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You are here: Home / Clinton Rules

Clinton Rules

by John Cole|  April 17, 200810:05 am| 27 Comments

This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing

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The GOS notes:

In one of the threads last night, commenter theran made a good observation:

At some point the concept of “Republicans will do X” has turned into a license for Hillary to do all the same things. It’s bizarre, but I don’t really consider her a Dem any more.

Actually, in fairness, Josh Marshall pointed this out several days ago:

With the Wright business and now with this, the more nuanced version of the Clinton line has been that what ‘we’ think is not really the point. It’s what Republicans will do with it in the fall. And that’s a real concern that I definitely have. I won’t deny it. I’ve never thought Obama was a perfect candidate. But as we get deeper into the primary calendar, increasingly so, this ‘what the Republicans will do’ line has become more of a simulacrum, or a license, if you will, to do what Republicans actually do do. That is to say, to grab for political advantage by peddling stereotypes about Democrats and liberals that are really no less offensive than the ones we’re talking about about Americans from small town and rural America.

And seeing Hillary go on about how Obama has contempt for folks in small town America, how he’s elitist, well … no, it’s not because I think she’s either. I never have. But after seeing her hit unfairly with just the same stuff for years, it just encapsulates the last three-plus months of her campaign which I can only describe as a furious descent into nonsense and self-parody. Part of it makes me want to cry. But at this point all I can really do is laugh.

Credit where credit is due.

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Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    Jen

    April 17, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Slate’s John Dickerson tweets: (I think it should be twitters, but the Powers What Be say tweets)

    Clinton totally trying to stick Obama with the liability of the “people you might know” on his Facebook page.

    (773,000+ friends, in case you’re curious)

  2. 2.

    cleek

    April 17, 2008 at 10:14 am

    it would be interesting to see her reaction if Obama started attacking her the way the Republicans would presumably treat her.

  3. 3.

    ThymeZone

    April 17, 2008 at 10:16 am

    As soon as I figure out how to get “Remember Vince Foster” and “Release The Rose Law Firm Billing Records” onto one lapel pin, I will be taking orders for the pin here.

    { pre order add to cart }

  4. 4.

    Hillary

    April 17, 2008 at 10:18 am

    I think it is interesting that Obama brought up the relatively innocuous “bake cookies” line instead of the “screw em!” line from HRC that’s getting some play in the blogosphere.

    Is there any doubt she learned the wrong lesson from that?

  5. 5.

    Hillary

    April 17, 2008 at 10:19 am

    The Obama campaign should start printing bumper stickers that read “We Didn’t Kill Vince Foster!”

  6. 6.

    cmorenc

    April 17, 2008 at 10:21 am

    The other thing deeply bothersome about Clinton’s sleazy attack campaign over the three months is that in the debates, when she moves away from that tack and into substance, you can see how much genuine potential positive ability and intelligence she has as a candidate. Think HOW MANY of us three months ago were thinking WOW! We have two really great candidates, either of whom I could support wholeheartedly. We were worried about all the unfair crap the GOP would be attacking Hillary with if she was the candidate, and some of us were somewhat preferring Obama because he didn’t carry that baggage. And then unfortunately, Hillary managed to make us (now) former Hillary-admirers understand for our selves just why so many Republicans hate Hillary and Bill’s guts to the core – cause we’re starting to feel that way too, for many of the same reasons (no, not the Vince Foster thing).

  7. 7.

    AkaDad

    April 17, 2008 at 10:22 am

    I bet those traitors that outed a CIA operative were wearing flag lapel pins.

  8. 8.

    Phoenix Woman

    April 17, 2008 at 10:23 am

    I don’t get it — why should Obama be asked to distance himself from the guy who helped save LBJ’s life?

  9. 9.

    ntr Fausto Carmona

    April 17, 2008 at 10:24 am

    Well, Hillary did succeed in one aspect: Democrats are starting to notice, just not the way she intended them to.

  10. 10.

    Danton

    April 17, 2008 at 10:25 am

    The last time the traditional media was rough on a candidate was right before the New Hampshire primary. The decidedly sexist coverage of HRC aroused the ire of New Hampshire voters, and they responded accordingly. Just maybe something like this sort of backlash might happen in Pennsylvania. I suppose it’s one way of telling the traditional media to do a better job with political coverage. Then again, the traditional media’s memory can’t seem to reach back a few months to what happened in New Hampshire.

  11. 11.

    Wilfred

    April 17, 2008 at 10:32 am

    Part of it makes me want to cry. But at this point all I can really do is laugh.

    Wanking. I’ll certainly be laughing at Marshall et al. if Clinton actually does get the nomination as they’ll be doing what the conservatives are doing with McCain – forgetting all they don’t like about her because, you know, McCain is worse. Or are they the same now? Who knows, who cares?

  12. 12.

    cleek

    April 17, 2008 at 10:36 am

    because, you know, McCain is worse

    -2 > -8

    keep up the good work, Hillary

  13. 13.

    ntr Fausto Carmona

    April 17, 2008 at 10:40 am

    I’ll certainly be laughing at Marshall et al. if Clinton actually does get the nomination

    Any chance she had, she blew it last night. You don’t join in on slagging the other guy when you’re going to get the same exact treatment when it comes to the general.

