Clintons: Tears And Encyclopedia

Sure, Shaheen resigned and Senator Clinton apologized. But there is such a thing as prepared apologies. Drop the bomb and we will apologize after the fact and live with the consequences.

[Black Star News Editorial]

 

 

 

Anyone that believes Hillary Clinton’s moment of almost-tears in New Hampshire was not scri pted is living in a fairy tale world. It was pulled from the Clinton Ecyclopedia.

 

The New Hampshire moment, when Senator Clinton exhibited human frailty or emotion was supposedly elicited by a question about the pressure of the election campaign. Yet, in the past, the Iron Lady has endured questions about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a spectacular public humiliation by her husband Bill Clinton, without shedding tears.

 

We are now to believe that the good Senator almost broke down under pressure of running for the presidency but bravely soldiered through the Lewinsky episode? Unless of course Senator Clinton has different priorities. Might this not lend credence to those who contend that Senator Clinton has harbored presidential ambitions all her life? Potentially losing the presidential moment to an upstart senator –a “kid” who “lacks experience” to boot— presented more pressure than Lewinsky?

 

It’s hard to believe that the Clinton’s have political moments that are not scri pted. The Clinton’s are detail-oriented and hands on. That’s why they’re so successful.

 

The Clinton’s crossed the line with personal attacks against Senator Barack Obama by the Clinton machinery.

 

While Obama is not claiming that race was a factor in the narrow loss to Senator Clinton in New Hampshire it’s worth recalling recent incidents. Weeks ago, Billy Shaheen, then co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in New Hampshire, warned voters that Obama might not be the suitable candidate.

 

Were he to win the Democratic nomination, Shaheen said, Republicans could bring up the fact that Obama had admitted to using marijuana –by the way he never said he “didn’t inhale”– and cocaine in his youth. Might the Republicans not also want to know whether Obama had also been a drug dealer?

 

Who doubts that this was not a Willie Horton moment—playing the race card. The Black man as drug dealer. We find it hard to believe Shaheen woke up one morning, took a shower, brushed his teeth and decided to come up with those remarks—all by himself. Sure, Shaheen resigned and Senator Clinton apologized. But there is such a thing as prepared apologies. Drop the bomb and we will apologize after the fact and live with the consequences.

Then New School University president and former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, while endorsing Senator Clinton, noted that Obama, although not suited for the presidency, could play a role in a Clinton Administration by reaching out to Black youth and Muslims around the world. “It’s probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim,” Kerrey, said. “There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.”

This was of course a double-bomb, raising the whole “competence” issue while also maligning Obama as a Manchurian candidate who would secure a beachhead for Islam at the very seat of US and by extension, global power—the White House. Who is so naïve to believe that Kerrey, before endorsing Clinton, had not in advance clued her in on what he would say? Kerrey is unfit to be a University president.

Most voters in New Hampshire –as was the case in Iowa—rejected the Clinton machine’s poison, as evidenced by Obama’s strong showing there, narrowly losing 37% to 39%. We will never know if a few voters remembered Shaheen’s remarks, and, consciously or not, acted on them.

Bill Clinton himself got into the “competence” issue by first declaring on Charlie Rose’s show that electing Obama would be tantamount to rolling a dice. More recently, he referred to him as a “kid” –might he have meant to say “boy”?—and to his improbable movement as a “fairy tale.” Since African Americans don’t see Obama’s rise as a “fairy tale,” Clinton might have as well said, “White people are you really out of your mind to vote for Obama?”

We have no doubt that there are many more scri pted moments and prepared attacks, anticipating all future possible political moments and events, that will be pulled from the Clinton Encyclopedia and unleashed at Obama, who to his credit, has resisted replying in kind.

Senator Clinton warns that Obama is not “electable” because he can’t endure the Republican machinery. She’s wrong. The Clinton’s endured the Republican machinery; and thus far, Obama has survived the Clinton machinery.

Why all this ugliness? Is it the fear of change?

Voters must resist this ugliness. America needs change. Obama represents change. Good change. 


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