I guess I should stop being in a constant state of amazement about every little thing Bill or Hillary says these days, but once again, the Clinton campaign is showing tremendous chutzpah. In South Dakota this weekend, Bill is making the argument that he's never seen a candidate disrespected like Hillary has been. Well, I've never seen anyone disrespect our intelligence, our math skills, and our memory as much as this campaign.
Does he not remember the 2000 election? Does he not remember how his own Vice President was branded as a serial liar and chronic exaggerator? The media decided that Al Gore couldn't tell the truth, and pushed many stories, true or not that reinforced that meme. When discussing how a constituent pointed him to an environmental problem at Love Canal he said "That was the one that started it all". The good old liberal media quoted him as saying "I was the one who started it all". Sure they ran a correction the next day, but it was on page 22. The damage was done. The media just loved the characterization that Gore was a lying, self-important windbag who sighed during debates. Oh, and he invented the internet in his garage.
A mere four years later, the Democrats had another front-runner for the nomination who was exciting young and first time voters. His name was Howard Dean. Do Bill and Hillary not remember Howard Dean? They should... they fought tooth and nail to keep him from heading up and succeeding as the DNC chair. If they had (or assumed that we had) memories that went back more than 5 months, they might remember that the media single handedly killed Howard Dean's campaign. Is that not disrespectful? Sure, his trip through the 50 states speech was a bit cringe-worthy (especially when he started repeating them), but have other candidates not had their cringe momements? As an Edwards supporter ('04 and '08), I cringed at every "son of a mill worker" mention. I sure as heck felt awkward last year when Hillary started talking like a 1930's Hollywood caricature of a poor black woman. But with Howard Dean, one cringe-worthy moment was enough to reinforce their neat little storyline about just how angry that anti-war nutcase was. His candidacy was over. The media made sure of it. That's disrespect.
I'm still puzzled about what slings and arrows Hillary has endured. I will not deny that there has been some sexism out there on the campaign trail. Most notably, in my opinion, was when McCain was presented with a softball question from an obnoxious supporter. She asked "How do we beat the bitch in November?" McCain's answer was "Good question" and a laugh, missing a great opportunity to denounce that kind of sexism and language and disrespect. I'm still looking for evidence that Obama has disrespected her, but aside from calling a random jounalist "sweetie" and then apologizing on his own volition, I've got nothing. It would seem then, that Bill is refering to the Media.
Yes, Chris Matthews can be a douche-bag. That's no secret. But aside from his idiocy, the general storyline that the media may be guilty of pushing is that the math cannot work for Hillary. That is not disrespect! It's math! An we're not even talking about irrational numbers here. This race was over after Obama's 11-0 run and Hillary's failure to score decisive delegate victories in Texas and Ohio. Pointing this out is not disrespect. It's just math. And not even the math that you learn in the elite, ivory towers of Harvard and Yale. It's addition and addition's tricky pal, subtraction.
If Bill and Hillary want to see disrespect of a candidate, I suggest they take a very short trip down memory lane.
Update: removed disrespectful "Billary" term to avoid being a hypocrite.