Clinton: People Behaving Badly, Behaving Worse

With each racial dogwhistle "misstep" of the Clinton Campaign, I have become more and more appalled.
With each new variation on basic math in terms "how to count delegates," I have become more and more puzzled.
With each new justification on why Democratic Party decisions on rules for seating delegates can be ignored (see Florida and Michigan), I have become more and more mystified.

This is not just People Behaving Badly, it's People Behaving Worse and Worse.

1. First outer Satellite Shaheen implied Obama was a drug dealer.

2. Inside the Orbiter Bill Clinton made his Jesse Jackson comments.

3. The Royal Sun herself conflated "hard-working people" with "white people."

The arguments have become more tortured and more outlandish on math and "how to seat delegate" questions. They've lost...so why are Clinton, Lanny Davis, et al they becoming more and more outrageous?

I think it's the in for a dime, in for a dollar streak in human nature.  Many people have already fucked up and been a party to things they would be ashamed of in any situation except this insane horse race.  As long as they keep going, they don't have to wake up from the dream and confront the  nightmare they became a party to.

I think there are going to be a lot of people who are ashamed of themselves, in the blogosphere (See Morgan Sandin's Rec diary about Cheers to Hillary, My DD, and Taylor Marsh), in the political consulting world, and in Hilary's close group of supporters. (Lanny Davis)

And first and formost will be Hillary Clinton herself. But not just because she did things that somewhere in her ambitious (nothing wrong with that) heart she knows are wrong.

She will also be ashamed because she blew her chance to signficantly contribute to progressive change in this country.  We Dems are a big party, but she has lost our trust in so many ways. And I do feel the loss of such an intelligent and capable woman. She has been a part of positive change for a long time, beginning in Arkansas.

The hangover is coming--and it's going to affect a lot of people.

Sorry this is short--have to run.  But I was wondering why the delusional kept getting weirder, and I think it's because they don't want to wake up in the bed of whatever bad behavior they slept with.

•  Tips for the morning after...

  by MmeVoltaire on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:04:14 PM PDT

  •  Hillary is still attacking Obama

    Here's my NEWSWEEK colleague (the indomitable) Suzanne Smalley with a dispatch from the Clinton roadshow in Oregon. Despite speculation to contrary, Suzanne reports, the candidate is actually "escalating her rhetoric" against Obama.

    At a rally in Central Point, Ore., last night, Hillary Clinton didn't leave any doubt that she's still in it to win it. She challenged Barack Obama to a debate in Portland on Friday, where they'll both be campaigning, saying she'll meet "absolutely anytime, anywhere." She stressed her knowledge of controversial local issues, saying Obama is on the wrong side of them. And she taunted Obama for talking a good game without backing it up, not unlike, Clinton said, President George W. Bush.

    "My opponent voted for legislation ... which gave more tax subsidies to the oil companies, more tax subsidies to the nuclear industry, and which took away the right of states to determine whether [liquefied natural gas] terminals would be placed along their coast. So there's a lot we should be debating about," she told a raucous crowd of about 1,000 supporters. "Back in 2000 some people voted for President Bush because he went around telling people in settings like this that he was a compassionate conservative. Nobody knew what that meant, did they? But it sure did sound good."

    http://www.blog.newsweek.com/...

    by Kitty on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:20:22 PM PDT

•  Please don't forget...

  "Obama didn't do the kind of 'spade' work necessary."

  Who the hell uses the word "spadework" instead of "groundwork?"

  Who the hell uses the word "spade" instead of shovel?

  Totally calculated...totally nasty, totally wrong.

  by David Kroning on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:08:43 PM PDT

  •  That sounded bad at the time

    but I remember reading commentary about it here that "spadework" is commonly used by political insiders. They also cited examples. I remember because it was new to me.I apologize for not knowing how to find the reference.

    by roberta g on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:24:50 PM PDT

    •  I've never heard it. Apparently, it is used

      when talking to white racists about a black presidential candidate. Given this is the first time in our history we have had a black candidate for president, how common a phrase do you think it's been in the past?

      by snackdoodle on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:37:46 PM PDT

  •  OMFG, she didn't

    by anotherCt Dem on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:25:44 PM PDT

    •  She did.

      by David Kroning on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:43:18 PM PDT

•  oh, but if it had worked, if the race-baiting

  had worked they wouldn't be ashamed at all.

