Published in FOXNews.com on August 13, 2008
On May 10, 2007, Time Magazine reported that Hillary’s stump speech included the lines: “I was born into a middle class family in the middle of the country in the middle of the last century.”
After Penn’s memos were released to the media this week; Hillary’s people spread the word that she did not take Penn’s advice. But it is evident that she did.
The strategy Penn recommended was ridiculous. He somehow thought that by stressing Hillary’s normalcy, Obama’s unusual name, race, origin, parents, and skin color would redound to his detriment. In fact, the exact opposite proved to be the case. It has been his very novelty that has underscored his appeal. Penn missed the point.
But the larger point in his memos is that Hillary sought, from the beginning of the 2008 campaign, to use race as an issue against Obama. Her early willingness to wrap herself in the flag and marginalize Obama as an outsider speaks her efforts to inject race into the campaign. As soon as Obama emerged as her chief opponent, Hillary and Bill Clinton tried to make the election about race and to contrast her American roots with Obama’s otherness.
It would be a mistake to think that Hillary’s campaign against Obama is over. She and Bill both realize that if McCain wins, she would be the likely Democratic nominee against him in 2012. At the age of 76, McCain might make easy pickings. Hillary’s argument to win the nomination would be simple: I told you so. Her warnings that Obama was unelectable would have proven to have been prescient and Democrats are likely to feel chagrined that they rejected her in 2008.
How will the Clintons undermine Obama? Not by any overt statement. In public, they will appear to be his biggest fans. Hillary does not dare incurring the wrath of Democratic voters if they feel that she abandoned her party’s nominee in the general election. But the Clintons will do what they do best: they will hog the spotlight. By speaking on Tuesday and Wednesday, this former first couple will spread themselves over the convention, usurping media, taking face time, and making the convention appear, for its first three days, as a Hillary Clinton gathering.
Remember how in 2004, Bill Clinton timed the release of his memoir My Life to coincide with the start of the John Kerry campaign. His swings through the nation, attracting lines and crowds at bookstores drew attention away from Kerry. His strategy of distraction culminated when he scheduled a book signing in Boston during the Democratic Convention, drawing mobs and pulling the spotlight away from Kerry.
By hogging the publicity at the Democratic Convention and by keeping the spotlight away from Obama, the Clintons are going to do all they can to stop the Democrat from getting a bounce from his Convention appearance. How will they hurt Obama down the road — Bill will make off-handed comments, seemingly mistakes. A lose cannon, he will appear to be undisciplined as he follows a game plan to undermine the candidate. Hillary will do her best to avoid campaigning for Obama and will undercut him in any way she can without getting caught.
Obama: Watch your back!
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The strategy Penn recommended was ridiculous, and Penn did miss the point……as a result it back fired. There is no normalcy for the Clintons or in fact for any politican……they are only good at one thing……and getting elected or re-elected is where there mastery lies. I believe that the face of politics has changed, and a new generation of voters is emerging. If Bill and Hillary believe that they can hack the DNC, either directly or indirectly for the purpose of damaging Obama’s candidacy to promote her potential run for the presidency in 2012, well, they cannot do damage to Obama without doing damage to themselves. Chronic exposure of the Clintons are toxic, and are tolerated over a long period of time; hacking the DNC would mean an “overdose” and we know what happens with overdoses.
This Clintons dominance of the DNC, and you heard it from me first, is going to back fire so bad that it will insert the final nail into the Clinton’s political coffin. The average American voter is truly naive, but the Democratic National Party and the Democratic voters are going to be watching them like an egale watches its prey.
Hillary’s purpose, along with wild Bill, to do damage to Obama to cause and effect his defeat, for the sole purpose to run again for the presidency is an illusion. You said McCain will be 76 in 2012, and would be easy pickins……Hillary will be about 69…and that it not a great margin of difference…..she will be the Democratic McCain.
Time is an amazing element……..it heals all wounds, and at the same time is the “greatest thief” that exist…and it steals and heals all at the same moment without ever being notice. I agree, Obama needs to watch his back, but a young fox always does.
Dick: Which will the final nail be for the Clinton’s political coffin: honest arrogance or hypocritical humility? I would choose honest arrogance.