Add One More to Clinton's Unfavorables

I am so utterly disgusted with the Clinton campaign recently that I have not been able to post anything new. It is difficult for me to put new material up when I know that I can not be objective about the Democratic candidates. It is not that I am against supporting a
particular candidate at the expense of another. It is, however, hard for me to trash a candidate that I will later expect myself to support.

That being said, the latest Clinton campaign's smears against Obama have sent me over the edge. They have clearly been making a concerted effort to marginalize Obama as a "black candidate", so that they can do better with white voters who think that a "black candidate" will be more concerned with "black" problems than "white" problems.

I won't go through the litany of things they have done that point to a clear effort to smear Obama's candidacy. Luckily, Jon Taplin has done that for me:

For Hillary to say with a straight face on Meet The Press this morning that she does not want "to inject race or gender" into the campaign is ridiculous. She is asking us to believe that the Clinton Machine is the most undisciplined, out of control campaign in the history of modern politics and that none of the dirty tricks or slander directed at Obama were authorized. Consider just part of the list:Iowa staffers circulating email saying Obama is a Muslim. Bill Shaheen accusing Barack of being a drug dealer. The phony "Iron my shirt" plant followed by tears the next day.Bill calling Obama "a kid" and saying his opposition to the War in Iraq was "a fairytale". Hillary saying Lyndon Johnson did more for the Civil Rights Movement than Martin Luther King. Andy Cuomo saying Obama's appeal was just "shuck and jive".

I for one, believe the Clinton's have built a sophisticated attack machine and that none of these tricks were left to chance.

"And to me, as an African-American," Johnson continued, in remarks noted by ABC News' Eloise Harper, "I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that-- I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in his book."

Johnson went on: "That kind of campaign behavior does not resonate with me, for a guy who says, 'I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier 'Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.' And I'm thinking, I'm thinking to myself, 'This ain't a movie, Sidney. This is real life.'"

I think the Clintons honestly feel entitled to the presidency--not even just the nomination. It is clear that they have an "how dare you?" attitude about Obama's campaign. They will stop at nothing to get this nomination. They will demolish Obama's political future if they have to and be happy to do it. For them, I think, the ends always justify the means. Yes, they are that Machiavellian.

A Clinton candidacy, I'm afraid, will cause me to be as cynical as I have ever been about politics. They are no better--and I mean this--than Bush when it comes to campaigning. Clearly I think they are a much better alternative to Bush, or any of the current crop of Republicans, when it comes to actually governing, and that is why I will be forced to vote for her if she gets the nomination.

But I desperately hope she doesn't get the nomination. Frankly, I just don't like her very much.