The Bare Knuckled Pundit
05-28-2008, 08:57 PM
In a rather creepy and haphazard way Hillary Clinton shared with us part of the rationale for her ongoing campaign Friday.
Making the case for seeing the primaries through to their conclusion, Hillary told the editorial board of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota paper, Argus Leader, "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.” The only thing missing from the moment was Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor playing in the background as lightning struck nearby.
By the way, was that a black pants suit with red velvet lining she was wearing? Hmmmm……
What the junior Senator from New York was saying in her own ham-handed and semi-cryptic way was that she’s staying in the campaign because you just never know what might happen. Creepy allusions to assassination notwithstanding, the Right Reverend Wright may feel the need to further enlighten America on her checkered past and woeful ways, for instance. Or perhaps a “Girls Gone Wild: Harvard Law School Hotties” tape with Michelle Obama vamping it up in the library off Harvard Square might surface.
Having detailed a full cadre of opposition research specialists (oppos) to sift through the minutiae of Obama’s past, were there a scandal of nuclear proportions to be fielded the Clintons would have used it long ago. And yet, it is, to paraphrase Zen Master and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the things we don’t know we don’t know that keep Hillary hanging on. The unexpected is just that after all; unexpected.
Having failed to derail Obama with innuendo surrounding his admitted drug use as a teen, the Clintons would love nothing more than for someone to step forward and accuse him not only of using, but dealing. Fearing an electoral debacle with an accused drug dealer topping the ticket, the Democrats would scramble to replace the fatally tarnished front runner. And who should be there to step into the breach to save the day but the holy and humble Hillary herself!
It is that scenario and a hundred others similar to it that keeps Hillary holding on. As Cheap Trick put it so succinctly, Hillary wants the Dems to want her. She needs them to need her.
Perhaps, as many have suggested, she experienced an unprecedented Freudian slip. Having clearly demonstrated classic sociopathic behavior over the course of the campaign, it reinforces the Disney caricatured villainess so many perceives her as.
As for myself, I am struck by the irony that someone who served on the House Judiciary Committee that conducted the Watergate hearings that ultimately led to President Nixon’s resignation has increasingly displayed many of the characteristics that were part and parcel of his undoing. As Nixon before her, Hillary has wrapped herself in paranoia, taken refuge in denial and nursed her wounds on the sweet nectars of vanity and delusion. Still, in the end even Nixon had the strength of character and good judgment to know when the moment had come to exit stage left.
Much like Nixon, Hillary has become a polarizing and mythical figure. She is lionized by her supporters and villainized by her detractors. Both martyr and Machiavelli, her place in the annals of American politics is secure. The question at this point is whether it will be cast as a Greek tragedy or an inspirational American odyssey.
The quill is in your hand, Senator. Do with it as you will, knowing Time will judge you with the unbiased objectivity and clarity you accuse so many others of willfully abandoning.
O’ how the mighty have fallen, faithful readers! Stay tuned for further updates as developments warrant and the pages turn.
Making the case for seeing the primaries through to their conclusion, Hillary told the editorial board of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota paper, Argus Leader, "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.” The only thing missing from the moment was Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor playing in the background as lightning struck nearby.
By the way, was that a black pants suit with red velvet lining she was wearing? Hmmmm……
What the junior Senator from New York was saying in her own ham-handed and semi-cryptic way was that she’s staying in the campaign because you just never know what might happen. Creepy allusions to assassination notwithstanding, the Right Reverend Wright may feel the need to further enlighten America on her checkered past and woeful ways, for instance. Or perhaps a “Girls Gone Wild: Harvard Law School Hotties” tape with Michelle Obama vamping it up in the library off Harvard Square might surface.
Having detailed a full cadre of opposition research specialists (oppos) to sift through the minutiae of Obama’s past, were there a scandal of nuclear proportions to be fielded the Clintons would have used it long ago. And yet, it is, to paraphrase Zen Master and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the things we don’t know we don’t know that keep Hillary hanging on. The unexpected is just that after all; unexpected.
Having failed to derail Obama with innuendo surrounding his admitted drug use as a teen, the Clintons would love nothing more than for someone to step forward and accuse him not only of using, but dealing. Fearing an electoral debacle with an accused drug dealer topping the ticket, the Democrats would scramble to replace the fatally tarnished front runner. And who should be there to step into the breach to save the day but the holy and humble Hillary herself!
It is that scenario and a hundred others similar to it that keeps Hillary holding on. As Cheap Trick put it so succinctly, Hillary wants the Dems to want her. She needs them to need her.
Perhaps, as many have suggested, she experienced an unprecedented Freudian slip. Having clearly demonstrated classic sociopathic behavior over the course of the campaign, it reinforces the Disney caricatured villainess so many perceives her as.
As for myself, I am struck by the irony that someone who served on the House Judiciary Committee that conducted the Watergate hearings that ultimately led to President Nixon’s resignation has increasingly displayed many of the characteristics that were part and parcel of his undoing. As Nixon before her, Hillary has wrapped herself in paranoia, taken refuge in denial and nursed her wounds on the sweet nectars of vanity and delusion. Still, in the end even Nixon had the strength of character and good judgment to know when the moment had come to exit stage left.
Much like Nixon, Hillary has become a polarizing and mythical figure. She is lionized by her supporters and villainized by her detractors. Both martyr and Machiavelli, her place in the annals of American politics is secure. The question at this point is whether it will be cast as a Greek tragedy or an inspirational American odyssey.
The quill is in your hand, Senator. Do with it as you will, knowing Time will judge you with the unbiased objectivity and clarity you accuse so many others of willfully abandoning.
O’ how the mighty have fallen, faithful readers! Stay tuned for further updates as developments warrant and the pages turn.