posted
Hillary's vicious attacks on Obama threaten to hand victory to the Republicans By PHILIP DELVES BROUGHTON - More by this author » Last updated at 23:31pm on 17th April 2008
Comments Comments (1) Hillary Clinton
Stubborn: Hillary Clinton will not concede to Obama Are Americans unusually stupid? What other reason could there be for them considering electing another Republican, John McCain, after the fiasco of George W. Bush?
These are the questions torturing America's liberals as they face the prospect of losing a presidential election they should have won at a walk.
It was also the title of an article in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper delivered to the doorsteps of some of the country's most Left-wing households.
But a few minutes watching the latest debate between the Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on Wednesday night told you that Americans may not be quite so dumb after all.
Both candidates seemed testy, petty and thoroughly mediocre. No wonder the voters are losing faith.
Obama's campaign magic, so refreshing in January and February, has ebbed with each exhausting day.
Meanwhile, Clinton is refusing to leave an election she has scant chance of winning.
She has become the Veruca Salt of American politics, the spoiled little rich girl in Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory who screamed at Willy Wonka: "I don't care HOW. I want it NOW!"
Their duel has turned into a political Battle of the Somme, with each side advancing a few feet through the mud, only to be forced back again, suffering pointless casualties.
On major policy issues, there is almost no light between the candidates - both want to pull out of Iraq and raise taxes - so it has become nothing but a vicious personal battle.
For McCain, the Democrats' civil war is perfect, giving him time to raise money and support for the presidential fight ahead. He has travelled overseas and across America, seeming more presidential by the day.
It is still mathematically possible for Clinton to win the nomination, but only in the sense that a team 8-0 down against Manchester United with ten minutes to go still has a chance to win.
First, she would have to win by colossal margins in the few remaining primary elections, starting in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, to bring her share of the popular vote within range of Obama's.
The polls are predicting she will win on Tuesday, but not by enough.
Then she would have to convince her party's leaders to overrule the votes cast in the earlier primary elections, which in principle they could through the use of superdelegates, but only at a terrible cost to party unity.
For her to go that far would be an act of grotesque political narcissism.
Then again, we're talking about the Clintons, for whom no political Houdini act, however brazen, is ever beyond consideration. Recall how Bill Clinton had oral sex in the Oval Office with an intern, lied about it under oath and then with a straight face blamed his political opponents for stitching him up.
The couple's game has always been to stick at it until the critics and opponents tire out and go home. Then start afresh the next day.
Hillary Clinton is certainly drawing strength from the sight of Obama beginning to buckle after such a debilitating campaign.
Last week, he scored an own goal when he told a group of Californian supporters that voters in Pennsylvania were "bitter" about losing their jobs and that they "clung to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations".
Clinton called the remarks "demeaning", "elitist" and "out of touch".
Throughout this long Pennsylvania primary, Clinton has seized every chance to embarrass Obama for his snootiness.
He has looked acutely uncomfortable in his ties and pristine white shirts drinking beer in a sports bar, buying cheese balls in a supermarket and bowling.
Clinton, on the other hand, has gleefully downed whisky shots and talked up her family's working class roots.
Even as it emerged that she shares a multi-million pound fortune, earned mostly by Bill since leaving the White House, she depicted herself as the heroine of America's working white men and women.
Obama is also still struggling to distance himself from his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who frequently used his pulpit in Chicago to blame America and white people for the woes of blacks.
During Wednesday evening's debate, Obama was asked by one voter: "Do you believe in the American flag?"
Obama, unlike many other politicians, refuses to wear a flag pin in his lapel. "I revere the flag and I would not be running for President if I did not revere this country," he replied.
Nonetheless, there are serious and growing doubts about Obama's candidacy which did not exist in January when he was thrilling crowds with his lofty rhetoric.
Clinton has said all along that the Republicans would make mincemeat of Obama. But instead, she is doing it for them.
"I have a lot of baggage, and everybody has rummaged through it for years," Clinton said on Wednesday. "And so, therefore, I've an opportunity to come to this campaign with a very strong conviction and feeling that I will be able to withstand whatever the Republican sends our way."
This may not be true, given how Hillary nearly overwhelmed her own campaign with new piles of baggage.
The worst was her claim to have dodged sniper fire on a visit to war-torn Bosnia in 1996.
She told the story of her plane coming down in a corkscrew to avoid flak, and of her having to run to her car to dodge the bullets. It was supposed to glamorise her and make her credible as a wartime leader.
But then a video surfaced of Hillary's visit to Bosnia.
