A brief moment of sanity from the press:
Here’s a rule I would like every political reporter, campaign official, TV talking head, and politician in the United States to follow. Go ahead and say, if you like, that Hillary Clinton retains a serious chance of winning the Democratic nomination. If you say this, however, you must describe a set of circumstances whereby this could happen. Try not to make it sound like a fairy tale.
Read the whole things. Apparently there is a Joan Walsh piece floating around in which she states that the media was, at the beginning of the campaign, totally in the bag for Obama. I don’t think there is any denying that Obama received exceedlingly friendly coverage at the start of the campaign. However, if the past two months of endless loops of Rev. Wright and Hillary basically saying anything with no one questioning her bullshit has you still thinking that they are all in the bag, I don’t know what to say.
You know what I would pay to see- the next time Clinton starts yapping about the bullshit gas tax holiday, I would pay a reporter to ask her these questions:
“Where is the bill? When did you write it? What are the details? How much will it cost? When did you submit it to the Senate? When do you think it will be considered? Will it get passed?”
Hillary Clinton, Blue Collar Icon
Talk about a free ride- Hillary’s say anything tour the past few weeks has been nothing but a free ride, because even though there really is no realistic way for her to win, the press loves a horse race. Otherwise we would all be laughing at the Wellesley educated lawyer in this picture pretending to blue collar her way to another bowling alley, where she can knock back another whiskey and bitch with the patrons about the price of gas. I am half surprised she doesn’t have her aides calling her Norma Rae.
*** Update ***
Hillary Clinton has just started doing an Indiana town-hall meeting being broadcast on ABC, and George Stephanopoulos asked her a direct question:
Could she name a single economist who agrees with her support for the gas tax holiday?
Hillary sidestepped the question, and tried to use the complete dearth of expert support for the idea to her advantage, pointing to it as proof that she’s on the side of ordinary folks against “elite opinion” — a phrase she used twice.
“I think we’ve been for the last seven years seeing a tremendous amount of government power and elite opinion behind policies that haven’t worked well for hard working Americans,” she said.
A bit later she added: “It’s really odd to me that arguing to give relief to a vast majority of Americans creates this incredible pushback…Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that don’t benefit” the vast majority of the American people.
So after she loses, how long before she pulls a full Lieberman and decides to get away from al lthe elitists on her side of the aisle?
*** Update ***
More collateral damage. Hillary has driven Steve Benen to madness.
TR
Did she borrow that pickup truck from whoever it was that Fred Thompson borrowed it from?
Dennis - SGMM
First she gets her talking points from McCain, then she rails against elites, now she’s using Fred Thompson’s red pickup truck. Shame that there aren’t any conveniently scheduled NASCAR races for her to attend.
The crap she’s been pulling to get elected makes me shudder to think of the crap that she’d pull to get re-elected.
Ted
The Hillary trolls will be by directly to answer your questions about Hillary’s phantom gas tax holiday bill.
Or not. I’m not sure if work on Sundays is required in their contract.
slippy hussein toad
TR – took the words right outta my mouth. The Hillary campaign is descending so fast into self-parody it must be burning up in the atmosphere.
Dennis - SGMM
Hillary screwed up in that picture: she should have been wearing bib overalls.
nightjar
Hillary Rodham Clinton. The “Billy Pilgrim” of modern politics.
Ripley
Knock it off! Hillary is only trying to help the Working Man!!
You think you’re so funny! Then why has Hillary’s Gas Tax Bill already been co-sponsored and endorsed by Sen. Phil McCracken (R-Heartlandiana), Sen. Joe Momma (R-Flyover), Sen. John McCain (R-New Texas) and Joe Lieberman (R-CT)? Can’t answer that, can you, you elitist American citizens?
You think you’re so fancy with your jobs and your bills to pay and concerns about the “future”. Hillary knows what’s best for you, so shut up and watch some TV so she can do her job, that’s why!
Joe1347
Blue pantsuit with a red and white pickup. The “patriotic” red, white, and blue motif must be a coincidence :)
MJ
Very good points John. But as a matter of US civics wouldn’t a bill like that need to start out in the House? I always thought that tax bills needed to be first introduced in the House of Representatives.
