Eugene Robinson: Clinton Hurt By 'Win at Any Cost' Attitude

[babylonsister]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/clinton_hurt_by_win_at_any_cos.html

Clinton Hurt By 'Win at Any Cost' Attitude
By Eugene Robinson


WASHINGTON -- Talk about not being able to catch a break. To pummel a boxing metaphor, it was Barack Obama who got tagged with a roundhouse right, flush on the chin -- but it was Hillary Clinton, from early indications, who ended up nursing a sore jaw and wondering what it was that hit her.

A week of hearing Rev. Jeremiah Wright's jeremiads more or less continuously on cable news channels seemed certain to hurt Obama politically. Indeed it did -- but only slightly, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. The candidate who really suffered, according to the same poll, was Clinton.

Clinton must look back at dodging bullets in Bosnia and bringing peace to Northern Ireland as mere walks in the park compared to this crazy campaign. Then again, accurate recollection hasn't been her strong point of late.

snip//

Hillary Clinton is a brilliant woman whose many exemplary qualities are obscured by a campaign that fights as if it couldn't care less about collateral damage it might inflict -- on the Democratic Party or on the front-runner for the nomination.

That was always Bill Clinton's political method: Do what you have to do; apologize later, if necessary. You can't save the world unless you get elected, and to get elected you have to be what the people want.

But maybe what the people want this time is a real person, rather than an image or a strategy. Hillary Clinton might start by making clear that she wants to be president, but not at any cost.

[H2O Man]

1. Gene is a voice

of reason.

[flor de jasmim]

2. I read too quickly - I thought you wrote GONE is a voice, and I was thinking...

HOW APT!

[babylonsister]

4. He surely is. He's thoughtful and never gets riled, when I know I'd

be {and have been by what the talking heads go on about). And he's fair. His temperment reminds me of Obama's.

[monmouth]

3. I truly regard Eugene Robinson a national treasure. Always, always the

professional, no inflated ego, calm cool and collected. He is one of a very few journalists left.

[Samantha]

5. He has risen to the top of the list of commentators

whose words are always worth listening to, he has not compromised his ethics in order to work in this field. I really look forward to hearing his take on any issue that arises. Kudos to Eugene Robinson for his wonderful work.