  My point is these people aren't repentant they are just embarrassed to be seen for who they truly are.

  by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:09:36 PM PDT

  •  Erin...the sad part is...

    this whole thing is now out of control.  The Republicans will simply pick up where Clinton left off and do a far better job at it.

    We ain't seen nothing yet.

    by David Kroning on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:13:58 PM PDT

    •  I really don't see much left for the GOP

      Wright's a big yawn by now for most. He's been hit so hard, he can't go down any further. Now he has time to focus on his message. I don't buy that it was "good" for him in strengthening him, but I don't see the GOP daring to descend as low as HRC's camp did.

      by MmeVoltaire on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:16:04 PM PDT

      •  Oh...they will. And, we ain't seen the last of

        Jeremiah Wright.

        by David Kroning on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:17:32 PM PDT

        •  I'm sorry, please see my last diary, I still

          don't understand what the problem is with Wright.  Is wright really the father of Obama's kids?  Or is he really Obama's father?  Or, is Wright a child molester and hsa Obama been found with Wright's child porn,

          Seriously, I don't get it, he's a preacher, the whole fire & brimstone thing is not exactly shocking

          by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:19:48 PM PDT

          •  Nothing at all is wrong with Wright...

            but the Republicans will ressurect him anyway.

            by David Kroning on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:22:35 PM PDT

            •  I say bring it, then we can bring out some ultra

              conservatives evangelicals that are Pissed at GWB and the GOP for lying to them and putting blood all over their hands,

              The evangelicals can endorse Obama and "forgive" Wright and then basically endorse Wright's controversial statements by agreeing with him that God is in fact angry at the GOP and GWB like the evangelicals are

              by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:31:02 PM PDT

              •  see, you've got to be creative, focus on the

                solutions,

                what are you going to do, surrender without a fight?

                are you going to let the GOP immobilize you?

                by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:32:07 PM PDT

      •  yep, HRC provided some great oppo research free

        here's what they learned: It Didn't Work!

        by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:17:38 PM PDT

      •  This is utterly

        delusional:

        I don't see the GOP daring to descend as low as HRC's camp did.

        And you have heard of 527s.

        by david mizner on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:19:32 PM PDT

        •  but it didn't work for HRC

          how sad for them, America is not as racist as HRC and GOP hoped

          excuse me if I don't shed any tears for them

          by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:20:54 PM PDT

          •  Well

            In the GE there's a whole new electorate; we've yet to see how well race baiting attacks on Obama's patriotism and "experience" can work in 2008.

            by david mizner on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:23:29 PM PDT

            •  he can only gain, not lose

              the democrats that are going to respond to race-baiting have already done so, already plan to vote McCain.  As for republicans, would it shock anybody if they all voted republican?  As for the independants, Obama has amlost always done better with those than HRC.

              Add to all that the New Democrats, the millions of young democrats newly brought into the process By Obama . . .

              by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:28:02 PM PDT

      •  Oh, they'll sink much lower

        Just wait until the 527s really start in. Clinton was good practice, but kind of like Saruman before Sauron.

        by cadejo4 on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:20:08 PM PDT

        •  And Obama will remain the teflon candidate

          watch and prepare to be awed

          by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:21:28 PM PDT

          •  From your lips to God's ears - n/t

            by cadejo4 on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:22:10 PM PDT

            •  no, no, no, you've got it backwards, it's from

              god's lips, I'm not the only one listening!

              And, for those atheists out there: it's from the universe's lips

              by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:25:08 PM PDT

    •  no, I don't agree, that's a fear, but, I don't

      agree.  

