Hillary: A Doppelganger or a Cuckoo?

Doppelganger: A ghostly counterpart of a living person. Cuckoo bird: Lays egg in another bird's nest, and when the cuckoo hatches it takes over the nest.

Thomas Friedman is pondering today in "Madam Secretary?" (NYTimes)

"My question: Is Obama considering Mrs. Clinton for this job in order to get her off his back or as a prelude to protecting her back?"

"That backing is the most important requirement for a secretary of state to be effective. Frankly, Obama could appoint his dear mother-in-law as secretary of state, and if he let the world know she was his envoy, she would be more effective than any ex-ambassador who had no relationship with the president.

"Our current president never cared about this, so neither of his secretaries of state were particularly effective. Rather than having Colin Powell’s back, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld delighted in stabbing Powell in the back, particularly when he was on the road.

"But being close to the president is not enough. Condoleezza Rice had a close relationship with Bush, but Bush had no coherent worldview to animate her diplomacy, so all her travels added up to less than the sum of their miles...

"Foreign leaders can spot daylight between a president and a secretary of state from 1,000 miles away. They know when they’re talking to the secretary of state alone and when they are talking through the secretary of state to the president.....

"My question is whether a President Obama and a Secretary of State Clinton, given all that has gone down between them and their staffs, can have that kind of relationship, particularly with Mrs. Clinton always thinking four to eight years ahead, and the possibility that she may run again for the presidency. I just don’t know."

And don't forget just vain Bill. Bill Clinton famously said during his 1992 presidential campaign that with him you get "two for the price of one." But it's 2008, and Maureen Dowd opines that getting Hillary for Secretary of State means getting "Two for the Price of Two." (NY Times)

Dowd thinks the grumpy hubby will come around if Hillary becomes the Mistress of Foggy Bottom. "At least Bill has the satisfaction of seeing that he has roiled the previously serene and joyous Obamaland. It may be Obama’s very willingness to take the albatross of Bill from around Hillary’s neck and sling it around his own that impresses Bill.

"Obama is overlooking all his cherished dictums against drama and leaking and his lofty vetting standards to try and create a situation where the country can benefit from the talent of the Clintons while curbing their cheesy excesses, like their endless cash flow from foreigners."

But, there is a deep unease with many counting on real change, unconvinced that regardless of their current public posture of support for the Obama White House, the Billary will do only what is best for Billary.

And shadowing about the world as Obama's Doppelganger may not fit into Billary's long-term ambitions.

As Chuck Todd points out today in "First Read".... "HillaryLand seems to be making a concerted effort to start tamping down speculation about the secretary of state job. Reports from the New York Times and Politico are sparking the debate about whether she's 100% ready to make the leap from the Senate and 100% ready to give up politics for a while (at least while at State)...

"Today's Wall Street Journal and the AP confirm that the Obama folks are letting it be known that Bill Clinton is fully cooperating with the vet. So while the Hillary folks use the Times/Politico to signal reluctance, others are using the WSJ/AP to suggest that the momentum is still building for the Clinton appointment to happen."

And that is pure chaotic Clinton conundrum-making style.... fogging the question of a closet-cuckoo Hillary in Obama's cabinet nest in Shakespearean "to be, or not to be" fashion.

Hopefully, not.

Billary: Here's Your Hat and Coat.....

Like the in-laws from hell... Hill and Bill have planted themselves in our national living rooms and show no sign of leaving. But.... maybe if we give them "What Hillary Wants"... (WaPo)

Will they leave if we to offer to pay Hillary's campaign-overspending bills.... or, show them the nice vice presidency house down the block?

Maybe we can drop big hints suggesting they move on... will they leave then? "Dream on," Eugene Robinson sighs, at this point, Hillary's "campaign is about getting to tomorrow, and then getting to the next day, and then getting to the day after that."

