The Case For Hillary

The PUMAsphere has been alive lately with “The Great Hillary Stance Debate.”  Now assuming epic proportions, two opposing factions have emerged, those who feel that Hillary Clinton betrayed her supporters by stumping for Barack Obama and doing everything in her power to deliver the bulk of her 18 million voters to the Democratic selectee, and those who feel that HRC did what she had to do.  On blog after blog, PUMAs are venting their frustration at the outcome of the election by yelling and screaming at each other over this issue.

I understand both sides.  When I first started this blog, some of my earliest posts were of me telling Senator Clinton to take her pleas of “party unity” and shove them.  Barack Obama’s methods for securing the nomination were unforgivable; there’s just no way in hell I can ever respect him.  For me, the racial manipulation used as a p.r. tool in Axelrod’s “astrofucking*” campaign on Obama’s behalf, without regard to the damage done to both Hillary’s and former president Clinton’s reputations, not to speak of the potential damage to America’s youth and minorities when Obama’s inexperience shows itself to be as insufficient as it has always been, disillusioning those needy, gullible, and idealistic people who bought the snow job, hook line and sinker, is enough to disqualify him from even speaking in public, let alone running for any office, in my opinion.

But, I’m not Hillary Clinton.  My career and political future is not tied up in my party affilliation.  For me, changing parties was as easy as filling out a form online the night of the Rules and Bylaws Committee rape of democracy, and waiting for the mail.  I suspect, Hillary’s choices are a bit more complicated.

To those ranting and raving about getting their donations to Clinton’s campaign back, about how her actions classically resemble those of a woman suffering from “battered woman’s syndrome,” those typing in all caps on website after website about their devastating sense of betrayal, I ask, what would you have Hillary do?  Better yet, what would you do?

If your career was threatened by people you knew to be greedy, unscrupulous opportunists, easily seduced by the lure of record-breaking fundraising and the illusion of power unfettered, would you stand on principle and take on the bullies, knowing you would likely do so alone?  To whose advantage do you imagine such actions would be?  Would they not only hasten your demise?  Wouldn’t you feel at least a little motivation to do all you could to deflect the inevitable blame sure to come your way from the adolescent finger-pointers who would be only too happy to heap scorn and derision on your head, simply for the pleasure of it?

It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and play Monday morning quarterback when the only thing you have at stake is your opinion.  However, when it’s your ass on the line, when the thundering horde of humanity hurtling your way is made up not only of opposing team members, but the bulk of your own teammates, as well as half the people in the stands, the natural reaction is to try to get the hell out of the way and live to fight another day.

Am I happy about Hillary Clinton’s post-primary “support” of Barack Obama?

No.

But, again, I’m not Hillary Clinton.

And, I ain’t mad at her, either.

*”astrofucking:” a combination of “astroturfing” and “ratfucking.”

Joe Hearts Hillary, Michelle Does Too, Obie Not Getting Audited

Yeah, that’s a lot to put in one headline, but after perusing the news this morning, that’s “all the news that’s fit to print,” as they say.  Well, except for the fact that President-elect Obama tried to Bogart President-now Bush into doing his bidding with the auto industry yesterday, then had his boys drop a dime to the media in an attempt to show off his flex, but Bush got his boys to hip Drudge to the fact that Obie’s actions are crass and out of line.  Being lectured about etiquette and protocol by Bush has to suck, but it’s just one more example of how Obie rolls.

But I digress.  At a mainstream media panel discussion last night, reported here, here, and here, Joe Scarborough professed his love for Hillary Clinton:

Discussing the perceived bias against Sen. Hillary Clinton, Scarborough joked, “I love Hillary. She’s my girlfriend. We don’t like to talk about it much.” (She already asked him to be her running mate.)

Oh, what might have been.  Clinton/Scarborough; beats Obama/Biden and Joe and Mika all to hell, doesn’t it?  Moving on, last night’s festivities gave the mainstream media-types a rare opportunity to good-naturedly bash themselves while simultaneously patting themselves on the back.  Neat trick, glad we finally figured out what they’re good at.

Next up, Ms. “If she can’t run her own house” Obama, suddenly feels that Hillary Clinton can run a house just fine, especially the White House.  In fact, Shelley wants tips.  Oh, happy day.  Just what we need more of in the media, political “women’s place is in the home” girl talk.

“Michelle may not have loved the senator, but she always respected how the Clintons raised Chelsea,” said a person familiar with Clinton’s end of the call. “They need to talk. There just aren’t too many people who have shared that kind of experience.”

An aide briefed on Obama’s side of the chat said she was “grateful” for Clinton’s “pointers” on “raising children in the public eye.”

What’s next, friggin’ meatloaf and macaroni recipe swaps?  I guess the two women do have something in common, though; they’re both being used and abused by the same man.

Yet a half-dozen Clinton insiders told Politico they are disappointed that Obama’s vaunted fundraising operation hasn’t reciprocated by planning new events or an Internet campaign to help Clinton pay off the $7.9 million she owes to vendors. (Clinton has already written off the $13 million she loaned the campaign during the primaries, aides say).

