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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2008 / Just Not Seeing It

Just Not Seeing It

by John Cole|  August 7, 20085:09 pm| 36 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign

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Watching Hardball and the Situation Room a little bit ago, and the first 20 minutes at the five o’clock hour was non-stop babble about the Clinton/Obama rift that is apparently flaring up. They had some video of Hillary speaking to supporters, and tried to gin up some sort of controversy.

Let’s be clear about something here. If there is anyone appropriately situated to fly off the handle into an incoherent rage about something underhanded the Clintons have done, I think it would be me. I think I have established solid credentials in that department. So I went to First Read, fully expecting to be livid at this latest Clinton perfidy, and it just ain’t there. Watch for yourself:

I just am not seeing it, folks. The part that Hardball showed started at around 3:25, and while they may think that they saw Clinton doing something nefarious, plotting a strategy to undermine Obama, it just is not there. I saw Clinton joking around with her die-hard supporters, having a laugh and really downplaying all the zany scenarios they threw at her.

This is just the media trying to stir shit up again, and it really is unfair to Hillary. She didn’t do anything wrong, and was quite clearly trying to ramp down the expectations of her supporters and do what is best for the Democrats.

Knock it off, press.

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Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    Dreggas

    August 7, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    John, John, John. Don’t you know by now that the press is the bastard offspring of soap operas mating with the tabloids during the Lewinsky “scandal”? I mean c’mon it should be no surprise whatsoever that these people will try to stir up more shit than a worker at a sewage plant because they’re all competing for ratings which means more corporate sponsorship and money.

  2. 2.

    jake

    August 7, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Man, they’ll do anything to avoid talking about McCane.

  3. 3.

    Ted

    August 7, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Knock it off, press.

    They won’t.

    And I’m actually a bit worried about what kind of spectacle the Hillary dead-enders are going to put on in Denver during the convention. You know the press is going to cover the hell out of that and give us the ‘divided Dems’ narrative by the ton. And the dead-enders have already been trying to get their parade permit approved and set.

    Then the GOP convention will come around. And we’ll hear nary a peep about what will no doubt be a significant Ron Paul demonstration. Because the GOP is always unified.

  4. 4.

    The Moar You Know

    August 7, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    If the media were firefighters, they’d be filling the fire trucks with Jet-A.

    Fucking assholes.

  5. 5.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 7, 2008 at 5:31 pm

    The point of contention that stuck out for me was HRC telling her supporters some sort of catharsis was needed juxtaposed with Obama’s recent comment that catharsis was not needed.

  6. 6.

    Jake

    August 7, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    Hillary basically disappeared for what – a month or two? And yet, the press would continually return to this PUMA bullshit, as though it were significant. The mediots need something to talk about, and they think this is what everyone wants to tune in to.

  7. 7.

    nightjar

    August 7, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    I watched part of Hardball and heard a good point from Todd and Harwood about how most of this screeching from the dead ender Hillary supporters could be attributed to Clinton giving too much false hope that she still had a good chance to win when the race was essentially over in March. This seems about right to me.

    . She didn’t do anything wrong, and was quite clearly trying to ramp down the expectations of her supporters and do what is best for the Democrats

    The clip was smarmy self-promoting and half-ass support for Obama, IMHO>

  8. 8.

    Ted

    August 7, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    The clip was smarmy self-promoting and half-ass support for Obama, IMHO>

    I’m wondering if Bill will ever get over it and work for his own damn party finally. He must have really had his heart set on spending some more years in the White House, but this time without having to deal with all that work and shit.

  9. 9.

    Chris M

    August 7, 2008 at 5:38 pm

    I was expecting the usual Clintonish being-a-little-too-cute and pushing it, but her responses to her diehard fans in that clip were very sane and even tender. Clinton even emphasizes that this is just about people feelings. So yeah, the media still sucks.

  10. 10.

    LarryB

    August 7, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    I was going to write my standard “Hillary is evil!” rant, but I think it’s really more about marketing by now. After 16 years of anti-Clinton hate-mongering, the corporate media knows that there’s a dependable niche market for Clinton outrage stories. It sells, baby.

    Even though I was a Clinton supporter, she did stuff on the campaign trail that pissed me off. So far, I like what I see from ex-candidate Clinton. At the very least, she’s demonstrated that she can lose with style. Not everyone can say that.

  11. 11.

    Brachiator

    August 7, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    This is just the media trying to stir shit up again, and it really is unfair to Hillary. She didn’t do anything wrong, and was quite clearly trying to ramp down the expectations of her supporters and do what is best for the Democrats.

    Knock it off, press.

    I agree to a great extent, but the larger point is that what is unfair to Hillary is totally irrelevant. Bill and Hillary should both be on message now, and the message is that Obama is the candidate of the Democratic Party and should be vigorously supported.