Hill and Bill aren't leaving because they want the house.... the White House. As Robinson sees it, "Clinton knows that even the disputed delegates she 'won' in Florida and Michigan won't get her to the magic number she needs to win the nomination.... Hillary Clinton is after the White House, and if that means using the Florida and Michigan 'issue' to tie the party in knots until the convention, so be it.

"If that's not what the party leaders want, they'd better do something," Robinson advises.

Otherwise, the Billaries will just keep hangin' around, riling up the neighbors, teaching the kids bad math and false logic, and driving off voters who would have welcomed a principled Democrat in the White House come November.

Billary's Racist Underbelly

With all of the racial innuendos, and downright race-baiting "hard-working Americans, white Americans" utterances of the Billary campaign, the question becomes.... did Bill and Hillary ever really care about black America? Or was aligning themselves with African-Americans always just a cold and calculated vote-harvesting maneuver.

As Hillary elbows into West Virginia for today's primaries, will she once again crow that only she can attract white working-class voters, that Barack Obama just can't cut it with that crowd.... purposely fueling racism and undermining Obama as the presumptive nominee.

Bob Herbert asks, will Hillary blatantly keep sowing "Seeds of Destruction" (NY Times) for the Democratic party, and the nation, in November.

Herbert rips the scab off of the wounding Billary campaign in his hard-hitting weekend op-ed.... "Now the Clintons, in their desperation to find some way - any way - back to the White House" are drudging up the lousy GOP Southern strategy rhetoric....

"He can't win! Don't you understand? He's black! He's black!

"The Clintons have been trying to embed that gruesomely destructive message in the brains of white voters and superdelegates for the longest time. It's a grotesque insult to African-Americans, who have given so much support to both Bill and Hillary over the years."

As Hillary stands on the bones of racial progress tonight to belch her pride over her predicted divisive win in West Virginia, Americans can be grateful that the vote-garnering pretense of the counterfeit Billary feel-your-pain persona has been unmasked.

Bill and Hillary have now proven beyond doubt that they are not the nation's healers, but just the usual craven political heels.

Hillary Hurls the "W" Word

For Billary, it's all about power.

Getting, keeping and wielding it.

There really isn't anywhere they won't go to be the Democratic party powerbrokers. Peggy Noonan takes aim at Billary's over-the-top tactics in "Damsel of Distress." (Wall Street Journal)

Noonan points out that Billary's hatchet man set their gutter parameters this week. On CNN Tuesday night Paul Begala uttered the "W" word. Accusing Barack Obama of not caring about white voters, he charged that if "there's a new Democratic Party that somehow doesn't need or want white working-class people and Latinos, well, count me out.... We cannot win with eggheads and African Americans."

Democratic party activist, African American Donna Brazile, wasn't having any of this, telling Begala to "stop trying to split us into these groups," and admonishing him... "It's our party, Paul. Don't say my party. It's our party...."

Putting the exclamation point on Begala's remarks, Thursday Hillary said in an interview with USA Today she has "a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," citing an AP report that she said "found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states [IN and NC] who had not completed college were supporting me."

Hard-working white Americans!.... and, if you have a college degree forget it, you're not hard-working enough. Ugly class and race-baiting from the spouse of the first black president.

As Noonan pointed out, "If John McCain said, 'I got the white vote, baby!' his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic party."

But evidently this isn't the old Democratic party.... with superdelegates and party leaders cowering behind "more time" squeaks as dominatrix Hillary and her finger-pointing, has-been husband dispense their punishment. They are going to make everyone suffer until they are given their due.... their coronation, or the destruction of Obama and the Democratic party.

Noonan says it's obvious .... "The Democratic Party has a winner. It has a nominee. You know this because he has the most votes and the most elected delegates, and there's no way, mathematically, his opponent can get past him...."

But to diminish Obama, Hillary is playing the race card to "highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical 'the black guy can't win but the white girl can' is -- well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by."