And in other news, talk about adding insult to injury; looks like Barack Obama’s prodigious, yet apparently dubious, fundraising will escape scrutiny, while John McCain is going to be audited up the yingyang, by law.  Again, according to Politico:

The Federal Election Commission is unlikely to conduct a potentially embarrassing audit of how Barack Obama raised and spent his presidential campaign’s record-shattering windfall, despite allegations of questionable donations and accounting that had the McCain campaign crying foul.

Adding insult to injury for Republicans: The FEC is obligated to complete a rigorous audit of McCain’s campaign coffers, which will take months, if not years, and cost McCain millions of dollars to defend.

Obama is expected to escape that level of scrutiny mostly because he declined an $84 million public grant for his campaign that automatically triggers an audit and because the sheer volume of cash he raised and spent minimizes the significance of his errors. Another factor: The FEC, which would have to vote to launch an audit, is prone to deadlocking on issues that inordinately impact one party or the other – like approving a messy and high-profile probe of a sitting president.

So, if I’ve got this straight, Obama gets away with collecting gazillions of dollars from Doodad Pro and other fictitious donors, some from foreign countries, by disabling the security features on his donor site, because he decided to do it that way.  Humph, imagine that.  If he had actually agreed to play by the rules, like he promised, he would actually have had to play by the rules.  But since he didn’t, he doesn’t.

Ya gotta hand it to the guy, he and his boyz and blogger bullies might be thugs, but they’re damned good at it.  And, according to his ace gangsta bitch chick, Valerie Jarrett, he’s ready to “take power and rule” from Day One.  Thug life, president for life, ride or die, a’ight?

Sarah Palin’s “Not-So-Anonymous” Accuser

A man claiming on his blog, and anywhere else he can find people who’ll listen to him, to be the source of the recent Sarah Palin smears, has “outed” himself.  Other sources have “outed” him as the source of many other outrageous stories.   Still others claim he doesn’t exist at all.

Somebody calling himself Martin Eisenstadt, of the “Eisenstadt Group,” says he works for the John McCain campaign and is “proud” to be the one who leaked the information that Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent to Fox News’ Carl Cameron.  Eisenstadt has also, on occassion, claimed to represent efforts to have a casino built in Iraq.  He also blames another blogger, William K. Wolfram, for spreading the “lie” that he (Eisenstadt) doesn’t exist.  Whether or not Wolfram exists is unclear.

What does seem clear is that there is no Washington area think tank employing Eisenstadt, as he claims, called the “Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy,” named after Warren G. Harding, supposedly America’s worst president ever.  There is a website for the institute, however, though it seems, that like everything associated with Mr. Eisenstadt, it’s part of an elaborate hoax.

Last week, the “Harding Institute’s” You Tube channel posted a video denying “BBC claims” made against him as part of “UK Sam’s” 10-part documentary, “The Last Republican.”  It’s okay if you’re not quite following all this, neither am I, to tell you the truth,  I’m just writing it up as it comes.  It’s hard to be sure if the videos posted are supposed to be part of the “BBC thing,” or Eisenstadt’s multi-part response to the “BBC thing.”

Some of Eisenstadt’s whoppers; John McCain and Michelle Malkin did not “do it,” as the “BBC documentary” claimed Martin claimed, Joe the Plumber “canoodled” a SNL cast member ,and something about a Photoshopped Iranian missile picture.  The Huffington Post ran the Palin story, and while they claim to know Eisenstadt himself is a hoax, they stand by the hope that the “stupid Palin/Africa” part is true.  They even make fun of MSNBC for falling for the hokum, but they quote Wolfram, who seems to me to be part of the scam.  His website is even subtitled, “Bill Wolfrum’s world of satire and commentary,” for gosh sakes.

Anyway, here’s Marty in his own words, from his blog, for whatever it’s worth:

So yes, to be clear, last week I was the one who leaked those things to a producer at Fox News who works with Cameron. Carl and his producers are good guys, and I don’t want them to have to worry about protecting their sources (and going through the wringer ala Judith Miller or Matt Cooper) on something like this.

As you know, I was one of the foreign policy advisers on the McCain campaign who worked with Randy Scheunemann to help prep Sarah on her debate with Joe Biden. Did we outright give her a geography quiz when we started the prep? No, of course not. But yes, in the context of the prep, it slowly became apparent that her grasp of basic geo-political knowledge had major gaps. Could she have passed a multiple choice test about South Africa or NAFTA. Probably. But it was clear that she simply didn’t have the ease of knowledge that we come to expect from a major party political candidate. Other slights came up, too: Not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni. Or when it came to international terrorist organizations, knowing that the IRA was in Northern Ireland, and ETA in Spain.

The real thing we had to constantly remind her was to never, ever compare herself in any way to Hillary Clinton, as she had at her announcement speech. We had it on good authority that Biden was prepping to unleash the inevitable line, “I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. And Sarah, you’re no Hillary Clinton.” Alas, Biden would have been right.

Hot Air, Zimbio, Celebgalz, and all manner of other websites have variations of the complicated story, but, to be perfectly honest, all these tangled webs make my head hurt.  As far as hoaxes go, I like Sammy Korir’s “Michelle Obama yelled at me” African Press International saga much better.  It’s a lot more fun, and much easier to follow, even though Sammy’s got a much smaller budget.