Friday, March 07, 2008

The Upmost in Luxury Blood

Okay, I'm calmed and heavily medicated so I think I'll take another shot at this. Samantha Powers makes an off-the-record comment about Sen. Clinton that included the description of 'monster'. The reporter Mrs. Powers was talking to worked for The Scotsman newspaper. Quote gets published, Sen. Clinton gets mad and suddenly Sen. Obama is without one of his top aides.
Now all of these events come after Sen. Clinton has declared war on Sen. Obama by preparing a 'kitchen sink' offensive against the black Senator. Sen. Clinton placed her approval on an ad by a 502 group that actually digitally darkened Sen. Obama. The ad played in Ohio and apparently, through the exit poll, we come to find that race played an important role in how people decided to vote. This ad comes after weeks of the Clinton campaign whining about their press coverage, blaming everything from the caucus system of the Democratic party to sexism and the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' to lessen the appearance of weakness in their campaign. And now Sen. Clinton is giving talking points to Sen. McCain by claiming that Sen. Obama lacks the expertise of a commander-in-chief.
I never really bought the argument that Sen. Clinton would take her party to the brink of destruction for her own ambition. I simply considered that a rightist talking point. But after witnessing Sen. Clinton get all huffy about campaign fliers and such on tv and then playing coy during the last debate, it's obvious that Sen. Clinton doesn't have the balls to say such destructive things to Sen. Obama's face. So she lacks the ability to speak her mind to someone when they are present but is willing to throw as many knives as she can when they aren't looking. Sen. Clinton has shown a complete lack of grace and civility throughout her campaign, particularly when it has come to acting with some goddamn common sense. Giving the Republicans talking points and basing her platform around ideas and ideology such as experience and her being a fighter only serves to weaken her against a candidate like Sen. McCain. If you want to talk about experience then he has it. If you want to talk about the ability to lead as commander-in-chief then he blows Sen. Clinton out of the water. The longer this primary season goes on the more Sen. Clinton looks and talks like a Republican. So essentially Democrats have a choice of either voting for a real liberal in Sen. Obama or a fake Republican in Sen. Clinton. And if Sen. Clinton does win the nomination then why would the electorate vote for a fake Republican when they have a real one they can vote for instead?
I'm not tired of this primary season but I am tired of the Clinton campaign getting away with bullshit in the same way the Bush administration has. No one is willing to step up and say that Sen. Clinton has slandered and attacked Sen. Obama unfairly. The mainstream media has gone quiet because they are afraid of the Clintons, just as they are afraid of the Bush administration. So we now have a situation where a candidate is allowed to say whatever she wishes and those who have the audacity to question her are clearly sexist, right-wing Clinton haters. It boils my blood to see the media so weak. After years of living with the Bush administration one would think the media would rather do their jobs than continue to act as if their careers depended on the good graces of Senators.
At this point, I have to believe that Sen. Clinton will win the nomination but in such a way that disenchants the African-American electorate, the youth electorate and the progressive electorate. Moreover, I think women voters will finally see how the Clinton machine has run roughshod over their supporters when serious women's issues come up and Sen. Clinton quickly runs to the most politically favorable position, or concedes the entire issue to the Republicans, just to maintain her power. It happened to gay supporters with Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. Whenever push has come to shove the Clinton's have caved every time. Even when an important vote cam up in the Senate recently on telecom immunity Sen. Obama was there to cast his vote while Sen. Clinton was out campaigning still. So much for taking her responsibilities seriously. I believe another Clinton presidency will be the end of the party of Jefferson as we know it. The youth vote will either stop turning out or turn to third parties. The black vote will stay home knowing that the Democrats care about them just as much as the Republicans do. Women will get shafted and be told to be thankful for it. The working class will wonder what happened to those five million jobs they were promised. Our military will not leave Iraq in a year or four years. And we will witness a resurgence of a Republican party that has not learned the lessons of the last decade, will attack and stall Clinton at every turn, and probably do their damnedest to see her impeached, particularly if those tax returns have a few scandelous gems in them.
Thus ends a nearly two hundred year old party, thanks to the Clinton campaign. The politics of hope once again will be trashed and tarnished by the politics of fear, the same politics of the Bush administration. And the baby boomers will have their one last hurrah before the next president who was not born during that period comes along and not only says things have to drastically change but will actually do something about it. Sen. Obama could qwell the generational war brewing, but that kitchen sink will probably prevent smart decisions from coming to pass. The age of the baby boomer politics is over, but of course the boomers will hold on to the handles of power with all their might. Too bad really, since it's my generation that will wrest their grip away. And it won't be pretty.

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