"Hillary Clinton, Fratricidal Maniac" [View All]

[DeadElephant_ORG]

Boy oh boy... the worm really has turned for Hillary. This from CBS NEWs for god's sake:

Hillary Clinton, Fratricidal Maniac

The New Republic: Hillary Clinton's Continued Run Is Damaging The Democrats' Chances

March 7, 2008
By Jonathan Chait
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/07/opinion/main3916817.shtml

(article excerpted to comply with DU copyright policy)

Summary: Clinton's path to the nomination, then, is pretty repulsive: kneecap an eloquent, inspiring, reform-minded young leader who happens to be the first serious African American presidential candidate (while cementing her own reputation for Nixonian ruthlessness) & then win a contested convention by persuading party elites to override the voters.

...Clinton's path to the nomination is pretty repulsive. She isn't going to win at the polls. Barack Obama has a lead of 144 pledged delegates. That may not sound like a lot in a 4,000-delegate race, but it is. Clinton's Ohio win reduced that total by only nine. She would need 15 more Ohios to pull even with Obama. She isn't going to do much to dent, let alone eliminate, his lead.

That means, as we all have grown tired of hearing, that she would need to win with superdelegates. But, with most superdelegates already committed, Clinton would need to capture the remaining ones by a margin of better than two to one. And superdelegates are going to be extremely reluctant to overturn an elected delegate lead the size of Obama's. The only way to lessen that reluctance would be to destroy Obama's general election viability, so that superdelegates had no choice but to hand the nomination to her. Hence her flurry of attacks, her oddly qualified response as to whether Obama is a Muslim ("not as far as I know"), her repeated suggestions that John McCain is more qualified.

Clinton's justification for this strategy is that she needs to toughen up Obama for the general election-if he can't handle her attacks, he'll never stand up to the vast right-wing conspiracy. Without her hazing, warns the Clinton memo, "Democrats may have a nominee who will be a lightening rod of controversy." So Clinton's offensive against the likely nominee is really an act of selflessness. And here I was thinking she was maniacally pursuing her slim thread of a chance, not caring - or possibly even hoping, with an eye toward 2012 - that she would destroy Obama's chances of defeating McCain in the process. I feel ashamed for having suspected her motives.
...
Imagine in 2000, or 2004, that George W. Bush faced a primary fight that came down to Florida (his November must-win state). Imagine his opponent decided to spend seven weeks pounding home the theme that Bush had a dangerous plan to privatize Social Security. Would this have improved Bush's chances of defeating the Democrats? Would his party have stood for it?

(See the full article here: www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/07/opinion/main3916817.shtml)