Friday, November 23, 2007

Hillary Blames GOP For Her "Woes"

Isn't it amusing to watch the perverse pageantry and artifice of this faux "crisis" of the Hillary Clinton imperial coronational processional? Behold this hyped-up hyperventilating about how her debate debacle from a few weeks ago has her "sinking" in the polls:

[T]he latest poll in early caucus state Iowa now show Barack Obama leading Clinton by a margin of 30%-26%.

Another poll taken after the October 30 debate, by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, found that Clinton — who for months had commanded a 30-point advantage over Obama — had seen that lead slip to 19%.

And two polls in early primary state New Hampshire showed similar results.

A University of New Hampshire poll found that Hillary’s lead over Obama slipped from 23%-14%. And a poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in New Hampshire showed her lead slipping from 22 to 12 percentage points.
Oh, my goodness, Hillary is in trouble! She's dropping like an anchor! She might actually LOSE!!!

Um, no, not really. The RCP average still has her up three points in Iowa, fourteen points ahead in New Hampshire, ten in South Carolina, twenty-four in Florida, twenty-seven in Nevada, thirty-one in Michigan, thirty-four in California, eighteen in Pennsylvania, thirty in New Jersey, and twenty-four nationally. The most that can be reasonably said is that her vise grip on the 2008 Donk nomination has loosened slightly; or that her lead has diminished from crushing to merely commanding.

But you know the Clintonoids; they never take any chances, they never fail to swat a fly with a Buick, and they always seek to turn any situation, no matter how outwardly averse, to their own advantage:

With the latest poll out of Iowa showing her in second place behind Senator Barack Obama, Hillary’s blaming her woes on . . . Republicans!

In a new Clinton TV ad released Tuesday and airing in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, the voice-over declares:

“Here they go again. The same old Republican attack machine is back. Why? Maybe because they know that there's one candidate with the strength and experience to get us out of Iraq. One candidate who will end tax giveaways for the big corporations. One candidate committed to cutting the huge Republican deficit. And one candidate who will put government back to work for the middle class. The strength to fight. The experience to lead.”

Wait a minute: we thought Obama and Edwards were attacking Hillary.
No....well, yes, but that's not the point. Hillary is lashing out at the mythical "Republican attack machine" because she knows the Donk nomination is already in the can, so why not get a leg up on laying her "victim-hood" general election campaign strategy? Her "politics of piling on" ad right after the Philadelphia confab tipped that particular hand, after all. She's going to do her utmost to make the normal give & take, rough & tumble nature of presidential campaigning off limits when it comes to her. She will be immune from any challenge and any criticism. Any attempt by the eventual Republican nominee to engage her in any way, shape, or form is already being cast in the PR mold of "dirty tricks" that will stigmatize her opponent and rule them out of consideration for the White House by definition.

It's the "scorned woman" meme from her husband's impeachment saga writ large. And Howie Kurtz concurs:

In an analysis piece in the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz observes: “Hillary Clinton is attempting a form of political jujitsu with this ad, portraying herself as the victim of unfair Republican criticism without specifying what that criticism is.”
And so that later on, even when the criticism is specified, it will be pre-empted as illegitimate because of its source and its target.

Kurtz, to his credit, goes on to point out all the gaping holes in this strategy - or at least, in her latest ad. That she has no specific plans to address any of the items on its laundry list of anti-Republican grievances, as well as the fact that the statist, government-growing proposals she has unfurled thus far would explode the currently-declining federal budget deficit to unprecedented levels. Which, of course, makes Howard Kurtz the latest card-carrying member of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" and the newest pit bull in the "Republican attack machine."

If a sustained year-long whine is what it takes to heft Hillary Clinton back into the White House, that is what she'll do. If that doesn't work, she'll simply launch a Gore-like post-election coup - one that does NOT fail, and for which the groundwork has doubtless already been laid.

Either way or ANY way, the Empress believes it's her destiny to rule America, and she will stop at nothing to get her way. The sooner the "Republican attack machine" comes to grips with that, the better. Probably won't stop her, but at least the good guys can go to the Alaska gulag with no regrets.