I thought you were smart
But man, you've got a wicked, wicked heart
And, oh, you're just being used
When they're through, you will be refused
(The Heptones "Hypocrite" ).
Well.
Obama trounced Clinton in Vermont, she trounced him in Rhode Island. She won Texas in a close one, and Ohio?
Well, she won handily in Ohio. What happened?
Was it the fearmongering Clinton Wolf Ad. Was Obama's counter ad too subtle? Ohio is not good for subtly. Maybe he should have ran with this one.
Maybe it was the NAFTA thing. That doesn't make any sense, though. Ohio probably voted Republican because of NAFTA. Why would the name associated with that have any leverage among the working class?
The 800 pound gorilla in the room here may be Steve Croft's piece. Is it possible that, even Democrats, the ostensible good guys, are susceptible to racist smears and the whisper email campaign about Obama being a Muslim, not saying the pledge, etc.
It's possible, because its incredibly pervasive. I've gotten them. You've probably gotten them. I've had these forwarded from life long Democrats, with subject headers like Fwd: Fw: Who is Barack Obama?
The Clintons haven't exactly disavowed this sort of thing. In fact, they were only to happy to engage in some old fashioned race baiting in South Carolina if they thought it would help.
Or thumbing the scales; What the hell was with Hillary declaring, in her list of states won, Florida and Michigan?
Every scurrilous attack by the Clintons, every underhanded tactic, has only proved Obama's thesis about the politics of the future, and puts, in greater relief, his position as its avatar, and her, as the dangerous, counterproductive past.
Yet, the future and the past are inextricable linguistically, phenomenologically, epistemologically, ontologically, and, evidentally, politically, because, what is emerging after last night constitutes a kind of nightmare yin yang scenario:
We are looking at the Democratic ticket, in one combination or another. Certainly, I would have my preference on who's on the title card, and who's on the undercard, but quixotically, I been hoping for a complete break, politically, from the New Left (aka, The Boomer Left) who's rhetoric and ideological battles we've been fighting for forty fucking years. It would seem, barring a miracle, that possibility may be sliding away.
I guess, in Ohio and Texas, people like the 90's.
Hold your nose, take your steaming bite of the philly style shit sandwhich.
Tastes like the status quo, doesn't it?
Well said, as always, Wiz. To me, the fact that last night's results proved, once again, that negative campaigning works is more depressing than the actual results themselves. I just saw on MSNBC that 2/3 of people in OH and TX who decided in the last few days went to HRC.
ReplyDeleteI actually yelled at the TV when that dicksmack Ohio worker gave the Obama/Muslim comments on 60 Minutes. Fucking idiot.
Sadly, it's been proven in many sociological studies that less-educated whites have less progressive racial attitudes than more-educated whites. Sadly, here is more proof.
And, sadly, Ohio and Texas have more than their fair shares of less-educated whites. Hillary got all her votes in rural Texas, and guess who lives there.
ReplyDeleteWorse yet, they live in most of Pennsylvania and the rest of the country too.
Some smaller, (slightly) less doomy thoughts on yesterday now that I've had time to ponder.
ReplyDeleteObama still leads in delegates. That is ultimately the deciding factor. Clinton would have to cream him in the rest of primaries to pull far enough ahead for this to be decided before the convention. Although I have no doubt the Clintons are willing to destroy the Democratic party I do rather doubt the rest of the party wants that to happen. For the party super-delegates to simply hand Clinton the nom at the convention would be to decimate the dem. party once and for all. That record African American turnout? GONE FOREVER. The unprecedented youth turnout? GONE FOREVER. It would simply be suicide.
And as for Hillary's "big win" yesterday, hmmmm. I think not. Obama takes 11 straight in a row and then Clinton magically pulls this out of her ass? There is one person and one person only to thank for this: Mike fuckin' Huckabee. Since super Tues. it has been a foregone conclusion that McCain had the gop nom tied up, so there was no real need for GOP voters to vote for him in the primaries last night. At the request of Rush Limbaugh and others (and based in good ol' fashioned stealthiness) Republicans came out in droves to vote for Clinton in dem primaries to throw the weights off Obama. He's the man to beat. I can't speak for Texas (although I suspect at least a bit of that went down -- how else to explain Clinton's small but clear win in the primary but Obama's in those caucuses?), but this is EXACTLY what went down in Ohio. Clermont county, which is probably home to seven Democrats tops, ran out of democratic ballots by noon or so. Cuyahoga County, one of the most progressive areas of Ohio outside of Yellow Springs, mysteriously went to Clinton. Sneaky and underhanded? Sure. Smart? Absolutely. Republicans know Obama can beat McCain, so they're trying to preemtively cut him off at the knees, and Clinton is all-too willing to help. Are the Obama and Clinton camps not aware that this is what happened? I'm sure they do, it's a time-tested tactic. But I guess it's not polite to say, so the official word is Clinton's negative ads or Obama's shiny veneer finally getting tarnished that flipped the narrative. Those may play a part, but it was really Repubs voting in the dem primary. It's such a show.
I thought you said it was going to be less gloomy.
ReplyDeleteD'oh. Sorry. But still, Obama is the man to beat and nothing has changed as far as that goes.
ReplyDelete