As Josh Marshall aptly pointed out, it’s a Rorschach test. As an Obama supporter, that’s the Hillary I fear. I thought she scored points all the way through. Right up to the point where she started talking about her 35 years of experience. Then she lost me. Is she honestly trying to tell me she was working toward being president while representing major corporations with Web Hubbell and Vince Foster at the Rose Law Firm? That she was gaining valuable experience as First Lady of Arkansas? C’mon, Hill. We know better.
She doesn’t have much time between now and Tuesday to make up what is certainly a widening gap. Some polls have Obama up by as much as 12-points in New Hampshire. A friend of mine and I set the over-under on Obama’s vote total at 46% tonight. As of this moment, I’d probably take the under. But by Tuesday…
Update: b!x says the clip is out of context.
What seemed to play out was that Clinton launched into an attack upon Obama, Obama adeptly deflected and deflated it, and Edwards stepped in to suggest that such attacks are what happens when the status quo feels threatened.
In other words, the tag team of Obama and Edwards turned Clinton’s attempted trap for Obama back around on to her.
That’s what leads directly into the clip that Marshall shows without its context. What’s happening there is that Clinton, in essence, freaked out because not only did her attack fail, it got shown up for the desperate attack that it was.
She got defensive. And becoming defensive, she got shrill. That wasn’t passion or outrage.
It was a little bit of panic.
Is the complete exchange on YouTube yet? I’d love to see it.
So many thoughts tonight as I let the Obama victory sink in.
- Edwards, the great white male Boomer Democratic hope, is done. He spent the last four years pounding every corner of Iowa, shaking every hand, kissing every baby, hoping to use a victory as a springboard to greater things. It didn’t happen. He would have had my vote in the 2004 primaries, but I was still a registered Republican at the time. I never got past his declaring this time around in post-Katrina New Orleans. It seemed opportunistic to me. It just looked dumb. He’s also decided to take matching funds which is suicide in this era. There’s no way he’d make it from March through the conventions without money. I think he can play an important role in helping to shape Obama’s healthcare initiative. I hope he gets that chance.
- Driving home tonight as the caucuses began, I left a message for a friend of mine begging him not to make me vote for Hillary in November. It’s difficult to describe my reasoning other than to say I just don’t want four years of Republican nonsense that would surely accompany a Clinton presidency. We wouldn’t be able to last a week without hearing the words Vince Foster. Watching MSNBC’s coverage tonight, Chris Matthews practically wet himself at the thought of Hillary’s counter-punch, going on and on about how the campaign was strategizing and would find just the right words to air live on the 10pm news. It never happened. While I believe she’s in major trouble, I completely believe what a commenter said here a few weeks ago. They’ve still got some tricks up their sleeves. The question is if she does try to Swiftboat him, or something similar, will it backfire? I believe it will. I also believe the race will be all but decided two weeks from Saturday in Nevada. If she can’t win there, she won’t be able to win anywhere.
- Still until there’s a stake through her heart, I don’t discount Hillary. And neither does Obama.
- The conventional wisdom is finally catching up to something I was saying way back in September. There is no way Hillary and Obama will share a ticket in 2008. My ticket right now is Obama-Webb. I’m not alone.
- Huckabee. Limbaugh Conservatives have been in denial about the role and prominence of Evangelical Christians in their party. They were alright with them as long as they voted the way they wanted. I’m not sure what the Limbaugh wing of the party was thinking the Evangelicals would do this time around. Were they just going to sit on their hands and do nothing? Did the Limbaugh/Rove coalition secretly hope Christians would stay home and let Rudy or Romney skate away with the nomination? I think we found out tonight that’s not going to happen.
- Six weeks ago I figured Huckabee would be the #2 on any Republican ticket. This morning I figured Romney would win and Huckabee would be the Republican Howard Dean. Tonight I think Huckabee could well be the nominee.
- Rudy is sliding into irrelevance. Watching him on MSNBC was painful. The words 9/11 never left his lips, but he spoke about it in a ton of code. He kept referring to his experience handling crises. Well hes got one now. His strategy was to be the white knight candidate, lying in wait as Romney and McCain beat each other to a pulp up north. It’s falling apart in front of him. Hillary actually tried to run a similar strategy in 2006, figuring there would be no front runner by the Fall and she would just slide into the race around Thanksgiving. She was forced into the race way earlier than she wanted. Right now, every time you see Huckabee on the front page, consider it another opportunity lost for Mayor 9/11.
You know, I was going to vote for Obama and even announced that a week or so ago. But this is a great example of why it’s best to wait and see how things shake out. Not being blinded by candidate worship, it’s easier to sniff out the bullshit. And you have to have your head stuck deep in the sand to deny that Obama is trying to close the deal by running to the Right of his opponents. And call me crazy, but that’s not a trait I generally appreciate in Democrats, no matter how much it might set the punditocracy’s hearts a flutter.
Keith “If you take away the Independent vote, Obama only wins 32-31″ Olbermann can too. Obama has an opportunity to unite like no candidate in my lifetime. And that means heading toward the middle to pick up independents and even *gasp* Republicans. He’s right in step with a ton of Americans who are fed up with our political inertia. I know I’m gushing like a schoolgirl, but I honestly don’t care.
So that’s that. At this point, I’m focusing on Nevada two weeks from Saturday. If Obama wins there, it’s Katie, bar the door.