Also couldn’t the same be said for all the things that Obama has been promising during the campaign? Has he proposed any of it in the Senate?
nightjar
I suppose she’s referring to that “elite opinion” as flowing from the great elite mind of one George W. Bush. Who’da thunk it.
Krista
Is she utterly retarded? Bush was elected (and then re-elected) on his carefully manufactured “regular guy” anti-elite image. So now she’s singing the same goddamn tune as Bush, but insists that her presidency will be different?
Richard Bottoms
Is that before or after he asks John McCain the same question. You, that Republican candidate pandering to the same rubes who want to hear exactly this kind of bullshit.
I should come to the conclusion after 25 years of exactly the same kinds of empty symbols from the Republicans that flag pins, flag factories, guns, and religion DON’T work?
Right.
Hillary is doing this stuff, not because Democrats want to hear it, but because she needs to pull over a few of the hillbillys who generally vote for your former party.
Allow me to quote from what is still one of my favorite sites, http://www.fuckthesouth.com:
She’s courting these Nimrods because she has to in order to win. And Obama doesn’t have a chance if he doesn’t get out and do it as well, because the reality is all those screaming young people don’t show up as reliably as a flag pin wearing, tractor driving farmer from North Carolina.
myiq2xu
How quickly things go down the memory hole. Have you already forgotten the full-on wankfest over Tuzla? The constant WWTSBQ whine? The fauxrage over Hillary’s face-off with Richard Mellon Scaife?
John Cole
I believe appropriations bills must start in the house, and if this is considered an appropriations bill, she could easily find a Representative to introduce the bill. I mean, the entire congress can not be filled with latte-sipping elitists who hate the working man, can it?
Dennis - SGMM
We’ve been totally screwed for the past seven years because Bush listened only to the voices in his head and the approbation of his toadies and sycophants. Opinions from “elites,” like Gen. Eric Shinseki, or anyone else who actually knew anything about the subject at hand, were completely ignored and/or derided because Bush knew better. Now Hillary knows better too. What could possibly go wrong?
The Grand Panjandrum
I think you need to give her a break John. After almost 20 years in government housing the Clintons finally pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, scraped together a down payment on a little shack in Westchester County, and now you want to critize them?
Hillary 08!!!!!! Like Shooting Ducks with a six-shooter.
I am TGP and I approved this message.
Pug
…Hillary’s Gas Tax Bill already been co-sponsored and endorsed by Sen. Phil McCracken (R-Heartlandiana), Sen. Joe Momma (R-Flyover), Sen. John McCain (R-New Texas) and Joe Lieberman (R-CT).
Its also been co-sponsored by Sen. Heywood Jablome (R-FL Men’s Room).
shera
As a Wellesley-educated lawyer, I have to say that some of us genuinely enjoy drinking, bowling, and shooting things. We also read blogs written by cranky West Virginians and agree with much of what they write (at least after 2006). No need to paint us all with the same brush.
Dennis - SGMM
Next thing you know, Hillary will be posing with her autographed football bat.
myiq2xu
Since she distinguishes “elite opinion” from “government power” she is obviously referring to the pundits who are now proclaiming she can’t possibly win even though she very likely will finish a close second in pledged delegates and with the popular vote lead.
cboy
Is it just the camera angle, or her ass spreading faster than a California wildfire with 52mph winds?
TR
Tell me about it. I’m watching some elitist sportscasters on ABC right now, and they’re telling me that even if the Hawks finish the series in a close second with a 3-4 split, they’re not going to be allowed to advance to the next round! What nerve!
nightjar
That’s right, it’s the pundits who’ve been running America the past 7 years. Those crafty devils.
Rick Taylor
Youtube has already posted at least two videos outlining how Hillary can win.
Wilfred
From the Living Memory Trust at the National Archive:
Dennis - SGMM
John Dickerson, writing in Slate:
It must be very strange to be Hillary Clinton. A woman of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, she can’t get anyone to notice. She is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of her time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
TR
Very persuasive arguments, Rick Taylor.
Rick Taylor
What on earth do economists know about winning elections?