There she was, ambling off her plane with Chelsea by her side, meeting children on the Tarmac, being presented with flowers, with not even the faintest whiff of danger.
This was an extraordinary lie for Hillary to have told, yet she told it repeatedly. Her excuse was that she was sleep-deprived and that she misspoke, but this did not stand up to scrutiny.
She had simply lied to seem like a more credible commander-in-chief. It was the defining clanger of her campaign.
Then there were the tax returns, which showed that the Clintons have earned more than £50million in the past seven years.
One of the most dispiriting details was that the couple gave away just £500,000 of the £3.1million Bill made from writing a book about philanthropy titled Giving.
It was a timely reminder of the Clintons' rare combination of aspiration for the moral high ground and tawdry greed.
That said, it will be wrenching for Hillary to concede defeat - which she eventually will, barring some catastrophe befalling Obama.
During all those years living with Bill, enduring the public and private humiliations, she developed a diamond-hard stubbornness.
Even in the grimmest circumstances, she learned to get up each morning and keep going, to stay in the game at all costs and exhaust her rivals.
Tedious as it is for Obama, and disastrous as it is proving for the Democrats, she now seems to know no other way.
posted
Hillary won't won because Bill doesn't want her to be president. He wants her back home frying chicken and making biscuits.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Obama is unelectable. Not only is he black but he is far from the center. American politics run to the middle at all times. No American politican is more centrist than John McCain.
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think if Clinton sees the chance that she won't win, she will encourage her voters to vote for McCain so she can run next time and have a shot at beating him. She knows she probably couldn't beat Obama...which I find stragetic but sad. Winning at any cost...even at the cost to what she knows it might do to the country. If that happens she would NEVER get my vote.
BTW I am still undecided...
Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
It is obviously in Mrs Clinton's best interest that Obama lose, which he will. She still has a slim chance to get the nomination and would run McCain a much better race than Obama would. The best thing the dems could do, and they won't do it, would be to find a moderate like Evan Bayh at the convention. The super delegates could do that if they denied both Clinton and Obama the nomination on the first ballot. We'll see what happens. She'll clean Obama's clock in Pennsylvania.
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hahaha. You republicans just believe you'll have an easier time winning over Clinton then Obama.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Are you on drugs tonight? I said Clinton would be the tougher opponet.
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
No, the republicans have all the money and brought the whole stash. They greedy that way.
I know you said Clinton would be the tougher opponent, but who believes a republican is rooting for the tougher opponent.
Be honest for once. You know the republicans hate Clinton and would rather see McCain Vs Clinton then McCain losing to Obama.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
McCain will not lose to Obama. Obama has lost the jewish vote and every poll shows that the blue collar democrats who have been voting for Mrs. Clinton would not vote for Obama. The democrats have managed to take what should have been a sure win and totally screw it up. My view of the election has nothing to do with who I want to win. If I look at it as a republican I have mixed feelings. On the one hand you want to see Obama get the nomination because he is a flawed candidate. On the other hand should McCain stumble at least Clinton would make a decent president. As an American and wanting the best for my country that makes me tend to pull for Mrs Clinton.
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hahaha. I know you don't mean that. A republican endorsing a Clinton??? You must REALLY fear Obama more then I could imagine. Now that's funny stuff.
Well, my prediction is, come May/June, Clinton will concede to Obama. Many Clinton voters will go over to Obama and the minority will go to McCain (speaking of flawed opponents). Not wanting another "spend every penny" in sight republican in office, Obama will easily win the presidency against McCain.
This will be a bitter-sweet win for Obama, because by year 2-3 of his term, all the crap Bush has done will hit the fan and Obama's 4 years will be consumed with handling this republican manufactured nightmare. I just hope he doesn't have a heart attack by year 4.
Plus McCain doesn't have what it takes to be president. As a POW, he was broken and read enemy propaganda on TV. It's excusable, but you don't put someone like that in the highest office.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually the polls show consistently that 25-30% of Mrs Clinton's vote will go to MCCain. Those are the blue collar dems who will not, under any condition vote for a left wing black man. McCain also consistently outdraws Obama with independent voters. The problem for Obama is that without Florida, where is will lose badly he will have to carry Pennsylvania and Ohio. Those are the states that contain large numbers of the very democaats who will not vote for him. He has not done well drawing white voters and it will be worse in the general election. John McCain may very well put Joe Leiberman on the ticket and if he does Obama will be crushed by centrist voters.
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Don't put your money on it Hammer. Your analysis is deeply flawed.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hammer why do you keep making statements like 'Obama will lose' or 'McCain will win'? You sound like you're psyching up a football team prior to a game. You can't make predictions like that, especially here. It will always come back to bite you. With that being said, I have NO IDEA who will win...time will tell. One thing is for sure, I won't be voting for McCain.
Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Not in this case Smuckers. You are correct that in most cases it would be premature to predict but not this one. The numbers are not there for Obama. I work in a buiklding full of democrats who understand the dynamics of american elections and they know Obama is deeply damaged. The Rev Wright episode combined with his small town comments, plus the loss of the jewish vote have damaged him badly. Take some time and study blue collar democrats in ohio and pennsylvania and you will understand the trouble he would be in this fall were he the nominee.
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
Let the two Democrat hens continue their fights with each other which is in the best interest for the Republicans.
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The democrats have managed to put themselves on the Tigers back. They cannot stay on and they cannot get off. If they give the nomination to Obama they will lose, possibly badly. If they give it to Mrs. Clinton blacks will feel he was robbed and tear the party apart. Normally after a party has been in power for eight or twelve years the other party has the advantage but the dems have totally screwed up what should have been their year.
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
You mean, normally after a party has bankrupted a nation the citizens will have had enough, don't you?
The battle between Clinton & Obama has not been good for the democratic party, but it has been GREAT for American politics.
More people have registered to vote for this upcoming election then in the last 40 years.
More young people are becoming involved in the political process then ever before...and they're not doing so because of McCain or the republican party.
McCain doesn't stand a chance. He was/is a broken man, who sat on TV and whimpered out enemy propaganda to save his own skin. What's that beef you republicans have about Jane Fonda? Well, McCain is hardly different.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Meninarmer, You are the single most clueless poster I have ever seen on this board. You base all of your arguments on emotion and what few facts you try to present either stem from the 19th century or are incorrect. You cannot yell at people, throw turds and have a conversation with anyone.
Example: The statement that Mccain tried to save his skin in a POW camp is just an out and out lie. Anymore conversation with you is a waste of time.
Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by meninarmer: Obviously you've never been in the military and taken the course on being captured and interrogated. Seems neither did McCain because he squealed like a pig on Vietnam Television. Funny how none of the other hundreds of POWs caved in.
He and Bush are almost identical. McCain graduated 894th out of 899 in his class.
quote:Originally posted by TheAmericanHammer: McCain will not lose to Obama. Obama has lost the jewish vote and every poll shows that the blue collar democrats who have been voting for Mrs. Clinton would not vote for Obama. The democrats have managed to take what should have been a sure win and totally screw it up. My view of the election has nothing to do with who I want to win. If I look at it as a republican I have mixed feelings. On the one hand you want to see Obama get the nomination because he is a flawed candidate. On the other hand should McCain stumble at least Clinton would make a decent president. As an American and wanting the best for my country that makes me tend to pull for Mrs Clinton.
OPERATION CHAOS IS IN FORCE! I agree that McCain may win due to the 'bitterness' (call it anger, mad, wahtever) that Clinton's supporters will have when they realize that the peoples wishes (popular vote) will be discounted and she propped up.
Funny thing 1 year ago Limbaugh was languishing that Hillary is as treacherous as any but now she is seen as a Trogan horse in playing the Rove guidebook for the perplexed now guided by that same Limbaugh!
I love it when people vote against their economic interest or betterment!
quote:He and Bush are almost identical. McCain graduated 894th out of 899 in his class.
In the greater scope of things, McCain has "pedigree" due to his Admiral father and his Admiral father so it really makes no difference! The Naval Academy carries a pull and prestige so at least he graduated!
Posts: 1290 | From: usa | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well , he we go. John McCain graduated because of his father. Just more silly, ignorant turd throwing. This is why you guys always lose yazid, ignorance combined with arrogance is a lethal combination. If you cannot act like a gentleman and have a civil conversation about issue nobody will take you seriously. It reminds me of a bunch of children on the playground..."he beat me, he's dumb."
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
As I said, McCain is nearly identical to Bush, with the except he actually reported to military service and didn't go AWOL. Perhaps his admiral father wouldn't tolerant it while Bush Sr. would.
Anyway, the comment about him being broken and reading vietcong propaganda on television is valid. He has proven to be the weakest link in the hundreds of captured American POWs.
Wonder if Ronald McDonald or Dr. Phil will run on the republican ticket in 2012.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
''McCain graduated 894th out of 899 in his class.''
Yet, later, satisfactorily grasped the principles of aerodynamics and math to go on to become a jet fighter pilot. Presumably this all happened after college. Fighter pilot school isn't your garden variety university classroom.
