Hopefully My Last Pro-Obama, Anti-Clinton Rant For a Long Time

Few things that the Clintons say about Obama applies to them.  

How about the much-hyped issue of “experience?” Bill Clinton said that he, himself, didn’t run in 1988 because he wasn’t yet “experienced enough.”

From a CBS News story:

He was worried about rumors of infidelity, some of which were investigated by his own staff, and privately expressed doubts about whether he could win in 1988.

“He’s being a little disingenuous,” said Art English, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Clinton was 42 in 1988, four years younger than Obama is now. Already one of the nation’s longest serving governors, Clinton accomplished little between 1988 and 1992 that added to his depth of experience - other than winning a fifth term as Arkansas governor while promising not to seek the presidency before his term expired.

He broke that promise.
………….

“Here’s a quote,” Obama said with a smile. “‘The same old experience is irrelevant. You can have the right kind of experience or the wrong kind of experience. And mine is rooted in the real lives of real people, and it will bring real results if we have the courage to change.”‘

“And that was Bill Clinton in 1992.”

The Clintons and their supporters went nuts when the Obama campaign applied the Clinton standard of winning to the results of the Nevada caucuses. He won 13 delegates to Hillary Clinton’s 12. Just like Bush won 271 electoral college votes to Gore’s 266 in 2000. I wish like hell that the popular vote counts, which it should, but it doesn’t.

The Nevada Democratic Party’s statement regarding the AP’s calculation that Obama won more delegates in Nevada than Clinton:

No national convention delegates were awarded. That said, if the delegate preferences remain unchanged between now and April 2008, the calculations of national convention delegates being circulated by the Associated Press are correct. We look forward to our county and state conventions where we will choose the delegates for the nominee that Nevadans support.

The Clinton campaign’s statement on today’s vote in SC (just in case she loses) is the same case she made after her loss in Iowa:

Regardless of today’s outcome, the race quickly shifts to Florida, where hundreds of thousands of Democrats will turn out to vote on Tuesday…
This remains a delegate fight, with 1,681 delegates at stake on February 5th, and 2,025 needed to secure the nomination — and we are ahead in that fight.

And it doesn’t end there in terms of double standards.

Todd Beeton, of MyDD, on Obama campaign saying that the Clintons will say anything to win:

On some level, this is a smart tactic because it plays into one of Clinton’s weaknesses (distrustfulness) and one of his strengths (new kind of politics), but it also perpetuates one of Hillary Clinton’s greatest assets in the eyes of Democrats: that she’s a fighter. I think the Obama team is underestimating how much Democrats want to win this year. I mean, I really have to wonder, isn’t the dirty little secret about Democrats that we actually do want someone, finally, who will do whatever it takes?

That’s right. Hillary’s more electable because she’s a fighter.

from The Hill:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), speaking on behalf of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), said her chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), “misunderstands” the nature of partisan politics.

Frank said Obama’s repeated talk of bringing the two parties together shows a naivete about how fierce Republican opposition can be.

I love it, she’s the real candidate of change because she can “re-fight the battles of the 90’s” as Frank puts it? So “Mr. Nice Guy” will get his butt kicked in the general election because Hillary will fight them tooth and nail the way Obama won’t. OK.

Bill Clinton, as quoted by CNN:

She and John McCain are very close,” Clinton said. “They always laugh that if they wound up being the nominees of their party, it would be the most civilized election in American history, and they’re afraid they’d put the voters to sleep because they like and respect each other.”

Newsflash Bill: No Republican will ever say anthing nice about Hillary Clinton on the record. Call it the GOP’s 12th commandment. If McCain can fire up the GOP base, he wins. And that’s exactly how he’s going to do it. All this talk of a fractured and wounded Republican Party just makes me laugh. The Democratic Party is, most likely, going to give the GOP a reason to unite around a common cause by nominating Hillary Clinton.

And, no, it’s not an accident that I keep referring to Hillary Clinton and her campaign as “the Clintons.” I’ve heard more from Bill in the last few weeks than I have from his wife. You remember her don’t you? The one actually running for President? I get really excited about the possibility of the first woman President of the United States. But the fact remains that, as intelligent and capable as she is,  she wouldn’t be here without her husband. Does anybody really think she’s going to make any major decisions without Bill right by her side?

Is this supposed to help women in this country? “You too can be President one day…IF you marry the right man and keep him close by at all times.”

Of course, I am a man. What do women think of Hillary and her epic quest to shatter the glass ceiling one and for all? Let’s ask them…

From the editor of 30 Ways of Looking at Hillary (via Firedoglake):

As I talked with women about their reactions to Hillary, some themes came up again and again. Many women were divided within themselves as to how they feel about her, and I noticed a familiar circle of guilt: these women believe they should support Hillary as a matter of solidarity. But, because they expect her to be different from (that is, better than) the average male politician, she invariably disappoints them; then they feel guilty about their ambivalence. Some feel competitive with her. Having wearily resigned themselves to the idea that “having it all” is too much to hope for, they view Hillary as a rebuke: how did she manage to pull it off—or, at least, to appear to pull it off? Other women say they want to like her but are disturbed by the anti-feminist message inherent in the idea of the first woman president getting to the White House on her husband’s coattails.