Fox News has a point about Obama?
I went to sleep, and woke up in Bizarro World. I actually agree with Fox News today:
Hillary and Bill have hijacked the Denver convention, making it into a carbon copy of what it would have looked like had she won until the last possible moment. By the time Obama gets up to speak and put his stamp on the convention, Hillary will have had one prime time night all to herself. Bill will have pre-empted a second night. Hillary will have had all the nominating and seconding speeches she wants. And the roll call of the states would record, in graphic detail, how the voters of state after state rejected Obama’s candidacy in the primaries. Only then, after three and a half days of all Clinton all the time will the convention then, finally, turn to its nominee and allow him to have an hour in the sun!
And what leverage did the Clintons have to achieve all of this? None! Hillary could not have taken the convention by storm and any show of party disunity would marginalize her forever in the Democratic Party. Had she or her supporters tried to pull off distracting demonstrations or to recreate Lafayette Park in Chicago in 1968, she would have paid a permanent price among the party faithful for sabotaging Obama’s candidacy.
This Clintonian tour de force raises a key question about Barack Obama: Is he strong enough to be president or can he be pushed around? His failure to stand up to the Clintons makes one wonder how effective he will be against bin Laden, Iran, Chavez, or Putin.
Well, we’ll have a better indication in five days. You’re right, I don’t trust her. Her campaign crossed the line from calculating to lying too often, and her belittling of Obama even after it was clear he had a good chance of winning paved the way for McCain’s effective “biggest celebrity in the world” campaign. If she were the type of person who put her party’s interests ahead of her own interests, she would’ve conceded weeks earlier and we wouldn’t have been treated to the spectacle of Harold Ickes’ tantrum at the rules committee meeting. She and her campaign don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt, they’re going to have to earn that back. I don’t trust Obama either, for that matter – especially not after his calculated capitulation on FISA. Distrust of politicians is healthy.
Doing all she can to unify the party is essential to Clinton’s political future. I think you mistrust her because she’s a calculating politician. Sometimes those calculations will work to Obama’s advantage.
She’ll lead her followers out of the wilderness and into the Obama fold because that’s what she has to do in order to demonstrate and protect her political power.
You’ve ALMOST talked me down from the ledge. But it’s not anger, it’s mistrust (and it’s been earned). We all saw, among other examples, Clinton saying it was an honor to appear with Obama one day and then shouting “Shame on you Barack Obama” the next (while mischaracterizing his campaign materials). We all saw the dispute go to the rules committee and end up enraging, rather than calming, many of Clinton’s supporters. We don’t know that this is going to be some unifying moment of closure for Clinton and her supporters. Obama’s gambling that it will be. I’ll wait and see.
There’s a clear difference between hijacking the convention and getting on the program. Obama is not foolish. He knows that Bill & Hillary are still assets to the Democrats. You can’t kick party leaders to the curb–even when they’ve behaved poorly.
It may not be evident on the West Coast but Bill connects with those moderate Democrats needed to carry many states. Many women attached a great deal of symbolic importance to Hillary’s candidacy. She won a lot of votes and giving her and her delegates a moment in the spotlight isn’t out of line. Her supporters need closure after all the time and energy they put into her cause.
In civilized society strength often means being more generous and gracious that you have to be. The idea that the only way to show “strength” is to attack the other side and and leave them humiliated is the heart of Bush foreign policy. You see the limits there.
Anytime you find yourself agreeing with Fox you should worry you’re either letting your anger get the better of you or not getting enough oxygen to the brain. Step outside and take a deep breath. Or, ready a funny comic–that’s what I do.