Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Comeback Kid, the Sequel

Just as John McCain starts his do-over of the 2000 election, Hillary is hoping for a rerun of that 1992 Clinton classic, "The Comeback Kid," but the script and casting present problems.

Yesterdays wins will keep her onstage, but Barack Obama is no Paul Tsongas or Jerry Brown to be overtaken in the late primaries, her timing is off and TV gigs on Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show won't do as much as the 60 Minutes soap opera about Gennifer Flowers did to turn things around back then.

Moreover, this Clinton faces a dilemma her spouse did not have to deal with--the risk of tearing her party apart with attacks on a front runner that the Republicans can put to good use if Obama wins the nomination.

In the red phone commercial and statements pairing her experience with McCain's in contrast to Obama's sparse resume, the former First Lady is on a scorched-earth march that won't overcome the deadly delegate math she is facing and that may damage her standing with a party desperate to wrest the White House from those who have taken the country into a devastating war and on to the verge of economic disaster.

Sequels seldom live up to the originals, and Hillary Clinton is not enough of a political artist to give us a Godfather II.

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