    Even the majority of the most devoted Hillary acolytes should have had whatever time they needed to come to grips with reality.

    The media may be attempting to stir shit up. But the Clintons have expended all the ego time that they could possibly deserve.

    Consider: Jesse Jackson has self-imploded to a large degree. John Edwards is at least under a cloud because of the unfortunate and unsavory rumors circulating around him. This removes Obama surrogates from the field.

    Meanwhile, taking advantage of the recent announcement that Senator Clinton was going to campaign for Obama next week, the GOP is putting out ads in which Hillary’s past words praising McCain are now being used against Obama. If Hillary and the Democrats had half a brain, Hillary’s most recent words would have been a rhetorical kick to McCain’s ass.

    It’s not a question of whether Hillary did anything wrong. It is that she and the Democrats are not doing essential things right.

  12. 12.

    Phoebe

    August 7, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    She’s trying to make everyone happy at this stage, and the trouble is that she created a monster that she can’t make happy by anything less than fighting Obama until the bitter end.
    Yeah, she SHOULD just tell them, “It’s over it’s over, I’m supporting Obama, I’ve stopped fighting, I was fighting tooth and nail until I stopped, but now I stopped, and you need to accept that because it’s true, and I hope you come around and support him too.”
    But she wants their money and she can’t say anything to displease them, and she also can’t go back on what she’s said, so she’s in this hell of paddling around in this lukewarm bullshit of “having a voice” blah blah blah, when what those women want to know is how they can engineer a coup at the convention. She’s dodging and slipping and sliding, because the truth is not something that they want to hear, and she wants to please them.

  13. 13.

    nightjar

    August 7, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    The media may be attempting to stir shit up. But the Clintons have expended all the ego time that they could possibly deserve

    Oh, but a meaningless and divisive role call vote on the convention floor, would be sooo carthatic for her supporters (fanatics)and the democratic party. Obama is right that no catharthis is needed. All the polls show BO with solid support from all women , white or not. So what were talking about with a floor vote is more cultish nonsense in worship of the Sun Queen and her moment in that sun.

    And what Phoebe said.

  14. 14.

    DannyNoonan

    August 7, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    I’m gonna have to go the other way on this. During that clip she said: You just don’t turn it off like that.

    That statement is self-serving garbage. Clinton was told, rightly so, for months that she had no chance to catch Obama. This is a transparent excuse for her boorish behavior during the campaign and continued tantrum. The nomination was a mere formality after Obama kept Pennsylvania close in mid-April and, in all-likelihood, he secured it by narrowly losing Texas seven weeks before that (ok, even if you want to push it to the Indiana primary that’s still more than a month before she finally quit). Every pundit and politician in the reality-based world knew this. Clinton ignobly convinced herself otherwise. Detachment is not a virtue, no matter the spin from Clinton loyalists. And as much as I want her and her oversexed husband to mercifully leave us alone, last week was a pivotal moment when they could have helped Obama by stating loudly that he did not play the Race Card. Instead they remained deafening silent, except only for Bill to remind us that he’s still the victim. We know why.

  15. 15.

    Joshua Norton

    August 7, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    I guess the tire gauge babble is beginning to lose its comic value. They need something new to keep the shit stirred. They have the intelligence level of Jr. High kids telling fart jokes. Of course, these are the people who thought the “30 Minute News Hour” was comic gold.

    Someone should tell them that I’d like to bite my own fingernails, thank you very much. I don’t need them to do it for me.

  16. 16.

    johnosahon

    August 7, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    that’s why she can’t be obama’s VP, everything her and her husband would say will be against obama in the press, all this drama would overshadow obama.

    not this time.

    the idiot press is OBSESSED with the clintons, just go to ben smith’s blog, that guy needs to be in rehab.

  17. 17.

    Jake

    August 7, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    I watched part of Hardball and heard a good point from Todd and Harwood about how most of this screeching from the dead ender Hillary supporters could be attributed to Clinton giving too much false hope that she still had a good chance to win when the race was essentially over in March.

    DING DING DING DING DING!

    We have a winner folks.

  18. 18.

    Jake

    August 7, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    Check out the latest installment of stupid from Jake Tapper.

  19. 19.

    ChristieS

    August 7, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    This is just the media trying to stir shit up again, and it really is unfair to Hillary. She didn’t do anything wrong, and was quite clearly trying to ramp down the expectations of her supporters and do what is best for the Democrats.

    Knock it off, press.

    Heehee. Hell has officially frozen over. John Cole is defending her.

    I’m just kidding with you, John. I agree that this is no more than the press suffering angst because Obama’s on vacation and no major stuff is going to happen during the Olympics.

  20. 20.

    The Other Steve

    August 7, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    Hey whatever happened to myiqis2 anyway?

