Not really sure what to make of this drivel from Maureen Dowd:
Now Barack Obama faces a true dilemma: how best to punish Hillary Clinton.
After 15 months of fighting her off, as she veered wildly from bully to victim, as she brandished any ice pick at hand, whether racial, sexual, mathematical or marital (in the form of her Vesuvian husband), Obama must decide the most efficacious means of doing to Hillary what she has been trying to do to him: putting her in her place.
Her last resort is to continue to press the “Psssst — he’s a black man” tactic. She insisted to USAToday, after the North Carolina and Indiana slide, that she has a broader base, citing an Associated Press article “that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”
The piece gets worse.
One of the things Obama supporters would be wise to remember is that when Clinton supporters and her campaign point out that a lot of people hated Hillary before this campaign even started, they aren’t lying. Dowd is one such example- she was brutal to the Clinton family throughout the 90’s, and she has been just as brutal the past year and a half. It is easy to understand how at this late point in the game, Clinton and her supporters feel she has not been given a fair shake by many in the media, and the reason they feel that way is because she hasn’t. That doesn’t mean that any distaste for the direction the Clinton campaign has taken is unwarranted, but it would be good to remember that it is not wholly unnatural for Clinton supporters to be, well, bitter, at this point.
Additionally, the “advice” Dowd gives is just horrible, and the rhetoric even worse. A consistent base of Hillary’s support is not going to react well to attempts to “punish” Hillary, or to “put her in her place.” I can’t imagine any more loaded rhetoric than that, and feminists and Hillary diehards would be right to be livid by any attempts to do that. I happen to think that Hillary’s campaign is over and that she is doing more harm than good, but she does not need to be “punished” or any of that nonsense- losing something you have worked for for all these years is hard enough. She also has every right to continue on until the last primary, and it is sort of absurd to assert that continuing your campaign is something that is, in and of itself, something that should be “punished.”
Fortunately, if you have seen any of the 100 Obama interviews since Tuesday, Obama is having none of it, refusing to even field questions about who his running mate will be, as the race is not over:
“We do not have this nomination locked up, so we’re still competing. She’s going to do very well in West Virginia and Kentucky – she will win those states in all likelihood by significant margins. We feel like we’ve got a pretty good shot here in Oregon. We’re going to be campaigning in Montana and South Dakota and Puerto Rico. Until I’m the nominee, I don’t want to speculate on running mates.”
This is the right approach, and people need to remember that a lot of people have invested a lot of time and money in trying to get Clinton nominated, and we will need their votes in the future. Adopting Dowd’s attitude and loaded and sexist rhetoric about “putting her in her place” is not only offensive, it is counter-productive.
*** Update ***
In addition to the obvious projection, I trust you can see what’s going on here. If Obama doesn’t choose Clinton as a running mate, it’s because he wants to “put her in her place.” If he does choose Clinton, it’s because he wants to “put her in her place.” See, when you’re setting up the inevitable endless stream of columns about how Obama is really an womanly effete elitist woman who’s probably lactating even more than Al Gore, you win either way! The country, not so much.
So tired of this crap.
dslak
I’m sure we can count on Dowd to give beacoups of useful advice to the Obama campaign after he secures the nomination, as well as provide sober analysis of McCain’s shortcomings.
I’m just kiddin’. She’s going to trash Obama and virtually prostitute herself out to the Republican nominee, just like she always does. (Is “virtually prostitute” sexist?)
Libby Spencer
Well said John. I’ve been thinking along those lines myself. It makes sense for her to keep going. I mean the losing team doesn’t walk off the field at the bottom of the ninth just because they’re 15 runs behind. Punishing her for finishing the game seems stupid, but then you are talking about MoDoDo. It’s unclear to me why anyone bothers to read her tripe anymore. She’s an embarrassment to the human race.
Warren Terra
Don’t worry, even though the Obama campaign will spurn this idea, and hopefully most of the more important Democratic bloggers will refuse to pick it up as well, you can be sure everyone backing Obama will get full credit for the notion from TalkLeft and the rest of the fever swamps.
Wilfred
Can you back that up? Point out instances where that has happened up to and after Super Tuesday, when she had to fight for something the press had previously handed to her? Fox has hammered her like they have hammered Obama?
Did the press hound her about Tuzla, her tax returns, her obliterate Iran comment, her ‘white people love me’ routine? Or were they too busy covering Rev. Wright and reporting on Obama’s father’s paper?
Obama has to be his own President and sever any ties with Clintonism. It is really is fucking time to move on, you know.
RandyH
Something tells me SNL is no longer going to be the favorite show of Hillary and her supporters. Last night’s opening routine was brutal.
John Cole
Just go here. Lately, I am not as impressed with Somerby’s judgement, but you can find a whole treasure trove of bulshit the Clinton campaign has endured if you go through the archives.
dmsilev
Well, the first example that comes to mind is the feeding frenzy immediately after Iowa. The press was absolutely brutal towards her, writing her political obit and positively gloating as they did it. Then she won New Hampshire.
I’m no fan of the Senator from New York, but it’s very true that she’s been fighting against the twits in the media for quite a while now.
