaction? Adamantly refuse to compromise and instead attack and demean Jones in the press until she refused to settle. This fateful choice nearly destroyed her husband’s presidency.
This character attack tactic continued with Kathleen Wiley and others. And yet, when her husband finally admitted lying about Monica Lewinsky to not only the entire country, and his close friends and associates, but to Hillary herself what was her reaction? Immediately organize the political defense of her husband.
In the Senate when she faced what she described as “the hardest decision she has ever had to make” – the decision whether to go to war in Iraq – she cast her vote for war. This could have been a courageous chance to defend the vote as correct despite the subsequent repercussions or to admit she was wrong. Instead, she tied herself in knots trying to rationalize her vote and her subsequent strident anti-war rhetoric and went on to attack Obama’s stand against the war as “mere words.”
Despite her policy wonk persona, and her claims of being qualified to be commander-in-chief, Hillary’s real experience lies not in real life leadership or war and diplomacy but in the political war room. She is an expert not in accomplishment but in the never ending campaign. This is exactly what she is waging today.
In the past when an opponent criticized her or her husband the plan was always to attack their credibility by whatever means necessary and marginalize them whenever possible. She has employed this same tactic against Barack Obama.
But Obama is not Ken Star, or Newt Gingrich, or Rick Lazio. Obama is the first credible African American presidential candidate and even now the likely Democratic nominee. Hillary’s scorched earth style may give her hope of victory but the longer it plays out and the uglier it gets the stronger the likelihood it leaves bitter feelings behind. In the identity politics of the Democratic Party attempts to marginalize Obama are going to be seen as marginalizing his community and raising racial tensions.
Hillary has never shown willingness to compromise and her entire career is based on refusing to face reality and instead fight tooth and nail for survival. Why would she suddenly decide to rise above it all and put her party first?
Deep down this has to worry Democrats.
The Republican response: Pass the popcorn.
Richard H. Collins is the founder of StopHerNow.com, a website dedicated to educating the public about Hillary Clinton’s liberal record.
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Hillary's Scorched Earth Tactics 18 Comments (0 topical, 18 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I don't think Hillary is dead... not yet.
With the Rev Wright stuff that came out this week, we'll see...
Personally, I think McCain would crush Obama and have a tougher time with Hillary, so I want her dead.
But she's not dead yet.
I don't think she believes one word of the crap she spews about some 'vast right wing conspiracy'...that's just one of many knee jerk responses she gives to an unseemly situation she might be in and she thinks that all the shlubs who support her are going to swallow it whole...including most of the media...only this time around,the Clintons and their tactics aren't new and fresh...they are old and lame and a total yawn for the most part...especially after seeing both of them have to weather scandal after scandal and using the same lame ass responses to them again and again...how she got the reputation as being such a brilliant woman is a mystery to me....she has a certain amount of low animal cunning when it comes to politics...but I see no evidence of real intellect at all....she is hard wired to be in attack mode whenever trouble comes calling and to play the victim to the point that now it is laughable...even worse,each time something like this happens,it only serves to flush her husband's legacy even further down history's political toilet as it becomes more and more apparent that he really was the no good low bred jerk we knew he was all along....only now the Democrats are finding it increasingly hard to swallow....they have been swimming around in that same sewer for 15 years and now all of a sudden they are deciding they don't like the smell of donkey$h!t...I feel their pain...heh
Even acknowledging that everything you say about Hillary is true, my response is actually an under-my-breath "Thank God!"
Because, as bad as the Clintons are, I really feel the Obamists are about a thousand time *worse*. And the revelations of this week just underscore that 10-fold. If Hillary's dogged pursuit of power exposes that, then so be it!
Hillary may have no real "experience" to speak of. And she is unquestionably power-mad. And she'll stop at nothing to destroy her perceived political enemies to boot.
But I still think 4 years of Hillary! is nothing compared to the devastation that 4 years of Hope(tm)!Change(tm!)(Just kidding!!) would do.
