My Problem with Big Mouth and Big Mouthed Lies

Let me explain the problem with her statements and lack of apology to the Obama family.

First, she said the word "assassination." That's the problem. She said the word "assassination." Regardless of what she meant or what she may really be thinking, you can't say "assassination" during a campaign with the first viable black candidate.

Now, her whole timeline argument is bogus. Bill knew in March after one month of primaries that he pretty much had it locked. It just took till the California primary in June for him to get the technical requisite number. Robert F Kennedy, Sr only campaigned a month before he was . . . killed. So, the whole argument is dishonest. Either she's lying, or she's just plain dumb.

I don't buy this whole argument that it's the Obama campaign's fault that her were so insidious. The Clintons are whining that the Obama campaign sent out memos highlighting what she said and adding their spin. And they're whining about it like she didn't make the most of Rev. Wright and Obama's "bitter" comments. Like Howard Wolfson wasn't on 2 or 3 conference calls a day going bananas.

Here's why she should apologize to the Obamas. Her words sound as though she's waiting for him to be assassinated so she can win the nomination. Is she too dumb to see that, or too arrogant to acknowledge it? What's more, her lack of apology is going to cost her even more with the black community, especially in NYC. It would have been easy and admirable for her to say that she understands her words could be misconstrued, but she "honestly, honestly didn't mean it the way it sounded" and she apologizes for the misunderstanding. That would've ended the discussion. Instead, her campaign goes into hyper-indignation mode and keeps the story going fairly well themselves without any help from the Obama campaign.

And no one's been pushing Clinton out of the campaign. She hasn't been "disrespected." Michael Dukakis was out polling GHW Bush in 1988. We see how well that worked out for the Democrats. With the exception of Johnathan Alter and Keith Olbermann, most the media is thrilled with the prospects of a divided convention. People did tell Ted Kennedy to drop out in 1980. He didn't. He split the party. Carter lost. No one had to tell Gary Hart or Jerry Brown to drop out in 1992 because it was quite clear that Clinton was going to be the nominee and neither of them had a chance. So let me be clear. The Clintons are lying to you.

And sexism has not been the downfall of her campaign. She lost 11 primaries and caucuses in a row because she didn't have a post Super Tuesday (the one of February the 5th) plan, not because of sexism. Her fight for Michigan and Florida are exaggerated and embarrassing. Especially seeing as how she agreed they "wouldn't count." This isn't to say that sexism doesn't exist and didn't come up the campaign, it's only to say that it's not why she has lost it, both the campaign and her bearings. Moreover, despite her supporters offering Obama one of her 3 testicles (like that's not sexist to both Obama and Clinton), Obama never played gender against her despite her playing race against him. I know lots of white Americans and their enablers-of-color swear her campaign hasn't race baited, but as I laid out in my May 18 post on race relations, white people can't be depended up to accurately detect, much less admit, racism.

And let me put a finer point on this. Many Democratic women and men, like Geraldine Ferrarro, are threatening to vote for McCain, or not at all, in retaliation proportedly for the DNC's failure to speak out against sexism coming from the media. Not that any sexism came from the Obama campaign on the DNC itself. But, in retaliation their going to vote for McCain. McCain who, by the way, failed to correct a woman who, during a small group campaign stop, asked him, "How're we going to stop the bitch?" McCain who has historically stood against women's reproductive rights, recently against equal pay, and promised to add more Scalias and Alitos to the court. Yeah, they're going to support him because Obama and the DNC were sufficiently anti-sexist.

Now, maybe Jesse Jackson Jr shouldn't have made the Katrina comments after Clinton misty moment in New Hampshire, where, by the way, she said, "Some of us are ready. And some of us are not." Even in her most human moment, she can take a nasty swipe at Obama. JJ, Jr's point was essentially that he didn't buy her tears. I didn't either. But other than that, there's no way that the Obama campaign played the race card against her.

Now, if you look through my earlier posts, you'll see I was originally okay with the prospects of Obama and Clinton being in the White House together, whoever was president and vice president. I know longer feel that way. I don't even want Clinton on the ticket.

Let me qualify this by saying the Obama campaign didn't have me right this post and probably won't read this post. But I sure feel better getting all that off my chest!

(- I will link other assertions at a later date.)