She's not evil.
She's not racist.
She's not trying to destroy Obama to help McCain win so she can run again in 2012.
You all want to know what she's doing?
She's running the only campaign she can possibly run and have a chance.
Back towards the beginning, she figured name recognition, a semi-revisionist view of Clinton's presidency and his steady popularity would let her coast into the General Election after Super Tuesday without a problem. Her confidence was apparent in every interview and in every debate, and it seemed as if nothing could take away her "inevitability."
Let's fast forward to the present and examine what happened.
It's pretty clear to me that the Clinton Campaign is running how it feels it NEEDS to run to win. They're not running the race they want to run. I don't care what people think, the Clintons are not racist and evil. They simply are running out of valid messages to run on.
Think of it this way. Obama represents hope and change. He's bringing thousands of new voters into politics and is energizing his base like no other politician in my lifetime (27, not too old), and very few politicians in national political history. Those in camp Obama are dedicated. They believe in Obama, but what's more, they believe in his movement, in his message.
For Clinton, it's the same thing (her supporters believe in her message and in her as well), but the problem lies with the raw numbers. It will be all but impossible for Clinton to peel Obama's supporters away from him. They're with Obama not just based on policy, not just based on campaign promises, but on the overall message he represents. And he's drawn so many new voters.
So, it's going to be nigh impossible for Clinton to out-Obama Obama. She can't possibly be a "Me, too" candidate against Obama and take support away from him. She has to draw distinctions, has to run on other things, and above all, has to target OTHER demographics, ones which are not so strongly pro-Obama.
She focuses on her base, obviously, but she needs to attract other voters as well. Her own supporters are logistically not enough. She targets people who don't support Obama, she pounces on his verbal mistakes and tries to turn voters against him. She focuses on people who are, possibly, less educated in politics than others (like my sister, who still insists Obama's "unamarican" because of that stupid 'Pledge of Allegiance' picture).
And why the hell wouldn't she? It's a freakin' presidential election.
The bottom line is that Clinton is doing what she feels she must to win. You may not like it, I certainly don't like what I feel are racially charged undertones in certain aspects of the campaign, but we shouldn't make the mistake of despising Clinton, or thinking she's racist and hate-filled. She's targeting the demographics that she can attract.
If (probably when) Obama secures the nomination, I fully expect BOTH Clintons to get behind him 100%. Not only if he offers her the VP spot, or if he helps pay off her debt, but unequivocally.
And should Clinton manage to secure the nomination, she's not going to be a Republican in Democratic clothing. She's not going to be our enemy. Clinton has long been a friend to Democratic policies, and she's leaps and bounds better than McCain.
Yes, she should run a nicer campaign. No, she shouldn't allow racially charged campaigning to be done in her name. It'd be great if she disavowed all of those things, but it's politics. It'd be nice to be able to remain completely dedicated to principles, but the fact is there's a lot more at stake this time around than that. The country cannot handle another 4 years of Republican rule.