So, yeah, in the meantime, pass the popcorn! - until Hillary wins this thing. (And I now think it's inevitable that she will.)
But in the process, she may inadvertently expose the pervasive racism that has taken root in significant sectors of the Democrat Party. And, for that alone, we should maybe all be thanking her...
There are a bunch of reasons I want to see hillary in the general. The biggies are these.
First and not least is I want to give McCain as little reason as possible to reach out to his friends across the aisle. The only way to do that is increase our numbers in the house and senate. After the democrat infighting there is no doubt Hillary will be giving us the better showing in the downticket races. That may have changed with the sullying of Obama's messianic image but I am not certain of that yet.
Second She is ours to Kill. There is just no way I want to see her get off gently on this. I want this election to be a referendum on Clintonism, and it should be repudiated. Just end it, put a fork in it, its done.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
I hear ya on giving her a resounding nail in her political coffin but I think Obama is irreparably damaged. I'd rather face Obama now that the rock star image has been debunked. Obama might appear to recover in polls if he gets the nod but I think people will not pull the trigger in the voting booth. Say one PC thing and do something else.
Obama has alienated many voters (especially whites that arent on the far far left) going forward. Hillary is such a slippery chameleon she is more dangerous. Hillary comes across as more centrist than Obama but represents some change which will be tougher on McCain. Obama's change will prove out to be empty hope.
Ask not what I can do for my country, ask what my country can do for me. Washington Elected Elite
...*any* chance of actually winning that nomination, and then the Presidency.
People were saying that around here about Hillary! a week or two back. But I actually think it's true about Obama.
If you go after the King, make sure you kill him. This is Hillary's chance to take Obama out. And I hope, for all our sakes, she does exactly that.
Obama securing the Democrat nomination accomplishes two major goals.
Firstly, his nomination will consign Clinton to the proverbial dustbin of history. Everything around her that is faltering now would be reinvigorated with her nomination. Even if she lost the Presidency, she will be around a a major player and impediment to things Republican. Knock her out of the nomination and you will have relegated her to the Senate, at best, for the rest of her life. She would never come back from losing the nomination; she would be damaged goods.
Secondly, his nomination does the same for him. He is already beginning to crater under circumstances where he is sharing the spotlight. When he gets the full glare, and the campaigns get into full swing this fall, he will wilt. His inexperience is just too telling; he will not survive. Losing the Presidency will knock him out of any future candidacy.
Obama and Clinton are the epitome of the Democrat's talent. Obama's nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate for President, and then losing the vote, will knock them both out of the future.
thing myself over the past couple of days. And now I am very conflicted as to how this all plays out.
All I know is that BHO can NEVER be allowed to recover. He must be permanently taken out whether it be in the primaries or the general. He should never be allowed the keys to the WH. Period.
As for Hillary! I think unless she wins the whole enchilada, she is done. And I think her chances of that grow weaker each passing day.
congressional races. Since Hillary has such high negatives, there will be a high opposition turn-out to prevent her from becoming POTUS, I still don't know if the same can be said about Obama. High opposition turnout to defeat Clinton means high turnout to vote Republicans back into Congress. I said "I still don't know" about Obama, but with all of the recent news of his racist church, he may build strong opposition turnout too. Speaking strictly from a political viewpoint, I think a master stroke for McCain would be to put either a minority or woman who is extremely conservative on as Veep. I think that would equal a 42 state or more landslide victory for him.
Tim Schieferecke
The Clinton campaign is so clever at the attacking strategy that I suspect the Ferraro comments were all staged. Proving that neither he nor his advisors/campaign staff are ready for leadership, the Obama camp grabbed the bait wrongly thinking that their howling about Ferraro's comments would be the final stake through Hillary's heart. Instead, Obama will be spending the rest of the primary season explaining how 20 years of racist, hate filled sermons from his spiritual mentor have developed him into a Christian who can reach across to the opposition and heal the divides. Up to now Obama managed to position himself that the divide was between Democrats and Republicans. The Clinton camp played the BHO campaign and because they screamed so loud that Ferraro's comments were racist and demanded she be denounced -- up pops Wright. It does not matter how much OBH tries to distance himself from Wright for the rest of the campaign OBH is going to have to explain how he is not the racist hater that is his mentor and spiritual advisor.
