I was prompted to write this after reading an article by Michael Blim at 3quarksdaily, but I will come back to it later. Unless you are living under a rock, you may be getting some news of the Democratic primaries. It has started swinging in ways few expected it to, making it fraught with more drama than it needs. It is a complicated choice between candidates with essentially similar agendas, but starkly different personalities. That is why the choice for a Democrat is not so much about “issues” or “experience”, as some keep on parroting, but about who can win a general election against any of the Republican candidates, and who possesses the personality for leading and inspiring the country. And even by those measures it is very hard to say who is the right candidate – if there ever is any.
But what is troubling, without doubt, is the strategy adopted by the Clinton camp. Make no mistake, this is not an upset husband lashing out in his wife’s defense – the Clintons are way too sophisticated for that – but a well-calculated gambit, even though Senator Clinton’s supporters would like to believe otherwise. It is simply wishful thinking that President Clinton acted without the tacit or explicit approval from his wife, and her well-oiled campaign machinery – the dirt is on her hands too.
First, there were the lies – a comment from Obama about the transformative nature of Ronald Reagan’s presidency was spun as a sign of his love and support for Reagan’s ideologies. In his book “Dreams from My Father”, Obama writes:
In 1983, I decided to become a community organizer. There wasn’t much detail to the idea; I didn’t know anyone making a living that way. When classmates in college asked me just what it was that a community organizer did, I couldn’t answer then directly. Instead, I’d pronounce on the need for change. Change in the White House, where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds. Change in the Congress, compliant and corrupt. Change in the mood of the country, manic and self-absorbed.
Remember that this was written in 1995, well before he ever run for a public office. At what point does it sound like that this man loves Reagan’s ideals?
