Hillary Clinton: victim. And of course, the loudest siren of unfairness is the would-be First Gentleman himself, Bill Clinton.
"I can't believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out," Clinton told supporters in a campaign stop on Sunday. He went on to allege a media cover-up of certain figures suggesting that the Senator from New York would fare well in a November match-up against John McCain.
"She is winning the general election today and [Barack Obama] is not, according to all the evidence," he said. "And I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running."
So, a vast media conspiracy? Keep in mind, this is the same political duo that called "vast right-wing conspiracy" when Bill was in the hot seat, denying that he'd ever had any kind of inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
It's not just that Clinton's pandering is pathetic or untrue. It kind of calls into question Clinton's pledge to "work [her] heart out" for Obama if he is ultimately successful in his quest for the nomination. Every time Clinton or her husband claim to be the victims of some sort of foul play, it begs the question: who is the perpetrator? Who is responsible for the former First Lady being "treated so disrespectfully just for running?" Pointing the finger at the media only goes so far. And this is only the inter-party portion of the overall election. Essentially, Clinton is attempting to make Obama an antagonist of his own party.
Or at least a significant portion of it. I wrote not long ago about how Clinton was essentially holding her wing of the Democratic Party hostage, with her sole demand being that she be granted the vice presidential slot on Obama's eventual ticket. But the more she argues and convinces her devout following that Obama is a cheat, or that he's somehow unfairly snatched the nomination out from under her nose, the less likely it will be that Clinton will be able to convince even her most ardent of supporters that they should fall back in line behind an Obama-led ticket.
Moreover, it lends some credence to the conspiracy-theory type claim circulating that Clinton's continued presence in the race for the Democratic nomination has more to do with sabotage than it does with party unity. Looking at the facts, it seems fairly straightforward and simple to state that in the end, Clinton is making it more difficult for the Democratic candidate to be successful in November, no matter who that candidate is.
And by this logic, Clinton, betting on the almost-assured fact that it will be Obama, and not her, who carries the party flag into the fall, hopes to be in place to sweep up the pieces again in four years.
Hillary Clinton is no victim. No one should be under any kind of delusion that she's run a dirty campaign, and that Obama has simply taken the high road 100% of the time. This race is for the biggest prize in politics, and everyone in every campaign, from the very top to the very bottom, knows they have to play hardball to win. But there is something pathetic and unnerving when the Clinton's play the victim- especially when they've done it before. Besides, we all know how that turned out.
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