-dms
grandpajohn
The real sadness here is for the people out there like Dowd, who are so full of hate, anger and vitriol about every perceived slight or slur, that they assume that every one else is also. Thus they assume that every negative action has to be responded to with some kind of punishment forgetting that the admonition that those who really love their fellow man are to turn the other cheek or that a soft answer turneth away wrath. I tink lthat Obama has already demonstrated how he is different just by his actions of turning the other cheek , a man who seems to live his convictions and christian beliefs rather than professing to be a born again christian for political purposes with out walking the walk . case in point Bush
I can’t imagine living a life filled with such bitterness and bile as these people do.
John Cole
The illegal aliens/NY driver’s license aftermath also springs to mind.
KCinDC
I don’t see what’s sexist about the bit you quote from Dowd. Insane advice, yes, but not sexist. And I’m certainly not going to risk the brain damage of reading the whole thing.
Fortunately, as you say, Obama isn’t going to do anything so foolish as attempting to punish Clinton. If she continues to campaign by trashing the likely Democratic nominee in ways that will hurt him in the general, then I think she deserves to be punished, but there’s no political useful way to do so, except for all Democrats to remember it if McCain wins and laugh in her face if she tries to run in 2012.
Libby, the baseball analogy, like most sports analogies, doesn’t work, because the number of delegates is fixed, unlike the number of points. Clinton isn’t going to suddenly find an undiscovered cache of delegates that will allow her to make up the gap in the final minutes.
tballou
Well said and much appreciated from a Clinton supporter who will gladly vote for Obama when the time comes.
PS – does this mean you have gotten over what appeared to be a terminal case of CDS?
Leo
KCinDC: I think the phrase “put her in her place” is what he’s referring to. It’s hard to imagine a more loaded phrase to use in this context. If its not sexist, its incredibly tone deaf.
Dowd is just horrible.
Wilfred
Can anyone say with a straight face that the press has not pounded Obama at least as much if not more than they have Clinton barring some objective criteria for determining the relative assault, point me to where her transgressions were covered as much as:
1) Plagiarism gate
2) Michelle’s comments
3) Bitter gate
4) His father’s paper gate
5) Wright gate
You mean like they once were with Nixon? Press bashing is the last refuge of a scumbag politician.
cbear
Dowd is another great example of what happens when vapid meets stupid.
rachel
Sigh. I hope Obama gives Dowd’s advice the close, careful attention it deserves.
Schlagle
My god I’m glad you can read that woman and report on her stupidity as I couldn’t even get past the first sentence in your quote without wanting to vomit.”Punish” Clinton?!? This isn’t some post-apocalyptic movie scene where the fellow who had the audacity to even try to get power must be punished by a deadly cage match or something. This is politics and real life. It’s about getting things done and helping people/the country. Modo gets my vote for stupidest person alive.
j.e.b.
Punish her? What a stupid idea.
My opinion (as a
DoddEdwardsObama supporter) is that Obama should offer Clinton (privately) the cabinet post of her choice. If she has any brains, she’ll turn it down, but the offer would make a very good olive branch and should make it easier for her to back Obama in the fall.AkaDad
It’s just in remission. CDS never goes away.
Davis X. Machina
Keep an eye out for any Clinton overtures to Marshall Whittman.
These people are likely to party like it’s 1912.
Vic
Wow, a well reasoned post about Hillary Clinton and her campaign that does not call her a hateful bitch.
Where is John Cole and what have you done with him?
droog
“Vesuvian husband”?
I bet being Dowd’s shrink requires PPE. She is so obsessed with Bill’s netherlands you can’t tell where the allusions stop.
John Cole
“Putting her in her place?”
You don’t find that sexist? Christ, why doesn’t Dowd tell Obama to have Hillary go fix him a turkey pot pie?
demimondian
It isn’t a post about Hillary Clinton or her campaign. It’s a post about Maureen Dowd and her column. It’s a post about “what to do next.” It’s a post about “changing the subject.” It’s a post about moving on to the general, not a post about “putting a woman in her place.” It’s a post about getting past irrelevancies.
Like what kind of person Hillary Clinton is or is not — that’s an irrelevancy right now.
Davis X. Machina
I highly recommend this Rising Hegemon/res ipsa loquitur piece about the other Democratic candidate for Moynihan’s Senate seat in 20002, six-term US Rep. Nita Lowey.
Quite a contrast with the ultimate winner in that primary process.
fahey
Dowd has already attacked Obama as being an effeminate snub. But I agree with Warren Terra Says Obama and Obama supporters will have this hurled against us as yet another example of our misogamy.
The SNL skit was just devastating, it made me feel sorry for her. I guess I don’t like kicking someone when they’re down. That said I hoped the folks in the Clintosphere watched it and gagged – I have no sympathy for the people at TalkLeft and Correntwire.
The Grand Panjandrum
Most of the establishment, and especially the opinion journalists, have never really impressed me much. MoDo’s piece was basically a schoolyard taunt and piling on by a very immature “adult”. Even when I agreed with her criticism of Bush I couldn’t read much of what she wrote. I really miss Molly Ivins. The only person writing today that comes close to her ability to eviscerate a politician with rapier wit is Matt Taibbi. Frank Rich has his moments but the rest of them aren’t worthy of changing the ink refills in Ivins pen.
Being gracious in victory is as important as winning. The nomination is not locked up, but it will be soon and its time for Obama supporters (as you have said so well) to take a cue from Obama himself: be gracious and focus on finishing. It is important to note that the GE campaign is just now in its infancy and the summer will be long and hot. The more oars the Obama team has in the water, pulling in the SAME direction, the easier the work will be.
