The Case Against Hillary Clinton

I posted earlier on Senator Obama. Here is one for Senator Clinton.

"What a Clinton Presidency Would Look Like," by Carl Bernstein, Watergate discoverer, as if he found the hotel, & Clinton biography, for A Woman In Charge: the Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

It portrays her as a fighter, as anyone would expect. Yet, the article also makes the case that the fighter ethos harms her:

In fact, the demotion of Penn –- like the departure of Hillary’s acolyte Patty Solis Doyle as campaign manager –- is a confession that, for all her claims of “experience” and leadership abilities, Hillary Clinton has now presided over two disastrous national enterprises, the most important professional undertakings of her adult life, both of which she began with ample wind at her back: the healthcare reform of her husband’s presidency, and now her own campaign for the White House. These two failures -– and the demonizing of her opponents in both instances –- may be the best indication of the kind of President she would be, especially when confronted (inevitably) by unanticipated difficulty and/or entrenched opposition to her ideas and programs.

It is exactly under such circumstances that she usually resorts to the worst excesses that mark her in full warrior-mode — and all its scorched-earth, truth-be-damned manifestations. Bosnia, anyone? Smearing the women involved (or even thought to be involved) sexually with her husband. Responding to Barack Obama with the same mindset, disdain, and arsenal as she did Karl Rove and Lee Atwater, as if Obama’s politics and methodologies were as mendacious and vicious as theirs–and her own. Tax information kept secret (in 1992 to hide her profits from trading in cattle futures; in 2008 to shield the identities of Bill’s foreign clients.) A campaign that openly boasts of throwing “the kitchen sink” at her opponent.

This article is far more personal than the Politico article against Senator Obama as it attacks Senator Clinton on her strengths, in addition to her failure to learn from her mistakes, judgment on Iraq and her pandering, which Berstein suggests that she l0oathed this approach by Republicans, on such issues such as Flag Burning.

It also points to a mistake made by the Clinton campaign: the star-power as a Democrat developed with her changed demeanor in the Senate. A New Yorker article from January discussed this same theme. Of course, it is the campaign's failure to recognize this and, consequently, they lost enormous opportunity to increase her appeal.

Yet, the Clintons have a high floor. The attacks in the article carries weight with those who find themselves against the Clintons or undecided. Consequently, this article will just be another example of media unfairness or anti-Clinton bias.

Essentially, if you choose the Clintons, you know you will get a fighter who has some experience in the White House; however, as the article suggests, the fighter ethos may be the problem and the ghosts never stop haunting the House of Clinton.