TR
These ABC sportscasters are really making me mad. Boston may have an 83-47 lead at the moment, but there are still 9 minutes left in the game and it’s technically possible that the Hawks go on a 40-0 run during that stretch, right? Also, Georgia is a larger state than Massachusetts!!!!
KRK
Obama is making promises about what he will do as president. Clinton is talking about a gas tax holiday this summer, i.e., before the election. So, no, “the same thing” can’t be said about them.
You
Your stupidity is truly breathtaking.
Shygetz
The media were favorable to Obama when Clinton was in the lead. Then the media were favorable to Clinton when Obama was in the lead. It’s almost as if the media profits from a close race or something…
Ben
I just checked and Krugman is siding with Obama on the gas tax silliness (though he minimizes its importance). Good for him.
El Cid
I actually think the Bush Jr. administration’s round-the-clock fetishization of Stupid-As-Heroic (“I don’t need no damn fancy pants in-tie-leckshul from NASA tellin’ me how ta run our space prog’m, I got all I need to know from Jesus!”) actually burned us out of a good chunk of the appeal of stupid.
After Iraq and New Orleans, I think a number of Americans, though suspicious as usual of any possible “elite”, are a little bit more willing to believe in the value of having a leader who isn’t screaming proudly 24 / 7 what an awesomely dumb sh*t he or she is.
demimondian
In fact, I think I can safely suggest that Clinton will finish second on the first (and only) ballot at the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominating Convention in Denver Colorado, probably by margin of about 5% (50.1-45, or thereabouts).
Thereby proving that her advisors have been right all along, and that 50% + 1 is, in fact, a victory, and all that matters.
dslak
History and elections have not been kind to Democrats who run as Republicans. If you want to win those people, it has to be done on your terms, not theirs.
Democrats trying to win by being more Republican than the Republicans is part of the reason why guns, gays, and abortion have been successful issues for the GOP. Those are the issues on which the Dems will never be able to out-Republican the GOP.
The Grand Panjandrum
Bush telling the Pope he gave an “Awesome speech” was quite memorable.
They’re only playing the game for the advertising revenue. The score doesn’t really matter. The Hawks protested and now the series is being decided on who has the most fans attend the games. (A much more logical way to determine the winner since it is a Professional sport and a Business. Whoever makes the most money based on attendance should win the series. All those points being scored are just to give the fans something to watch.
John Cole
What kills me is that she is getting away with it. If Hillary Clinton had Obama’s lead right now, and ANYONE, and I mean ANYONE else was in second and running the kind of bullshit, knee-capping, nipping at the heels GOP talking points style campaign she is running, just because SHE might now win, people would be shitting twinkies.
But because she is Hillary, she gets away with it.
demimondian
But, really, what matters is the number of new fans the Hawks can bring in, isn’t it? The Celtics are a known quantity, after all; they’ve been reliable basketball fans, raining threes for decades. Where else are they going to go, anyway? And, after Cayuhoga (or whatever his name is) won in LA-06 last night, we know that we don’t really need them, anyway. What we really need to to outhawk the Hawks, right?
ploeg
Copyedit:
I think we can go to press with that.
demimondian
You know, John, in a kind of ironic and back handed way, if it really turns out to be that close, it will be great for the party.
Nobody will watch the Republican love fest. EVERYBODY will watch ours…just to see if the vote really comes out for Obama. Will any of the critical delegates jump ship? When will he actually get to 2025? I don’t know about you…but I’m imagining what the press spinners could make of the Wednesday night vote — “This is what the Democratic Party stands for.”
I can’t imagine a better way to launch the final eight weeks of the campaign. Really.
dj spellchecka
i could have sworn that “elites” are the ones who factually point out that big ass tax cuts for the rich never pay for themselves. or did i miss something?
Gregory
And, is there a chance in hell of Bush approving the windfall profits tax with which you propose to pay for the gas tax holiday?
Talk about pandering — she offers up a fig leaf of financial responsibility she knows isn’t going to be enacted.
FWIW, my lovely wife has been on the fence, but the gas tax pander made her write Clinton off. We’re in Indiana, and I’ve already voted, so that’s two for the Magical Unity Pony here.
MJ
You can look at a number of things that Obama is selling as promises of what he’ll do as President and introduce them as bills in the Senate.