It's not easy to go against Billary. Just ask Gov. Bill Richardson who endured their long tirade when he told them of his support for Obama.... and felt the lash from Clintonite James Carville who accused Richardson of being a "Judas."

Or House Whip Rep. James Clyburn who said he was subjected to a 50 minute phone-reaming from Bill after their loss in South Carolina over his TV remarks about Bill playing the race card there.

It's 3 a.m. and Billary's phone should be ringing.... who'll make that overdue call?

Clyburn: Clinton Conduct "Bizarre"

You probably remember seeing the dignified African-American during the South Carolina Democratic primary.... influential third-highest-ranking U.S. Representative, James E. Clyburn.

He remains an uncommitted superdelegate.... but, he isn't remaining quiet about the damage the Billary campaign is doing to Barack Obama, the Democratic party and Hillary's support in the black community.

In an interview with the New York Times Thursday.... "Black Leader in the House Sharply Criticizes Bill Clinton".... Clyburn said that Clinton's "conduct in this campaign has caused what might be an irreparable breach between Mr. Clinton and an African-American constituency that once revered him."

Clyburn added that "there appeared to be an almost unanimous view among African-Americans that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton were committed to doing everything they possibly could to damage Mr. Obama to a point that he could never win in the general election."

Clyburn is finally saying what many suspect, that Billary wants Obama to lose in November instead of being a two-term president so Hillary can try again in 2012.

African-Americans, along with countless bloggers, op-ed writers, political pundits and voters view the Billary "race card" kitchen-sink campaign as nothing more than a seek-and-destroy effort.

The Clinton's seem to only have wanted to use the black community to further their personal power plays.

Watch for Billary to start taking Spanish language lessons.

Billary... the "Freddy" Factor

Today Dan Balz of the Washington Post posits "8 Questions About the Pennsylvania Primary."

Balz asks in part.... what will it take to be declared the winner in Pennsylvania today... what is the most important remaining contest after Pennsylvania.... will Democratic superdelegates coalesce, or could it go to the convention?

All good questions, but perhaps the best came from Jon Stewart on his show last night.... he asked Barack Obama if he won the primaries and then the presidency, at his inauguration will Hillary Clinton still be running?

A chuckle.... but really, it's not funny. Billary's "kitchen sink" campaign reflects their desperation and inability to accept the fact that the Democratic party isn't their private sandbox, and the contest for the White House isn't Hillary's predestined coronation.

Like annoying nonstop Freddy Krueger horror sequels, Hillary won't go away.

The answer to Balz's questions is.... it doesn't matter. Hillary will declare victory in Pennsylvania and put on her Hoosier shirt and North Carolina twang for the coming May contests and keep condescendingly telling us that only she knows what's best.

What would be best for the country and the Democratic party's chance for success in November would be for Billary to put the greater good first and their selfish ambitions second. When pigs fly!

So, how to stop Billary's bloodletting so the Democratic party can reverse the consequences of Balz's eighth question.... "Has John McCain used this period effectively to get ready for the general election?" Of course he has... he's running unopposed while Obama and Hillary are engaged in unproductive and expensive postmortem primaries.

There is no way that Hillary can overtake Obama in number of states won, number of delegates selected by the voters, or the popular vote. Unless the sky falls in Pennsylvania today.... it's over.

Superdelegates..... show us why you're super. Ratify the choice of the majority of Democratic voters. Now.

Getting to the Heart of "Bitter"

Bitter?.... watching our best and brightest secreted home from Iraq in coffins in the "dark of sight".... watching our government give tax breaks to companies shipping our jobs overseas and bailing out usurious investment banks while letting mortgage holders go under....

Watching our infrastructure crumble as we pour hundreds of billions into the oil-rich Middle East as costs for home heating fuel and at the gas pumps soar.... watching as our economy collapses under the weight of reckless government spending while pushing through tax breaks for the rich as besieged workers lose their jobs, their pensions and their health care.

