Hillary has a problem, a big problem. In fact, it is such a big problem that it is likely to have already cost her the nomination. Her problem, in a nutshell, is that the only way she can effectively neutralize Sanders’ policy proposals is to lie about them, and in so doing reinforcing the public’s perception of her as being dishonest.
She has already tried personal attacks and seen them backfire. She insinuated that Bernie was a sexist one week, and the following week insinuated that he was a racist. There was immediate backlash in the media over both incidents and Bernie saw his fundraising get a boost. Though, in all fairness, she made these insinuations in ways that provided plausible deniability that she was speaking about Bernie.
The same is not true regarding her recent attacks regarding Bernie’s position on guns and on health care. First on guns, she continues to cynically try to position herself to Bernie’s left on the one issue on which she could possibly do so. But the least she could so is be honest about their respective positions … OK, apparently not. Meanwhile, in 8 short years, Hillary has evolved from Annie Oakley wistfully remembering the joys of being a young girl knocking canvasbacks from the sky to being the NRA’s biggest problem … ummm, whatever Hillary.
But it is in the healthcare arena that her mendacity truly shined these past few days. Her attempt to spread FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt - regarding Bernie’s proposal for a single payer health care system will be the giant Pinocchio lie that undoes her campaign for the presidency. She has gone from spouting Republican talking points about the tax cost while ignoring the savings in medical costs, to outright fearmongering, dishonestly implying that people’s healthcare would be at the whim of Republican governors, and even more disgustingly, that Bernie intends to do away with Medicare, the ACA, Child Health insurance, etc. WITHOUT MENTIONING that is is being replaced with guaranteed healthcare with no premiums or deductibles.
Not only is this outright demagoguery, it is also so transparently dishonest on such a high profile issue that it cannot help but hurt Hillary’s already dismal reputation for being willing to tell self-serving lies and half-truths. Just the area where her image needs some rehabilitation is the one where she further destroys her own credibility.
As a bit of an aside, in the runup to bu$h II’s illegal attack on Iraq, I noticed that the administration was claiming that a shipment of aluminum tubes were intended to be used for centrifuges as part of Saddam’s attempts to refine the fictitious yellowcake uranium reported on by Joe Wilson. Now it turns out that a few months earlier I had read a short column in the news regarding these same tubes. The article noted that according to the CIA, there was no significant concern regarding these tubes because they were anodized, making them highly problematic for use in a centrifuge, but perfect for missile bodies - the purpose for which the Iraqis claimed they were purchased. Knowing this, and then seeing the bu$h administration lying about the tubes was enough to convince me that they were making up excuses to go to war. If they needed to resort to lying about their evidence, then they had no real case to begin with.
I see the same dynamic in play here with Team Hillary. If the best they can come up with is based on lying about Sanders’ positions, then they “got nothing.” And considering that there are three full weeks between now and the caucuses, and considering that this blatant dishonesty is being called out already, and will only be called out more in the days that come, I see Hillary not only losing the lead in Iowa, but losing significant support. Folks there take their politics seriously. Any who care to be involved are up on the issues. People KNOW that universal health care is better than what we now have. They also don’t appreciate it when politicians insult their intelligence by trying to blow smoke up their ass. And in this particular instance they know that there is no possible way that this was an innocent mistake on Hillary’s part. There are few people in the US who have delved as deeply into healthcare policy as Madam Secretary.
Now of course, Hillary isn’t about to concede the election. And she will quite likely stick it out for as long as she did in 2008, but she is done. Bernie’s proposals are too popular with the Democratic electorate for her to get much traction running against them. And her once seemingly unassailable lead has all but vanished. Yes, the body will keep functioning for months, but this past week was when it received the mortal blow, self-inflicted. To paraphrase a recently “departed” Kossack, “The Clinton Campaign is Imploding.”