2008 Democratic Primary:posted by: Political Pyro
April 29, 2008 at 5:15 am

Barack and the ‘Billy’goat

I’ve long held the suspicion that Bill Clinton’s "slip-ups" of the past few months - arguing with reporters and hecklers alike, wagging his finger at the camera on several occasions, resurrecting the Bosnia sniper story when it had all but died, comparing Obama with Jesse Jackson in South Carolina, etc. - has been nothing short of a brilliant political move on the part of the Clintons.
 
The MSM has, on many occasions, questioned whether Bill was working for or against his wife’s candidacy. The pundits have been all too eager to psychoanalyze the rantings of the former President as if he were a man on a downward slide of sanity. They can’t seem to comprehend how Bill could possibly have lost his political savvy. I suggest he hasn’t.
 
My suspicion is as follows: The Clintons, in their undying quest for power, devised a scheme sometime after Iowa, to purposely set Bill up as a negative component to Hillary’s campaign, rather than an overpowering cheerleeder whom many would say was overshadowing Hillary’s candidacy. (Do you really believe Bill is so out of control that he has to be "silenced" by his wife’s campaign?)

 
The result is two-fold: First, by setting Bill up to say all the things Hillary cannot, she can remain sufficiently sugar-coated to persuade voters that she is the best candidate. Second, unleashing Bill to the point of appearing as an embarrassment serves to deflect from Hillary’s own high negatives while she is left in the political rubble… free to play the martyr.

It has been suggested by more than a few pundits (Chris Matthews is first to come to mind) that Hillary essentially won her Senate seat because of Bill’s philandering. The sympathy vote, according to this thought, propelled her to victory. All across New York (and America), women lined up at voting boothes to cast their vote for the woman who had been done wrong by a powerful man who used her as nothing more than a token wife.

This sympathy vote appears to have paid off in New Hampshire. Again, women lined up for Hillary at the sight of political tears.

With the success of this political maneuvering in his sights, I believe Barack Obama has impressively learned from the Clinton playbook in regards to the Reverend Wright problem. The one negative issue that has plagued Barack Obama (more than Rezko, Ayers, patriotism, and Muslim background combined) is "the Wright problem". This nagging problem is not about to go away anytime soon. Of course, no one believes the words of Wright amount to the thoughts of Obama. Yet voters remain perplexed as to why Obama would allow himself, and his family, to endure such nihilistic psycho-babble over the course of 20 years.

The only plausible solution to this problem (in my humble opinion) is to somehow turn Rev. Wright into Darth Vadar to Barack Obama’s Luke Skywalker.

Is it a coincidence that Reverend Wright decided to hold a disastrous press conference just one week before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries? I doubt it. Of course, the next few days will reveal whether or not this news conference story has legs. These next few days will also reveal the slant the MSM chooses to take when reporting.

I predict Obama will come out of this the same way Hillary came out of New Hampshire - with political tears in his eyes.

Have I gone off the deep end with my political conspiracy theories? Have I watched one too many rounds of ‘Hardball’? You be the judge…

 

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2008 Democratic Primary:posted by: Political Pyro
at 3:23 am

DNC Rules Trump Democracy

When Al Gore lost the presidency to George W. Bush nearly eight years ago, Democrats all across the country were outraged that their candidate was defeated despite winning the popular vote by over a half-million votes. 
 
Today, when media darling Barack Obama looks like he will repeat the Bush role (more delegates, less votes), the uproar is nowhere to be found. Everyone is focused on the delegates. Nevermind that neither candidate will score enough delegates to secure the nomination. Nevermind that each candidate will require the assistance of the superdelegates to push him or her over the top. Nevermind the popular vote entirely… It’s all about the delegates.
 
Why is the MSM suddenly disregarding the popular vote when it has been only eight years since Gore "outrageously" lost the election by having fewer delegates?
 
Here’s why: Once the final votes are counted, Hillary Clinton will have the popular vote by perhaps 100,000 (assuming she wins Indiana by 5%, loses North Carolina by no more than 10%, cleans Obama’s clock in Kentucky and West Virginia by 25+% each, and finishes up with a landslide in Puerto Rico).
 
The first problem here for the MSM is the most obvious one: Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama.
 
The second problem is this: Senator Clinton’s victory only exists if the popular vote numbers include Michigan, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Listen in the next few weeks as the mainstream media totally disregard the democratic process of counting every vote simply because the total will not propel their candidate of choice to the victory column.
 
Among the talking points the MSM will use to justify their position: Michigan and Florida don’t count, and Puerto Ricans aren’t even qualified to vote in the general election.
 
In the first talking point, "Michigan and Florida", the argument we will hear ad nauseum is that both states broke party rules and moved their primaries up to an unacceptable time slot. It is in this argument we are expected to believe (but only when Obama benefits from such a decision) that DNC rules trump democracy. However, when Puerto Rico is in the national headlines, the argument will be reversed. The new argument will be: "They don’t even count in the general election, why should they count now?". When Puerto Rico comes into play, the rules of the DNC will suddenly be tossed out the window.
 
The MSM is already guilty of suppressing important information (Wright, Rezko, Ayers, etc.) from the American people. Had the majority of Americans known of such scandals, there is no doubt Senator Obama would have already been defeated by Senator Clinton. But with the impeccable timing of the Rev. Wright story brought out after Texas and Ohio, the media has achieved their objective of propelling Obama to front-runner status.
 
Such suppression of vital information to the American people by the MSM should be considered nothing less than treasonous.
 
In the never-ending battle of rules vs. votes, the MSM is proving yet again that they are willing to do anything, say anything to get their man into the White House… truth and democracy be damned. 
 
 
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Links:posted by: Political Pyro
April 19, 2008 at 4:53 pm

Links

Ace of Spades Eschaton Political Capital
Marc Ambinder Firedoglake Polipundit
AMERICAblog WaPo’s The Fix Power Line
The American Scene David Frum Public Eye
AmSpec Blog Jim Geraghty QandO
Professor Bainbridge Hugh Hewitt Radio Equalizer
Michael Barone Reason’s Hit and Run Red State
Austin Bay Hotline On Call Right Angle
Belgravia Dispatch Huffington Post Milt Rosenberg
Belmont Club Instapundit Patrick Ruffini
Black Five Jeff Jarvis SCOTUS Blog
Neal Boortz Just One Minute Ben Smith
Brody File Rich Karlgaard Andrew Sullivan
Campaign Matters Mickey Kaus The Swamp
Captain’s Quarters Ezra Klein Lynn Sweet
WaPo’s Capitol Briefing Larry Kudlow Talking Points Memo
NYT’s The Caucus Lefty Blogs Talk Left
David Corn Little Green Footballs Tapped
The Corner Michelle Malkin James Taranto
Crooks and Liars Jonathan Martin Think Progress
Politico’s The Crypt MyDD TPM Election Central
Daily Kos The Note TPM Muckracker
Democracy in America Outside The Beltway Volokh Conspiracy
Ross Douthat OxBlog James Wolcott
Dan Drezner Patterico Wonkette
The Plank Matthew Yglesias
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