The Clintons are Exactly What is Wrong with Politics: Update

Bill Shaheen co-chair of the New Hampshire Hillary Clinton campaign resigned today. Shaheen announced he will step down from that position today. His resignation comes in the wake of remarks he made concerning Clinton rival Barack Obama's past drug use, and his insinuation Obama not only used, but also dealt drugs.

This is Rovian style politics right out of his handbook and it stinks of Mark Penn, the Clinton Campaign manger. This is similar to the insinuation that John McCain fathered a black child in the 2000 South Carolina campaign. The Clintons are the entrenched politicians who believe they have a divine right to the Presidency and it matters not how you get there. A means to an end. It doesn't matter who you screw or who you step on as long as you get there.

I have heard voices that we need Clinton as the nominee because she can sling it like the Republicans. But, is that really what we want? Do we really want people who treat others this way? Insinuate drug use and drug dealing and then have someone step down and say I am sorry, knowing full well the rumor sticks and you have provided cover for yourself. Do we really believe this is how campaigns work? That the obviously brilliant Hillary Clinton just didn't know what her campaing was doing. The record of the Bill Clinton campaign is filled with stories of Hillary Clinton as the real brains behind the operation. See George Stephanopolous. Are we to believe she would allow someone to step out and say such a thing without the campaign's knowledge.

I watched Hardball today and they had all the campaign managers from the big three and Mark Penn said the word cocaine three times in a sentence referring to Barack Obama, all the while "apologizing" for the transgression and blaming Obama for negative attack ads. David Axelrod just shook his head, but Joe Trippi stuck it to him saying "there he goes again." Mark Penn has the same shit eating grin that Rove has as well.

This campaign is Bush in democratic clothing and I want no part of it. I hope it backfires on her, but I am not so sure it will. She knows she is in trouble, but if she attacks enough and Obama's numbers go down just enough she can come out of New Hampshire in tact and go on and win the nomination. If Obama continues this meteoric rise there may be no stopping him. So, they hit and they hit low.

Just for the record I have no problem with attacking policies of each candidate. That is politics, Obama's health policy quite frankly leaves a little bit to be desired. It is a middle of the road policy and he deserves scrutiny, but past drug use, which Obama has come clean on to his credit, smells of the politics that turns people off, which may be the exact intended response.

The real beneficiary of this just might be John Edwards.

Here is the video I am talking about regarding the three campaign managers. It is truly informative.


Update: This is a strategy, not a mistake.

Obama's 'surprises'?

Clinton didn't mention specifics in the taping of an interview on "Iowa Press" this morning, but drew a contrast with unnamed rivals that echoes Bill Shaheen's now-notorious claim that unexplored elements of Obama's candidacy will make him an easy Republican target.

"I’ve been tested, I’ve been vetted," she said. "There are no surprises. There’s not going to be anybody saying, 'I didn’t think of that, my goodness, what’s that going to mean?'"

This appears to be the emerging core of the electability case against Obama: that elements of his public record and -- unspoken -- his private past, could scuttle what should be a Democratic sure thing, and that he is untested by real partisan combat.

"Whoever we nominate will be subjected to the full force of the Republican attack machine, and I know that they know I know that and I have no illusions about what this race will entail," she said.

UPDATE: Asked to elaborate on what she's suggesting about Obama, Clinton has an answer ready: "I’m only talking about myself."