Obama vs. Clinton: Living the Experience

Funny and insightful commentary on Obama and Clinton.

From Mark Wanner of Daily Kos:

"Barack Obama shocked his loyal liberal supporters today when he used the word "the". "The" is a common right-wing talking point used to smear Democrats like Al Gore, who wrote a movie called "An" Inconvenient Truth. "An" is a left-wing indefinite article and a progressive article. Progressives do not believe in black or white, so they use "a" and "an". When Obama uses the definite article "the", it is an endorsement of the Bush black or white philosophy, and it is a direct attack on Al Gore, who used the progressive friendly indefinite article in his movie title...

...Obama's use of the right-wing talking point 'the' is a clear endorsement of all of Bush's 'The' War on Terror policies like waterboarding and blowing stuff up in other countries for no good reason.

The use of this right-wing talking point, 'the', is proof that Obama is evil, his supporters are hysterical, and all of the other candidates are totally awesome.

I just call them like I see them. I'm not blinded by loyalty to any candidate. That's why this analysis is so clear eyed and easy to follow, without any ridiculous spin. Obama, on the other hand, is a liar and a shuckster. He uses Rovian tactics. He even tried to spread a rumor in South Carolina that he had fathered a black child. This is racism at it's worst. And it's sexist too, because it just is.

'The' is the latest in a pattern of right-wing media frames used by Obama to destroy the Democratic party and liberalism forever. Once he's done destroying the Democratic party from within, he will invade Middle Eastern countries for their oil and then maybe even Italy for their olive oil. This guy is not a progressive. He is a neocon. He's an arch-conservative. Look at his voting record: it reminds me of fascism. It's makes me sick."

From Dayo Olopade of the New Republic:

"The breaking news of Hillary Clinton’s unrepentant stumbles on the subject of Pakistan hasn't shocked me. It's an old story. During interviews in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s killing Thursday, Clinton had suggested she was a familiar hand at Pakistani politics and a close acquaintance of Bhutto (which is apparently due more to Bhutto’s outreach in Washington than to HRC’s globetrotting). In the process, she got a few details of her friend’s life wrong—the number of children, the manner of her father’s death—but the worst was yet to come. Candidate Clinton said on CNN Friday:

If President Musharraf wishes to stand for election, then he should abide by the same rules that every other candidate will have to follow.

And on ABC’s This Week two days later:

[Musharraf] could be the only person on the ballot. I don't think that's a real election.

The issue, of course, is that the now-postponed elections were parliamentary. And Musharraf, as president, will most certainly not be on the ballot.

Again, it’s not that Hillary’s experience blanket is looking slightly holey—though it is. (Joe Biden dished a zinger on the subject today.) I’m willing to bet that she doesn’t and needn’t have endless reserves of information on Pakistan handy; most of the major candidates (even Saint Biden) are likely prepping—on issues from guns to farm subsidies—from index cards managed by aides. The best candidates, however, posess a mixture of genuine curiosity, a solid base of understanding and a sharp learning curve that allows them to appear superhumanly knowledgeable on the fly. Clinton is usually very good. But at this point any candidate should get more than the gist of what’s going on in Pakistan. And as one running on her wonkishness and fo-po experience, Hillary is doubly on the hook for this one.

I’ll leave it to the imagination what might happen if another candidate, Democratic or Republican, had made this error. But once again, the issue at hand is one of character. Which to me is not about perfection, but the handling of its opposite (I never thought I’d side with Giuliani on this one). And as I noted a few weeks back, it character doesn’t often change.

The real story is the cynical, egotistic response to Hillary's rare but clear blunder. Handler Howard Wolfson immediately rephrased Clinton's two statements as referring to a political party rather than the “President Musharraf” she spoke of four days after the Bhutto news blitz (if only Mike Huckabee had had that time to catch the NIE). The mind trick captures the instinctive bunker mentality that would pervade a Hillary Clinton administration. She could probably just say she misspoke, and put an end to a story that—if the MSM is working hard enough—should have legs for more than a few days. But she won’t. She can’t. It’s not in her blood. (Bill Clinton’s showiness, I think, is also self-serving but different in kind from Hillary’s defensive crouch)."

Andrew Sullivan sums it up pretty well:

"If you think Bush admits mistakes too easily, vote Clinton."