Hideous Clinton

Well now....I was all set to wake up this fine morning and write an uplifting piece about what an inspiring and historical event the night of June 3, 2008 was. For the first time in this troubled nation's history, the people had decided to place their trust in an African American and nominate him as the standard bearer for the oldest political party in the world. For all its tumultuous racial history, the very thought that such a thing could possibly happen is a testament to the innovative and progressive heart that has always been the core (if at times faltering) of the American experiment. I was even prepared to offer a tip of the hat to Senator Hillary Clinton. Surely, I thought, as the waning hours of 2008's final primary ticked away into historical oblivion, and it became obvious that Barack Obama's victory was beyond question, she would, for the sake of the country she claims to love so well, do the right thing and concede to the inevitability of the moment.

From "The Rant", Tuesday, 15 March 2008:

"Has it occurred to you yet what a phony and contemptible bitch this woman is? I was just wondering."

For those who have not had the time to pay attention (life is hectic, I know) let me explain to you as concisely as I am able to what is now happening happening to the party of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The junior senator from New York is determined to hurl Senator Obama's candidacy over a cliff this November. The fact that another four years of GOP control of the executive branch of our incalculably damaged government will destroy this country beyond recognition matters not a bit to her. The only thing Hillary Clinton cares about is Hillary Clinton.

Her motivations here are as obvious as they are despicable. She is determined to destroy Barack's chances to live in the White House on January 20, 2009 so she can have a go at it in 2012. If there is anyone out there reading this who is involved in the Clinton campaign, please show her the following paragraph:

She is never going to be president of the United States. She is not even going to be re-nominated for her senate seat four years from now if she refuses to get with the program really soon. There are a lot of extremely angry progressives here in the state of New York who will see to that. Count on it.

All one has to do is to look at the disastrous way her campaign was run to see what a nightmare a second Clinton administration would have been for America. One historic blunder after another and they expected us to trust that they would have their act together by next January 20? And all of those pathetic excuses! As detailed in this morning's New York Daily News: her rivals were "piling on" her; the media was unfair to her; the debates were unfair to her. My personal favorite is that she was a victim of sexism. Oh, pahleeez! The reason I have been dead set against her run for the White House from the day she announced her candidacy has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that she is a woman. It is because the name of the woman in question is Hillary Rodham Clinton. As I wrote recently, had her name been Eleanor Holmes Norton, a person whom I admire more than anyone in this doomed country - man or woman, black or white - I would today be working and writing overtime for her campaign. The hell with Barck Obama! My opposition to her candidacy from the beginning no more made me a sexist than my support for John Edwards over Obama early in this process made me a racist.

In the autumn of 2002, she blew the most important vote she will ever make in her life when she gave the murderous little thug in the Oval Office the authority to invade the sovereign nation of Iraq sans the constitutionally mandated congressional approval. It was a classic no-brainer that merely required a modicum of political courage - but she had her eye on the 2008 elections. She had to prove that she was as homicidal as any man. To this day, she refuses to admit that her vote on Iraq was a dreadful mistake. She doesn't have the judgement to be a senator from the great state of New York. And now she wants to be president of the United States??? She seriously needs to be heavily medicated and gently carted away from the political limelight in a wheelchair.

She walked into this primary expecting a coronation. During the course of the contest, there seemed to be no depth to which she wouldn't sink in order to slander and malign a man who insisted on remaining positive throughout. He assembled one of the most impressive and thoughtful campaign organizations since Jack Kennedy's Irish Mafia forty-eight years ago. Unlike Senator Clinton, Barack Obama has not resorted to pandering to the lowest common political denominator. She has never tired of saying that she and John McCain have years of experience between them and that all Barack has is "a speech". That December 2002 speech was an appeal to the Bush Mob that they not commit the worst military blunder in American history by invading Iraq. When the invasion commenced three months later, she cheerfully and stupidly cheered Bush on. Over one-million dead men, women and little children later....

This cannot be emphasized enough: sending a second Clinton administration to Washington next year would have been sheer insanity. Nominating her as vice-presidential candidate would have been political suicide. Nothing would better motivate the jackasses on the far right to come out en masse, salivating like Pavlov's dogs, than having the name "Hillary Clinton" on the ballot. Remember all of those silly Republican talking points that they have been spouting for over two two years now?

"Wooooahhh! She's gonna be tough to beat!"
"Ooooohhhh! We're sure scared of her!"
"HILLARY CLINTON??? WE'RE DOOOOMED!!!"

She was endorsed by Rupert Murdoch. She was endorsed by Richard Mellon Scaife. Rush Limbaugh urged his clueless Republican listeners to vote for her in states where cross filing is legal. Her interview with Bill O'Riley on FOX News was a virtual love fest/mutual admiration society. It was obvious that the GOP was just drooling to run against her. Why? Because they know damned well that she is unelectable and that America is sick of the Clintons. And let us not forget the undeniable truth that both she and her husband set progressive politics in this country back a half a century. Why send it back to the stone age?

Another complaint of the Clintonistas is that they were outspent by Barack Obama. Well, yeah, they were. The reason they were outspent is because more regular people - a whole hell of a lot of them - donated their hard-earned money to the Obama campaign. He didn't have to rely on corporate America and well-connected lobbying groups to keep the fight going. It was a grass roots effort, the likes of which is unparalleled in the history of the American electoral process. What we have here is a People's Movement. Just look at the excitement his candidacy has inspired in people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five! What has been so depressing in the last thirty-six years is the utter indifference that the young have shown toward all matters political. Not since George McGovern's one bright, shining moment in 1972 have they seemed to show any interest in affairs of state. The excitement of 2008 is more palpable than it has been in a very, very long time. The train is moving and it's not going to stop. Get out of the way.

With a wink and a nod to Uncle Bobby Zimmerman, the times they are a'changin'. As was the case with the inauguration of Jack Kennedy in 1960, "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans", This time, though, that new generation was born in the second half of the twentieth century. That both Bill and Hillary are in extreme denial there can be little doubt. The two of them actually believed they could walk away with this thing and they just can't accept the fact that they no longer control the Democratic party. The success of Barack Obama's glorious quest for the presidency depends on the healing of that party. They cannot continue this charade. If you seriously believe that he can win in November with two wings of the party at each other's throat, I would only ask that you look back to Hubert Humphrey and the convention of 1968. Need I elaborate? I didn't think so.

Bill and Hillary, you need to wake up and face the inevitable and undeniable fact that every era must come to an end. The Clinton Era is over. You are now living in the Age of Obama. Adjust.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:
A few months ago, our local newspaper, The Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record (or the Times Herald-Wreckage, as I'm starting to call it), was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's company. As I expected would happen, that paper's popular and much-loved progressive columnist, Beth Quinn, was fired this week. So much for freedom of the press.