Gloating, trash talking, and taunting can be saved for November 5th. I try to keep in mind that most of the Clinton supporters are the good guys. Just like Obama and his camp didn’t care for the love Clinton showed McCain on the CINC nonsense, now is not the time to stick a shiv in Clinton and our fellow Democrats, because it was done to our guy. Victory will be its own reward, when it is against another Democrat. Winning the primary season is important, but its only a step toward the Big Dance.
Now as far as the Republicans are concerned, they can suck my … nevermind, we have a lot of work between now and November 4th.
Good on ya for this post.
fahey
I second Davis X. Machina, the Rising Hegemon/res ipsa loquitur piece on Nita M. Lowey needs a higher profile.
NR
Maureen Dowd gave us President George W. Bush when she decided that Al Gore’s sighing was a bigger travesty than the fact that Bush didn’t even have a basic grasp on critically important issues like, oh, the federal budget.
Someone called her on her one-sided coverage of the 2000 election a while back. You know what she said in reply? “I voted for Gore.”
Well, that’s great Maureen, but lots and lots of your readers probably didn’t.
zzyzx
How deranged do you have to be to get BTD to say you’ve gone too far? Suggest that Obama should try to be Clinton’s AG.
Wilfred
Anger and pity being the two emotions most provoked by narcissists.
More Clinton bashing.
grumpy realist
MoDo seems to believe she’s treading in the footsteps of Mencken, but she’s coming off like the class goody-goody two shoes making bitchy remarks in the school newspaper about the Homecoming Queen.
Has MoDo EVER written anything that indicates she’s realized she isn’t in high school any more?
Davis X. Machina
Sorry, Wilfred, but if pointing out someone who, after losing a nomination that they had every right to expect, by dint of hard work and long service, to someone whom they could rightly call an interloper, didn’t pull a Samson-in-Gaza stunt, is Clinton-bashing, then I — and res ipsa loquitur — are just going to have to cop to Clinton bashing.
When Clinton bigfooted the 2002 Democratic nomination for Senate out of New York, the seeds of our future troubles were there for anyone with eyes to see.
John Cole
Wow. What else can you say?
JR
Can’t we punish Hillary at least 1/2 at least as much we trashed Ralph Nader? Hell, she didn’t even put seatbelts in cars. And he helped pass more consumer-friendly legislation than she ever did.
Oh, wait, maybe that doesn’t matter. Crap. I am trying to be a good Dem, but I can’t figure out the rules.
leo (in chicago)
You can see where all this is heading from a column she wrote on Obama’s apparent discomfort drinking a can of Bud.
In it, she asks the crucial question: “Why does Obama… seem so forced when he mingles with the common folk?”
Just Some Fuckhead
We all owe Dowd an apology. She was right about the Clintons all these years.
/sarcasm
David
Republicans… once they’re out of office they’ll go back to being the mostly harmless but annoying cranks they’ve historically been.
Napoleon
That was great!
KRK
Nothing Maureen Dowd does or says ever helps anything.
However, what is helping is that, according to the Jed Report, Todd Beeton has posted an entry at MyDD pointing out that “A Vote For John McCain Is A Vote Against Hillary Clinton.” (I could verify this by checking for myself; but I’m a MyDD virgin and plan to keep it that way.)
MattF
With Fuckhead, I’d say that we also don’t have to acknowledge that Andrew Sullivan has been right all along, either. Sullivan practically defines the phrase “bad judgement”. Yeah, he’s smart… but yikes.
Grendel72
Clinton doesn’t need to be “punished” by any means, she does however need to be cut off.
More specifically the DLC needs to be cut off and never listened to again, which will be helped if Clinton does stay in the race to the bitter end and thoroughly discredit herself and everything the DLC stands for. We have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, because people who believe DLC lies are entirely too stupid to understand it’s already been demonstrated, that pandering to racist mouthbreathers who are guaranteed to vote Republican in the general election is a good way to lose an election as a Democrat.
Libby Spencer
Hey KC: the analogy isn’t perfect but the race isn’t locked up yet. He still hasn’t hit the magic number so to that extent the game isn’t over unless she forfeits. How often do you see a team do that even on the last out and they’re still 12 runs behind?
My point is, yeah the game is over by any realistic measure but you still play out the inning and in her case, her fans haven’t left the stadium. She kind of owes them a show for their unwavering support.
In any event, I see no point to continuing the Clinton bashing. In the last report on her campaign stop I saw, Hill was backing down from Obama bashing so let her play out the inning. It’s time to start thinking about how we can forgive her supporters for their temporary (I hope) bout of insanity.
I’m ready to jump on that unity pony and start the charge against McCain.
Dennis - SGMM
MoDo just keeps evolving. Anyone else remember her cheerleading for the Iraq war? How about that piece that touted a hole in the ground as proof that Saddam had MWD? Punditry is the only profession I know of where you can be wrong every time and still draw a paycheck.
t jasper parnell
From MyDD
ABORTION
Hillary Clinton: Strong Pro-Choice
* Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007)
* Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
* Voted YES on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)
Barack Obama: Strong Pro-Choice
* Voted against banning partial birth abortion. (Oct 2007)
* Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007)
* Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
John McCain: Strong to Moderate Pro-Life
* Supports repealing Roe v. Wade. (May 2007)
* Voted YES on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
* Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines.
