Day by day, Bill Clinton is inducing more nostalgia for Ronald Reagan, whose post-presidency was a dignified retreat into Alzheimer's and public silence.
As Hillary and Barack do their reconciliation dance in New Hampshire, here is the former Leader of the Free World having a temper tantrum in London, telling friends that Obama will "have to kiss my ass" to get his support for the campaign.
This charming image evokes memories of previous anatomical inappropriateness on the part of the man for whom bands used to play "Hail to the Chief" but is now, in the words of Maureen Dowd, "in a self-pitying meltdown about not being Elvis anymore, trying to shake down Obama for more--more apologies for perceived snubs and more help paying off the $22 million Clinton debt."
Even Joe Klein, who must have thought he was telling the worst about the pre-presidential Clinton in "Primary Colors," seems taken aback.
"It's time for him to get over it," Klein says "or go off and do his charitable work. He knows the rules of the road. What's going on now is kind of strange. I think his behavior is really, really shocking."
In the 2000 campaign, Al Gore was criticized for keeping Bill Clinton in the closet. At the rate the former President's stature is shrinking these days, Barack Obama would be well-advised to try to keep him out of the continent.
Showing posts with label campaign debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label campaign debt. Show all posts
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday, June 08, 2008
The Mastermind Speaks!
Mark Penn, the chief strategist who did more than anyone to kill Hillary Clinton's campaign, is copping a plea. In today's New York Times, he explains that "it wasn't the message--it was the money" (the lack of it, he means) that did her in.
After the Bay of Pigs, JFK cited the old saying, "Victory has a hundred fathers, defeat is an orphan." But Penn's paternity of Clinton failure's is too well-established for denial, so the next best thing is to claim that the foundling died of malnutrition.
Aside from Penn's own culpability in misspending the campaign funds, starting with the decision to ignore Iowa until it was too late, his fingerprints are on everything that went wrong--from the hubris of acting as if the nomination was a done deal to not seeing that the race was about change rather than experience ("ready from Day One").
It was only when Penn was fired in early April for embarrassing the candidate by meeting with Colombia's ambassador to the US about a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact Clinton opposes, that she started winning primaries and closing the gap with Obama.
Early in the campaign, someone had to explain to the genius that primary delegates are awarded proportionally, not "winner take all." This did not daunt Penn, who discovered "soccer moms" (talk about sexism) during Bill Clinton's reelection and makes a specialty of slicing and dicing voters into demographic slivers such as "young knitters", "extreme commuters", "tech fatales" (women who like technology) and "powerful petites" (women who are small and proud of it).
Now he can discover a new population subset--moronic manipulators.
The largest portion of the Clinton campaign's unpaid debt is owed to Penn. They should demand a discount, and Barack Obama should look for a way around the financing rules to send him a check as a thank-you.
After the Bay of Pigs, JFK cited the old saying, "Victory has a hundred fathers, defeat is an orphan." But Penn's paternity of Clinton failure's is too well-established for denial, so the next best thing is to claim that the foundling died of malnutrition.
Aside from Penn's own culpability in misspending the campaign funds, starting with the decision to ignore Iowa until it was too late, his fingerprints are on everything that went wrong--from the hubris of acting as if the nomination was a done deal to not seeing that the race was about change rather than experience ("ready from Day One").
It was only when Penn was fired in early April for embarrassing the candidate by meeting with Colombia's ambassador to the US about a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact Clinton opposes, that she started winning primaries and closing the gap with Obama.
Early in the campaign, someone had to explain to the genius that primary delegates are awarded proportionally, not "winner take all." This did not daunt Penn, who discovered "soccer moms" (talk about sexism) during Bill Clinton's reelection and makes a specialty of slicing and dicing voters into demographic slivers such as "young knitters", "extreme commuters", "tech fatales" (women who like technology) and "powerful petites" (women who are small and proud of it).
Now he can discover a new population subset--moronic manipulators.
The largest portion of the Clinton campaign's unpaid debt is owed to Penn. They should demand a discount, and Barack Obama should look for a way around the financing rules to send him a check as a thank-you.
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