Hillary Clinton ABC Debate: Nastiness Vs. Presidential

When the floor was turned over to Obama, he could have reinforced Clinton’s lies about Bosnia by asking how it was possible for her to repeat her claims of dodging bullets on at least four occasions, without consciously being aware she was lying. Obama showed that he is presidential and that he has class, while Clinton, who dragged out the Rev. Jeremiah Wright incident again tonight, proved that she is not presidential at all.

[Black Star News Editorial]

 

Senator Hillary Clinton has no class. Clinton, the Queen of nastiness was at her best at the presidential nomination debate with senator Barack Obama tonight, in Pennsylvania.

The defining moment in tonight’s debate, sponsored by ABC, occurred when Clinton’s Bosnian lies question came up.

The moderators, George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson played a videotape of a man-on-the-street who said Senator Clinton did not have credibility based on her lies about having dodged bullets in Bosnia in 1995.

Clinton was clearly embarrassed and claimed she had “apologized” for the incidents, which in itself was a lie; previously, she had only claimed she had “misspoken” which is not the same as admitting to the blatant lie. 

Clinton went on to respond that she had written accurately in her book about what had happened in Bosnia, and that somehow had not accurately described the Bosnia visit in recent weeks. Might it be that she wanted to manufacture a false incident to demonstrate foreign policy involvement that also showed her courage and bravery?  

When the floor was turned over to Obama, he could have reinforced Clinton’s lies about Bosnia by asking how it was possible for her to repeat her claims of dodging bullets on at least four occasions, without consciously being aware she was lying. Instead Obama spoke about healthcare, the economy, and the Iraq war.

Obama showed that he is presidential and that he has class; Clinton dragged out the Rev. Jeremiah Wright incident again tonight, proving that she is not presidential at all.

She has no capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness, even though she had the heart to “forgive” her husband Bill Clinton, for having at least 10 sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval office. Unless she remained with her husband, as many people believe, just so he could help her make a run on the White House. This type of cynical calculation should be chilling to voters.

Clinton also engaged in the type of pathetic mud-slinging that all Americans, including her supporters, now expect from her. She even dragged in Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan’s name into the debate and associated him with Obama.

She repeated her disingenuous and ahistorical assertion that had she been in Obama’s position, she would have left Rev. Wright’s church after his objectionable remarks.

Under what circumstances would she have ever have been a member of a historically Black church anyway? She, a white woman who grew up in privilege, and was a former Republican for that matter?

Black churches, historically, led the charge against racism, lynching, discrimination and segregation in America. White churches provided the enabling environment for slavery and racism, even rejecting Black members; white churches also served as enforcers of racism. So for Clinton to glibly suggest that she would have just “walked away” from a Black church, when historically Black people were not even allowed in white churches, is of course disingenuous, patronizing, and duplicitous. What’s more, she knows it too.

The debate’s moderators tonight also disclosed that an ABC News poll in Pennsylvania found, not surprisingly, that 60% of those surveyed said Senator Clinton was untrustworthy and had no credibility. A Washington Post poll showed more than 50% of Americans view her negatively; yet, she can’t resist continuing her demeaning detrimental attacks, diverting valuable minutes from discussing how to create jobs for Americans, including Pennsylvanians. Her and her husband just reported that they made $109 million over the last few years; why is she still so bitter?

A second opportunity for Clinton to proudly display her lack of class was when the moderators asked Senator Obama about his association with William Ayers, a member of the Weather Underground, an organization that was involved in bombings 40 years ago.

Obama forcefully responded to Stephanopoulos that when the bomber was involved in the sabotage 40 years ago, he was eight years old, and that for anyone to imply that he approved of Ayers’ sabotage operations then, just had no logic.

Here Clinton again went into slime-mode, as could be expected, accusing Obama of having served on the same Board as Ayers. These kind of associations were important, because those nasty Republicans will bring up the issue during the general election Clinton said.

This was a brilliant moment for Obama to strike back, and he did, slapping Clinton with a zinger: Her husband, as president, had formally pardoned two members of the underground organization, whereas he just happened to know a former member.

The New York senator stood there completely stunned by this swift comeback, and when offered more time to speak opted for the network to go to commercial perhaps so she could recover her composure; she was becoming too accustomed to Senator Obama’s gentlemanly presidential responses.

Sometimes it’s hard to treat someone like a lady, when she’s not, as Obama now realizes.


Editor’s Note: For an excellent Washington Post article about how the moderators debased themselves please see  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041700013.html

Also to view a video of Clinton’s lies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exsmFDYyK4U

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