Another week, another dismaying performance by Clinton and Obama. I'm thinking it's time for the grown up to come back.
I'll admit it, I'm an Edwards supporter. I voted for him on Super Tuesday even though he pulled out. I do not like Obama or Clinton. Frankly,they are both too conservative and will not take the bold steps necessary to right the sinking ship of state. Nonetheless, my sympathies have swayed between the two.
The media boys ganged up on Hillary in a vicious orgy of blatant sexism. I was secretly pleased when she won New Hampshire. I worried about Obama's notion of post-partisonship. It is naive. It is a-historical--how can anyone who observed the last 20 years think that all we need to do is to hold hands and sing kumbaya? It takes two to tango and the right wing (Joe Liberman, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, et al) will only dance if they are guaranteed to get their way. This is the MSM's definition of non-partisanship. It means that nothing will get done except around the edges and we need a bold movement. Let us not forget Obama's right wing attack on the Clinton universal health proposal particularly on the need to make the program mandatory. Social Security is mandatory because otherwise not enough people will participate to make it viable. The same is true in securing universal coverage. Harping back to right wing talking points that say the individual is more powerful than a group of people is beyond the pale. A lone individual is weak. Look at corporate America--they understand that in unity there is strength. If not, why did the oil companies merge? Why did the big banks eat up the little banks?
My sympathies continued to go toward Clinton. I cheered the SNL skit that showed the stark contrast in the treatment of the two candidates. It appeared to me that, when push came to shove, sexism triumphed over racism.
So, now we are watching the March 4th contests. Clinton pulls a Rove and let's fly a lie about Obama, Nafta, and the Canadians. The Obama campaign allows the lie to hold. She wins Ohio. Without the lie, she can not win Ohio.
This week we learned that she thinks she and McCain are the only candidates who have crossed the "threshold". She dares to suggest that she prefers McCain to Obama. She cannot give an unqualified answer to the question about whether or not Obama is a Muslim. And, oh yeah, her campaign did call the Canadians to wink at them about NAFTA.
Unfortunately, Obama's campaign is reeling from the onslaught. If he can't stand up to her, how will he stand up to the RWAM? Granted, she has given them all the fodder for an endless number of campaign commercials. But still, Obama must demonstrate that he can fight back.
Friday we get Samantha Power. Strikes me as a loose cannon on deck. What does it say about the campaign's judgment to let her out alone? Or, why didn't the campaign defend her? Compared to what Howard Wolfson's been saying, her remarks were positively tepid. If the campaign wanted to limit the damage, it failed. The blow back on this has yet to end.
The Clinton campaign, if successful, will guarantee McCain the election. The win-at-any-cost mentality will so alienate the Obama supporters that they will not vote in November. Meanwhile, the right wing loonies, thought to be too dispirited to vote and rabidly anti-McCain, will swarm the polls in order to vote against Clinton.
Obama can not withstand the attacks, Clinton can't meet her own hype. Another four years of Bush.
We need John Edwards.