Some analysts have blamed the Bush and Clinton families for ushering in a polarizing style of politics that focuses on driving up the opposing candidates’ negatives in highly PERSONAL campaigns rather than focusing on the serious issues. Now former President Bill Clinton has come out with comments suggesting he not only endorses this style of politics but has no intention of toning down the increasingly angry tone of the epic Obama (Hillary) Clinton Democratic Presidential nomination battle.
Bill Clinton suggests there’s nothing unusually negative about the current Obama Clinton race, nothing to apologize for, no reason to change the way it’s being conducted and no reason to fire someone who makes an outrageous over-the-line statement.
In other words, Clinton has made the most basic argument yet in favor of seek-and-destroy politics as usual:
Speaking to voters in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the 42nd president Wednesday said, “I don’t give a rip about all this name-calling that’s going on. They’ve been going on ever since Iowa. I’ve heard them say all these things about her.
“Apparently it’s okay to say bad things about a girl,” he said laughing, in an apparent reference to his 60-year-old wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, per ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf.
“The only thing that matters is, what happens to you?” said Mr. Clinton. “That’s all that matters. If a politician doesn’t wanna get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office. If a football player doesn’t want to get tackled or want the risk of an a occasional clip he shouldn’t put the pads on.”
Clinton’s message is this is the way politics is played so live with it — as stark a contrast as possible to Obama’s assertion that the U.S. needs to have a different style of politics at the national level.
To those still not convinced that Clinton is arguing that American politics is just peachy the way it is — a sentiment not shared by many independent voters — read this:
Clinton also had a word to say about all the surrogates of both his wife’s and Sen. Barack Obama’s campaigns whom had been ejected, including former Obama campaign adviser Samantha Power, and former Clinton campaign finance committee member Geraldine Ferraro.
“I don’t think any of these people oughta be asked to resign,” said the former president. “All these guys that say bad things about any other campaign, they say should they resign? My answer is no, they’re repeating the party line. They oughta stay right where they are.
“Let’s just saddle up and have an argument,” he continued. “What’s the matter with that? That’s what America’s about, right?”
Is he saying:
–Ferraro’s comments about Obama being where he is because he’s black are what America is about?
— The comments of Obama’s pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright are what America is all about?
–The comments by an Obama adviser about Monica Lewinsky’s stained dress are America is all about?
— The comments by Clinton allies about Obama’s admitted youthful drug use and harping on his Muslim middle name are what America is all about?
In fact, this is proving to be one of the most divisive primary seasons the Democratic party has ever seen.
The problem is what America has been “about” for the past two decades has been the politics of setting group against group to raise enough fear in group X about group Y so group X will go to the polls to keep group Y from winning and (supposedly) destroying the country. It’s a raw, knife-gutting style of politics. And both the Clinton and Bush families have played key roles in making it this way.
And it’s clear that to Bill Clinton THIS is what America is about:
“All this moaning and groaning — none of these politicians are gonna have anything like the tough time half the people in this audience have already had for the last seven years. This is about you. Don’t you let anybody take this election away from you.”
It could be argued that the kind of politics Bill Clinton is advocating and has not curtailed and or condemned has already taken the election away from many Americans — from a table piled high at the start of primary season with plates full of serious issues, right back into the let’s-drive-up-his-negatives gutter.
Andrew Sullivan argues that this, in fact, is the Clintons’ intent: to drive up Obama’s negatives so high that he’ll be damaged goods by convention time. He also believes the Clintons would then say “told you so” if Obama loses the general election and start laying the groundwork to capture the nomination in 2012.
That speculative, however an underlying certainty in Clinton’s comments is that there will be a LOT MORE of this kind of political style over the next two months. And, in the end, Obama could well be damaged goods — but there are increasing signs now that the Clintons could be starting to turn some voters and perhaps even Superdelegates off:
(1)A new poll shows Obama seems to have survived the Wright fiasco and that voters are giving him the benefit of the doubt. But Hillary Clinton’s negatives have gone way up.
(2)MSNBC reports that some Superdelegates are being turned off by the Clinton campaign:
At a time when Sen. Hillary Clinton is increasingly relying on superdelegates to vault her to the Democratic Party’s nomination, a handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates are coming forward to say her campaign’s tactics in recent weeks are doing more harm than good.
The Democratic Party insiders say they believe Clinton’s direct attacks against Sen. Barack Obama in recent days are hurting the party and its chances in November, and also say it is showing a calculated, desperate-to-win side of Clinton that they dislike.
“In looking at the manner in which the candidates are campaigning, I think it would be best they focused their attention on the presumptive nominee and showed our party which one is better in campaigning against McCain,” said Garry Shay, a California superdelegate, who announced his support for Clinton.
Unlike some in the party, these superdelegates said they do not believe Clinton should drop out of the race. They said they are committed to the democratic process, and want to allow the states still remaining to cast their ballots. But they acknowledged Obama is the likely nominee and suggested the personal attacks were only hurting the party and its viability.
And, indeed, yet another poll notes that the emerging Democratic party split is so large that a large number of Democrats will vote for GOP Senator John McCain for President if their candidate doesn’t win.
Here’s the most pointed part of the MSNBC story:
And they [some Superdelegates] say they are not buying some of the Clinton campaign’s explanations as to why they should support her, whether it is her victories in large states, primary states or those likely to go Democratic in the November election.
“Periodically, over the last couple of weeks, you will see a news story or get something from the campaign, and you’ll go, ‘How stupid do you think I am?” one uncommitted superdelegate said. “All of us watch television all the time, read the newspapers. We all play with the little charts online too. We know it is virtually impossible.”
One delegate said the Clinton campaign is “using Jeremiah Wright to scare white people.”
“A full and fair debate about issues and differences and even fights is good,” the delegate said. “Mud slinging, personal attacks and lying is never good for any political fight or party. And I see a lot of that coming from one side more than the other.”
The delegates said there is little the party or its leaders can do to prevent the current back and forth. But some said they were increasingly in touch with Clinton campaign officials to say their support is in jeopardy.
It appears as if the delegates quoted in this story also don’t think the kind of politics unfolding in the Obama Clinton race is what America’s “all about.”
Or what America should be about.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.