The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It’s not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white.
It’s about the past versus the future.
I’ll have a lot more to say later, but three things are really clear from the exit polls in South Carolina. Bill Clinton as a legitimate attack dog is finished. He may not know this yet, but the fact that young white voters (as we had hoped) rejected his racial trope alongside the 80%+ rejection by black voters, says to me he should retire quietly to Ron Burkle’s mansion (above) in La Jolla, California and take up surfing for the rest of the election. Hillary is going to have to fight this campaign on her own and Bubba better go home. The problem of course is that Hillary’s campaign is run by Bill’s political team. Who is going to tell him to shut up? Who showed up first on camera after the defeat? Bill Clinton rambling on about his Presidential Library, his Presidency and his office in Harlem. They can’t control him.
Second, its time for John Edwards to get out of this campaign. I know he has nothing else to do with his life, since he can’t go back to the hedge fund business, but his and Elizabeth’s dream that they can play some sort of kingmaker role in a brokered convention is truly sick. All he does is split the anti-Hillary vote and we need a clear choice for the party between reform or restoration. Hillary slimed Edwards with Robocalls yesterday and he should know he is just a distraction. All of the ”No Surrender” crowd like Daily Kos, Paul Krugman and My DD that have sustained John Edwards fantasy that if William Jennings Bryant were alive today he would live in a 30,000 sqare foot mansion with indoor basketball court, should now ask him to retire from the stage. For him to pretend in his “concession speech” that he was the only voice for the dispossessed in this country was laughable. Why does he think Barack beat him 57-17, after Edwards outspent Obama? My guess is the Obama beat Edwards by a larger margin in households 2X the poverty line and below. The very people Edwards claims to speak for.
Third, Black voters are angrier than the Clintons think. My own view on that is informed by the great blog Jack and Jill Politics. Here is a sample from a recent post.
I’m glad the ugly has come out. I’m glad Bill Clinton’s face is glowing so brightly and so red; the better to see this campaign by. I’m glad Bill Clinton is getting down and dirty and using his considerable political capital to smear a great presidential candidate. I’m glad The Clintons are calling in favors from their black beholden elected officials and power brokers. Because every time they do, we get to dig up another little nugget which has us questioning the entire premise of “The Clinton Administration.”
And I’m glad Hillary keeps moving closer and closer to Bill, closer to that co-presidency. Keep running on “experience.” Just don’t get mad when we help remind people what that experience really was, and why many of us never want to see it return.
After a day when 80% of the black vote went to Barack, Charley Rangel and all the other “black beholden elected officials” are going to have to look again at Chris Rock’s Obama introduction at the Apollo Theater. As he cautioned the assembled Black Politicians,
You’ll be real embarrassed if Barack won big and you weren’t down with it. You be saying , “What was I thinkin’, I had the White Lady?”
10 responses so far ↓
Rick Turner // January 26, 2008 at 7:38 pm |
Maybe Bill and Hill could be appointed co-ambassadors to Khazakhstan and Bill could make nice chit-chat (or whatever you call it…it’s certainly not “sex”) with Borat’s sister…
South Carolina Primary’s » The Obama Campaigner // January 26, 2008 at 9:06 pm |
[...] http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/01/26/time-for-bill-clinton-to-take-a-rest/ [...]
Jon Taplin // January 27, 2008 at 11:46 am |
Ted Kennedy turns out to be as sick as we are with Bill and is going to endorse Obama tomorrow.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/27/sen_kennedy_to_endorse_obama.html
Rick Turner // January 27, 2008 at 5:17 pm |
Is that a good thing? I hope so, though he’s probably the most hated of all democrats by the red state crowd. I guess those who despise “liberals” are going to have a field day of invective no matter what come election time.
I must say that I don’t understand how the Clintons could be so foolish as to take such a low road. They must think there’s no possibility of losing, and thus no need to do anything but burn bridges behind them. If I were Obama and won the presidency, there would be no way in hell I’d make a place for either Clinton in my government. I think the Clintons are performing a drawn out act of political suicide right now. Time to make an alcove in the Clinton library for a certain blue dress…the perfect symbol of hubris for that place.
Obama/Edwards? Hmmm, Obama/Pelosi?
ZP // January 28, 2008 at 2:49 am |
In the midst of all this muckraking, I read a nice little comment from Alison Janney (who played CJ Cregg on The West Wing) in The Guardian this weekend (http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2246176,00.html):
“…more than one Democratic candidate has asked her to campaign for them. Janney hasn’t made up her mind who to back. ‘It’s between Obama and Hillary, and I keep going back and forth for different reasons.’ She smiles and offers a rare, political judgment. ‘Just the fact that we’re deciding between a woman and an African-American candidate is a nice a place to be.’”
She’s not the first to make the point, but I hope she’s not the last: the fact that these two are the frontrunners says a lot about the Democrats right now. It’s unfortunate that the point keeps getting lost in the mud.
A Kinder,Gentler Bill Clinton? « Jon Taplin’s Blog // January 28, 2008 at 8:34 am |
[...] 28, 2008 · No Comments As we suggested on Saturday, it has dawned on the genius’s in the Clinton campaign that maybe Bill should go back on his [...]
Jon Taplin // January 29, 2008 at 6:22 pm |
ZP-Point well made. I hope civility could return to the process, but given Hillary’s Florida Charade , I’m not hopeful.
Alyson de Guigne // January 30, 2008 at 8:36 am |
If I could, I would be the one to tell Bill Clinton to shutup. I still cannot believe he wont leave the “spotlight.” And nodding off onstage on 21/1/08 is not that much help…if that is what he hopes to do for his wife. Good job, Bill!
Second of all, am I still the only person who could live with a little less Clinton-schoomzing? Well, I guess Hilary didn’t try too much of this when she was frowning at Bush’s State of the Union Address. From what I saw, she was the only person who never smiled, or stood up to applaud. Whether a Republican or Democrat, it is still nice to have respect and manners. Or, is that lost in our country at this moment too?
Let the contest begin « Jon Taplin’s Blog // January 30, 2008 at 9:38 am |
[...] 30, 2008 · No Comments John Edwards is dropping out as we had hoped he would. Now Hillary and Barack can contest on a clear field. Especially if the new kinder gentler Bill [...]
Bill Clinton & Vanity Fair « Jon Taplin’s Blog // June 1, 2008 at 6:53 pm |
[...] associations does not break any new ground, but brings most of things that have troubled me (Ron Burkle, secret foundation donors, etc.). But among the not-so-small cadre of Clinton friends and former aides, concern about the [...]