In the last few days, first James Carville spoke out against the “naive” Obama administration response to the BP oil disaster.Then Donna Brazille said virtually the same thing and accused the administration of relying too much on BP and not taking the initiative. Now a third close adviser to Hillary Clinton, Peter Daou, has come out with a condemnation of the “lame” White House response to the oil disaster over at Huffingtonpost. Writes Daou in this zinger, “leadership is virtually nonexistent.” And this: “President Obama can launch as many fact-finding commissions as he sees fit. But we shouldn’t be impressed that they are doing what we elected them [leaders] to do.”
After the blasts from James Carville and Donna Brazille, I wrote a diary here mentioning the fact that perhaps the Clinton team was getting ready for a primary challenge in 2012. Now, Peter Daou, a political consultant and former Hillary adviser, has written “The Great Shame: America’s Pathetic Response to the Gulf Catastrophe” and as its title indicates, Daou isn’t saying good things about Team Obama. “This isn’t Katrina II” jabs Daou, “it’s worse.” Or how about this line: “Democratic leaders have been blindsided by the spill, HAVING JUST COME OUT IN FAVOR OF OFFSHORE DRILLING TO APPEASE REPUBLICANS.” (emphasis added) Ouch! Note too the A-Word (Appease, about as strong a vilification in politics as one can use, it evokes an image of a timid and pusillanimous British prime minister). Double ouch!! Those are tough words directed at guess who? In another line, he calls the administration’s response “shameful”.
I think this makes it official. High political advisers around Hillary sense that this president is both weak and vacillating and not only on the BP oil response. Tellingly in her criticisms, Brazille used the phrase “one of the things” she objected to about the Obama administration was its handling of the disaster. That, of course, implies other problems like: overall weakness in trying repeatedly to get Republicans on board for legislation(even when they have shown they want to scuttle the legislation); a pathetic federal response to the economic/unemployment crisis; a shrub-like attitude towards human rights abuses and the constitution(Obama has gone beyond W. with forced renditions and the notion he has the right to kill Americans abroad); and repeated flip-flops on major campaign promises.
How would Hillary fare in a primary challenge in 2012? It’s always difficult, of course, to challenge a standing president UNLESS that president has shown himself to be inept and UNLESS that president has dissed his own political base. This is exactly what Rahm and Obama have done. Repeatedly. Like a Trojan Horse, Obama pretended to be a liberal Democrat largely to get the Democratic nomination but once he got it and once he won the general election, he began shredding campaign promises as soon as the votes were being counted. Remember FISA? His DADT and DOMA promises? Instead of health care reform he started talking about “insurance reform” and pushed not only single payer but the public option “off the table”. On financial regulation and economic matters, Obama’s in bed with Goldman Sachs and BP having taken in record sums from both.
In fact, what Hillary predicted in 2008 has come true. She said “this man is not a fighter” for average Americans and that has been proven correct again and again, on health care, on financial regulations, and now on the environment.
If she challenges Obama in 2012, she will once again get an overwhelming majority of the female vote– maybe a larger percentage than in 2008 because Obama will no longer be an unknown entity that people poured their hopes and dreams into. He cannot play the “change” card again since he has failed to bring about significant change (and doesn’t even talk about it anymore). Hillary will also sweep the gay vote and the Latino vote. As for one of the mainstays of the Democratic party, the labor vote, Obama dropped organized labor’s main legislative aim and he has a pathetic record on creating jobs. He’s essentially run a Republic administration with Republican economic ideas. Then, there’s the African American vote. What really has Obama done for them? They have the worst unemployment numbers in the country. Moreover, Bill Clinton was not called “the first Black president” for nothing. Note too that Bill has cleaned up his act and would not be the perceived threat in 2012 that he was in 2008.
Looking at the tea leaves as shown by these 3 criticisms (in virtually 3 days) by top Clinton advisers, I’m seeing a Hillary primary challenge in 2012. If Paul Begala comes out next with a another stinger of a commentary on the Obama administration, we’ll know for sure. And a Hillary challenge just might be the only thing to get this bumbler of a president off his butt. And out of office after one term.
Here’s a link to Daou’s hard-hitting article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/the-great-shame-americas_b_586377.html
