So here, there and everywhere on the loftiness…errr, leftiness…blogs the anti-Hillary screams resound.
She’s a closet Republican.
She’s Bill’s sockpuppet.
She’s a tool of the establishment.
Edwards this.
Obama that.
Where’s Fat Al when you really need him? (Not so much of this since he won the Nobel Prize and became a monument to his own hustle, I notice.)
Is Bloomberg going to come in and buy the whole goddamned country?
Etc., etc., etc.
Face it.
The fix is in, and she is the choice of the currently ascendant fixers.
So it goes.
Deal with it.
Read on for more.
As I have said many times on these blogs…with Ms. Clinton’s recent (Presidentially-treated by much of the media) pronouncements on the Bhutto assassination functioning as one of many proofs of the matter…the fix is in, has been in and will remain in.
I believe that Hillary Clinton is the candidate of the “left wing”…for want of a more accurate term… segment of the military/industrial/intelligence establishment that now stands in opposition to BushCo’s tactics if not their strategic imperatives (Economic imperialism, control of the Middle East, etc. Economic Petroleumism, to coin a word.), the tips of which massive loyal opposition iceberg have been floating in plain sight innumerable times over the past several years…the Plame thing being the largest and longest continuing sighting.
But there have been others.
Such as:
The Representative of the fine State of the Military John Murtha’s opposition to the war. (To not going balls to the wall and WINNING the war, actually. But let’s not quibble.)
The media hype that resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Dems in ’06.
The drift from the pro-war/shock and awe hoopla staged by the media at the beginning of the Iraq war to the current isolation of Fox News and a few tabloids as just about the ONLY remaining right wing cheerleaders.
NUMEROUS basically unreported high level mutinies in the armed services.
The real economic panic that is finally beginning to settle in amongst the real movers and shakers.
Keith Olbermann’s survival…with top-level permission to be dissin’ or he would be back doing soccer color commentarty for some little sports network like Versus, bet on it…on a network that is basically owned by the giant defense contractor General Electric.
Etc, etc. etc.
The bosses of this wing have decided to install a new overseer, and HRC is the chosen one.
Auditions for the replacement are just about over and their results were largely decided behind closed doors.
The OTHER PermaGov wing has been thoroughly weakened by their many and egregious ongoing failures…blunders might be a more accurate word…and it is limping along with a very unappetizing pack of wannabes, including some members of its own party that do not in the least fit the classic Ratpub mold.
That leaves the third force in the game.
The (snicker) “people”. Who have been so thoroughly and successfully media-hypnotized since the need for multiple assassinations convinced the bosses that there had to be a better way back in the ’60s that the other two forces basically believe that they can totally ignore this very large but very weak third force.
HOWEVER…into the midst of all of this plotting and counter-plotting waltzes someone with some real charisma.
Some powerful baraka.
Baraka oh BROTHER!!!
Baraka Obam.
Barak Obama.
A magician.
A stand up counter-hypnotist.
The proverbial potential monkey wrench in the works.
Who can quite possibly ruin Queen Hillary’s image as the chosen, inevitable, hereditary queen and maybe even get himself elected in the process.
UH oh!!!
I can hear the backroom boys now.
Oh, SHIT!!!
Where is HE gonna come from?
What to do, what to do?
My own observation as to what they have decided to do?
They are splitting the difference.
Dividing to conquer.
They are promoting Edwards, who is…I am sorry to have to continue to point this out…a terribly flawed candidate, one with whom HRC (unless she is so wounded by Obama that she totally loses it) can easily deal, one that so weakens Mr. Obama’s early primary results that Obama is crippled as well.
And as a safety, a fallback, at least SOME of the establishment opposition is backing the centrist’s centrist, Mike Bloomberg. He is so centrist (So opportunistic?) that no one really knows what party or parties have EVER had his allegiance over the past 30 years.
But he can be trusted to…
Take Care of Business.
Which is where we stand a few days before the first…totally jive, I might add…primary.
Iowa? Give me a break!!! Iowa is just a publicity stunt to stampede the larger and less controllable primaries that follow.
Straw poll?
More like a straw man.
But…it is hottest-thing-ever news, now.
Stop the red herring press, I want to get off.
