When you can’t win what do you do? Join them?
Not in the Clinton school of politics. You try and drag them down in the mud with you.
That’s why we’ve seen charge; after charge; after charge against Bernie this week.
The problem is the charges just aren’t true. They’re nasty; and they are a panicked attempt to have Bernie dragged down to the mud with Clinton. I’ve had Hillary Supporters admit it to me.
Hillary supporters have been tip toing around here last couple of months as not to “ offend” Bernie supporters. When Hillary pushed back forcefully, which she had not done before. when her surrogates, i.e. Bill DeBlasio, Barbara Boxer, Howard Dean, Al Franken et al. came out forcefully yesterday. When the Washington Post Fact Checkers gave Bernie 3 Pinnochios, , when other fact checkers backed Hillary, Guess what? that was our green light to start pushing back and standing up for her on this site.
But this isn’t just about standing up or pushing back. It’s about dragging Bernie’s name through the mud. Because they feel that’s the only way they can win when dealing with a candidate who has such net favorable numbers. And that’s not ok. Let’s take a look at attacks.
1. Bernie is wrong and has gone extremely uncharacteristically negative when he defends those who say Hillary has accepted oil money because it’s just coming from employees of oil companies. He has lost his moral high ground because of it. Ok — then why did Hillary herself say the same thing of Obama back in 2008?
Which is it? Is accepting money from oil companies wrong or right? Because Hillary said it was wrong in 2008. Mind you this is a official campaign ad. Not a PAC. The Diaries that respond to this are dirty and negative beyond anything that Hillary or Bernie have done on the campaign trail; and they are extreme smears on Bernie and his name/brand of a almost republican level. It’s not ok.
2. Bernie is a loser because his wife does his tax returns. Why hasn’t he released them yet? What is he hiding? Do I even need to explain how sexist this diary is? It got on the recommended list. Jesus Christ DailyKOS. This is a absolute smear diary of the worst kind. Who cares if his wife does his taxes? Why are you saying she is stupid and incompetent? Why are you implying she isn’t capable of doing them. This is absolutely disgusting. The tax return “hiding” is a massive red herring. It has nothing to do with any of the issues. It’s just another way to try and make Bernie look bad and drag his name and that of his wife through the mud.
3. Bernie is a thief and hates democracy because of the events in the Nevada Caucuses. Never mind that Bernie personally really has absolutely nothing to do with this. Never mind that it is not his fault that Hillary supporters didn’t show up when they have to. The amount of lies spread over this single event by opportunistic Hillary Supporters is disgusting. Flat out proclaiming that the Bernie campaign sent out fake fliers and lied to Hillary Supporters; when that wasn’t the case. Saying that a lawsuit was in order. The facts remain the facts. Bernie and his supporters on the ground did not do anything wrong. The caucus system is flawed but so was the Arizona primary. It’s ok and perfectly acceptable to get angry about voter disenfranchisement. It’s not ok to lie and call a presidential candidate a enabler of it just to make him look bad.
4. Bernie is a “deceiver” because of a response he gave on process to Rachel Maddow in a interview. The interview response is such a non-issue I don’t know why I even have to address it. Bernie; who has none of the advantages that Hillary has when it comes to ground game; local party support; surrogates; brand-name recognition; and media coverage states that he had limited resources to spend in those southern states where Hillary did well. And guess what. It’s true. Bernie does have limited resources. This wasn’t a lie or deception. This was sour grapes. And once again a attempt to run Bernie’s name through the muck.
5. Bernie needs to “change his tone” if he wants a debate. The one that started it all. Maybe it was that signal that I was hearing about so much. The Clinton campaign can’t let Bernie get free time on the air. Every time he does people like him more and more. Of course Hillary debating Bernie is a lose-lose situation for her. If I were a politician; I would’t do it either. But she can’t say that for some reason. So she has to make something up. And it may be the first shot in the whole ordeal. The insinuation are that Bernie’s tone has somehow change. Maybe that he has been corrupted. He hasn’t. He’s saying the same exact thing he’s been saying since he started his campaign.
The biggest issue with all this attempt to paint Bernie with a dirty brush is that you have to do it yourself. Generally when these things work they work because the candidate does it to themselves. Bernie’s too clean for that. Beyond that nobody who support him is being swayed by this. Their being alienated by this by an extreme amount.
These tactics aren’t new either. Hillary and her supporters and political operatives on this site and offsite did the exact same thing to Obama in 2008 and it proved to be a massive mistake that did permanent damage to her favorability. Hillary and her surrogates and supporters are making the exact same mistakes that they did in 2008; and I think that just like then if she makes it to a general election; it will hurt her.
These tactics don’t need to be used. The language does not need to be this inflammatory. You don’t need to lie about the other candidate to win just to make him look bad. Not on DailyKOS. The truth speaks for itself and the truth here is you are all coming off like a bunch of sore-winners/losers and very unprofessional. It is not befitting of the Democratic Party or this site.
I would like all those; Hillary Supporters and Bernie Supporters, who are against these kinds of dirty politics to band together and reject these kind of diaries. They are unbecoming of who we are as people and they are flat out wrong.