A One-Eyed View of the World

Yup, I'm moving from three eyes to one.

One of my must-read blogs is Jamie's Eye of Polyphemus blog. While I'm not the biggest fan of "Lost" (having never watched the show), I do enjoy reading Jamie's political coverage. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I suspect that he proves my hypothesis of Clinton having enemies on both the left and the right.

Not that Jamie is necessarily enamored with the left side of the aisle. In his post Prickly Primaries, he says:

Blogger Andrew Sullivan recently described Bill and Hillary Clinton as a horror movie that never ends. Why stop there? The whole Democratic race for the nomination is a horror movie that never ends and it is only going to get worse.

Later in the post, he goes on to say:

She knows she can attack Obama, but he has to use kid’s gloves or risk the image of a young, black man attacking an upscale, white woman.

While his point is true, his one-eyed view of the Democratic primaries dictates that he only got it half right. Certainly Obama has to use kid gloves, but Clinton has to use kid gloves also. Whenever she takes the kid gloves off, her fingers get burned. Remember this little episode?

[Bill] Clinton compared Obama to Jesse Jackson when he reminded reporters Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988. Obama is fortunate Al Sharpton did not win any delegates there in 2004 or Clinton would have thrown him in, too. [Clinton] was trying to make Obama "the black candidate"....

Of course, there's an argument that negative campaigning works (Willie Horton, anyone?). But in this case, it appears that there is a backlash:

Ruben March 3rd, 2008 10:19 am ET

Since she started losing, America has slowly witnessed the real Hillary Clinton… a person who will say and do anything to get elected. In contrast, Obama has always kept his cool, even when polls were strongly against him. I hope this is all over soon so the Democratic party can focus on the general election in November.

But if Obama really wants to deal the death knell to Clinton 2.0, he could more aggressively link Clinton and McCain. Some people, such as Kevin, are already doing so:

Not just the capacity but the willingness to tell the truth is central to sound judgement. Hillary Clinton and John McCain have demonstrated poor judgement by their willingness to be less than honest with the American people. I don't know about any of you but I've had more than my fill of lies from Dubya Inc. McCain and Clinton are just more of the same.

And if you really want an eye-opener, try a Google search for Clinton Obama truth. Ouch.

However, it may be appropriate to view something else that Jamie wrote, after the whole "monster" thingie:

Obama has been quite good thus far at hiding his ruthless egomania. Even to the point many in the country, Republicans included, think he is something fresh and different. He may very well be, but that does not a president make. I have written here on a number of occasions I believe an Obama Administration would be just as overwhelmed by the office as jimmy Carter was and for the same reasons: he has come too far, too fast and is relying on neophytes for advice.

And for those who have a misty-eyed view of Camelot, Jamie has some more realistic words:

[Robert] Kennedy was killed before he reached his potential, so his supporters can only dream of what he would do in office. If I had to guess, I would say no better than his older brother who had a 32% approval rating on the fateful day in Dallas.

But I can't knock the Kennedy family too much. After all, they did give Gerald Ford a Profile in Courage award. It was sweet. Senator Ted Kennedy himself said:

Unlike many of us at the time, President Ford recognized that the nation had to move forward, and could not do so if there was a continuing effort to prosecute former President Nixon. So President Ford made a courageous decision, one that historians now say cost him his office, and he pardoned Richard Nixon.

I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us. He eminently deserves this award, and we are proud of his achievement.

Whatever one may say about Ted Kennedy, it takes a strong man to pull a Jim Bakker.

I seem to have digressed from my original topic. Perhaps I should link to someone who agrees with Jamie's assessment - namely, Michael Tomasky in the Guardian. And before you assume that everyone outside of the U.S. is completely bowled over by Clintonmania, check this line:

She can do down and dirty without raising alarms. Admittedly this is more because she's a Clinton - and that's the kind of politics that's expected of Clintons....

Ouch.

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