The couple of thousand centrist Dems who take part in it…centrally located, centrally aged, centrally incomed white people almost all, almost all of whom watch the major media as if Moses were about to reincarnate and give them that elusive Eleventh Commandment? Those few thousands switch on their TVs to bask in the horrible news of how the beautiful semi-Oriental Dragon Lady met her untimely death at the hands of Islamist fiends, and what do they see?
Semi-President Hillary Clinton calmly taking the reins in the BIG time crises and essentially reassuring everyone that Mommy’s here, it’s all under control and everything’s going to be just fine.
C’mon.
The fix is in.
As outside outsiders…our own unfortunate position in the great game…what can WE do about it?
Not much, sad to say.
Hope Kucinich gets a cabinet post?
Root for Obama to pull off a real upset or run as VP?
I dunno.
But I DO know this.
I would feel safe today making an 8 to 1 bet that Hillary Clinton will be elected President of the United States in 2008, and that she brings with her a commanding Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress as she does so
Why?
Because he is backed by the smart money; the smart money controls the media and the media controls the vote.
Watch.
AG
P.S. I will also lay you even money that Ms. Clinton is at heart a classic FDR-style pragmatic liberal, a smart, crafty one at that and that she WILL get things done.
As I so often say…we shall see.
We shall soon see.
Watch.
I’ll be back tomorrow.
First I gotta answer this call from a Mr. Bilderberg, then I’m outta here for the night.
Happy Same Old Same Old Year.
Later…
AG
I little lack of focus here. Edwards is doing others’ bidding? Clinton both works for Poppy and is secretly a FDR Democrat? Poppycock. She’s a Goldwater Republican who married a man from a place where Republicans were not known.
Thanks, BooMan. I hadn’t seen “poppycock” used in a political dialogue for years. I remain unconvinced of such a “fix”, but I do think that the corporatists find HRC the only acceptable Dem. candidate. We’re going to have a fight on our hands.
Where did I say that?
Being USED by others is an entirely different kettle of fish.
And where did I say THAT?
In that captioned photo?
That was a JOKE, Booman. The “working for Poppy” part.
And an FDR Dem? I guess ithat depends on how you define that term. I define it as a pragmatic politician who wants to improve the economy of this country by improving the lives, health, education and employment possibilites of its working classes while simultaneously understanding the make-or-break power of the ruling claasses.
Where’s the beef in that?
Because she was the child of some Goldwater Repoublicans?
Please.
Were there any Goldwater Republicans working on the Watergate committees?
i doubt it.
She was there.
Any Goldwater Republicans writing largely apopreciative treatises on Saul Alinsky’s work?
Please.
Talk about lack of focus!!!
You didn”t even take the time to read, understand or think through what I wrote.
I mean…I know it’s New Years’ Eve, but either do it right or just don’t do it, Booman.
AG
A few quick thoughts, AG –
Has there ever (since, say, Teddy Roosevelt) been a winning presidential candidate who wasn’t properly vetted and approved by The Machine?
Perhaps some of the presumed-to-be-harmless VPs who unexpectedly became president, like Truman (who integrated the military) and Johnson (with that whole Great Society thing)? Or were they part of the machine too, since they good care of The Machine as well?
The question them becomes, is the best we can do under the current system periodic mid-course-adjustments to throw a bone to Lazarus when the gap between rich and poor gets so extreme that the Socialists become a viable third party?
If so, is the best course (or, perhaps, the only course) then to just step back and watch the whole thing come tumbling down when the oil runs out, the climate gets too hot, and the Visa bill to China comes due?
Have a Happy New Near and a great performance tonight!
I think that you are seeing the big picture, Knox.
I am resigned to having the vector that I apply…the positions that I espouse…be of marginal importance to the eventual direction applied by set of forces at work.
So it goes.
Happy New Year.
AG
Bilderburg… Hmmm… The things one learns on the Internets.
But Poppy Bush hasn’t been invited to that one. Of course he does get to go to that other big shindig for the powerful people of the planet(tm), however…
Umm, no Arthur. Surely there are many in high places who are pushing for her, but the fix is not in. Only if we accept this kind of thinking and don’t vote. Know anyone in the party, Arthur? Are you sure? Hmm. Carry on.
And what I see is that the national media push is and has been on for Hillary Clinton.
Less and less for for Obama as he became less of a curiosity story and more of a true threat to win.
And suddenly,,,there’s young Johhny Edwards smiling his fake smile all over the media as well.
Barely SAW him for months.
Hmmm…
AG
You’re dead the money about HRC. But Obama is also the MSM’s choice. Seriously where have you been living lately?