  14. 14.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    April 17, 2008 at 10:40 am

    I don’t get it—why should Obama be asked to distance himself from the guy who helped save LBJ’s life?

    You mean the LBJ who helped shove the Voting Rights Act of 1964 through over the strenuous objections of the (now)Republicans?

    You actually have to ask?

    /snark

  15. 15.

    Billy K

    April 17, 2008 at 10:40 am

    “We are all Vince Foster now.”

    I don’t know what that means, but it just popped into my head.

  16. 16.

    David

    April 17, 2008 at 10:40 am

    I like how Josh Marshall managed to write “do do” and “about about” in the same post and they even made sense.

    Apropos of nothing….

  17. 17.

    Rick Taylor

    April 17, 2008 at 10:52 am

    Hillary is just teaching Obama how to defend himself against a Republican armed with a banana.

  18. 18.

    ding7777

    April 17, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Since Kos thinks Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was looking like a Democrat, its no surprise that Kos thinks Hillary is not a Dem.

    I’ll take the old style Dems if the New Dems are represented by Obama, Arnold and all the rest of the Reagan loving clones.

  19. 19.

    Phoenix Woman

    April 17, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko: True dat.

    Imagine if Nixon hadn’t sent Anna Chan Chennault to Paris in 1968 to make sure the peace talks fell through. (And imagine if RFK had been warned about Sirhan Sirhan.)

  20. 20.

    PaulB

    April 17, 2008 at 11:02 am

    I’ll certainly be laughing at Marshall et al. if Clinton actually does get the nomination as they’ll be doing what the conservatives are doing with McCain – forgetting all they don’t like about her because, you know, McCain is worse.

    Why would you be laughing? Josh has made no secret of his intention to vote for the Democratic candidate in the fall, regardless of who it is. I support Obama but will cheerfully vote for Clinton in the fall, since Clinton at her worst is ten times better than McCain.

    I don’t like her campaign tactics but her policies are, for the most part, decent. I sure can’t say the same thing about McCain.

  21. 21.

    cleek

    April 17, 2008 at 11:05 am

    ding7777’s comment is almost dadaist in its use of illogic.

  22. 22.

    ThymeZone

    April 17, 2008 at 11:07 am

    “We are all Vince Foster now.”

    Funny as hell.

  23. 23.

    dricey

    April 17, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Hillary is John McCain’s running mate. How else did we expect her to behave?

  24. 24.

    cleek

    April 17, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    Simple questions….

    Do you think if Barack Obama had left his seriously ill wife after having had multiple affairs, had been a member of the “Keating Five,” had had a relationship with a much younger lobbyist that his staff felt the need to try and block, had intervened on behalf of the client of said young lobbyist with a federal agency,…

    and it gets better!

    (h/t Hilzoy)

  25. 25.

    The Confidence Man

    April 17, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    dricey, I think you’re right on the money.

    Hillary ain’t running for the Dem nomination (she knows “the math” is prohibitive) — she’s running to be (perhaps already as) McCain’s #2.

  26. 26.

    Rick Taylor

    April 17, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Hillary ain’t running for the Dem nomination (she knows “the math” is prohibitive)—she’s running to be (perhaps already as) McCain’s #2.

    That is ridiculous on so many levels. . .

  27. 27.

    RC

    April 18, 2008 at 3:14 am

    Unfortunately though sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. The Clintons are still the only ones who survived swiftboating, though Bill nearly got impeached in the process. They did that by playing rough at times, and sometimes the only thing the Republicans respect is strength. This idea that Obama can tame these rabid wolves by smilling and being nice is getting a bit old. Try that tactic the next time you are confronted by a vicious dog.
    I hope the Obama supporters will apologise for their false certainty if Obama ends up folding like a cheap tent under the swiftboating to come. Right wingers already seem pretty confident they have the ammunition to bring him down already, and they weren’t this sure until well into the election with Kerry and Gore.
    I know it seems so right to go with the flow with Obama but could this just be a herd of lemmings heading over the cliff like in the last two presidential elections? Don’t forget half the Democratic party still prefer Hillary and this feeling of Obama inevitability isn’t shared by them at all. It just seems like a percentage of voters are enraptured by something they see in Obama and seem to demand that Hillary stand aside in shame for having the temerity to even run against him. Maybe they can see the emperor had no clothes with Bush but can’t see the Empty Suit this time.
    Perhaps they see a certain genius in Obama and perhaps there is, and perhaps some fragility and weakness as well. There is nothing unusual about Democrats needing to toughen up and become like Republicans to win, though the tone of this post and Josh marshall’s implies otherwise. In fact the Democrats have largely come back from oblivion by using the Republican tactics against them.
    So I hear a lot of nice rhetoric about how easy it will all be for Obama, but one cannot practise a new form of politics as long as the Republicans practise the old dirty kind. There is the politics of the lion and the politics of the lamb and if you reach across that aisle you get your arm bitten off.

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