I Found My Voice

I think we have to pay attention to the fact that the voice Hillary Clinton found is one that goes relentlessly negative. She threw everything she had at Obama in New Hampshire and it worked. Even during the "Tears" moment, she questioned Obama's fitness for office. Her surrogates are using a lot of shaded racism to discuss Obama's character and misleading statistics to discuss his record (the abortion mailer, for example). This is leading House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) to reconsider his neutrality. And now we have this little slap in the face.

Clinton implied that Obama's career has mostly been spent running for office rather than governing.

"He was a part-time state senator for a few years, and then he came to the Senate and immediately started running for president," she said. "And that's his prerogative. That's his right. But I think it is important to compare and contrast our records."

What the hell does "part-time Senator" mean? Considering Hillary didn't spend her entire time in the White House on trade missions or official state visits, does that make her a "part-time first lady"? That's a steaming pile of garbage.

I know that as good liberals we're supposed to be on the lookout for media bias, and to be sure there's been a great deal of sexism directed at Hillary Clinton in this campaign. But can we take a quick look at how she's running right now? I mean, if you think that Democrats need sharper elbows to go up against the Republican machine, maybe you're happy with the candidate sailing to victory in the primary on the strength of negative attacks. But there's a fine line here between "contrasting records" and the kind of ethical black hole we see from the Republicans. I don't want to see the media inject themselves into this campaign. I also don't want to see a Democrat go negative against a fellow Democrat and turn the primary into a farce out of a burning desire to be President.

UPDATE: Publius makes the case against Hillary here. Despite the way this primary has slid away from issues and into identity politics, these things are important. I hope that voters in the other states take a look at this stuff. I think another Clinton Administration would feature incremental half-measures on the domestic front and a missed opportunity to advance our national security and foreign policy, plus the team that would make up her senior staff are the worst kind of Democrats imaginable. I don't think she's right for this historical moment. Maybe in the 1950s, like her husband, the best Republican President we've had since Eisenhower.

UPDATE II: Just stop it.

"If you have a social need, you're with Hillary," the aide said. "If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you're young and you have no social needs, then he's cool."

Give me a fucking break. The Clinton campaign is winning by going right into the mud.