You bet there's bitterness!... but Barack Obama is being tag-teamed by the "$100 million gal" Hillary Clinton and "100 years in Iraq" John McCain for stating truth to their good-ol'-boy "give them cake" mentality, a mentality they are trying to enshrine once again by killing the messenger who dares challenge their power-centric status quo.

Obama's message: "our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.

"And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

He later explained, "I didn't say it as well as I should have because the truth is that these traditions that sustain us from generation to generation are important."

The GOP rushed to pounce on the remarks as "an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking." McCain's campaign went so far as to accuse Obama of thinking "he knows your hopes and fears better than you do. You can't be more out of touch than this." (WaPo)

Obama's campaign took up the challenge, "if John McCain wants a debate about who's out of touch with the American people, we can start by talking about the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans that he once said offended his conscience but now wants to make permanent."

After Obama stood his ground and defended his remarks the Clinton campaign piled on... "Instead of apologizing for offending small town America, Senator Obama chose to repeat and embrace the comments he made earlier this week. It's unfortunate that Senator Obama didn't say he was sorry for what he said." Guess raising the curtain for a peek at the Clinton administration failures upset the Billary wizard.

With complicit negative media saturation, Obama is reaping the swiftboat-whirlwind for giving voice to the frustrations of the American people, and yes, the bitterness of many.

It's not that Obama is out of touch, it's that he's touched a nerve.

It's 3 a.m. in Billaryland

It's clear the steady drip, drip, drip of Barack Obama endorsements are driving Billary around the bend.

Bill Clinton's red-faced rants, Clintonite James Carville's "Judas" jab at Obama supporter Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, and Hillary's heartstring-thrumming rallies complete with warmed-over Ronald Reagan stories.... no tactic is too bizzare or contrived as they attempt to lure voters and superdelegates into their web, still....

Another governor and superdelegate, Wyoming's Dave Freudenthal.... a former Clinton appointee.... announced yesterday that he will support Sen. Barack Obama. Freudenthal spent time with both Clinton and Obama when they came to Wyoming, "but Obama struck him as 'incredibly smart' and someone who gives honest answers instead of scripted responses."

And, yet another Obama endorsement yesterday came from well-respected former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, the top Democrat on the September 11 Commission. This endorsement is timely as Indiana will be holding their primary in a few weeks.

Obama's delegate lead is steadily growing to unassailable numbers. It's 3 a.m. in the Hillary campaign.... when will she hang it up?

Obama: Go For Thrilla in Phila...

Yesterday's substantial win in Wyoming's caucuses by Barack Obama.... 61% to 38%.... over "Ma Barker" Clinton (as dubbed by WSJ) helps him regain his Big Mo, but it's still far from an eight count. So, before the next big bouts in Mississippi and Pennsylvania, take off the gloves....

Not the smearing, innuendo, conniving and misleading gloves that land Ma Barker's low blows, but, as Maureen Dowd pointed out in "The Monster Mash," it's time for Obama to start seriously rebutting Hillary's kneecapping remarks.

As, for instance, her loud refrain that she has far more national security experience than Obama has, when as Dowd points out.... "Having a first lady tea in Belfast is not equivalent to bringing peace to Northern Ireland."

After his losses in Texas and Ohio, Obama needs to be more fierce about winning. Being "Wimpy Man" won't be a winning strategy for Obama.... Just ask Bush "41" who drug that defeatist label to a second-term loss.

As Dowd points out, "Hillary successfully recast herself in Ohio as a beer-drinking former waitress. Only after last week's reversals did the Obama camp raise a louder ruckus about her tax returns. Obviously, Ms. Night Shift does not want to reveal the details of the fortune that Bill Clinton has made, sometimes through dubious associations."

And, when it comes to Billary's campaigning methods, who would know them better than the former political adviser to President Bill, Dick Morris. While he thinks, "It's Over" for Hillary after her narrow wins in Texas and Ohio, he knows "Hillary won't withdraw".... and will bulldoze forward with "ever-escalating rhetoric."

