How Much Damage Will Clinton Do Before She Folds?

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Saturday, February 23, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
How Much Damage Will Clinton Do Before She Folds?
by Paul Rogat Loeb

In the wake of ten straight losses, Clinton’s going to need some miracles to win, and Mike Huckabee’s already ahead of her in line for divine intervention. But the question is how much damage she’ll do to Obama and the Democratic chances before she quits.

If the fight goes to the convention, we know the answer: Unless she totally routs Obama in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, her sole remaining path to the nomination depends on convincing the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters, and convincing the credentials committee to honor the problematic Michigan and Florida elections. So she’ll have to practically destroy the party to save it, or more accurately to save herself. Assuming a possible breaking sex scandal doesn’t bring down McCain, he already beats Clinton by 12 points in the latest poll, while Obama defeats him by 7. If the young voters, independents, and African Americans who Obama’s enlisted in droves stay home in November because they feel they’ve been betrayed, Clinton’s chances would be slim to none.

But she still can do real damage to Obama with her negative attacks in the remaining primaries, particularly in swing states like Ohio. Recent match-ups show Obama a solid victor in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, and Oregon, and dead even in Ohio, while Clinton goes down to defeat in all of them. But depending on how negative she gets and how long the primary battle continues, she could cost the Democrats the election by forcing Obama to spend his time responding to an endless succession of petty attacks, and by giving the Republicans ready-made talking points, like Hillary’s comment that only “one of us is ready to be commander in chief.”

The potential damage is magnified if you count Clinton’s surrogates. At the Youngstown, Ohio rally following Clinton’s Wisconsin defeat, International Association of Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger called Obama supporters “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies.” That’s despicable rhetoric, echoing the worst Limbaugh/Fox myths about limousine liberals, while it dismisses the majority of union members who just backed Obama in the Wisconsin and Virginia primaries, or the members of unions like SEIU, The Teamsters, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, who just endorsed him. It also happens to totally steal its language from the sleazy “latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading” anti-Howard Dean ads of the right-wing Club For Growth, that helped give us the disastrous candidacy of John Kerry.

If repeated enough, though, those myths have the potential to stick. Clinton supporters have just created a new “527″ political committee, which while technically independent and issue-oriented, is explicitly designed to allow Hillary supporters to evade the standard $2300 donation limits. The group aims to get contributions of $100,000 or more from as many as 100 Hillary donors, so they can pour $10 million in ads into the next round of critical races. Whether or not this is legal, and that’s arguable, no other candidate has done anything remotely similar in this election. And since the ads have no checks of accountability, they’ll be as nasty as their backers decide.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/23/7246/

[journalist3072]

1. This is not about Obama. Who the hell cares how much so-called "damage" she does to Obama?

This is not about a person or a party. This is about our country and our future.

It's about accountability!

It's about the fact that Barack Obama has not been held accountable for ANYTHING he's said or done in this campaign.

That is unacceptable.

[Emit]

5. Honest question

How has he not been held accountable?

[jgraz]

9. Not you, obviously

Have fun working on the McCain campaign. :hi:

[TwilightGardener]

10. He's the likely nominee--that's why we'd rather not see him damaged--DUH.

[K Gardner]

2. Neither Hillary or her supporters seem to care. "If I can't have it, he can't either" seems to

be the theme. And people have the AUDACITY to suggest her for VP.. or Supreme Court Justice?

It boggles the imagination.

[Cha]

12. I wouldn't vote for her

for dog catcher..think of the poor doggies.

[lligrd]

3. She's Done An Awful Lot To Damage Her Own Image

already, if you ask me.

[orpupilofnature57]

7. She's been vilified since Bill screwed up ,the most attacked "Image"

in America,AND SURVIVES.

[Danger Mouse]

4. I've said all along that I'll support Hillary is she gains the nomination.

if THIS is how she decides to win, though...
it'll be VERY difficult to bring myself to vote for her.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Ralph? Ralph-eee! Is that you?

"I was out punishin' the Democrat party, Norton."

--p!

[Faygo Kid]

8. I don't think she can do much damage anymore. Just to herself.

She's going to be well positioned to continue to make history - maybe Senate Majority Leader - so long as she doesn't follow a scorched earth policy.

She's finished as far as this election goes. The worst thing that could happen is for her to eke out a win in Texas and Ohio and use that as an excuse to go on. If she loses both, the demand for her to get out will be deafening, and she will be broke. At any rate, I've seen enough campaigns through the years to know that hers is over. If she goes nuclear, who will listen?

[Cha]

11. It is despicable rhetoric..I had no idea

this guy had also so-called attacked us.. as Obama supporters. How stoopid do you have to be to call yourself a hilary?