(Apr 2007)
Zuzu
I dunno. I read “Bushworld” and some of her stuff on GWB was right on mark.
But she’s gotten so petty and inconsequential…I’m just sick of her.
Soylent Green
Obama has won and he knows it. It’s time for every his act to be presidential. All he needs to do about Hillary is praise her for being such a formidable opponent, commend her on her toughness, say not a word about her attacks on him, and refrain from accepting victory until after she has conceded. He needs Hillary to be able to exit with her pride and dignity intact, so that her people can do the same. He needs Hillary to be the one to bring her followers into the real battle and cannot do it for her.
What he doesn’t need to do is ask her to be his running mate, or offer her any other job in his administration (unless they work out together the gambit of him offering and her gracefully declining–that would make a great peace initiative).
Maureen Dowd has “issues,” as her therapist might say. And what’s with the Paper of Record? Frank Rich is solid, but can’t they come up with better thinkers than these mental midgets Friedman, Dowd, and now, for balance, the fucking stupidest guy on the planet, Kristol?
RandyH
It’s a worthy read. He basically reminds everyone that McCain stands for much of what Hillary has fought AGAINST throughout her career and that it would be disrespectful to Hillary to vote for McCain, regardless of how you may feel about Obama right now. And that if they want to support Hillary’s agenda, they should vote for the Democrat, even if that is Obama. Further, he says MyDD will not be used as a forum to promote McCain or any other Republican.
Bravo to him. Links provided above.
Pug
As one who has on occaision thrown a cheap shot or two Hillary’s way, I agree it does no good to bash her. “Punishing” her is as stupid as it gets.
It’s not that big of a deal for her to carry on these next three weeks until the primaries are all over. After that, it becomes questionable. I do wish she would tone down the rhetoric about white voters and Obama’s alleged unelectability.
Point two of SNL’s skit last night, “my voters are racist”, was devastating. Not because she is racist (I don’t believe she is) or that her voters really are racist (though some probably are) but because it is the crux of her argument. Boiled down to its essentials, her argument is that whites won’t vote for the black guy. Some won’t, but I believe she overstates it.
jake
Shorter Maureen Dowdy: Hey! Look at me! I’m outrageously relevant and irreverently outrageous! Hello! I’ve got red hair too, you know what that means! Yoohoo! Whoops, all that jumping around and I popped a button off my shirt.
Whatevs.
She must be so frustrated. Obama won’t act like the angry black man of her fantasies, soon she’ll have to go back to calling him a sissy boy, but he’ll never ever acknowledge her existence.
Boo-fucking-hoo.
Soylent Green
It’s an excellent post that reminds people that Obama and Clinton share the same agenda which is the opposite of McCain’s. Predictably, the comments run heavily to “I will never vote for that racist radical empty suit unqualified cheating bastard Obama, it’s time to quit the Democratic party and start a new one.”
Rick Taylor
Even the great orange satan himself was critical of the media for it’s sexist coverage early on, something I think some of her supporters have forgot when they claimed Obama supporters outraged at the Pennsylvania debate had ignored the press’s bad behavior towards her.
Dave
“Corporate lobbyist Doug Goodyear had been picked by the campaign of Republican nominee-elect John McCain to oversee the September convention in Minneapolis.
But Goodyear announced his resignation Saturday shortly after Newsweek magazine reported that his lobbying firm took 348,000 dollars in 2002 to represent the Myanmar regime.”
Republican Family Values:
Apathy, Callousness, Greed, Self Serving Self Interest,
Narcissism, Inhumanity, Death, Looting, Plundering.
KRK
Thanks for putting the links in, RandyH.
I read through the comments on Jeralyn’s “Obama Should Be AG” proposal, and it’s so very tempting to excerpt some of the eye-raisers here. But I know that would be not helping. So I’ll resist.
Elissa
I wish Maureen Dowd would keep her daddy complex in check.
Obama would be smart to explicitly address this type of nonsense and make clear that it is exactly what he won’t be doing. (Similarly, I’m convinced that HRC should have spoken out strongly against the media’s feast during Rev. Wright Part I and even attended the “race” speech. It would have been right and also would have made her look great. Might have been enough to turn the thing.)
libarbarian
She has earned a degree of Punishment that only God can dish out. We couldn’t wash away 1/100th of her sins if we skinned her alive 1000 times.
Mdee
Dowd is such a fucking useless cow. I don’t usually use language like that to describe other women (I’m a woman), but if the heifer fits. Obama doesn’t have to make Hillary suffer or get payback from her or “put her in her place”. He has to graciously let her leave on her own terms and he is doing just that. Fuck off, Dowd.
I dislike the ugly, incompetent and unproductive campaign Clinton has ran as much as anyone. I will never forgive her for the racebaiting and the damage she has done to the party, to feminism, and to the legacies of herself and Bill, in her, or should I say their quest for the White House.
She will have enough regrets to last a lifetime, piling onto them does no one any good. Her reputation has been irrevocably tarnished with large swaths of Democrats. The pathetic spectacle she has put on for the last few days is likely to garner her some antipathy with some of her colleagues. You don’t come back from that. Dems don’t like losers. I guess that’s why she’s so desperate not to become one. Sadly for her it’s too late. Even if Obama loses in November, she will not be able to go for that brass ring again. This was her chance.
