MB Civic

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 12:39 PM and filed under Blog Posts, Elections/Voting, Politics. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.

One Response to “Markos Moulitsas (‘Kos’ of Daily Kos): The Clinton Civil War – IMPORTANT”

1. Ian Alterman said:

   I disagree for two reasons.

   First, re the superdelegates. There is still a great deal of time between now and the August convention, and ALOT could happen. For example, Obama is self-destructing at an increasing rapid pace: the Rezko lie (i.e., his claim during the South Carolina debate that his “sole” connection to Rezko was “5 hours” as a “junior attorney” on “one case,” and referring to Rezko as “that man,” when the truth was that Rezko was one of his earliest political patrons, he had known him for almost 20 years, he had worked closely with him on the real estate deal, and he had taken over $250,000 in campaign contributions from him), the NAFTA/Canada lie (claiming, unequivocally, in the immediate aftermath of the leak that no one from his campaign had contacted the Canadian government, and less than 48 hours later admitting that, yes, Goolsbee had in fact contacted the Canadian government “as a courtesy”), the second Rezko-related lie (first claiming that he had taken only “$80,000” in campaign contributions, then saying it was “$150,000,” and now admitting that is was closer to $250,000), and the Wright revelations. And the Exelon story, among others, is waiting in the wings. If Obama continues to self-implode at this rate, then even if he has more pledged delegates and a higher popular vote overall by August, the superdelegates may well decide that he is too “damaged” to be the candidate, and will – legitimately, in my opinion – broker the convention to Hillary.

   Second, re the idea that the GOP wants Hillary to run because they “fear” Obama more, this is just slick propaganda. Firstly, the GOP has been doing everything it can to make sure that Obama is the Dem nominee – and this is not an accident. It is because they know that he is far more “swift-boat”-able than Hillary, no matter what the common wisdom may be. And the above shows why. Because all or most of the skeletons in Hillary’s closet have long since been dragged out and publicly flogged to death by the media; they are “old news.” However, all of the revelations about Obama, as noted above – and others that the right wing are likely to find – are all new and fresh, and are FAR more likely to have “legs.” In this regard, you can bet that – again, legitimately, in my opinion – the superdelegates are going to take this into consideration when they make their final choice. And, again, if Obama continues to increase his perception as “damaged goods” – especially if the Wright story continues to have “legs,” there are more revelations from the Rezko trial, and/or the Exelon matter begins to take hold in the media – then more delegates or not, he is not going to be the nominee.

   As a related aside re the GOP wanting OBAMA to be the Dem nominee, there it even an attempt going on in Pennsylvania to do to Hillary what Republicans in Georgia did to Cynthia McKinney: having their voters switch parties (and getting Independents to register as Democrats) to vote for Obama so that he has a better chance of winning the state.

   As another related aside, consider that one of the most contentious issues re Hillary in the campaign vs. Obama – her vote for the Iraq war resolution – cannot be used by McCain, since he is the war’s biggest cheerleader. And there is very little “new news” re Hillary that can be used by the right wing to excoriate or “swift-boat” her. Certainly they will try, and they may find a few odds and ends. But they will be NOTHING compared to what is occurring – and is likely to continue occurring – with Obama.

   The right wing WANTS to run against Obama, and they have been going out of their way for the past few months to make sure this happens (consider that some of the most conservative editorial pages have endorsed him, including Rupert Murdoch’s rags). Anything to the contrary is simply last-minute propaganda.

   Peace.

   Posted on 17-Mar-08 at 4:50 pm | Permalink