Edwards and the rest of them have been utterly ignored in exchange for the “It’s Hillary VS. Obama” meme — they’ve been shoving BOTH Hillary and Obama down our throats since at least last March, and Hillary since before the votes were done being throw in the trash in 2004.
The only reason they’ve given Edwards any press in the last few days is because they HAVE TO in order to maintain the illusion that they are actually journalists.
Because he’s coming on strong and is actually ahead in some of the major polls. They know he might win, so they don’t want to come off looking like TOTAL idiots (even though we know better).
It’s enough to make me want to vote for Edwards, even though I haven’t cared for him much. If they’re THAT afraid of Edwards, he’s probably the one we should be pushing.
I’m still on the fence. I feel the only person I can vote for right now is Kucinich. I am impressed with Obama. Hill is out of the question. Edwards has shown some bad judgement in the past, so that taints him in my view (badly). (that’s all as a disclaimer, I’m not pushing anybody here, but I’m definitely anti-Hillary)
HOW lately?
Since it became evident that HRC might lose to him in Iowa?
Suddenly its’s Edwards 24/7.
As long as Obama was a HUMAN INTEREST story…. a sellable story…he was featured.
But when he became a real threat to the status quo…that was a whole new ballgame.
And:
i suspect that you might have it backwards. Maybe he is coming on strong BECAUSE he is being featured more.
And why?
As the Obama antidote.
To split the non-Hillary vote.
That’s what I am seeing, anyway.
Watch.
If I’m wrong…???
Sue me.
AG
You mean like the last 20 minutes? You are all over the board.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/31/141617/72/752/428416
than that post.
And quite a bit broader as well.
I mostly get my media by osmosis.
I live in NYC and travel a great deal by mass transit, so I see all kinds of mags and newspapers in quick glimpses. I listen to the radio as a travel aid when I drive, so I hear three news stations in quick swatches as I search for traffic info. I am exposed to ongoing news TV stations and news crawls both in many publkic places and also all over the sides of buildings in midtown. I skim Goodgle News and Drudge a few times a day, and late at night when I am trying to cool out before bed I often flip through the TV stations looking for…for ANYTHING not totally mind-numbing.
And from that very broad perspective I suddenly see a lot more Johnny-boy face and concomitantly less of Mr. Obama.
While Hillary remains a constant, almost Big Brother-ish (Big Mommy-ish?) presence.
A timeless icon.
The One Who Has Been Waiting.
GREAT marketing.
Edwards is very photogenic, in a jive, game show host kind of way.
The false smile, the pompadour.
As long as he doen’t slime-speak, he goes over big. His speech…his speech PATTERNS…ooze schmooze and insincerity. I see very little speech from him on this broad media palette…just images and his name.
More than before.
Am I wrong?
Sue me.
That’s what I am seeing.
Sue me and hire Edwards as your lawyer.
He’s a winner.
Or is it weiner?
The dKos post that you reference is, as are MOST of the pro-Edwards things that I see on the leftiness blogs, neither a winner nor a wiener, just a whiner.
On MERIT, in my opinion.
And now suddenly there he is.
Hmmmmm…
Makes one think, doesn’t it?
Makes ME think, anyway.
Hmmmmmmmmm…
AG
… he started getting coverage after starting to move back up in Iowa.
Sure the fix is in … the thing is that there are multiple fixes in, and they are not all fixing it for the same outcome.
The big fixers almost ALWAYS beat the little ones, Bruce.
Have you not noticed that?
AG
… little ones, since they became big fixers over a period of time by being the ones that succeeded, over time, in getting their fixes to hold.
Opportunities to get progressive reforms in motion are rare for a reason … rare enough that they shouldn’t be squandered. The debating point, naturally enough, is which choices on offer … and being pushed … constitute squandering the opportunity.
The problem arises with the definition of the word “squander”. If the strategy is to “not squander”, then what is the best set of tactics that can be utilized to reach that goal?
And there in the tactical area the left has been amazingly ineffective since FDR’s more than just passable run in that direction.
The worst traits of all? An insistence on orthodox PC statement and a demonization of those who are too pragmatic as politicians to kowtow to that insistence.
Which is what is happening to Hillary Clinton as we speak.
Will it work out the same way as the “Clean For Gene”,
Dean’s the One”, “I’m For Jerry Brown” etc. etc. etc. ideas worked out?