From his web site:
link
Now some of that is kind of vague but with some home work of added specifics. It could be introduced in a Senate bill. Call it the Obama 2008 Communication Bill.
John I am sure she has some super delegates that are committed to her in the House that could do that for her.
No but I think they have a powerful caucus.
nightjar
Here’s the wingnuts new meme on Obama. Wonder how long it will take for the Hillbots to join the chorus.
nightjar
Looks like the Weekly Standard is blocking links to their wise prose. The above is from Michael Goldfarb.
Dennis - SGMM
I don’t want the next president to be like me. I want the next president to be way smarter and better informed than I am. I want whoever is elected to have intelligent, well informed, courageous advisers whose advice will be shaped by experts in their fields. I don’t want a good ol’ boy or a good ol’ girl. You can find them in any pseudo-country bar and they aren’t presidential timber.
Mostly I don’t want the next president to be like me because I’d auction off the Red States to the highest bidder to settle the national debt.
Dennis - SGMM
Nope: the link reads thttp://theweeklystandard.com…
Just redo the link and all will be well.
Cyrus
I agree, the primary is Obama’s to lose at this point… which, just to play Devil’s Advocate, means that he could lose. Hillary is probably hoping for a “dead girl or live boy” situation. If Obama has a sex scandal that’s better sourced than Drudge, or if he is seriously shown to be allied with someone who’s seriously a frightening figure (not just a black man more threatening than Wayne Brady or someone who was part of an incompetent would-be terrorist group 40 years ago or a white-collar criminal who “had ties” to every rich person in Chicago), then the remaining delegates actually would break for Clinton, assuming Obama doesn’t just drop out on his own.
This is very unlikely, since I assume we’d have heard about it by now. And short of actual fraud, there’s nothing Clinton can do to make it happen. But it’s not impossible, and it’s worth mentioning just because it’s hilarious to imagine Clinton giving that answer to the question. “How can I win? I’ll tell you how I can win. My team of genealogists has found that my esteemed opponent isn’t the son of Barack Obama Sr. of Kenya, he’s the son of Willie Horton!”
w vincentz
Holy Jesus on a skateboard!
We’ve had the smirking chimp for the past seven and a half years and now the full sister to J. Fred Muggs in a blue pants suit and blonded wig telling us how much she cares from the bed of Dale Evan’s pickup.
If any of her campaingners read this, I expect that they make her pledge that they ALL will travel by bicycles between campaign appearances soas to save gasoline for the real ‘merkins that need it to get to their “jobs” (ifin’ they still have ’em). Maybe rollerblades or scooters could be used instead of Schwinns.
KRK
See, I kind of figured you were going to come back with something like that, so I should have done a little research on the congressional calendar. But let’s see how I do off the top of my head.
1) Even if there would be a point to Obama introducting legislation now regarding those policy proposals, it’s still not “the same thing,” since Clinton’s gax tax holiday idea must start moving forward now if it’s to have effect this summer. With Obama’s proposals it’s now or later; with Clinton’s GAS TAX HOLIDAY ’08, it’s now or never. (But we all know Clinton and McCain don’t really care about there being an actual gas tax holiday, just that they talked about one.)
2) Obama isn’t going to waste time and go after cheap and dubious political points introducing legislation that won’t go anywhere under the current administration and Congress. That’s why he wants to be president, see? Putting aside the matters of a Bush veto and the fact that the Republicans in Congress aren’t going to let Obama get a bill through that would score him political points going into November, there’s just not a whole lot more going to happen in this Congress. I believe they have a May recess coming up and then a long summer recess. There are all of the departmental appropriations bills to be vetted and passed after the summer recess, and no doubt lots of other bills already on the calendar and working their way through the process. One-off bills can be fasttracked, but not things that the communications companies and lobbyists will be fighting all the way. That takes time to build a political coalition, etc. The 110th Congress will end at the end of 2008. All bills not yet acted on will have to be reintroduced for the 111th Congress. So even if Obama is still in the Senate in January, there wouldn’t be a point to introducing a bill now.
nightjar
Yours is an HTML link. I’ll try the embed again this time from memmerandum instead of from WS site.
slippy hussein toad
thttp is the Raspberry Protocol. http is the Hyper Text Transmission Protocol.
wasabi gasp
Bitchin pickup
p.a.
