Hillary’s ‘foot in the mouth’ campaign
Senator Hillary Clinton left Pennsylvania feeling rejuvenated. We became a Fountain of Youth to her by energizing a campaign that had, til that point, sputtered, clanged and was on the verge of collapse. She moved onto the delegate rich states of Indiana and North Carolina hoping for a double win. Even in North Carolina, where Senator Barack Obama was heavily favored, her campaign felt that they could use the recent Rev. Wright controversy to not only to post a strong showing, if not win the state outright, but to woo the super-delegates into voting for her.
By the time North Carolina’s primaries were over, however, Senator Clinton had lost to Senator Obama by 230,000 votes. That wasn’t just a defeat for her, it was a crushing blow.
Her hopes were pinned on Indiana but somewhere between Pennsylvania and Indiana, things changed. She won Indiana but by a slim, if not barely existent margin, of some 20,000 votes. Her margin of victory was not enough to even gain on Senator Obama’s delegate lead.
Adding insult to injury, 9 super-delegates openly came out the very next day to support Senator Obama. Her victory in Indiana was now a loss.
Senator Clinton’s ‘re-energized’ campaign suddenly had a black out.
How did this happen?
One, Senator Obama finally severed all ties with the irritable Rev. Wright. Two, he shed the ‘elitist’ perception Senator Clinton was using against him by holding several, very successful, townhall meetings which took away a good chunk of the working class and elderly supporters from Senator Clinton. Thirdly, people began to take a serious look at both candidates economic, health care and energy plans to find Senator Clinton’s a bit lacking (this should have been what happenned in Pennsylvania but it never did materialize. Instead we were given a hack of a debate which focused on the peripherary instead of on real issues).
Fourthly, Senator Clinton opened her mouth and torpedoed her own campaign.
Her ‘gas tax’ proposal was not only stolen, outright, from Republican Senator John McCain but it was also denounced, heavily, by economists everywhere. When it was analyzed, it was shown that her ‘gas tax’ relief was nothing more than a lot of hot air. When all was said and done, it would save the average motorist a grand total of 30 bucks or about enough to feed a family of 4 at Wendy’s or McDonalds.
Gee, thanks Hillary!
Lastly, she alienated herself from her very source of support when she openly claimed, in a very controversial and disparaging remark, in a USA Today article that ““There was just an A.P. article posted that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how the whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me,” she said. “ There’s a pattern emerging here.” Hillary threw out the race card only to find it backfiring on her.
Perhaps there was just too much Rev. Wright rhetoric for the country’s like or, perhaps, the inspirational and unlikely alliance of Southern whites and blacks in North Carolina showed the rest of the country that it could overcome it’s segregationist past and really could work together for common cause. Wait, isn’t that the theme Senator Obama’s entire campaign is being run on? Either way, the ‘white race’ card didn’t sit well with voters and it has been tossed back at her in disgrace.
In an article in The New Yorker, a magazine in Senator Clinton’s own backyard, it was written that, “Indeed there is, and it should be painted over as soon as possible. Hillary Clinton, as her record from high school onward proves, is the very opposite of a racist. This time, she seems to have well and truly misspoken. “
Open mouth, insert foot and hope for a good dose of Pepto Bismol.