While I oppose just about every position Hillary Clinton has every taken I do admire that she managed to finally get this issue in play. First Bill Clinton made the remarks about South Carolina and there was an uproar against the Clintons. So Bill was put on the back bench for awhile. They suffered the blow but learned from the experience.
It took awhile, but Clinton gave it another shot and who else but Ferraro to lay the remarks out there and when compared to Wright's sermons (teachings) the Ferraro comments are nothing.
Watching the Clinton campaign in action I can only wish that they would use this talent for good instead of self-serving evil.
M Penny
Hillary is using the Nero strategy of power through devastation, but that kind of fire is hard to control. I hope their entire "progressive" structure burns to the ground and their confederation of special interests is permanently shattered into a million little pieces.
Tim Schieferecke
and the Clintons are certainly offensive.
I think the Dems are shocked by this traditional Clinton behavior because - for once - it is not directed towards the "evil Republicans", but towards a fellow, much loved, Democrat. But the Clintons always do this, because they know that if they are relentless, eventually their opponents will get tired of fighting them, and will concede the point.
I still think that Hillary will win the nomination. Like others have said, she will come into the convention down about 150 delegates, but 1) she will have won all of the big state primaries (except IL), and 2) she will likely have a plurality of the actual vote (thanks to the counting of FL's votes, and a revote in MI which she should win). Then, the Clinton machine will swing into action, and successfully pressure the superdelegates to get her the nomination (this is her last chance).
The Clinton machine will win enough of these delegates because 1) many of these superdelegates are connected to and/or owe favors to the Clintons, 2) the superdelegates believe (correctly) that she is a tougher and meaner candidate for the general election, 3) the Clintons are willing to bribe to win, and 4) the Clintons are willing to blackmail to win - even now they are sending their private eyes out to find every scandal possible involving these superdelegates.
BTW, it is sad what has happened to this country because of the Clintons. Prior to Bill's election, the conventional wisdom was that 1) the President could not be caught in an obvious lie to the American people, and 2) the President could not break the law, however insignificant it seems, and get away with it. Post-Watergate, Presidents of both parties obeyed these immutable laws. But Bill Clinton changed this, and now deviancy in the Presidency has been defined down. Worse yet, the Dems the Clintons lied to knew that they were being lied to (which shows that the Clintons are not "good lyers") but didn't punish them accordingly, because it was necessary to stop the "evil Republicans." And of course, the final election of the Clinton era (until today) ended with charges of a "conspiracy", a "stolen election" and "votes not being counted", etc.
The Clinton's have single handedly turned this nation into a banana republic.
It is highly likely that the Clinton machine will sway sufficient super delegates to ensure that Hillary wins the nomination. Such an eventuality will lead to a blood bath. If this scenario unfolds Clinton will have won a pyrrhic victory. Many African Americans will walk away from the Democratic Party. The Party could implode. The Democrats cannot win the Presidency if large numbers of African Americans abstain on Election Day. Efforts to woo them would be doomed to failure. It would be tantamount to flogging a dead horse or should I say a dead donkey.
Richardson for her VP choice. She will hope to overcome the loss of black voters with increased Hispanic voters. She will figure that most blacks will STILL vote Dem, and those who don't will simply sit out the election. She will try to make up those votes elsewhere.
Richardson is her perfect toady, he has been a Clinton man forever.
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Why would she even THINK about getting out? While it's unlikely if not impossible for her to catch Obama in pledged delegates, it's very possible that she could win the popular vote after it is all said and done. I bet she is also counting on all this stuff coming out on Obama rattling the powers-that-be in the DNC hand the nomination over to her.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”