Hillary Clinton is an accomplished woman, exceptionally bright, and very hard working. I think she's done a terrific job in raising her daughter Chelsea under trying circumstances. On a personal level behind closed doors, she can be warm and humorous.
Hillary also has a fairly good Senate record. Most of her votes are in tune with progressive America. Hillary also was a brilliant lawyer, truly a great legal mind. She has done many wonderful things for this country and I hope she will continue to do so as a Senator and former First Lady.
Given this impressive background, enormous name recognition, and an unlimited piggy bank financed by the special interests, Hillary should have been a shoo in to not only easily win the Democratic nomination but to win the general election as well.
But she's about to lose NH by double digits (about 16 points), and then SC, Nevada, Florida, and most states on Super Tuesday, possibly even New York. And she only has herself and her advisors to blame.
I saw Hillary run for the Senate in 2000. New Yorkers basically drafted her and supported her through thick and thin. Back then she ran a terrific campaign based on the issues with positive rhetoric and ended up beating a faux moderate congressman named Rick Lazio by ten points. She was charming, endearing, and went out and earned votes. She earned mine. If you had asked me on November 1, 2000 who my first choice for President would have been in 2008, I would have told you Hillary Clinton.
But the Hillary of 2008 is not the Hillary of 2000. That's why I won't support her in the primary.
Somewhere along the line, Hillary made a decision to abandon some of her core principles and cast votes not based on her principles but based on what she thought would make her "more electable" in 2008. Her votes on Iraq and Iran were part of the old Washington game of giving yourself political cover by having votes on all side of an issue so you can argue one way or the other depending on which way the wind was blowing x number of years down the road. Her capitulation to the same HMOs that ran ads against her in 1993 was designed to raise money for a presidential run. Somewhere inside of her I know she hates herself for doing this because she genuinely knows better and IS better. Her desire to please the Washington Cocktail Party Elitists overtook her common sense. Gore hated himself for doing this prior to 2000 before his epiphany and John Edwards hated himself for doing this in 2002 and 2003 before he too had a genuine inner transformation. Both men realize that such a strategy keeps tens of millions of Democratic voters home and gives Republicans narrow wins or close losses.
Hillary should have known better. Mark Penn, the "genius" who runs her campaign thinks that the way to win is through carefully crafted, micromanaged soundbites mixed in with unfair Rovian attacks on your opponents. In the world of Mark Penn, "winning" trumps principles and "winning" trumps decency or people. So Mark Penn as he almost always does, has run the most incompetent campaign imaginable. (Expect Bill Clinton to step in this week and have him fired within the next 120 hours.) The good news for us is that this is a primary. If Penn (or Shrum or Brazille) is in anyway involved in running a national campaign, we lose because these people want Republicans to win, not us. So we should all thank Mark Penn for losing now.
What HRC and Penn do not realize is that times are very different. 2008 is nothing like 2004. Five major events have dramatically changed America. Those 5 events are Terri Schiavo, Hurricane Katrina, The Housing Collapse, $3 Gas, and Where's Osama. And people now spot the BS.
Terri Schiavo awoke Americans to the fact that the Republican Party is controlled by people who are just like the Taliban. And that scared them.
Hurricane Katrina awoke Americans to the fact that Republicans don't care about people. And that angered them. The Housing Collapse and $3 Gas awoke Americans to the fact that Republicans suck on the economy. And that concerned them. And Where's Osama awoke Americans to the fact that Republicans are truly disastrous on foreign policy issues because even Mr. Magoo could capture Bin Laden if given 7 years to do so.
So now the electorate is poised to begin a new era where the Washington Cocktail Party Elitists, the uber wealthy corporate interests, and Washington insiders can rot in hell while the rest of us fix this nation. Voters want real change. Voters want candidates to tell it to them straight even if they disagree with you from time to time. Voters are tired of people running campaigns based on a bunch of sound bites that Frank Luntz or Mark Penn dreamt up by speaking to 12 people in a room on some Tuesday Night. Voters want somebody to stand up for the middle class even if it means stepping on some toes.
John Edwards and Barack Obama get this.
Had Hillary abandoned the insiders and run the campaign she ran in NY in 2000 from her heart, she would have won Iowa and been on the way to winning the Democratic nomination and becoming the next President of the United States. But she chose a different path against her true inner fiber and will one day wake up and regret that decision wholeheartedly.
She chose to continue down the path of Shrum, Brazille, Penn, and other Beltway losers where you try to muddy the differences and hope you end up on the winning side of the 51 percent straw. She chose to smear Obama's 100% pro choice record and now her campaign is attacking the family of Natalie Sarkisyan. She chose wrong.
As a result, she is now perceived by people (even those who agree with her most of the time) as calculating, dishonest, and a person who will say or do anything to win. She can thank Mark Penn for that image but at the end of the day, she only has herself to blame. Shakespeare couldn't write this tragedy but she is living it. And I know she is so much better than this.
Want to know why Hillary is about to implode in New Hampshire, lose Nevada, lose South Carolina, lose Florida and get crushed on Super Tuesday? Bookmark this diary and reread it again in a month.