My guess is she will continue to be a thorn in the side of the party for some time to come and the end of May will in all likelihood end it. That’s assuming the spineless fucks of the DNC publicly put a stake through this popular vote shit once and for all and the stupordelegates get off their fence.
Meanwhile, as she continues to dig her own political grave, I don’t see any need in helping her dig faster or devising ways to hurt her. The media, the press, and a chorus of voices are already turning on her. There’s buyer’s remorse in CA according to a recent SUSA poll. If I didn’t dislike her so much for running such a divisive campaign I’d probably feel sorry for her. I don’t. But I also don’t see how kicking a person when they are down reaps any benefits for anyone. She’s becoming such a sad diminished creature. I’m content to let that be her punishment.
Of course, knowing Clinton, she’s liable to do or say something that will make me want to join the torches and pitchforks crowd before long. But to follow Dowd’s lead? I’d rather jam red hot cast iron spikes through my eyes.
Just Some Fuckhead
It’s okay because she’s going to vote for Obama.
Rick Taylor
Obama has been for the most part very gracious. He even refused to attack Hillary on Tuzla when invited to during the debate. Yet he gets just about no credit for it.
Soylent Green
This is pure political calculus, not racism, advanced by someone who’s ambition has blinded her to its subtext. Racism will be a factor in this election and to what degree we really don’t know; it may even be strong enough to do Obama in. But African-Americans are understandably insulted by Clinton’s cold calculation, which is to pat Obama on the head and say “Sorry, Senator Negro, America is not ready for you yet. It’s a damn shame, and maybe it will be ready someday. Come back then. But don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
To quote Rabbi Hillel out of context, “If not now, when?” We will never move beyond racism without trying, and there’s no time like the present.
Just Some Fuckhead
Kristol barely makes the top five against notables like Preznit Bush, George Allen, Doug Feith and Jeff Goldstein.
Brachiator
It’s interesting to note that a recent piece by Clinton loyalist Eleanor Clift piece in Newsweek, noting how Senator Clinton was going to go all Michael Corleone on the asses of those who opposed her did not raise similar cautions (Settling Scores).
And while Dowd’s over-the-top piece is metaphoric, Clift was quoting sources within the Clinton camp, and even Hillary herself.
Although it is true that Senator Clinton picks up some of the residual hate that was spewed against the tag team of “Bill and Hillary,” it is just a myth that the media has been unkind to her. This kind of thing is one of those typical reverse-reality lies that the Clinton campaign enjoys throwing out there, knowing that both true believers as well as many skeptics will easily lap it up.
Senator Clinton has enjoyed unprecedented media access with friendly pop media heavyweights, making it a habit to show up in venues where she knows she will be welcomed such as the Larry King Show, Ellen, the Tonight Show, etc. She appeared on the David Letterman show the night before the Indiana primary and delivered a Top 10 List that was obviously written by Late Show staffers. Until recently, Joy Behar on “The View” would regularly declare to millions of viewers that the Democrats should just nominate Clinton because it was time for a woman president, period, end of issue.
And of course, until recently, SNL was much more Hillary friendly, even allowing the candidate herself to appear on the show to show her human side.
The SNL skit was right on target. Clinton might deserve some sympathy if she acknowledged that she were down and didn’t sound like a third world dictator gleefully claiming the results of primary elections in which hers was the only name on the ballot. She and her surrogates are still claiming that she is the rightful candidate, spouting irrelevant metrics.
How many other presidential candidates have former Clinton staffers, now media figures, interview them or moderate their debates, as in Clinton’s relationship to ABC’s George Stephanopolous?
Who else but Senator Clinton could give interview after interview claiming FL and MI delegates and never once be confronted with a copy of the pledge that she signed promising not to campaign in these states or to participate in their primaries?
Who else but Senator Clinton has former enemies, such as Richard Scaife, bending over backwards to support and endorse her?
Dowd goes too far here, but we can count on almost equal and opposite support from NYT columnists and Clinton loyalists Gail Collins and Paul Krugman. And historian and columnist Sean Wilentz has risked his reputation by writing anti-Obama columns that were so clearly distortions of the facts that I am surprised that the Times has not signed him as a back-up to Bill Kristol.
I agree that Obama must continue to take the high road, especially because he can’t win here no matter what: reasonable expressions of exasperation will get him branded as an angry Negro by some, while maintaining his cool will get him branded as elitist by others.
There is little that can be done to appease bitter Clinton supporters, who stew in the juices of their own self-righteousness, and feel outrage that Hillary is not universally worshiped.
And so, while Hillary should not, perhaps be attacked, she should be mocked and ridiculed at every opportunity.
Davis X. Machina
“I will never vote for that racist radical empty suit unqualified cheating bastard Obama, it’s time to quit the Democratic party and start a new one.”
Watch for talks between Clinton hard-liners and Marshall Whittman.
That’s the logical next step. Party like it’s 1912!
tjproudamerican
Thanks John.
If you want to see what hatred of Obama can do to reasonable people, read the Talk Left thread where Jeralyn generously offers Obama Ag in Hillary’s Administration.
The comment posts are so bitter, enflamed, and stereotypical in denouncing the “lazy” Obama that Jeralyn is having ahrd time even deleting all the overtly racist ones.
God. I am sorry I voted for Hillary for Senate in 2000. We should have sent the two of The Clinton’s back to wherever it was they were from to do what they do best: self-promote and get rich.