Betcha.
I personally think that Barack Obama blew his chances months ago when he publicly confronted a meeting of Detroit automobile executives and essentially…gently, but quite clearly…proceeded to excoriate them for having failed to make automobiles that could compete on the open market with Asian cars.
He showed that “lack of experience” that has been so effectively used as an anti-Obama meme by the Clinton campaign right there, at that very moment. Big time poliitcs is like big-time poker. To be successful, you must know when to fold, check or raise, when to bluff and…perhaps most importantly …when to keep silent and trap.
Once ELECTED, especially with a majority in both houses, the same statement carries the weight of real power. To say it when you are essentially in a position where you must curry the favor of big money people is…well, it is a mark of inexperience.
Or…transcendent political genius.
We will see very soon.
And we will ALSO see how badly the incessant anti-Clinton murmur from the leftiness blogs has hurt her candidacy.
We shall see.
Later…
AG
… and, indeed, the charge that “that candidate is a pragmatist and is not devoted to fighting losing fights for the sake of it” can be directed with equal force against each of the top three candidate.
However, I do not think that Clinton’s pragmatism will be directed to winning the political fights I want to see won. Rather, I expect her to concur with the “There Is No Alternative” conventional wisdom in economic policy where, pragmatically, there are alternatives.
There is no doubt in my mind that corporatism with shock absorbers is better for the country than corporatism without shock absorbers. Especially (and cf. the case study of US politics since the Civil Right Act) since corporatism without shock absorbers requires pandering to some political support base who, in effect, don’t give a damn what else happens as long as they get pandered to on their issue.
And so if its Clinton nominated, then I will vote for her without hesitation, without “holding my nose”, without being torn … without all that hysterical claptrap, versions of which I have been seeing since the 70’s (and, when younger, was more susceptible to), before I was old enough to vote.
However, I’ll be pulling that lever in recognition that the ceiling of the politically possible has been brought lower, and therefore with regret.
are part and parcel of the human condition.
Except for a chosen and lucky few.
So it goes.
AG
This is from December 28 of last year:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/12/28/153753/69/856/284931
“Shoving them down our throats”.
Even back then, it was all HRC and Obama. Nobody else.
It’s been that way from the very beginning, and only now are they forced to pay attention to Edwards because he might actually win and they don’t want to look stupid (when in fact they’re really just mouthpieces for the Powers That Be)
.
Even the mighty Kos can be persuaded to react on a Newsmax version of debate amongst Democrats. See my diary.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."… Newsmax version of the debate, but looking directly at the generation of the Newsmax version of the debate.
Of course, this is a very convenient reading of the race for generating low cost per ratings point stories about the race, since its an old, comfortable story of a New York favorite son front-runner facing an Illinois favorite son challenger (the only thing that would be better would be a Southern Californian favorite son front-runner in one of those two roles), yet because the New York insider establishment heavy is a favorite daughter, and the Illinois favorite son is black, they are immunized from charged of being “prejudiced” as they focus on the two annointed front-runners.
If they have to work out the Newsmax version of a race with a professorial black front runner being chased by a southern white preaching a progressive populist message, their heads might explode. And that, it goes without saying, would be a good thing.
are “promoting Edwards”, I wish they’d get him more airtime on TV.
As I said above in another comment…airtime is not good for Mr. Edwards because it is so easy to see through his act into the total vacuum that it has been manufactured to hide.
Images and the name is all that they need.
The anti-Barack.
Obama WIPES THE FLOOR WITH HIM in any speech comparison.
As does Hillary.
But he pulls votes from Obama, NOT Clinton.
Look…we have been trained to accept the “Big Three” marketing routine.
The classic GM, Ford and Chrysler idea.
The winner, the challenger and the also-ran.
Hertz, Avis and “the other(s)”.
McDonalds, Burger King and “the others”.
When “the others” make a run, they take more away from the challenger than they do from the incumbent.
Hillary Clinton has been marketed as the incumbent.
She IS McDonalds.
And Obama is Burger King.
Just as it’s always been run.
Bet on it.
Now once in a while a real sea-change happens.
Say the Japanese come in and blow the U.S. car companies almost out of the water.
But it is STILL top dog, challenger and also-rans.
Toyota, Honda and “the others”.
Watch.
She can lose…but she will have to fuck up BIG time.
The fix is in.
Watch.
AG