Few politicians have the skills of Bill Clinton. Hillary is not one of them. She often seems stiff, programmed or shrill. Now, Ms. Inevitable seems to be panicking. Most of her insults and lies have been artfully crafted. Now they reek of frustration and are coming with greater frequency. It is to the point that she appears to have infected Bill. Even he is losing his cool.
The latest dust-up began when Joe Scarborough asked Hillary whether Sanders was ready for the Oval Office. She pointed to the New York Daily News’ amateurish interview with the senator. Typically, she refused any forthright answers.
First, there was this: “Well, I think the interview raised a lot of serious questions. I think of it this way: The core of his campaign has been ‘break up the banks,’ and it didn’t seem in reading his answers that he understood exactly how that would work under Dodd-Frank.” More than a hundred economists concur with Bernie. Wrong answer, Missy.
She was again asked if Bernie is qualified. Again, Clinton dodged. “Well, I think he hadn’t done his homework, and he’d been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood, and that raises a lot of questions.” When she feels in control of the situation she drowns one in wonk-speak. Here, the specifics of such an asinine charge are missing.
Is the third time the charm? Apparently not. Clinton said she would “leave it to voters to decide who of us can do the job the country needs.” This reminds me her response to a question on whether she supported TPP. She said, if Obama doesn’t decide, she’ll answer you when she is president. How can even the pretend democracy we have work if a candidate refuses to tell us their position?
So, she didn’t actually say that Bernie is unqualified but many, with some justification, thought she did. Her responses, or lack thereof, were interpreted by the Washington Post in this headline: “Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president.”
Her ‘shocked’ spokespersons proclaimed she never said Bernie is unqualified and that he was playing dirty.
Barney Frank no longer has to share that acerbic personality with Tony Scalia. Hillary’s campaign arranged some media coverage for him. In his Slate interview, Barney claims Bernie never accomplished anything in his 25 years in Congress. He also claimed Hillary is a progressive who got things done, while Bernie is just a talker. Let’s look at the facts, those things the Clintons have so much trouble with.
Hillary passed absolutely no roll call amendments in her 8 years in the Senate. A study in 2005 showed Bernie had passed more amendments than any other member over the previous 10 years. In 25 years Bernie had passed 90 amendments, 21 by roll call votes. By the way, what has Barney done to take pride in? Well, there’s that toothless Dodd-Frank law. Growing up, I used to hear that aphorism, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” Have you ever heard of that one, Barney? Hillary?
Bernie partnered with John McCain to pass a bill, 93-3, to hire 14,000 more doctors, nurses and medical staff at VA hospitals. It reduced wait times by about 90%. McCain characterized the negotiations as tough but said they were successful because Bernie is “Results-oriented.” It sounds as though a couple of people managed to gather a great deal of media attention for themselves while someone else was slogging away for us.
If you don’t like free credit reports, saving 15,000 from closure, forming a caucus to stop cuts in Social Security and dozens of other projects that actually help real people, blame Bernie. If you want to give more of your money to the ‘too big to fail’ Wall Street banks, Hillary’s your gal.
Bernie says Hillary isn’t qualified because of her vote for the war in Iraq. True. Republicans claim she is not qualified because of Benghazi. Not necessarily true. It misses the point. Hillary is a hawk; she never met a war she didn’t like. She is also an advocate of regime change. It was Bush’s desire for regime change that resulted in the war in Iraq. She didn’t learn the lesson. She pushed for regime change in Libya. If not for that, Benghazi wouldn’t have happened.
If not for the war in Iraq, ISIS wouldn’t have happened. If not for Eisenhower’s regime change in Iran, our embassy would not have been raided. Of course there is Guatemala and a laundry list of Latin American countries. Sixty-three years since we replaced the democratically elected Mohammad Mosadddegh with the Shah. There have been a lot of slow non-learners in Washington for a very long time. Perhaps being a non-learner is Hillary’s qualification for the Oval Office.
I held my nose and voted twice for Bill. He is liberal, not progressive, on some social issues. Otherwise, he is a DINO, a Democrat In Name Only. He is really a slightly right-wing Republican. Remember NAFTA? Remember the elimination of Glass-Steagall? The list is long.
Hillary claims Bernie is not a Democrat. He voted for Democratic presidential candidates every time. Hillary’s first political activity was for Barry Goldwater. Bernie has caucused with his Democratic colleagues far more the Hillary. She is not a Democrat. She is a DINO.
I voted for Obama twice. I didn’t hold my nose the first time. He said all of the right things. True, the Republicans have blocked many things but he has too easily given in on too many of their issues. Bernie is saying the right things, but he has an entire life that validates what he says.
Bernie has energized the progressives in the Democratic party. He has developed a sizable following of independents. He has brought impressive numbers of the young into the process. In backtracking on the question of qualifications, Hillary has said she would vote for Bernie over Trump or Cruz. Wow. That’s awfully big of her. Almost to a man or woman, her supporters would turn to Bernie, were he the nominee.
You can’t say that about a sizable number of Bernie’s supporters. Most of his support comes from people whose cynicism about the establishment he overcame. His support came from the trustworthiness he exudes. They can’t find those qualities in Hillary. Her attacks on Bernie alienates large numbers of people she will need in November. She is burning the bridges to them.
Personally, I feel unable to give my precious vote to her. I will write in Bernie’s name. It will make absolutely no difference. I reside in Tennessee. All of the electoral college delegates from here will be Republican. I can make my little protest without real cost. I realize it may not be so easy a decision for progressives in battleground states. I leave it up to those people to make that difficult choice. I am not going to try to traverse the bridge she set afire between us.
She is damaging the Democratic Party and the nation. If the welfare of the nation was more important to her than her personal ambitions, she would have already dropped out of the race.
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