Hillary Clinton: Reliable Tool of the GOP Smear-Masters

They used her to kill Universal Health Care (both times). They used her to beat up her husband. They used her to undermine anti-war Liberals. They used her to demonize powerful women. They used her to bash “entitled Eastern elitists.” They used her to burnish the dull and pitted public images of John McCain and Newt Gingrich. They’ve used her to argue that US foreign policy since 2009 is weak, disjointed, directionless and Israel-phobic. They’ve used her “Alinsky connection” to cast even the most uncontroversial Liberal initiatives as “radicalism.” And now, they’re using her to help enfeebled RINOs and febrile Tea Partiers run against the Obama Administration in the 2010 mid-terms.

After a decade or two, you think they’d come up with a new gimmick. But at this point, it’s so routine, so predictable and such a venerable electoral tradition that it’s like watching a dear old drunken friend run over your dog in the driveway at Christmas—just like he does every year, right before he knocks over the tree and pees in the punch bowl.

Some “Liberals” (and you can guess which ones) are giddy at the sight of Hillary being used, yet again, to kick them in the ass and steal their candy.

Posted by StrangeAppar8us on 07/28/10 at 08:40 AM • Permalink

Categories: Politics • Election '10 • Barack Obama • Hillary Clinton • Manic Progressives •

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I’m not sure this has appeal to anyone outside the GOP base. They may think there’s a huge well of progressive angst over Obama, but there’s simply not enough PUMAs and Firebaggers out there to make a difference.

Independents aren’t going to be easily swayed by this, and for one simple reason: the GOP is absolutely bereft of ideas. It’s not enough to paint Obama as some ineffectual cipher (despite all evidence to the contrary), you have to have something to offer other than tax cuts for the rich and deregulation for everyone.

Comment by Tom65 on 07/28/10 at 09:39 AM

@Tom65—Truly, it doesn’t mean shit to a tree as far as the mid-terms are concerned. But it didn’t cost the RNC a dime to make, it gratifies the Crybaby Libs, warms the hearts of Hillary-hating wingnuts and it pre-emptively poisons a 2012 run by Hillary—all in less than a minute.

From a viewing standpoint it’s even duller than the original “3AM” ad. But I give them credit for getting the buzz they wanted, from exactly the dupes they were targeting.

Comment by StrangeAppar8us on 07/28/10 at 10:34 AM

Does this count as a new gimmick? I’m sure the usual dupes will lap it up if they become aware of it. The best thing about it is that former Clinton pollster Doug Schoen (and Mark Penn’s former business partner) is one of the trolls who wrote it. I’m so happy Obama denied her her rightful turn as President.

Comment by Lawnguylander on 07/28/10 at 12:02 PM

@Lawnguylander—You can’t blame a rape victim for getting raped, but it’s still OK to blame Black people for driving White Folks into a foaming rage, just by being Black.

It didn’t work so well during the Primary, but it’s still the all-purpose weapon for Conservatives and Confused Liberals whose attacks on Obama’s policies only resonate in a cartoon universe where Socialists and Corporatists are both trying to steal John Galt’s underpants. But race is a dog-whistle everyone can hear.

I’d like to think that Schoen is just another bumbling big-agency gunslinger like Penn, who’s undermining Obama these days on behalf of a new and different portfolio of Wall Street clients and foreign governments. And I’m hoping Hillary is sharp enough to know that destroying the Dem party in order to rule over its ruined, powerless fragments is a really dumb plan for 2012.