Did I miss something on the way to Mrs Clinton's coronation?
A year ago, the Democrat nomination process was such a done deal that a couple of guys came in the arena just to keep it honest. Governor O'Malley was probably looking for some national exposure.
Senator Bernie Sanders wanted to push ideas that have not worked anywhere. And former Senator James Webb stuck his toe in to see how far a centrist Democrat could swim in waters full of leftist sharks.
After all, why schedule all of those debates against NFL playoff games or when Iowa was playing a huge game?
It's turned out to be a little different, as we saw last night on CNN. Let's title this one: "The old man can punch and the little lady has lots of vulnerabilities".
Beyond wonderful entertainment and pandering that we have not seen since the last president of Argentina promised to go to war with England over the Falklands, we are really watching something rather significant, as Dr. Charles Krauthammer pointed out:
For the man who changed the image of the Democratic Party 25 years ago by daring to challenge the reverse racism of Sister Souljah to have to bow to this new — false — orthodoxy, symbolizes perfectly how far the Democratic Party has traveled since the Clinton era.Yes, President Clinton made quite a name for himself as the free trade president. This is what he peddles when he goes around the world representing The Clinton Foundation. From Mexico to China, they remember him as the man who opened up markets. (In the interest of full disclosure, I supported NAFTA but did not really understand giving China favored nation status)
But the 2016 undoing of classic Clintonism hardly stops there. Take trade. It was Bill who promoted and passed NAFTA. Although Hillary criticized NAFTA when she ran in 2007-2008, as secretary of state she returned to her traditional free-trade stance, promoting and extolling the Trans-Pacific Partnership as trade’s “gold standard.”
Now dross, apparently. She came out against the TPP, once again stampeded by Sanders and the party’s left, i.e., its base. She may not have sincerely changed her view, but there are only so many times you can flip-flop. She’s boxed into the party’s new anti-trade consensus.
There is more. President Clinton bombed Iraq in December, 1998 over WMDs. He signed into law The Iraq Liberation Act. Along with her husband, Hillary Clinton was all in on the idea that Saddam Hussein had WMDs and should be removed.
Yes, Bill's New Democrat Clintonism didn't outlast Obama. This is not his party anymore. He would have been better off campaigning for McCain in 2008 or Romney in 2012. Again, Obama has been the worst thing that ever happened to the Clinton legacy.
My guess is that most of those kids supporting in Senator Sanders don't really remember Clinton for anything except for that terrible incident with the intern.
Then there is Hillary. She has folded and cracked. She is afraid of the left.
She won't defend her husband, even when he was right about NAFTA, talking back to those "Black Lives matters" mobs or discussing the crime bill of the 1990s endorsed by mayors and African American leaders and congressmen.
Why didn't she look at Senator Sanders and say: "Yes, I voted for the war because I saw the evidence and came to the same conclusion that my husband, VP Gore, now Secretary Kerry, Minority Leader Reid, and so on. Yes, I felt that we had to think differently after 9-11."
Show me some backbone. Show me that you can stand up to a bunch of people who believe that the answer to every world problem is gun control or calling everyone a racist.
Where are we? She may get the nomination but she is a very weak candidate. She was given the opportunity of a lifetime to develop her centrist credentials against a socialist. She decided instead to pander to the left!
And the media keeps saying that the GOP convention is going to be lively in Cleveland.
I predict that the Democrat convention is going to be very lively too!
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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