Posts: 2118 | From: midwest, USA | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
LOL, George Bush has his Jet pilot training also. Recall, the early US space flights used monkeys.
McCain paid so close attention in class that on his mission he miscalculated his payload drops (bombs) hitting and killing civilians. He veered and ran into another US plane, went down. Landing in water McCain was pulled down into the water drowning. A vietnam officer dove into the water and saved McCain draggin him to the shore. Other Vietnam officers pounced on McCain and began beating him to death with their rifles. After all, he had just bombed and killed many civilians. He was saved from the beating death by the same officer that pulled him from the water. He later met the vietnam man that saved his life for the 1st and last time since his capture. To show his gratitude, he gave the man a $2 washington lapel stick pin. During capture with a little torture he squealed like a pig and went on nation vietnam television and confessed to being incompetent, a killer of civilians and a traitor to his country. Nuff said.
Posts: 3595 | From: Moved To Mars. Waiting with shotgun | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
''McCain paid so close attention in class that on his mission he miscalculated his payload drops (bombs) hitting and killing civilians.''
McCain was the only one to do this in that war? Besides, civilians always live near a combat zone.
''He veered and ran into another US plane, went down.''
Pilots today do this—in all countries; and they don't even have to be in combat.
''After all, he had just bombed and killed many civilians.''
Again, McCain was the only one in that war who did this?
Other VietNam officers pounced on McCain and began beating him to death with their rifles.''
I'm sure McCain wasn't the only pilot saved from death by a beating.
''He later met the vietnam man that saved his life for the 1st and last time since his capture. To show his gratitude, he gave the man a $2 washington lapel stick pin.''
What should McCain have given the man?
''During capture with a little torture he squealed like a pig and went on nation vietnam television and confessed to being incompetent, a killer of civilians and a traitor to his country. Nuff said.''
What specifically defined ''a little torture'' such that it made him squeal like a pig? Should he have been asked to tolerate pain more than the others?
Also I'm thinking most of the pilots had to confess something or other on VietNam national television.
And confessing to incompetence on their television news means what? Does this one carry some weight once a pilot is captured and tortured? Should the United States government hold McCain's comments that were given under duress against him? Being traitorous to his country in time of war could very well result in McCains death at the hands of the U.S. government. What happened on his return? No one singled him out for special action. So being ''traitorus'' in this instance has no bearing and relation to the real act of being a real traitor. He simply made some statements on VietNam television and they were duly noted by the U.S. government. Not so with the Vietnamese government. They got a confession to please their souls. Any ''confession'' they could wring out of pilots gave them victory in some small way, not realizing the uselessness of it all.
Posts: 2118 | From: midwest, USA | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by TheAmericanHammer: She'll clean Obama's clock in Pennsylvania.
well, she's not getting my vote today!
Posts: 422 | From: American living in Maadi, visiting in the States for awhile | Registered: Jul 2006
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- The spirit of Horemheb lives on within us all. Posts: 1023 | From: The spirit of Horemheb lives within us all | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
doesn't matter...i stand by my decisions, win or lose...i will not jump on the band wagon...most likely, McCain will be our next president, but i will have comfort knowing that i voted for who I believe in...
-------------------- "It's very important to learn how to weasel out of things. It's what separates us from the animals...except the weasel." ~Homer J. Simpson Posts: 422 | From: American living in Maadi, visiting in the States for awhile | Registered: Jul 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by TheAmericanHammer: Looks like she didn't need it
Not necessarily:
Clinton's Pa. win still leaves her the underdog
WASHINGTON - Still the underdog in a contest that won't quit, Hillary Rodham Clinton pulled off a feisty act of political survival in the Pennsylvania primary, defeating Barack Obama to keep her Democratic presidential hopes alive.
The New York senator's comfortable win sends the race on to North Carolina, where the flush-with-money Obama is favored; and Indiana, where the two are close.
Obama was able to stave off an eyebrow-arching blowout by Clinton even while falling short in his effort to bring the polarizing competition effectively to a close. Clinton beat him by about 10 points.
-------------------- "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton) Leap and the Net will Appear. Posts: 3891 | From: No good deed goes unpunished. | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
quote:Well , he we go. John McCain graduated because of his father
.
I never said that! Please re-read again and again, if you like. What I said was that he had the pedigree due to father and grandfather being Admirals. The fact is that he graduated! Nothing more nor less!
Posts: 1290 | From: usa | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
You sound like you're psyching up a football team prior to a game. You can't make predictions like that, especially here. It will always come back to bite you. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
With that being said, I have NO IDEA who will win...time will tell. One thing is for sure, I won't be voting for McCain.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic