James Pedrick’s Blog

one real, one fan-made

Is this Hillary’s final move? After attacking Barack Obama’s experience and then going after his inspirational rhetoric, Hillary Clinton is now attacking his campaign tactics and behavior. Seems odd, as Obama is generally considered to be the one above “Karl Rovian” politics, but it similarly follows Hillary’s earlier strategy of attacking Obama’s rhetorical strengths by accusing him of plagiarism. Her move does come as a surprise after last week’s debate, however, when many felt her emotional ending finally embraced the probable prospect of her defeat. While everyone expected her to go negative, her last debate was rather gentle (besides her “change you can Xerox” statement that ended in audience boo’s). Many Democrats applauded her gracefulness, but apparently her campaign weren’t expecting the conciliatory interpretation. So now she is back on the attack, and it looks like the final debate of this campaign will be ugly.

But I think this latest turn, coupled with last week’s debate, nicely summarizes Hillary’s greatest weakness in this campaign: her lack of consistency. The campaign has never had a consistent message or strategy. Even in this last debate, we saw three Hillary Clinton strategies. The first third focused on a gentle Clinton who politely debated policy differences with her opponent. She then went on the attack with the second third, mischaracterizing Obama’s positions and campaign tactics. When rejected by the audience, she then offered an emotional/personal Hillary Clinton reminiscent of her husband’s strengths and her teary-eyed performance in New Hampshire. Now it seems she may end with that second strategy, while often the ugliest and least attractive of her strategies, it is perhaps the only ploy that can separate her from the frontrunner. But her strategy is doomed from the start – because she will never be able to beat Obama on authenticity (see her plagiarism claims) or on campaign tactics (see above video). All she can do is weaken an eventual nominee and harm her own legacy.

Perhaps the other frustration of hers is the media’s supposed love of Barack Obama… as characterized by SNL below:

Washington state caucused today, and I was able to make my vote. Today’s sets of votes looked a lot like where we began in Iowa – insurgent wins by Obama and Huckabee. Both look set to win the Louisiana primary and the set of caucuses (Washington, Nebraska-D, and Kansas-R). Both Obama and Huckabee seem to fare better in caucuses, leading some of their opponents to argue for the simpler primary systems that brings in higher turnouts and requires less voter commitment. That thought certainly crossed my mind as I waited in long lines and waited for delegate tabulations. But after participating in my first ever caucus, I’m a solid advocate for the caucus system. Though a quick vote with a lever or mailing of the absentee ballot is easier, the caucus allows voters to intimately participate in the political system, add a substantive voice to the conversation, and build community among fellow citizens and voters.
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People should be worried about Barack Obama – he is in the pocket of a special interest group: average voters. Reports indicate that Obama raised a record-shattering $32 million in January and is on track to raise $30 million more in February. Since Obama does not accept money from lobbyists or corporations, we can safely assume that these funds are being raised by average voters. And with more than 650,000 supporters, we know that the number of paybacks are quite large. What will these average voters expect in return? Time may only tell.

This is all in comparison to Hillary Clinton, who only raised $14 million in January. This may or may not include the $5 million donated by herself.

Super Tuesday is over, and (more…)