      Look at the way Obama has run this campaign!  Look at what's he's faced and overcome.  Just think about it, he's way too good to not already be working on any problems we could be thinking up right now.

      by erin r on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:16:46 PM PDT

    •  I don't know

      I was over at Redstate earlier just to keep tabs and they seem to be lamenting the fact that all the good material is gone. Of course, they are all furious that McCain tried to stop the NC GOP with their hate ads...obviously, to them, they should have gone with it, bigger and badder than ever.

      Interstingly, the big debate over there is STILL between what they call "Fred-heads" and McCainites. The fight is still raging. Seems McCain is having a lot of problems with his base and a cursory read leads me to believe the right is decidedly NOT catching "Straight Talk" fever. Quite the opposite.

      Our dispute might be more public, but McCain is having a hell of a time uniting the Repubs behind him, even with all of his advantages.

      by kat68 on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:34:27 PM PDT

  •  If it had worked,

    They'd be able to justify it with a "means to an ends" logic--it was so important we elect HRC, and no we can do wonderful work and everyone will forget about the nastiness.

    But if you're left with no prize and no flurry of activity, you're just standing there with the slime you threw still on your hands; the slime your partners threw still spattering you (because you did not distance yourself after the slime was thrown--metaphor not QUITE working, but).

    So I think on some level I'm prepared for something even more appalling than NRC's hard-working people, white people remarks. Joe Conason has a great article asking if she's reincarnating herself as George Wallace.

    New aphorism: Desperation is the mother of atrocity.

    by MmeVoltaire on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:14:11 PM PDT

•  I don't quite understand

  this compulsive need of some--some--Obama supporters to continue to fixate on Hillary's various transgressions. I agree with many, or some, of the charges against Hillary, but it serves no one at this point to continue to pile on.

  It just comes across as classless--that diary on the rec list is ugly--and only perpetuates the division that needs to be healed for us to win.

  Help me out. Are you so hurt, so outraged, that you simply can't help yourself?

  by david mizner on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:13:39 PM PDT

  •  Gee...psychoanalyze me, whydontcha...

    as I psychoanalyze HRC and her campaign.

    I'm not fixating, I was just wondering why the hell these people, smart, capable, most of them extremely principled (in my book), were continuing to get weirder and weirder, and in HRC's case, to cross a line george Wallace wouldn't have blinked at.

    This diary was a meditation on human nature (I thought)...

    And I was wondering why so many of them couldn;t concede now that it's over.

    by MmeVoltaire on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:19:47 PM PDT

  •  We can hardly start healing the wound

    until Clinton stops gouging in it, can we?

    by cadejo4 on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:21:35 PM PDT

    •  Sure you can

      It's the responsibility of the winner to do so.

      What's the point of a diary like this, coming as it does on the backs of thousand just like it.

      by david mizner on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:24:58 PM PDT

      •  Sorry, but that makes no sense medically

        You have to remove the pathogen first. Then the wound can heal.

        by cadejo4 on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:27:21 PM PDT

      •  ouch, david

        I was really trying to puzzle out why the language and missteps seem to be getting more extreme now that, to any rational person, the race is OVER. Why these people are still in denial, and making new enemies instead of either going gracefully, or just continuing to fight in a more aboveboard manner. Why they're digging huge holes for themselves and the Dem party.

        Mitt said a few testy things, but by and large he shut up. He still has a future, and can make a contribution.

        And I do think it's because things spiraled out of control on the dirty tricks side, and they don't want it to be over because they don't want to wake up and examine themselves.

        I don't think I'm better than they are, that they are inherently flawed. And I've backed a few nasties in my time, thinking the end justified the means. I was just wondering WHY they keep going on. It was a (perhaps meaningless in your eyes) attempt to figure it out. Because it's cutting off nose to spite face territory, and that interests me.

        by MmeVoltaire on Fri May 09, 2008 at 10:16:50 PM PDT

  •  I'm interested in politics

    I'm interested in the players. If Hillary uses continued race baiting, I AM interested in it. I rarely help to put the diaries on the rec list because they are repitious, but I AM interested at what goes on out there in the political arena.

    by anotherCt Dem on Fri May 09, 2008 at 06:29:30 PM PDT