Soylent Green
I stand corrected. The President of the United States of America wins, no question.
My favorite snark of the last seven years is the label that in 2004 a Seattle manufacturer of book and computer bags put on their products destined for sale in Europe. In French, right after the washing instructions:
“Nous sommes desolés que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n’avons pas vote pour lui.” Translation: “We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We did not vote for him.”
cokane
Dowd is one of the most vacuous writers on the mainstream beat. I have no idea why she still has a job.
Richard Bottoms
If bloggers were as right and as influential as they are supposed to be we’d be finishing president Dean’s first term right about now.
It’s over for Hillary, I voted for her she lost. Who gives a shit, since Obama is the guy she lost to.
Not only does he have intelligence and clear thinking on his side (something GW can’t claim), but he has the wave of history at his back.
I personally don’t believe in the we are the world junk surrounding him, but then I am a cynical 53 year old. I do however believe he will kick John McCain’s ass up one side and down the other.
Obama has barely revved up the media engine of his campaign, the Democrats have money to burn, and the opposition votes against Mother Day for crissakes.
Been a good year so far, it will be a great one come November 5th. Plus, I drive a Camray hybrid and have great public transportation too, so eat it bitches.
Richard Bottoms
Red hair. Nice rack.
Soylent Green
Kicking people when they’re down is what bullies do. Her side lost. They have to go through Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief, and it will take them all summer. They will never move to stage five, acceptance, if we lock them in at stage two, anger. We can ridicule Hillary here but need to be really careful with our language elsewhere, and for that matter, in what we say here. Let’s keep our eye on the prize, which is not our ego gratification.
This spring, I have antagonized friends and family members with BJuice-inspired Hillary hate, forgetting that what passes for witty repartée here can be offensive in mixed company. And these are Obama backers I’m talking about. The denizens of BJ are irony-savvy enough to see snark for what it is, a fun diversion and an effective form of commentary in the modern age. But other people on the tubes can be humorless literalists who never get the joke.
I would like to start posting on the Hillary blogs (although it seems too early yet, and only if I can get past their draconian security and censorship) to help the saner folks step back from the edge. All I know now is that I fervently need to keep my private views of HRC to myself. It’s all about November.
Rick Taylor
From CNN
I don’t know what to believe anymore. All I can say is, if Hillary Clinton wants to be the VP, playing up race and pushing Michigan and Florida doesn’t seem to be the way to do it; does she seriously think she can storm her way into the slot? Again, I don’t know what to believe.
The article makes John’s points that her comments on hard working white Americans hurt her.
It’s remarkable, as far as I know she hasn’t made any attempt to explain her remarks, though they were surely at least as damaging than bitter-gate. One of the things I’ve grown to admire about Obama is when he takes a hit rightly or wrongly, he responds quickly; we need a candidate who knows how to respond to swift boating attacks, and I believe he’s been the most impressive candidate in this regard.
nightjar
Brachiator says it for me, I cannot add a single goddamn word to make it any clearer to what I think of this whole sorry clusterfuck. And excuse me, I’ll be building a full on statue in my living room in the likeness of the irrepressible Joan of Arc, patron saint of all martyrs. Just so I can remember the experience of 2008. Call me sexist, I don’t care.
Richard Bottoms
Never did understand CDS. But good post.
As I have said, there are no bad Democrats, there are no good Republicans. The mission in November is to kick GOP asses to Alpha Centauri. Who gives a fuck if Hillary was mean way back in May.
Rick Taylor
It’s actually not that bad. You do know have to know how to be sensitive, and avoid making incendiary unsubstantiated claims, especially when they’re off topic, and avoid making too many posts. But there are Obama supporters at Talk Left and even Taylor Marsh who do just fine. I didn’t have much trouble posting there, though I got tired of it when I saw it was impossible to come together even on some pretty basic points.
Just Some Fuckhead
It might be easier to understand if you imagine the “D” means Disgust.
Soylent Green
She doesn’t want it. She is either play-acting for funding purposes, or going nuclear; the jury’s still out.
They aren’t ready, and won’t be until Hillary tells them what to do. So I’m waiting for her exit. If she is taking this fight to the convention, the nutjobs in her camp will be just as impossible to reason with.
I’m still pissed at Marsh with her lip service to her crowd not to support McCain, after which she has said nothing to them to counter their insistence that they will. Her broadcasting ambitions appear to trump any concern she may have for the outcome this fall.
grandpajohn
Being gracious and civil to ones opponent doesn’t create headlines that will sell papers and increase ad revenues. Modern news sources are NOT in business to give us the news but to increase the bottom line of the owners.
hopscotch
Dribble to you, drivel to me.
John Cole
Wow. That is pretty horrifying.
How come no one else pointed that embarrassing mistake out until now. I pay you all too much.
crw
I’m half convinced some of the more strident Hillaryis44 goons are actually Republican ratfuckers, participating in an online Operation Chaos. Best to ignore them and just be a broken record about Obama’s record. If you keep repeating the facts, reasonable Hillary supporters will come around eventually.
Brachiator
Hillary is a jerk. I once saw a jerk pick a fight with a guy who was doing all he could to keep the situation from getting out of control (the cool guy tried to walk to a more neutral location. The jerk followed him). The jerk was outclassed when the ass kicking broke out, and even though the cool guy kept telling him to stay down, he kept getting up, spewing more insults, and kept getting slapped down, until even his friends had to step in and remove him. The jerk was ultimately banned from the place, even though some rowdiness was tolerated.
