I basically called the campaign for Obama on Super Tuesday (February 5th), which turned out to be correct. I did have the caveat in there that Clinton still had a chance, but short of a total meltdown, the primary was over when Obama won more delegates on Super Tuesday. He went on to win nine primaries in a row before the Rev. Wright and Bitter flaps slowed his progress. By the time Obama won a decisive victory in Wisconsin, it was mathematically over. Now, the fact that Clinton did not drop out when it was clear she couldn’t win at least allowed Obama to weather some attacks that would have been damaging if they came out first in the general election. I don’t dispute that.
At the same time, though, Clinton used really bad logic and reasoning and spin to justify her continuing campaign. And the fallout from that is that she created a lot of fake outrage among her 18 million supporters. She racheted up the outrage among her fans, making it more difficult for the party to reconcile during this convention.
So, while there were clear benefits in the vetting Clinton gave Obama during the spring, there were also clear drawbacks that are being hyped relentlessly by the media as we speak.
I find it tiresome, but I also recognize that this is now the main threat to Obama’s chances. The Clintons need to make good speeches. I expect Hillary to talk about her campaign and to her supporters. I think that is her right. But Bill Clinton needs to get over himself. Bill Clinton needs to talk about the issues facing the nation.
Those are my thoughts leading up to the Clintons’ performance at the convention.
The one thing this campaign has taught me is a deep distrust of the Clintons’ motives and intentions. All of this maneuvering around the convention is feeding my paranoia. Talk of placing Hillary’s name in nomination formally, of a roll-call vote by state, and so on. Do you suppose it is possible that Bill and/or Hillary imagine, even now, that they might somehow pull off a coup? Given what I’ve seen of them the past few months, I wouldn’t put it past them to try something if they thought they could get away with it. And if they do, is there any possibility they might pull it off?
No.
Ditto!!!
There are reports out tonite that the Obama team is very, very happy with the text of the Clinton speech….
here’s hoping that you heard right.
I’m curious to see how many times she says “John McCain” instead of “the Republicans” and Barack Obama instead of “we Democrats.”
Booman, I agree with most of what you say …the only thing…Hillary should NOT talk about her friggin campaign….she needs to talk about Obama and ONLY Obama……..If she starts talking about her friggin campaign at length it will drag all the crap up again…she should be tearing down McCone and the ads etc.
i think she should talk about her campaign. She has a contingency to guide, not a product to sell. Let others that are sincere tout the Obama campaign.
I’m just getting such a kick out of Chris Matthews on MSNBC, sitting outside in the humidity and the slight breeze of Denver, his hair is yellow, not blonde, not gray, but YELLOW. And severely unkempt.
Bad dye job?
Bill scares me. Could be a few subtle digs in his speech. I’d almost rather pay the campaign debt than have to hold my breath through his speech.
I expect Hillary to go after McCain, hard and often then I want the Clintons to go away for a long time.
And she is lowering the boom on Many Houses.
A great great speech.
I agree. I was expecting her to be pretty good. But she is really, really, kicking ass.
She was amazing, classy, inspirational, tough. Just not enough superlatives. I hope she has a prominent position in the Obama administration.
Well maybe not prominent but I agree wholeheartedly with the rest. 🙂
She said something like: Isn’t it appropriate that George Bush and John McCain will both be in the Twin Cities next week, because these days it’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart.
Loved that line.
Oh Hell Yeah! Great speech! Hillary comes through. Now we tear into the repugs. KO calls it a grand slam.
I called it when he swept the Potomac primaries. That was her chance to show he was losing support. He wasn’t.
Bill “Dickhead” Kristol is arguing that she did not talk enough about Obama enough. Fox News is just entertaining. Mort and Fred Barnes agrees!
I have almost zero interest in what the Clintons will say.
I know they will do a great job. They have to and even now they know their time has run out. It was a brilliant move on Obama’s part to have them both speak because otherwise they will continue to make stupid backhanded comments like bubba did yesterday.
I can only muster some curiosity because this may be the last time we hear from either of them in a significant way for a long time. I hope.