I have extended Ms. Clinton every benefit of the doubt I can think of. Her qualifications. Her resume. Her self-assuredness navigating the political system. And so forth.
But while she continues to hold a heavy advantage in the Dem primary race, it seems like the moment anything remotely dissatisfactory occurs, decency and good faith are tossed heartily out the nearest window, and we get this sneering, disingenuous flavor of personal attack.
I remember it well. Our household supported her in 2008 until she started her racist dog-whistling about owning the "hard working white people" vote and that fast one was she tried to pull in the Michigan and Florida primaries.
On March 13, 2008, NPR interviewed Clinton, reporting:
Hillary Clinton says the results [in Michigan] should count, even if Barack Obama's name did not appear on the ballot. "That was his choice...There was no rule or requirement that he take his name off the ballot. His supporters ran a very aggressive campaign to try to get people to vote uncommitted."...Clinton [says] that the Michigan and Florida pledged delegates should count because both are seen as key battleground states in the general election. But if the national party does not agree, she says, the states should re-do the primaries.[28]
When pressed by NPR, Clinton said, "We all had a choice as to whether or not to participate in what was going to be a primary, and most people took their name off the ballot but I didn't."[28] Critics have labeled Clinton's actions as dishonest, and charged her with trying retroactively to change the rules for her own benefit.[29][30][31]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Democratic_primary,_2008
I'm trying not to fully reject the idea of her being the nominee, as that still seems likely. But boy, is she hard to like sometimes.
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