  21. 21.

    Chuck Butcher

    August 7, 2008 at 6:54 pm

    Hillary is being careful, a smart thing to do. If you think about it she could PO her hard core by doing either of two things, calling for trouble or just tossing them aside. Hillary’s political future depends on what she does in the next 3 months with very unpredictable people. I still don’t like her.

  22. 22.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 7, 2008 at 7:08 pm

    Hey whatever happened to myiqis2 anyway?

    He’s sewing hisself a PUMA costume for the convention in Denver. All that stitchwork by hand is very time-consuming, doesn’t leave much time for anything but crying jags and screaming at Chris Matthews on the teevee.

  23. 23.

    OriGuy

    August 7, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    Whatever they have Hillary do at the convention, and I agree she should have a significant presence, it better not interfere with Obama’s acceptance speech. I remember in 1972 when the roll call vote for VP took so long that McGovern gave the speech of his lifetime at 3 AM.

  24. 24.

    Cain

    August 7, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    He’s sewing hisself a PUMA costume for the convention in Denver. All that stitchwork by hand is very time-consuming, doesn’t leave much time for anything but crying jags and screaming at Chris Matthews on the teevee.

    What kind of material is he using? Cat fur?

    cain

  25. 25.

    nepat

    August 7, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    Let’s not get carried away here. For some smart perspective, read Al Giordano: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/greek-drama-week-begins

  26. 26.

    Incertus

    August 7, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    Say it with me: The press will do everything in its power to keep this race close.

    Pretty much every bit of bullshit that happens between now and November is predicated on that fact. The idea is to keep the low-information voter hearing in the back of his or her little mind that this is close, and that there’s some sort of dissension in the Democratic party that’s giving McCain a chance in the race. No one paying even the slightest attention will buy it for a second, but the dumbasses will.

  27. 27.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 7, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    What kind of material is he using? Cat fur?

    Poodle hair.

  28. 28.

    lurker

    August 7, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    I absolutely blame Clinton for stirring up her followers when she should have dropped out. And that’s why there is no way that I’ll donate a dime for the debt, which she mostly incurred after she had no chance of winning the nomination.

  29. 29.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 7, 2008 at 10:20 pm

    I absolutely blame Clinton for stirring up her followers when she should have dropped out. And that’s why there is no way that I’ll donate a dime for the debt, which she mostly incurred after she had no chance of winning the nomination.

    But she did have a chance, if the SD/ADs broke for her four to one after she showed them how hard-working white folks wouldn’t vote for the black man. And THAT is why she shouldn’t have any role at all in the Democratic convention.

  30. 30.

    Richardson

    August 8, 2008 at 2:28 am

    Ron Paul supporters could take over the Republican convention armed to the teeth with assult weapons, dressed as suicide bombers, and personally take McCain hostage – the media would call that “a high level of enthusiasm for the GOP”.

  31. 31.

    grandpajohn

    August 8, 2008 at 6:39 am

    Check out the latest installment of stupid from Jake Tapper.

    It strikes me as just more plain old dishonest lying by distortion and cherry picking.

  32. 32.

    HRA

    August 8, 2008 at 7:58 am

    Yes, the stupid does reign highly with the press and pundits. Of course, it is a thriving profit making business. The passes McCain is getting are not as much unbelieveable as they are sick.

    Both Bill and Hilary could have structured their inerviews a lot more better and that’s putting it mildly. They hunger for controversy and the spotlight. The press loves and devours it.

  33. 33.

    Otto Focus

    August 8, 2008 at 8:23 am

    The She-Weasel will surprise the hell out of Minister Obama’s starry eyed delusional you tube, freak monkey mindless supporters.
    There is no way in hell the the foul,scumbag clintons can afford not to win the nomination. They are backed by too much Chinese/Walmart money.
    Denver will be more fun to watch than a blind roller derby match!
    Break out the Grape Kool Aid boys and girls!

  34. 34.

    Ricky

    August 8, 2008 at 11:12 am

    NBC, as obssessed with the Clinton’s as ABC is with Negroes.

  35. 35.

    Ken

    August 8, 2008 at 12:38 pm

    Hillary Clinton will do everything in her power to see McCain is elected. Of course she won’t say it, but behind the scenes she will be directing attacks.

    Did you not see the emails that were leaked from her campaign today calling Obama unelectable. You really think this is an accident.

    They want their voice heard. Well who the fuck doesn’t. Now who is stopping her fucking voice from being heard.

    No one. She just wants to make sure Obama does not win so she can say, see I told ya so. And then run against McCain in four years.

    Clinton’s are power obsessed assholes.

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    August 14, 2008 at 8:58 am

    […] Surprise, surprise. Marc Armbinder reports that the press is ginning up the Clinton/Obama rift (just as we have all known): […]

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