Clinton's Own Fairy Tale: Politico Reports on the Clinton Myth

Friday Politico.com reported on the myth being perpetuated by the Clinton campaign and the media that she still has a chance at all in this race. Remember back in the South Carolina primary when the press was reporting, mistakenly, that Bill Clinton said Barack Obama's candidacy was a "fairy tale." He may have been misquoted then, but now the same thing could truthfully be said about his wife's candidacy. The Politico article goes on to delve into the reason the Clintons, obviously, and the media continue to spread the narrative that this is still a close race and that Clinton still has a chance.

The article sums up her real chances thusly:

Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.

Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.

People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.

As it happens, many people inside Clinton’s campaign live right here on Earth. One important Clinton adviser estimated to Politico privately that she has no more than a 10 percent chance of winning her race against Barack Obama, an appraisal that was echoed by other operatives.

But what is really telling is their analysis of the reasons the MSM want to keep this race on life support.

Mississippi Primary: Obama is the Projected Winner

The polls have closed in Mississippi, and Barack Obama is is the projected winner according to CNN and MSNBC.

Next Up, Ferraro, Designated Baiter

Former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro emerges from relative obscurity as Hillary Clinton's latest surrogate race baiter. The irony of her statement, that if Barack Obama was a white male, or a woman of any color, he would not be in the position he is now in the race for the Democratic nomination, is not lost on her. She readily admits that when she was tapped for the Vice Presidential nomination in 1984 as Walter Mondale's running mate, she would not have been picked if she was not a woman.

But the differences between you Ms. Ferraro and Mr. Obama go far beyond race. Obama is an eloquent and intelligent figure who inspires the electorate like no figure in recent history has. Because he speaks to the people's overwhelming desire for change. He is swept up in a moment of history and you are a nearly forgotten footnote to history as the first woman to be picked by a major party to run for Vice President because as you readily admit, you happened to be a woman. You said it. I only repeated it.

Hillary seems to have no shortage of surrogates who will step up and sling mud for her. What's telling about these attacks is that these if these people had a candidate with more positives to tout, they wouldn't have to stoop to this level for her. It's really sad to see these formerly respected figures like her and Gloria Steinem, who I respect greatly, sticking their feet in their respective mouths and tarnishing their considerable reputations (at least in Steinem's case) with low brow campaign tactics at a historic time that should be uplifting to all who call themselves Democrats, if not all who call themselves Americans.

Update:

If I had a dollar for every time a racist statement is either proceeded or defended with, "I'm not a racist", I'd be a rich...African American. As if this somehow gives that person an exemption to go ahead and say something that is patently racist. There's obvious reasons she's a Faux News contributor. She's helping to fragment the party. Just admit you said the wrong thing, Ms. Ferraro, and apologize.

And in this quote from the Daily Breeze in Torrance California she defended her first offensive comments with more offensive comments. The second most used tact in defending racist comments, charging reverse racism.

Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up,' Ferraro said. 'Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?

This is the kind of thing the party does not need. The party leaders need to intervene now and raise the level of this campaign on both side before this kind of divisive rhetoric torches the party's chances in November.

Clinton's Other Face: the Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Here's the other side of Hillary Clinton as she vacillated between dirty campaign tactics, praising the Republican candidate, and showing her warm and human side on comedy shows just prior to today's primary elections in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island. Honestly here I don't think she comes across very well. With that smile frozen on her face, she looks like she doesn't know what to expect from Stewart. I think the does slip a couple concealed jabs in there. Using her words when the talks about how candidates come into Ohio and call them "salt of the earth" and forget about them once elected. There was a barely detectable wince when he said that.

Clinton Crosses the (Party) Line

I can understand a hard fought campaign during the primaries. I can understand that Hillary Clinton wants to be and believes she is the best qualified person to be president. What I don't get is her not only giving ammunition to, not only supplying a tactic for, but actually praising the likely Republican nominee for president. She just said that the potential Republican nominee may be a better choice than the leading democratic party candidate. To me this is beyond the pale. It is fractious to the party. And it gives aid and comfort to the enemy. I fail to see why I should have loyalty to a Democratic Party candidate who has no loyalty to the leading candidate for nomination of the party.

I believe and sincerely hope Clinton's campaign will be over tonight. But for me, at this point, she's made it nearly impossible for me to support her should a miracle occur and she ends up being the nominee of the party. I would find it impossible to have any enthusiasm and to get behind her candidacy. After the race bating and "fairy tale" remarks of her husband. After the mocking performances at her rallies. After the picture of Obama in Somali garb surfaced that was said to have come from her campaign, and wasn't immediately denied, I have pretty much lost all respect and good will I had for both Clintons. I would guess, the only thing I could possibly surmise, is that if a miracle does occur and she is the nominee, that she's counting on offering Barack Obama the second spot on the democratic ticket in order to mend fences. I have to say that I would almost still be disinclined to vote for her. I couldn't vote for McCain, of course. I think I may just vote for Ralph Nader or just stay home. I might take the attitude about voting that I disagreed with George Carlin over in a recent post.

In the video below Keith Olbermann, without a great deal of effort, takes apart Hillary Clinton's main selling point, her experience. And Rachel Maddow makes the point that it behooves all the candidates left in the race to be rather nebulous about their experience in military and foreign policy matters. None of them have real experience to point to. If it was what mattered, she points out, we'd be choosing someone like Chris Dodd or General Wesley Clark. What she says at the end of the clip shows just how utterly disloyal and frankly stupid

Hillary Clinton's statement comparing Obama's experience with McCain's was. She says, it's what you say when you want to be John McCain's running mate, not what you say when you want to be the democratic nominee. Hillary Clinton talks about going into the general election campaign as a unified party, but how she's conducted her campaign shows she'd rather destroy the party than loose.

Hillary Clinton to Appear on Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Hillary Clinton to appear on Monday's Daily Show with Jon Stewart. From the Daily Show web site:

Hillary Clinton -- the first viable presidential candidate with a working uterus -- will be a guest on the Daily Show this upcoming Monday night -- the eve of the March 4th primaries in Texas, Ohio and several other less sexy states -- to presumably talk about politics, patriotism and pant suits.

These clips are from an appearance in October of 2003. Notice how on The Daily Show that is popular, as they tell me, with the young folk, she slips in that during the blackout she happened to be sitting around a conference table with young people. How media savvy she was even then. I wonder Jon will soft ball her or will he ask some tough questions. It's sad when a good deal of our hopes for real journalism rest on a comedian with a fake talk show. Maybe she'll tear up again and win all four primary states in a landslide.

Trending Away from Microtrends

An interesting and ironic analysis of why Barack Obama is winning by Arianna Huffington at Huffington Post. If you're tired of poll after poll, and coverage of tit-for-tat bickering between the candidates, and the other useless information you get from the best political team on television, or as I've just this moment decided to start calling them, the best political team in show business, and the rest of the MSM (of course except for the man Keith Olbermann), and want to read something that won't reduce your IQ by 5 points, check out her post.