Hillary and her supporters are getting everything that they deserve. As long as they insist on staying in the fight, they are capable of mischief. As long as they insist that they really won, really can win, deserve to win, or are already governing in an alternate universe, they cannot be trusted not to try something devious or underhanded.
Neither Senator Clinton nor her supporters and advisors have retreated from Bill Clinton’s March 31 attempt to be slick: “Don’t let anybody tell you that somehow we are weakening the Democratic Party,” he told the 2,100 state delegates. “Chill out and let everybody have their say. We are going to win this election.”
I believe that unconditional surrender is in order here because Senator Clinton has waged such a disreputable campaign and keeps looking for an advantage. When she says, “I yield,” she will deserve some mercy. But not a moment before.
Nobody died. Hillary and her supporters want to attack like adults, but insist that everyone else treat them like overly sensitive children.
I don’t hate Hillary. Early on I simply assumed that she would be the nominee, and I wanted to see her make a case for her administration.
Instead, she never budged from her phony position that as a former co-governor and co-president, she was obviously the once and future nominee. Instead of making her case, her inept, crass and cynical campaign demonstrated that she does not have the experience, the judgment or the temperament to be president of the United States. She is inferior, not only to Obama, but to every other Democratic Party contender.
I don’t hate Senator Clinton, but I am tired of her, and weary of her pointless quest of a prize that she cannot obtain, and does not deserve.
If (e.g., like Mike Huckabee did for McCain) she cannot acknowledge that she has lost and step aside, and if the Democratic Party is too gutless to shut down her increasingly destructive campaign, then I say mock her.
Mock early and mock often.
Just Some Fuckhead
Clearly a parable about Myiq.
Jess
Now that was funny. Sexist, but funny.
MoDo has done us a big favor by offering a spectacle of what not to do. Let’s take what the MUP has been saying to heart and show some leadership on the issue of party unity. And then after we kick McCain’s ass in November, let’s get to work on national unity.
Also, others have noticed this and I agree: when HRC was the presumed nominee, all kinds of crazy, hateful, patently false smears were circulating on lefty blogsites. Now its reversed and the craziest haters are mostly piling on Obama. I thought back then the most rabid ones sounded like right-wingers, and I’m even more convinced of it now, especially after “operation chaos.” I’ve heard plenty of heated arguments between Democrats about their candidates, but I’ve only heard such hateful spew from wingnuts. What else can they do but to try to stir up divisions within the Democratic party? What better way to do it than by posting on lefty sites? Let’s start assuming that, and resist blaming HRC’s authentic supporters for this.
Bubba
I disagree. She certainly should not be rewarded for her campaign. So I would argue that she should be punished.
Soylent Green
Right. We are on the same page. I am waiting for her surrender. Then her troops will choose to keep fighting or drop their guns and go home. It’s the latter ones who I don’t want to shame and shun, no matter how much they deserve it in absolute terms. The ones who keep fighting should be nuked from orbit. The ones who don’t will need help returning to their civilian lives. We will need to hand out MREs and water bottles and kind words. As in Iraq, how are we supposed to tell the insurgents from the common people? We can’t tolerate a rebellion that will get McCain elected, but we won’t win hearts and minds with carpet bombing.
I don’t hate Hillary either. I hate the sin, not the sinner (and I have never been an Xtian). I have enjoyed piling on here, and getting contact highs during the Fuck Hillary phase, but never lost sight of her standing as a progressive Democrat or her basic qualifications. I don’t think she has the right stuff to be a highly effective president, but that is a minor quibble given the GOP alternative. Had she not bungled the effort, she would have won months ago. We would never have seen her worst traits on display, and we would happily be waiting for her reign to begin.
Until she waves the white flag, remember the Alamo.
Notorious P.A.T.
I don’t want to punish Hillary. I just want her political career to be over. Sorry, HC, you voted to allow the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, and do not regret it even today. Maybe the Wal-Mart board has an opening again.
That is some seriously hilarious stuff. “Obama doesn’t have the wealth of experience that Clinton has! He’s only been a Senator for 4 years, not the whopping 8 years of Hillary! Hillary has been kicking Republican butt in the Senate, unlike Obama!” etc.
Apsaras
Far be it from me to defend the antichrist, but why does Ann Coulter get so much shit for calling John Edwards a “faggot” when Maureen Dowd does pretty much the same thing with every column?
Pug
And then after we kick McCain’s ass in November, let’s get to work on national unity.
Oh, no. That will be the time for some serious obnoxious behavior, at least for a while.
Saying condecsending things like, “This is why Republicans cannot win elections” over even the slightest disagreement will be completely justified. It’s no fun if there is no pay back. There should be at least three or four months of total rub-it-in.
KCinDC
Not necessarily. Almost every presidential primary candidate bows out when it becomes apparent that they can’t win. Did Edwards, Romney, Richardson, and Giuliani fail to give their supporters proper respect? Yes, Clinton came closer, but the principle is the same.
I agree with that, assuming the bolded part is true.
Brachiator
Fair enough.
But the problem is that she did bungle the effort, and she did show her worst traits.