I’d nominate this for p.o.t.d., but I’m jealous I didn’t think of it so I won’t.
Zuzu
Feather –> Me –> Knocked over.
Walker
I saId it in the last thread, and I will say it again here. This push on the gas tax is a very, very bad political play for Hillary.
Her argument for the popular vote has always been about one thing: getting the superdelegates to break for her. Despite all her protests, she cannot change the rules of the game at this point. However she can present morale arguments to give the superdelegates political cover to vote for her. That is her only hope — this election will be decided by the superdelegates.
However, the pressure that she has put on Democratic members of Congress over this gas tax things has shown the superdelegates she doesn’t give a damn about them. It is almost as if she is now believing her own press that the popular votes matters by itself (and not as a morale argument to convince superdelegates to vote for here). The supers see the gas tax pander for what it is. And by pressuring them over such a blatant pander, she is realy overplaying her hand on this one.
Many of the pro-Hillary sites like TalkLeft and MyDD are calling this a brilliant political move, even if they do not agree with the policy. But they are wrong. This is a horrendous political move. It will have exactly the opposite effect on the supers that Hillary needs for her to have any hope (no matter how slight) of the nomination.
w vincentz
Walker,
“Horrendous” might be your word of choice. Mine is “disingenuous”.
Her words (and lack of action via bill sponsorship) will be seen for what they are.
At least the topic will shift her to a defensive position, and I’ll shout in my loudest, “IT’S ABOUT TIME!”
Maybe hubby Bill will trot out something about Rev. Wright to divert, or maybe a claim that Obama hasn’t run a “clean” campaign.
Hillary is sunk, she just doesn’t know it yet.
btw…Don’t expect the Obama folks to bring this up. He’s obviously above it.
zoe from pittsburgh
Hillary seems to be taking the “blue collar” label too literally. (Nice blue suit, Hil.)
Frankly, I want to thank her for staking the last week of campaigning before IN/NC on this issue. It took the focus off of Wright and put it on a woefully unpopular REPUBLICAN plan. Not to mention that it has surely not helped her among congressional SDs that don’t want to touch the stupid plan with a 10-foot pole.
Now we just have to wait to see if her big pander gamble works. If it does help her win Indiana, well, if he wins NC then Tuesday is a wash. If it doesn’t work, if she loses BOTH states, then that means that she and her people weren’t smart enough to realize that this issue only helped Obama tout himself as the “real deal” who is willing to say unpopular truths and doesn’t just say what people want to hear.
Thanks to Hillary right now Obama is getting the chance to better define himself– which is critical after the Wright spectacle. Let’s just hope that the people are listening.
Anticorium
When a Clinton ad starring Harry and Louise pops up, I promise to not say I told you so.
ThymeZone
Really? So her justification for listening to the experts on the WMDs and voting to support AUMF ….. that was just a practical joke?
MJ
I don’t know what the feasibility is regarding the Senate schedule. I’ll take your word for it.
ksmiami
Aside from the fact that she is an almost cartoonish politician at this point, she (desperately) needs a better fashion consultant. Geez, that outfit looks like something out of willy wonka and the chocolate factory on acid and Long Island iced teas… Ouch!
nightjar
The Pomegranate Extract Protocol always works best for me.
w vincentz
ksmiami,
I’ve talked with several of her underlings that buy her wardrobe. You’ll just have to take my words as truthful, but since her campaign is a bit strapped for cash, somethings have to be purchased at the outlets. That blue pantsuit came from a jobber that was trying to sell pant suit cheer leading uniforms (unisex) to the NY Giants.
Hers had the logo removed from the sample.
Now, on another topic…is there a difference between “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”…Johnny McSame, and “We will obliterate Iran”…Terror of Tuzla, or are they just good drinking buddies and members of the same party?
I’m waiting for Joey Liebermann to weigh in on this one.
Maybe he can get me a deal on some saleman’s sample garments too.
chopper
george bush didn’t listen to any high-falootin’ econo-mists and the country couldn’t be doin’ better!
