Former President “Slick” William Jefferson Clinton has always been slippery when it comes to the facts. To him, and indeed, the Clinton couple as an entity, the truth is usually an inconvenient stumbling block to power. In the years immediately after Sept. 11 when Karl Rove’s tactics were at their peak, they must have been taking notes. “Target an opponents perceived strength. Make ridiculous accusations to cast doubt on those strengths. Divide and conquerer.”
The Clinton camp are using those very same methods to try and drive up Barack Obama’s unlikability numbers, essentially to negate that advantage. They take a strength, for example Obama’s message of hope and change – and pummel it until some voters wonder if Obama’s real plan once he reaches the White House calls for him to drive a spike through a puppy during his first televised address.
Lately Bill has taken to assailing another of Obama’s selling points, his relative outsider status in the halls of power, by trying to confer that status on his wife, painting Obama as the “establishment” candidate and Hillary as the agent of change. Forget for a moment that before Hillary thought he was a credible threat to the dynasty, she was making the diametrically opposite charge about Obama, touting her years of experience and vast network of connections inside the beltway.
How exactly is Hillary Clinton not establishment? She’s one half of a power couple that occupied the White House for eight years. Immediately afterwards, she and Bill moved to New York for the sole purpose of having a friendly state to elect her as one its Senators. Former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe is their errand boy. If they’re not establishment, our current president really was born in Texas.
Would a candidate who’s not establishment have her surrogates wage a lawsuit to prevent caucusing in casinos only after a prominent union endorsed her opponent? Despite the Clinton campaigns official noncommittal stance on the issue, Bill shows exactly how invested they are in a court ruling coming out in their favor after a reporter asks him (gasp, shock) a pointed question:
Bill and Hillary Clinton will declare the sky is a vibrant shade of green if it suits their political purposes, then act indignant when you question their judgment. If you press them too hard, Hillary’s eyes might even well up. Democrats have expressed, publicly and often, their distaste for the lies and corruption of the Bush administration. What, prey tell, do they think they’ll be getting with the return of the Clintons?