The problem is that she has shown that she has not passed the presidential or commander-in-chief threshold. This is not a minor quibble. She lacks even the most basic qualifications to be president of the United States. Her standing as a so-called “progressive Democrat” is negated by her demonstrated disdain for any who refuse to give her what she wants.
Throughout the campaign, she has manifestly demonstrated that she does not understand what the Democratic Party represents. She has clumsily and cynically rejected the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, of Truman, of JFK and RFK. Instead of telling people that they have nothing to fear but fear itself, she has encouraged their worst fears and tried to sell herself as the only one who can address those fears when the 3 am phone all comes. Instead of demonstrating why she can best unify the country, she has encouraged the fracturing of the party into warring factions.
She had a chance even to reach out to women like no candidate before. I believe that many Republican women would have quietly but firmly voted for Hillary despite all the hectoring from conservative blowhards. But instead of reaching for that moment, she attempted to belittle Obama as a dreamer and fabulist, and so had to stifle the possibility of optimism and change in her own campaign. So she was the scold, the drudge who kept reminding us of the harsh realities we supposedly had to face, and how anyone who couldn’t see things her way did not deserve to be taken seriously.
Beginning with PA Governor Ed Rendell’s assertions that some whites might not be able to vote for a black candidate, to her latest pandering for the votes of “hard working, working class whites,” Hillary Rodham Clinton has become the first Democratic Party presidential hopeful in modern history to passively accept and seek to benefit from a kind of soft bigotry on the part of some voters.
She is moving from arrogance and entitlement to Greek tragedy level hubris if she believes that she can cuddle up to divisiveness now and “reject and denounce” it going into the general election if she somehow manages to steal the nomination from Obama.
Senator Clinton is a potential disaster for the party and for the country. Fortunately, she has already lost the nomination by every reasonable measure. This is why it is important to help her realize that it is time for her to retire from the campaign. And while pointlessly nasty attacks are not in order, pointed mockery and ridicule are may be just the thing to indicate that we no longer take her seriously.
slightly_peeved
I believe he does – just not with the media. He gets it in the polls.
The controversies that the press think will kill his campaign don’t affect his numbers. The simple reason is that people like him. The simple reason that swift-boating affected Kerry was that lots of people didn’t like him anyway.
And part of the reason people like Obama is that he’s a good winner, and a good loser on the rare occasions he needs to be. Most people actually like other people who are willing to admit when they’ve been beaten, or give other people credit when they’ve won. Despite what Mark Penn thinks, being a fighter is not near as popular as being a winner.
empty
John, you have drinking again, haven’t you
Just Some Fuckhead
He’s looking blurry isn’t he?
Blue Buddha
Yet another example as to why Maureen Dowd is completely irrelevant.
jake
I read this hours ago and I still don’t understand how it would work. Maybe I’m just getting hung up on the word “fight,” but it implies she going to waylay Obama in the cloakroom and give him noogies until he agrees to make her Veep
Notorious P.A.T.
Well said, Brachiator. You misogynist, you!
empty
Clearly you are a hilbot. Otherwise you would know you can’t put anything past her. She has probably been practicing giving noogies 24/7.
mere mortal
Well, John, I’m at a bit at a loss. An entire post with reference to the Clinton campaign, and not a single instance where you created, propagated, or applauded a negative frame in regards to Clinton.
At least there’s the comments (not your fault) where Clinton is a prostitue, scumbag, race baiter, incompetent, ugly, inept, crass, and cynical.
And this is just pathetic, in a class of its own:
I mean wow, just wow.
Rick Taylor
That was pretty much my impression; except instead of noogies, she’d show how she had the demographic groups he needed to win. I have know idea if its true, and it doesn’t make much sense to me, but what do I know about politics?
JR
“There is little that can be done to appease bitter Clinton supporters, who stew in the juices of their own self-righteousness, and feel outrage that Hillary is not universally worshiped.
And so, while Hillary should not, perhaps be attacked, she should be mocked and ridiculed at every opportunity.”
This type insult is a blowback from the Nader scapegoating wars. Replace “Clinton” with “Nader.”
Politics suck.
HRA
Brachiator has said it very very well.
There are a few points being missed here about Hillary becoming a NYS senator. We fully expected Nita Lowey to run for the Senate. Many felt there was something untoward going on in giving it to Hillary. Seeing Nita Lowey and Charles Rangel onstage with Hillary yesterday in NY only validates that old stalwart politics mindset to me and others as well. Charlie was not disturbed enough about the “hard working white people” and Nita was not ambitious enough to follow her goal to become a senator.
Hillary and Bill have made a big mistake by not bowing out after Indians and North Carolina. People are really tired of the innuendos, the slams and the whispers coming from their speeches and campaign.
qwerty42
These have both been remarkably historical candidacies; they have changed the Democratic party – and probably the Republican party as well. With the vote so close, I do not think either could have given up so easily. I haven’t liked some of HRCs choices in terms of the race for nomination, but she done a great deal in terms of the next woman to run for this. Obama has had to deal with some of the stupidest punditry – and slurs – I’ve seen. Both HRC and Obama differ only slightly in terms of their policies, so maybe the long campaign was inevitable. There is also something to be said for carrying the race to every state. Maybe Howard Dean’s “50-state strategy” requires this; certainly, there will be people involved in the election (in every state) who would not have been before and there are long-term advantages to that. All that said, I’ll be glad when it’s over.