Napoleon
Hillary’s campaign considering the “Nuclear” option.
I will guarantee you if she does it blows up the party.
Napoleon
OK, I guess I don’t know how to do the outside link, but its the lead story on Huffington Post. Its a Tom Edsall story.
ksmiami
The thing is Hillary is nuclear as in ten ton bomb of crazy and she really has no place anywhere near the red phone.
KCinDC
I initially read that photo caption as “blue collar loon”, and at this point I’m not sure that wouldn’t be more accurate.
KCinDC
Napoleon, I don’t understand that nuclear option. Aside from the unlikelihood of getting enough DNC folks to risk their political careers for her by voting for it, it still wouldn’t give her enough delegates to win unless she also does amazingly well in the remaining contests and gets a healthy majority of the remaining superdelegates to go along with her fantasy.
So far, aside from a handful of polls that show her doing slightly better than Obama in matchups with McCain — which somehow need to be taken into account while studiously ignoring the many more polls showing the opposite — there is zero evidence suggesting that she’d be a better general election candidate than Obama. And she needs a lot more than vague handwaving. She needs something that will convince not a bare majority, but the vast majority of the decision makers to go out on one hell of a limb for her.
w vincentz
What I’d really like to know…
How come Hillary stands that way?
Is there something inserted in her rectum that causes her hips to be pushed forward in her stance?
Does the rectal pain interfere with clear thinking?
What does this have to do with zuccinni squash?
Warning: When this load of shit gets loose, all the Hillary supporters best get out of the way cause you’ll all be covered by Hillshit, if you haven’t been already.
And, no…I won’t be eating chocolate pudding in a long while.
p.a.
Remember the supposed old Chinese curse, ‘may you live in interesting times’? Maybe we’re seeing the start of the crackup of both political parties. The R’s started a generation ago by getting in bed with the religious right and slowly letting the anti-enlightenment wing take over and turn them into a regional party. About all they stand for now is throwing any groups they don’t like on the (thus far figurative) bonfire.
The D’s really have become impotent under the R’s assault and the DNC ‘republican-light’ leadership. Imagine being this impotent when facing the most unpopular president in the history of modern polling! I don’t have any idea what long term effect Hillary’s scorched earth campaign will have, and no one I have read has made a convincing specific argument either. But I think damage has already been done, and if it continues it will have to get worse.
Maybe we as a nation are like an alcoholic, and have to hit rock bottom before recovery. If the D’s manage to blow this election and get McCain elected, we’ll be close to hitting bottom.
Pug
Actually, Hillary’s plan is disingenuous and all that, but mainly it’s just cynical. She knows it won’t happen. Congress knows it won’t happen. All us “elitists” know it won’t happen. And if anybody in America is an elitist, it is Hillary Clinton.
Still, she’s promising to give something to all those good plain folks and she thinks they are dumb enough to believe it. Unfortunately, quite a few of them might be.
It’s just cynical. It shows what she really thinks of those folks.
Notorious P.A.T.
Wow, second out of two. Congratulations.
zoe from pittsburgh
Heh. In 5 of the 6 latest polls Obama is either tied with or beating Hillary– in the NYT polls he’s leading her 50-38! (Might be an outlier, obviously.) However, if you average all of them he’s still leading her by 3.
However, there is ONE poll that has Hillary ahead by 3– FoxNews.
Need we say more?
I don’t put too much stock in polls, however, these do suggest that Obama is very likely bouncing back from his Wright-related slip in the polls.
jake
Dear God, please don’t force me to vote for this crazy broad.
I can’t imagine not voting but I can’t imagine voting for Bush with a Bush. I hope they let people vote when they’re obviously wasted because that’s what it’s going to take for me to tap the screen for her.
Hillary Clinton: Coyote Date for President.
jess
Dear Hillary,
Fred Thompson called. He wants his pickup truck back.
Justin
John,
I haven’t seen much addressing of the fact that Clinton leads in the popular vote. This being the case, what would be wrong with the superdelegates casting their vote with “the will of the people?” I just don’t necessarily think it is the case that having a slight advantage in pledged delegates is the same thing as being the party’s definitive choice. If it’s your argument that the leader in pledged delegates must be the nominee because “those are the rules” then I would remind you that the “rules” permit superdelegates to use whatever criteria they wish in casting their (admittedly over-valued) votes. You can’t have it both ways.
