Didn’t He Like Jesse Jackson?
January 27, 2008
Hillary got her behind handed to her in South Carolina and although she took all of the right Democratic demographics handily (white males, lower-income voters, old people), their previous string of responses indicated early on that the Clintons would try to play their loss off as based on race. Race in South Carolina is not a dispositive factor, but its one of many that worked against Hillary in her bid for the SC delegates — along with John Edwards (being the home candidate), and her husbands gigantic, angry mouth attacking all the wrong people at all the wrong times.
Theoretically, the whole Bill-as-target approach is a good one. It makes him look like the manipulative, vindictive jerk while Hillary is free to do her work as a candidate. It also makes him the focus of Barack’s attention; at no time in the last week has he complained about Hillary herself. Its always been about “The Clintons” or “Bill Clinton.” The one earning all of the ire from the Democratic leadership has been “Bill.”
But lately, this approach is looking very desperate and petty, and its threatening to bring down the Clinton support system, as Bill, armed with his newfound freedom of speech takes wide aim.
Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ‘84 and ‘88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”
This was in response to a question from ABC News’ David Wright about it taking “two Clintons to beat” Obama. Jackson had not been mentioned.
This is the same Jesse Jackson who stood by Bill Clinton after the famous blue dress fiasco, who he’s used — often — in the past as a vehicle for his appeal to the black community. It was at Jesse Jackson’s kind expense that Bill Clinton got his Sister Souljah moment, and it was Jesse Jackson’s pull with influential leaders in the black community that helped to erase Clinton’s weak record on race in the midterm elections in the nineties. If people like Jackson had not rallied around Bill Clinton, Clinton may not have weathered the fallout from his personal failings in his first term. Clinton ultimately failed to deliver on many of his promises of “social justice,” but until now, he has never visibly lost support of the black community.
But he’s working on it. He’s counting on the black community, if Hillary does get the nomination, to automatically forgive him for openly attacking their willingness to vote based on a single characteristic, and his open attack on their leadership. Its not a strategy thats foolproof. In fact its a strategy that seems a little stupid.
You get the feeling that the Clintons have “jumped the shark,” so to speak. Not that that means anything in particular to Hillarys electability, or even her chances at the White House, just that their campaign is like a sit-com starts running out of meaningful storylines (or as meaningful as these political campaigns can ever be), so they start making cheap, easy jokes about sex and Nazis and race or whatever that they know will get a temporary rise out of the audience, but won’t get them through the network cancellation stamp. They’re squeezing the last remaining molecules of tolerance out of their own audience, and showing the weakness and frailty of their core message all at the same time.
If Republicans aren’t taking notes, they should be.
Posted in Uncategorized
January 27th, 2008 at 9:34 am
>>You get the feeling that the Clintons have “jumped the shark,†so to speak.<<
We said! Agree completely. Bill has become a public embarrassment. The reporter’s question and Bill’s response can be seen here. The reporter did not ask Bill to comment on Jesse Jackson’s prior victories in SC. Bill consciously played the race card IMHO. Stupid.
January 27th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
You got to understand, Bill has put all his political eggs in Hillary’s basket — if she doesn’t get the white house, he loses the prestige, the elder statesmanship, the big fat enormous speaking fees. If after 2 terms in office himself, he can’t get his wife and “co-president” elected, he’ll seem like a political has-been. And they don’t get paid very well — monetarily or respect-wise.
January 27th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
And now Teddy Kennedy is going to endorse Obama. That’s gotta hurt.
Thad? Where’s the love? Where’s the Democratic primary of peace, love and singing Kumbaya that you so confidently predicted here a month or so ago? What are we missing, Thad?
I’ve never seen the Democratic circular firing squad in better form. It brings a smile to these old Republican lips.
regards,