Wednesday 14 May 2008

Why is Hillary still there? It's moral turpitude, stupid

080114_FW_HillaryTN Why, when it's obvious to everyone but herself that she can't win -- when even her former backers are stampeding towards Obama -- is Hillary Clinton spending bucketloads of her own money to stay in the race for the Democratic candidacy? Christopher Hitchens plumps for the simple answer: she's deluded.

For Sen. Clinton, something is true if it validates the myth of her striving and her "greatness" (her overweening ambition in other words) and only ceases to be true when it no longer serves that limitless purpose. And we are all supposed to applaud the skill and the bare-faced bravado with which this is done.

Gus Van Horn disagrees, It is "dead wrong to say that Clinton has no 'reality base'," says Van Horn. In reality, Hillary and husband Bill have two strong bases for persisting:

Part of this ['reality base'] ... we could put as "fortune favors the persistent" and part lies in the Clintons' uncanny political acumen. They understand on a gut level that America has been intellectually gutted by generations of pragmatism and altruism.

In the end it's those two philosophical allies that are the most important. To make this point, Van Horn quotes Dick Morris's summary of how "time heals all":

"When they left the White House in utter disgrace over their ethical lapses and greed [sic], [the Clintons] were under attack from even the friendliest of liberal media. But years of keeping their heads low, working hard at getting along with people in the Senate, turning to charitable works (with a little help from George W. Bush) and helping the party regulars erased the sordid images. Memories of pardons sold for campaign and library contributions, their scoundrel lobbyist brothers, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of 'gifts' that were solicited from people who wanted favors from the White House disappeared. Once again, time healed all."

This aspect of the Clintons' thought process might seem irrelevant to the current situation, says Van Horn, but he sees it as highly relevant.

Without pragmatism to make Americans dismiss principles enough to regard the Clintons' criminal behavior as not that important after a time, and without the insurance of their altruistic "good deeds," Hillary wouldn't even be around at this point ... [ready and waiting] should something sufficiently bad come to light about Barack Obama.

Concludes Van Horn, "having the requisite moral turpitude to make it as politicians in today's culture [gives the Clintons] a firm basis in reality to hope that Obama has another yet-to-be revealed skeleton in his closet. He is, after all, one of them under his skin."

5 comments:

Berend de Boer said...

PC: when even her former backers are stampeding towards Obama

Where is that stampede? That's the point, that there is no stampede.

Anonymous said...

He is, after all, one of them under his skin."

Maybe...but he's not like the rest of them on the *outside*...if we must put up with politicians we at least can choose a sexy one. Barack never takes a bad photo. Look at this from Indianapolis a few days ago:

http://bp2.blogger.com/_l8xeX8k9lgo/SB362-8QS8I/AAAAAAAAB8g/NzzVUaeXxEo/s1600-h/barack2.jpg

Vote him into the White House already.

Anonymous said...

Vote him into the White House? You mean the Black House.

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, if the whole thing has to be decided at the conference (as it used to be by the way) Hillary could trump Obama as JFK trumped his rival for the Dem ticket all those years ago.

Then again she could be aiming to demonstrate to Obama & hangers on that they need her as VP to win the working class whites who have an issue with Obama's left of left-wing political views kooky associates.

Peter Cresswell said...

"Where is that stampede? That's the point, that there is no stampede."

No?