Enough already Ms. Clinton

Is it possible that Sen. Clinton is getting the worst political advice in history? It certainly seems that way as any thoughts of her bowing out gracefully can be thrown out.

Sen. Clinton needed to knock one out of the park last night during the most recent Democratic debate… it didn’t happen. And in failing to do so, she exposed herself to more negativity stemming from a problem that we’ve been talking about for the last week.

Her campaign’s desperation.

No, we’re not talking about her campaign setting up a hotline yesterday for supporters to call and offer their advice on how to defeat Sen. Obama (though that is pretty damn desperate… and sad… and pathetic… and inane), but more so her campaign pushing reporters a story about Sen. Obama and his supposed ties to former members of a radical domestic terrorist group, Weather Underground. (BTW, the ‘ties’ the article refers to is a $200 contribution to Obama in 2001 from William Ayers, a founding member of the group)

What makes this even more pathetic, with a nice dose of irony thrown in for good measure, is that President Clinton pardoned a member of the same group mentioned in the Obama stories before he left office.

Oops…

Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer, in a desperate attempt to divert attention from the desperate act of pushing the story into reporters faces and facing the subsequent backlash, said in an email to the media; “Wonder what the Republicans will do with this issue.”

Yeah… I wonder.

I WONDER what the republicans will do with ammunition given to them by someone who claims that she wants to lead the Democratic Party.

This is how she operates now… just look back at last night's debate. For the first 45 minutes or so of the debate last night, she conducted herself like the candidate many thought she was, elegant, poised, polished, calm… then she went into her plagiarism and “change you can Xerox” then back, with her closing statement, to some signs of graciousness at the end.
Then we hear about this… which sort of tells you that the only reason she laid off the attacks last night is that she didn't want to get booed again… so she unleashes her hired political goons to do the smearing.

As I said yesterday, if Clinton continues to act this way, she will be lumped into the same category as Joe Lieberman…

Crossing a Line

For the last several days I’ve been posting about how Sen. Clinton’s presidential campaign is getting desperate…from pushing for states whose delegates weren’t supposed to be counted, Florida and Michigan, to BE counted… to smacking some states in the face by saying their primary results didn’t matter…

Now we get something that reeks of desperation… something that would have been done the last time someone was so obsessed with winning the presidency they were willing to, essentially, sell their soul…. Mr. Nixon, I’m looking at you.

After suffering a debilitating, and somewhat mortifying, 10-state loss to Sen. Obama, Sen. Clinton is set to swiftboat her Democratic rival with the formation of a well-financed 527 organization called the American Leadership Project (ALP).

Stay classy Hillary…

(Sidebar: A 527 group, named after the section of the Internal Revenue code that “regulates” them, is an organization whose purpose is to influence federal elections. As such, donations to 527 groups are limited to $5,000, but it is that cap that gets circumvented as the argument of those who do so is that the language of the law applies only to their activities in federal political races. Because there are no contribution limits for work by 527s in state and local political campaigns, they argue that these organizations can establish “nonfederal accounts” which can accept unrestricted “soft money.”)

According to The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, ALP is “canvassing Clinton donors for pledges of up to $100,000 in the hope of raising at least $10M by the end of next week” so the group could then unearth negative information about Obama and strike at him with TV, mail and phone banking in the upcoming primary race states of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Already the group has developed three ads, called “If speeches could solve problems” that are aimed at pushing the idea that Obama is a talker and not a doer while drawing contrasts between the two on vital middle-class issues like healthcare and the economy.

Then consider this from Adam B at Daily Kos:

“Let's be clear: when a 527 forms for the express purpose of electing or defeating a particular federal candidate, and engages in public advocacy towards such ends -- as opposed to discussing issues -- it is breaking the law. Period. The Media Fund, Swift Boaters and other 527s have paid six-figure fines for acting like a political action committee -- i.e., engaging in express advocacy and soliciting its donors with the major purpose of helping identifiable federal candidates -- but without abiding by any of the individual contribution limits or disclosure requirements attaching to PACs.”

Apparently losing 10 contests in a row makes a person think differently… naturally though the Clinton campaign is spinning the news; “I certainly can't imagine that Sen. Obama is in any position to make an issue of this, given the fact that there was a 527 organization -- I believe it was called Vote Hope -- that spent millions of dollars on his behalf in California.” Yes… but they weren’t swiftboating a member of their own Democratic party like Clinton’s 527 is aiming to do…

If this is true, and she’s planning on doing this to someone within her own party in a year where the Democrats have an outstanding possibility to win back the White House, she should be grouped into the same category as Joe Lieberman and ex-communicated from the Democratic Party.

Also, there is a HUGE probability of this backfiring on Clinton, and if that happens, it’s unlikely that she would be able to recover.

But that’s just my opinion…