I knew Easter was early this year, but I didn’t expect a resurrection on March 4th. Hillary’s victories yesterday in Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island spoiled all the recent predictions of her imminent demise. Though Obama’s delegate lead has hardly changed and Hillary’s battle remains uphill, she is still alive, a disquieting circumstance sending shivers down my spine.
Even today, cynics like the AP’s Nedra Pickler dismissed yesterday’s events as meaningless, having no effect on the inevitable Obama triumph. “Even if she wins every contest left,” sniffed Ms. Pickler, “Clinton would still have a hard time overcoming Barack Obama’s pledged delegate lead.” Clearly, Ms. Pickler doesn’t know who she is dealing with. When it comes to the Clinton’s, nothing is impossible.
Republican behavior yesterday was positively schizophrenic, making the naive journalists of the world look like geniuses. Following the lead of conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham, thousands of GOPer’s crossed over to vote for Hillary. “The strategy,” explained Ms. Ingraham, “is to keep Hillary in the race as long as possible so that Hillary and Obama wear each other down.” Point taken, but the flip side of that approach is that Republicans prolonged the political life of our greatest foe, on purpose for goodness sake. It’s sort of like supporting Stalin to fight Hitler; oops, let me think of a better example.
In fact, Republicans missed a golden opportunity yesterday, the chance to be rid of the Clintons once and for all, a goal that until yesterday was the summum bonum of all conservatives. Now, Cruelle de Vil has new life, another chance to bedevil us for eight more years, all because of — it’s so hard to say — US!
The Clintons are unlike any politicians the world has ever known, possessing a unique blend of intelligence, political savvy, physical endurance, ruthlessness, survival instincts, and campaigning skills. On top of all that is the unsettling fact that they never give up. They don’t know the meaning of quit, outside of trailer parks that is. Lesser men would have crawled home at some point during the sordid “Lewinsky affair.” Those expecting Bill to fold didn’t understand the man. Neither the stained dress, nor being disbarred, nor being fined $90,000 for lying in a Federal courtroom — we could go on — could dissuade Bill Clinton from his determination to fight on, hang on, and survive. Hillary is cut from the same cloth.
Mrs. Clinton didn’t divorce Bill for the same reason Bill didn’t resign in disgrace. She knows her chances of winning the White House are better with the adulterer than without him. For her, it’s a simple choice. The Clintons keep their eyes on the prize — whatever that is to them — without blinking. Bumps in the road, bimbo eruptions, embarrassing revelations, political setbacks and more are irrelevant. The acquisition and maintenance of power is all that matters.
This is the real difference between Hillary and Barack. Mr. Obama, indeed like most of us, would collapse like a rotten pillar if he ever had to endure what the Clintons have already been through. Obama probably can feel shame and remorse, and respond appropriately. Contrition to the Clintons is one more useless waste of energy. Why say you are sorry when there are political points to be made? Reading Bill Clinton’s nationally televised apology following the discovery that it was his semen on Monica’s blue dress provides an intimidating look into the Clinton’s “soul.” The mea culpa was quintessential Clinton, equal parts confession, obfuscation, denial, and accusation. In a sense, Mr. Clinton was bearing his inner man that night. Most of us mistook Bill’s shortest route to recovery for simple evasion.
It is this unrelenting force that we Republicans have just resuscitated.
Our best hope for stopping Hillary was, and remains, Barack Hussein Obama. Senator McCain, though I’ll support him at full strength, will probably lose in November. The Republicans have earned that. So, the next time — if there is a next time — the dagger is poised over the Clinton’s political heart, we should not be so foolish as to toy with her again. She will not toy with us.
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Posted by Jerry Pomeroy in Campaign 2008, Video