Perhaps, as Morris suggests, in the next round Obama needs to unleash his own phone-rings-in-the-middle-of-the-night ad.... "have a woman's voice, with a flat Midwestern accent, answer it and say, 'Hold on' into the receiver. Then she should shout, 'Bill, it's for you!' "

That would land.... with Hillary's lack of any meaningful experience in foreign affairs.... a solid and telling blow!

Is GOP Picking Dem Candidate?

Where is the "mean"-stream media's reporting on the Canadian NAFTA memo leak that undoubtedly hurt Barack Obama in the March 4 primaries, especially in job-devastated Ohio.

We turn to Michal Blanchfield of The New Republic to give us the lowdown about the NAFTA discussion in Chicago between Obama's economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee who was asked for the meeting by Canadian diplomat, Ian Brodie.

It was Brodie who leaked the diplomatic cable reporting on the meeting, alleging that Obama's public tough position on renegotiating the NAFTA treaty was a wink-wink. This was later denied and retracted by the Canadian government.... but not before the damage was done to Obama.

Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's denial said that neither he nor anyone in his office had anything to do with the leak, and called it regrettable and "blatantly unfair" to Obama's campaign and promised a full internal investigation. Yeah. Like that will happen.

Why the cynicism? Harper's domestic foes think "Harper was trying to do a favor for the GOP by tossing a piece of political dynamite in front of Obama's train as it was barreling down on Ohio..... leaks from the Harper government are rare. It is well known that Harper's office keeps cabinet ministers--not to mention diplomats abroad--on a tight leash."

Have you noticed that Brat Bush is doing a lot of dancing these days. He's obviously happy. He loves frat-boy pranks, especially against the Democrats. Here's why.

Besides NAFTA-gate, conservative shill Rush Limbaugh was urging his ditto-heads to vote for Hillary Clinton last Tuesday to throw a monkey wrench into Obama's campaign. GOP crossovers to Clinton were uncharacteristically high in the Texas primaries, and Obama's very narrow loss there gave Clinton bragging rights.

It's to the GOP's benefit to keep the Democratic nominating fight going, so.....Florida's GOP Governor Crist is promoting another Democratic primary there in order to seat the rule-breaking Florida delegation at the Democratic convention.... all these moves help Clinton and keep the Democrats from focusing their fire on GOP nominee John McCain.

After all, Billary is much more beatable in the general election as she would galvanize turnout for the GOP. And, McSame is viewed by many of the conservative faithful with distrust, so he needs all of the help he can get. A poll yesterday showed Obama would beat him by 12 points, but Clinton only 6 points.

Brat Bush will throw everything including the White House sink at Obama to put Billary on the ballot. His legacy depends on McSame winning the general election to carry on, and justify, his monstrous policies.

So the question remains, are the Democrats going to allow Republican dirty tricks to define and name their candidate.... Billary. If so, they're more likely to be subjected to Brat Bush's dancing at McSame's inaugural ball.

The Billary Blitzkreig

Colbert King is worried about "Billlary Adventures in Primaryland." (WaPo) And for good reason.

He sees Bill and Hillary Clinton as the "superficially charming, self-absorbed couple Billary, ever so possessed with an outsize sense of entitlement" as they tag-team Barack Obama in their attempt to devalue him in their current run for the sun.

And, King is sure of one thing, "A Clinton administration will be a four-year co-presidency with all of the drama that Billary has managed to bring to every undertaking."

Isn't the country weary of the Clinton soap opera where the script is all about them.

While King makes a good case, there are yet other Billary pitfalls.... Hillary as the first woman president. If she isn't the right woman, she will set back years of progress for women. She will hurt the womens' movement. She will have the opposite effect that so many women who support her will be expecting, proof that a woman can handle the top job.

But, as King opines.... "let's not get ahead of ourselves and start worrying about tomorrow. Billary gives us enough to worry about today."