Saturday, May 3, 2008

More on Senator Clinton as a Presidential candidate

I have made my sympathies very clear - I support Senator Obama, based partly on his skills as a uniter. Clinton supporters often come back with - look where the last "uniter" got us!
That's a dumb attack - Senator Obama is definitely not Bush-43. Intelligence, honesty, policies - everything.
What I do say, though, is that if any Democratic candidate is like Bush-43, it is Senator Clinton. She is way too secretive, employs folks based on their loyalty rather than competence even when events prove this is not wise, and demonizes her opponents, Republicans or other Democrats. On that note, here are some recent articles:

1. Slate.com's John Dickerson makes a "Hillary Clinton as Bush-43" comparison based on her advocacy of a policy against the advice of all experts, and the use of charges of elitism to brush off any criticism. Here's the relevant clip:
"Embracing intellectual obtuseness and deflecting criticism with charges of elitism is a tactic George Bush often deployed while campaigning. It's striking to see Clinton do it because she has been a regular and harsh critic of Bush's blindness to expert opinion. It's even more striking to hear her aides actually sound like Bush administration officials. When I asked Communications Director Howard Wolfson if the Clinton team could offer any intellectual ballast for the gas-tax vacation, given that so many policymakers had criticized it, he said, "The presidency requires leadership. … There are times when the president does something that the group of experts, quote unquote, does not agree with. Presidents get advice and then act, and that is what Senator Clinton is doing." Or, as George Bush used to put it: A leader leads. Even if off a cliff." [emphasis mine - RS]

2. William Chafe, writing for The Charlotte Observer, examines Senator Clinton's claims of experience, particularly her actions over Whitewater and universal healthcare during President Clinton's administration.
Basically, then-First Lady Clinton refused the Washington Post access to her Whitewater files, which made the press dig further in Whitewater, lead to Kenneth Starr's appointment as Independent Counsel, which eventually led to the Monica Lewinksy scandal. If Senator Clinton had just allowed the WaPo access to her files...
As for health care reform, Senator Clinton took the "my way or the highway" approach [another striking parallel to you-know-who!] Senator Clinton refused to accept a bipartisan compromise, says Chafe, and as a result zero progress was made.

3. Carl Bernstein writes about the Rovian/GOP-style tactics Senator Clinton's campaign is using to tar Senator Obama - guilt by association. This, when Senator Clinton herself has extensive ties to the radical left - though that was brushed away with a "one-sentence mention" in her book "Living History." [Compare that to Senator Obama's refreshing candor in his books! - RS]

So - what makes Senator Clinton think she can get universal health care - with a government mandate and wage garnishment - passed the second time round, when she couldn't get it done with a Democratic Congressional majority in the early '90s? And do we really want another loyalty-driven, secretive administration?

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