by this notion that the "anything to win strategy" can somehow be pinned on Hillary. I've been an America-watcher for some 60 years and can trace that strategy right back to Ike. Indeed, it has been a central characteristic of every presidential election since then. To cite only a very few examples, it's more or less universally accepted -- at least, out here in non-America-land -- that Joe Kennedy used his power and wealth to fiddle the results of a very close race between JFK and Nixon. The way in which the media and the Republicans undermined the VP candidacy of Geraldine Ferraro by making it about her father and husband to the exclusion of her qualifications was especially egregious. And, more recently, the cynical makeover of John Kerry from a heroic Vietnam anti-war activist into a Iraq pro-war, "reporting for duty" presidental candidate was perceived out here in what many Americans regard as nowhere-land as an all-time low for Democrats.

I'm no Clinton fan: I was repelled by Bill's shifty triangulating; and Hillary is a grave disappointment. But just as I regard his impeachment as one of the creepiest and sleaziest American political moves of all time, so too do I question this implicit attempt to make Hillary -- America's first female presidental candidate -- carry the can for an "anything to win strategy" that has for decades been "business as usual" in American politics.

by delia (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 112 comments) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 12:28:54 PM

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The only thing I dont like about Hillary is the fact that Yale has had to much to say about our nation. We have had 20 years or so of Yale is enough of one school being in charge of our nation. It was Yale who began the CIA. It was a recruitment ground for the CIA. The CIA has a domestic program to groom people for future government and corporate service. Personally , I believe that George Bush is a covert CIA officer like his father which is a violation of the law;a felony. In order for a CIA officer to be President, he has to  reveal his CIA status before he runs for the office. If they dont, they violate a NSA code and the CIA Charter and commit a felony! The Bush clan is going to let John McCain use their CIA assets that help them get elected. Operation Mocking Bird. If Jeb Bush becomes President, we has a nation deserve a thousand 9-11. If the best this nation can do is to kept electing Presidents from the same family. That means we no longer have democracy. The CIA is controlling who gets  in the White House. The draft is just around the corner!

by matt (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 16 comments) on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 5:14:29 PM

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-- except that they are human beings. Neither is perfect, but then, neither is our current president, despite the efforts of the mainstream media in this country to practically deify him.

One way to judge people is to look at the behavior and comportment of their children. Please take a moment to compare the high water marks of the Jenna Bush (getting arrested in a bar, among other peccadilloes -- a good Texas word for a real Texas girl) and those of Chelsea Clinton (scholar at Oxford after outstanding matriculation at Stanford -- and never arrested for anything).

I do, in fact, believe that the Karl Rove wing of the Republican Party and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy have succeeded in getting Obama supporters to do their dirty work. If Mrs. Clinton can be trashed in the Democratic primaries, then that is just less "work" for Rove et al. to do in the Fall of 2008.

Anyone who thinks that Obama will be exempted from the mainstream media trashing of Democratic candidates is worse than naive. I can see the "Call Me" ads now. The mudslinging, utterly unconscionable tactics of the GOP will not be put away when Obama is nominated for president or for anything.

Mrs. Clinton is competent, intelligent, hardworking, and experienced. I have full confidence in her ability to name the right people to head the federal agencies starting in January 2009. I have full confidence that the people she chooses will do whatever is required to restore the competency of the US government. And I believe that she will be able to negotiate our way out of Iraq. I do not have that confidence in Mr. Obama. He is VERY inexperienced, and his naivete is frightening at times. He will be outmaneuvered and outfinagled repeatedly because of his inexperience, and an Obama administration would be a huge disappointment if he does not have more experience by the time he takes office.

I believe that the best hope for us (as citizens of the US, I mean) is a Democratic ticket of Clinton for president and Obama for vice president. Instead of doing Rove's dirty work for him, we should all be working for that end. There are no significant policy differences between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama. There should be no reason why they cannot work together to tackle the enormous problems faced by this nation.

So cut the venom. Get rid of the venality. And ditch the sexism. Let us have our first woman president and our first black vice president on the same winning ticket.

by S. E. Hoffman (2 articles, 6 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 28 comments) on Monday, Feb 18, 2008 at 6:45:03 PM

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