Justin
A word about the ‘gas tax holiday’ idea that the blogosphere is having such a good time making fun of. I want to affirm as a given everything that has been said about what such a proposal would do in terms of being a direct wealth transfer to oil companies. That said, have you ever paid attention to the little stickers on gas pumps telling you how much of each gallon is in federal gasoline tax? You all should quite well know that the general public is resentful of fuel taxes (and it’s not elitist to say that it’s because there is a lot that they are not aware of). Yes, Obama is telling the truth on this issue, and in a vacuum he is right. However, throughout all of this I have only heard Obama opposing eliminating the gasoline tax over the summer, not being in favor of anything to deal with the fact that Americans really are being strangled by runaway fuel costs (that also factor into food costs and everything else). IMHO what Clinton is doing is pure genius, she favors lifting the tax temporarily (which is enormously popular) but also makes a point of proposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies that are sitting by getting rich while ordinary people struggle more and more every day. John, despite your reluctance to have “the government” deciding what is too much profit, there are a lot of people who would disagree with you every time they empty their wallet to get half a tank of gas.
It’s irresponsible of so much of the blogosphere to conflate Hillary with McCain (again), but to my amazement that is what I have come to expect in recent months. Clinton Derangement Syndrome is in full force, and I have recently been of the opinion that the reason Obama has not had occasion to “go negative” is because we are doing it for him. I don’t think we’ll look back kindly on this trashing of one of our party standard-bearers. Does this not smell like ratfucking to anyone else?
Justin
Correction: I just saw Obama’s ad emphasizing a “real energy plan” that creates jobs and a $1000 tax credit for everyone. Good for him that he also favors an energy infrastructure program (Clinton does as well) but I don’t see how what Clinton proposes (for the short term) is any less acceptable. Certainly not any more worthy of disdain than Obama’s proposal, and it has its arguments to be made in favor of it.
Justin
Additionally, I could point out that a $1000 tax credit for everyone would be a joke because a lot of people who struggle are not paying income tax anyways (hence why we have things called “tax refunds”). What exactly are all those people going to do with a credit for a tax they never have a chance of paying in the first place because they do not earn enough?
I could make great fun of Obama and call him “like George Bush” and say that he’ll “say anything to be president” and that he “panders.” But I don’t do that, because I respect the purity of his motives, and I think it’s extremely counterproductive to hurl baseless smears at our candidates for President, all of whom would be infinitely better than any Republican who could make it through their primary. But a certain number of people, I think, have internalized the caricature of the Clintons created by the right-wing and the media during the 90’s. I also understand that among Democrats, there is a desire to overturn the DLC ‘triangulation’ strategy and be more progressive, but it seems that in their desire to make Obama into that progressive Dream Candidate, a significant number of us are willing to do a hit job on Hillary Clinton and try to make reality fit into our narrative.
nightjar
No. We want to overturn CLinton’s triangulation strategy with the wingnuts to attack Obama.
STOP WHINING
Not. And an utterly corrupt Hilbot fantasy.
Tax Analyst
This JustIn, Justin – You’re late here…nobody’s listening.
Hypatia
I agree, and please remind Obama of that the next time he offers shout outs to Ronald Reagan, the most divisive and polarizing president in recent history, as Mr. Unity, recycles Republican talking points on Social Security and health care, and plays Pander Bear on NAFTA as vigorously as Hillary — although probably he won’t try that last one again in the near future.
Well, as a ‘crazy broad,’ as another poster phrased it, perhaps she is lacking in fashion sense. As we know, the most important things about any woman in politics are her clothes and hair. Maybe we can go back to that old thread making fun of Cindy McCain’s hair and her ‘stiff’ way of moving, and shift to a higher plane of discussion?
I’m passing this quote on to a psychiatrist acquaintance, as Tennessee Williams might say. Most interesting.
Blue Raven
Sure. You first. The Hilbot talking points I declined to cite due to their redundancy and my utter boredom with them could use retiring.