A Lesser Evil?

Friday, August 15, 2008

Awhile back, I wrote of the Clinton campaign:

In the short span of a political campaign, should something sufficiently bad come to light about Barack Obama, he will have no time for the public to forget, and Hillary will be waiting in the wings, and made to look relatively more worthy than she deserves. (And without firm moral principles to guide one's judgement, appearances are effectively everything. She will have effectively been "cleansed" in the eyes of many by Obama.)

And the Clintons, having the requisite moral turpitude to make it as politicians in today's culture have a firm basis in reality to hope that Obama has another yet-to-be revealed skeleton in his closet. He is, after all, one of them under his skin.
Pardon me for feeling prescient, but speculation has been building lately to the effect that Hillary Clinton might be plotting to yank the rug out from under Barack Obama. Just yesterday, the New York Daily News put out a column about Barack Obama's playing defense at his own convention, making some pretty big concessions to the Clintons:
Obama blinked and stands guilty of appeasing Clinton by agreeing to a roll call vote for her nomination. That he might not have had much choice if he wanted peace only proves the point that he's playing defense at his own convention.

What does he get out of it? Not much and not for long.

The fleeting sense that he is a magnanimous nominee won't get him a single vote he wouldn't get anyway. Ditto for the idea that he's going the extra mile to unify the party. Those who refuse to accept him as the legitimate winner aren't likely to do so just because he caves into her demands.

...

The substantive problem for Obama is that he is already underperforming against John McCain. He limped across the finish line in the primaries and, since Clinton conceded in June, his poll numbers have flat-lined.

...

[T]he list of what Hillary wants and what Hillary gets is unprecedented for somebody who lost the nomination.[link dropped]
Michael Goodwin doesn't go as far as stating that Clinton could secure the Democratic nomination, but the American Thinker (via Dismuke) did last week, and considered how and why such an upset could occur.

As Dismuke and others have observed, Clinton is very unpleasant and does not do so well under the campaign microscope. But she is within reach of the nomination and has had time for people to forget her shortcomings as a candidate while focusing on Obama's.

I'm not sure we'll see Clinton take the nomination, but it would be funny if she did, and it would be funny to see her try. Nevertheless, I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for Myrhaf to write a list of "10 Reasons Hillary Might Not Be Such a Bad President!

-- CAV

4 comments:

Mike said...

"Obama is [...] already underperforming against John McCain." It's strange but true. Obama vs. McCain was supposed to be one of the Democrats' optimal matchups.

The Democrats knew Hillary would auto-win against Romney or Huckabee and they liked her chances in a closer match against Giuliani. They knew she couldn't beat McCain, though, because where she was weak, he was only somewhat less weak, and where she was strong, he was stronger.

Meanwhile, Obama was supposed to completely trump McCain's "Maverick" factor and inspire all the fence-sitters and those disgusted with politics as usual. Obama was the only candidate on the Democrats' side who could out-McCain McCain; on the Republicans' side, there was only Ron Paul who could counter Obama in that way, and they didn't believe Paul was viable.

For Obama to have dropped into a statistical tie with McCain at this late date is akin to the Mets' collapse of 2007 from being eleven games up at the end of August to missing the playoffs entirely.

Gus Van Horn said...

Especially as uninspired -- to use an apt turn of phrase -- with McCain as so many conservatives are.

Too bad McCain is merely the version of Obama that won't arouse as much Republican opposition....

Vigilis said...

History seems to remove any doubts the Clinton camp is capable of such political treachery. However, the backlash from an Obama wipeout would cost Hillary the election unless:

Clinton's agents of skullduggery manage to connect the devasting Obama information to the McCain campaign. That would sink McCain as he would then have too little time to recover before election day.

Personally, I believe Obama has probably been fully vetted. His Achilles heel is his wife, Michelle. Given her lavish salary and radical attitudes, it is almost certain she has supported at least one lowlife, fringe group (besides her church)in the recent past with an alarmingly generous donation. - Just another thought.

Gus Van Horn said...

"[I]t is almost certain she has supported at least one lowlife, fringe group (besides her church)in the recent past with an alarmingly generous donation."

That one made me laugh!

Over the weekend, I saw somebody somewhere saying that all this could be leading to Hillary being chosen for veep as a sort of "blockbuster" move.

If the scenario of Hillary swiping Obama's nomination borders on wishful thinking by non-leftists, then that latter scenario is the leftist's answer.