Saturday, May 24, 2008

Why do you hate Hillary Clinton?

My being a somewhat outspoken Barack Obama supporter has, at times, had an interesting effect on people. For instance, I bought an Obama campaign shirt at the dawn of the primary season. As a shirt is meant to be worn, I began proudly displaying the newest addition to my otherwise politically-void wardrobe (this isn’t entirely true - I do own a Save Darfur shirt… and you should too). I originally limited the use of my new apparel to what I saw as completely innocuous locales: the mall, the gym, and other non-work related places. An interesting development occurred: people noticed. Similarly outspoken Obama supporters would toss a “nice shirt” my way. Truthfully, I kind of liked the pro-Obama attention. However, non-Obama supporters would quizzically glare at the Obama ‘08 logo on my chest and approach me with political interrogation. The most interesting question I received was from a Clinton supporter, just sick of all the anti-Hillary sentiment available increasingly in quantity and vitriol as the campaign had progressed… He asked, “Why do you hate Hillary Clinton?”

I do not hate Senator Clinton and have refrained from making disparaging statements about her on almost all occasions (once I did agree with a friend that she did look a little like Mao in one of her mock turtleneck pantsuits and another time likened her physical appearance to Dr. Bob Kelso from the TV show “Scrubs”).

Ironically, I was actually a Clinton supporter when the campaign season began, often drawing the ire of the sometimes near-psychotic rhetoric of the most avid Clinton-despisers (see Sal Kilmister). What I have come to hate, yes hate, is the Clinton campaign.

This became my canned response, “I don’t dislike Hillary in any way. It’s just the ineptitude of her campaign…” And while I do not believe that she would be any less capable of a President than Barack Obama, I do ultimately hold her responsible for surrounding herself with the politically decrepit likes of Mark Penn and Terry McAuliffe. If these are the people she employs during a presidential campaign, then what can we expect of her presidential cabinet?

To make matters worse, it appears that the near-lifelong idol of mine that is her husband has apparently turned into something akin to a Bella Lugosi impersonator – destroying his mythical persona and growing legacy as the greatest statesman of our time.

To back up my position I would reference a few stupid-Hillary-tricks. Like when she wagged her finger and vomited the ridiculous statement, “Shame on you Barack Obama!” in response to a month old-Obama campaign mailer less than twenty-four hours after she announced how proud she was to be running for President in a campaign against him. Or when Mark Penn would spew the word “cocaine” over and over again in reference to Obama’s admitted adolescent exploration. Or when Hillary outright lied about the sniper-fire in Bosnia.

But until last night, when Keith Olbermann spent ten minutes delivering verbal corporal punishment in response to Senator Clinton’s strange reference to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, I had not heard the many Hillaryisms that have turned off so much of the electorate. Back-to-back these stories construct a mesmerizing narrative of a Greek tragedy. Mind you, Olbermann has an obvious man-crush on Barack Obama.

To wrap up my Saturday morning rant… I leave you with just a few of Keith’s points. You can watch the entire “Special Comment” in our previous post which links to the MSNBC video. Here’s a sampling:

We have forgiven you fawning over the fairness of Fox News while they were still calling you a murderer.

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We have forgiven you quoting the electoral predictions of Boss Karl Rove.

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We have forgiven you the 3 a.m. Phone Call commercial.

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We have forgiven you President Clinton's disparaging comparison of the Obama candidacy to Jesse Jackson's.

We have forgiven you Geraldine Ferraro's national radio interview suggesting Obama would not still be in the race had he been a white man.

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We have forgiven you for boasting of your "support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans"

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We have even forgiven you repeatedly praising Senator McCain at Senator Obama's expense, and your own expense, and the Democratic ticket's expense.

8 comments:

.e. said...

I don't watch much TV, so I don't know KO that well, but the rant you are referring to was so over the top that I am less inclined to listen to what he has to say in the future. That's quite a man crush.

That said, I'm happy Clinton keeps on blundering because it'll make it less likely for her to be VP.

puddy said...

e - KO certainly likes to make a point with gravitas. but when all is said and done, several years from now, we'll all be looking back at the one man who had the balls to say it like it was during these dark years - which i hope turn out to be the darkest political years of our lives.

puddy said...

i don't see any possibility of her being vp now... too much mud slung...

alzaido alzaido said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bradda said...

Al- That was Huckabee that made the "joke". It was at the NRA convention, Sal posted the video.

alzaido alzaido said...

Thanks Bradda. You are correct of course. I remembered watching it on IE and I can't believe I didn't remember that it came from Huck. All the same...Clinton is still the 2nd person that I have seen "joke" about the assination of Obama. Crazy!

alzaido alzaido said...

KO did a great job stating the facts. I was a big Hillary Clinton fan before she ran this ludicrous campaign.

She didn’t imply, she simply stated to her base that the only way she is going to get into the White House in 2009 is if Obama dies. She emphasized her point by referring to the deadly scenario that had sealed the deal for Humphrey in 1968. She should be chastised by everybody for her total moral collapse.

Huckabee used the same ploy two weeks ago when he made his joke in regards to a noise that came from the background during one of his speeches. He joked that it was Obama who had come in and tripped over a chair and then was being held at gun point. Huckabee laughed as he told his horrifying story.

Reason said...

I really can't find any sentiment to criticize here. As a matter of fact, I agree with a lot of it.

But little kreplech is my pal and deserves my support, so...

You were proud to be wearing your new shirt but would only wear it to places you thought innocuous? One would think that if you were truly that proud of your t-shirt you would have worn it everywhere!

It sounds more like you were torn between being proud and being ashamed.

Are you sure you wouldn't like to just go lie down for the rest of the campaign season witht hat cold compress on your forehead? I bet it would do you a world of good, little kreplech!