What Hillary wants you and the Superdelegates to know about Barack Obama. Did Hillary have any political reason behind the her assassination comment. Of course, the comment fits in with her overall mind game strategy. Follow me, and be patient.
The Clinton campaign experienced strong turbulence after the Iowa loss. Clinton ran her campaign as the inevitable candidate, but suffered a crushing Iowa loss. The campaign was in turmoil and rapidly tried to devise a strategy to take Obama down.
After Obama's big win in the lead off Iowa caucuses, a reporter asked Clinton as she campaigned in New Hampshire whether she felt Obama was a phenomenon that she just couldn't overcome, no matter what she did. Clinton didn't acknowledge it publicly at the time, but months later said privately that she often thought of that question and sometimes felt it had some truth.
http://www.iht.com/...
Clinton did not appear ready to embrace her defeat, instead trying aggressively to move past it. Her advisers, echoing her stepped-up edge on the campaign trail, said they intend to turn new attention to Obama's record, questioning whether he really has achieved change.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
So the strategy at that time was to hammer away at the Obama campaign’s message while at the same time pointing out that we really did not know the new guy on the block. But, the issue based strategy did not work. So after a series of loses, a new strategy was formed deemed the kitchen sink strategy, a new hardball strategy organized by Mark Penn that included such things as
A fear-mongering TV ad that played directly to women's maternal instincts Constant public whining that the media has been unfair to her because she's a woman Goofy late-night comedy spots that also played the gender-victim card Mysterious circulation of two photos of Obama in African garb. The Drudge Report claims to have gotten one of the photos from Clinton staffers. On "60 Minutes" last Sunday, oddly disingenuous hedging by Hillary Clinton as to whether or not Sen. Obama is a Muslim. (... I take him at his word... as far as I know.)
http://usliberals.about.com/...
But, what this above list does not include is a strategy to push Obama out by playing a series of mind games targeted to convenience Obama, the Superdelegates and voters that Obama should give up. Keep following me.
The first mind game was the Commander in Chief issue, which in politics should come to be expected. So let’s focus on the second point.
The second mind game reference was the Vice President comments which were made around March 8th. This VP argument was made although Clinton previously suggested that Obama did not pass the Commander in Chief test.
Former President Bill Clinton echoed his wife on Saturday in a campaign rally in Mississippi whose primary is set on Tuesday, saying a joint ticket pairing the two would be "almost unstoppable." "I know that she has always been open to it, because she believes that if you can unite the energy and the new people that he's brought in and the people in these vast swaths of small town and rural America that she's carried overwhelmingly, if had those two things together she thinks it'd be hard to beat," he said. (as an aside, recently Clinton has said that she has not thought about being Obama’s Vice President.).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
This comment was made around the same time as the Time magazine assassination comment, which was made on March 6. This VP mind game plays on the inferiority issue. I am not suggesting here racial inferiority (although some may say it was), but that his candidacy is inferior to a Hillary Clinton campaign because as she views it, she is the better candidate.
The next mind game was the "he cannot win" comment where there was a private conversation in which Clinton allegedly said Obama could not win. The reason he could not win was never explicitly said, but most would agree as to the purported reason. He is Black. Again, a mind game. And, possibly the leaked private conversation was an intentional leak.
The next game she invoked was again a racial one regarding Obama’s supposedly lack of support among hard working white individuals.
Another statement recently was a statement regarding the legitimacy of Obama’s campaign if the delegates in Michigan and Florida are not seated.
And, finally, although said before, the possibility of an assassination. Now some may argue that she was "just making a historical reference". But, she previously made the assassination comment before and in a very similar context. In addition, there are other historical references that Hillary could have used to prove her point regarding an extended primary. And, the timing of the March statement when she originally made it to a reporter at Time Magazine was during the time her campaign instituted the kitchen sink strategy. Finally, the above mind games other than the assassination comment have been attributed as a part of the kitchen sink strategy. This fact strongly suggests that her assassination comment was in fact a part of that strategy as well. And, like other games that she has played in the past the message is clear.
What Hillary wants you and the Superdelegates to know is that the Obama campaign is a huge risk, a leap of faith because of a series of things.
- His campaign is inferior to her campaign because she is a better candidate
- She will make him a Vice President so do not worry, he will get something.
- He is Black so he cannot win and cannot get the votes of hard working whites.
- He may be assassinated before he obtains the nomination.
And, I would go as far as saying that Hillary wants Barack Obama to really think long and hard about these things too and just drop out of the race because after all who is the better candidate.
2008 Mind Games.