I stand accused -- "Yglesias and Marshall are quite busy not readying themselves to own up to the fact that one of their main candidates is using surrogates (in this case, a black surrogate, a fiendishly clever move) to peddle the charge of cocaine use to scare off the white women. Period. That’s what she’s doing."
Look, I think the idea that I'm turning a blind eye here is dumb. Anyone who reads the blog knows I'd rather see Barack Obama win the nomination than Hillary Clinton. Her campaign's strategy seems to be to taunt Obama and his supporters into calling her and her campaign a bunch of racists, and then because black people outnumber white people she wins an election that's all about race. It's cynical as hell, and I don't want to be a part of it. Now Bill Clinton's on the radio whining that Obama called Hillary a racist when Obama never did any such thing.
Nor will I call her one, it's a red herring that Clinton's people have injected into the campaign instead of trying to make a stronger affirmative case for their candidate
Let me just fall back to what I've said before: I don't envision core domestic policy issues unfolding incredibly differently in a Clinton or in an Obama administration. I think Barack Obama has given us more indication, both in his record and his proposals, that he'll pursue the kind of foreign policy we need to get the country on track. I'll buy that Obama doesn't have a ton of experience, but the reality is that Clinton doesn't have a ton either. And while Hillary Clinton can probably win in the general election, I think that the bulk of the evidence supports the idea that Obama would have an easier time -- in particular would have an easier time of generating the sort of big win that would be necessary to pass ambitious legislation. Ultimately, that's what the campaign is about. I won't even pretend to be appalled by Clinton's cynicism -- the disenfranchisementgambit and all the rest -- because, frankly, the idea that Clinton would use dishonest political tactics to beat the GOP is, in my view, probably the most appealing thing about her. At the end of the day, though, while I think she'd be okay it's always seemed to me that with other viable options in the field it's made more sense to go with "other options" and now that it's a clear two-person race, I think Obama is clearly the better option.
The one thing you can't argue with is Clinton's contention that she's the best candidate to take on the Republican attack machine. That's because she's proven that, smear for smear, the Clinton attack machine is every bit as bad. It's almost like she's got Karl Rove running her campaign.
The Republicans have become a party that believes that nothing is as important as winning an election, and there's no principle they won't compromise if that's what it takes. Unfortunately, I'm afraid Clinton wants to drag the Democratic Party into the same direction.
Posted by Fred App | January 14, 2008 8:02 PM