Lying Liars

Lying Liars
guest post by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrotOscar

One of things I just do not understand is the need for both Obama supporters
and Hillary supporters need to tear down the other candidate.

Both candidates played fast and loose with the facts. Both candidates have
exaggerated their life stories. Is Obama a “liar” for using composite
characters in his book “Dreams Of My Father?” Is he untrustworthy
because he overstated his work in the law firm? What about his “corrections”
about what he heard or failed to hear from Rev Wright’s pulpit?

At base Clinton was making a good point about the lack of difference between
her and Obama in the Senate; Obama’s votes have been identical to hers
on Iraq. Both have voted to fund the war time and time again. Neither has done
much to push a date certain for withdraw. Actions do speak louder than words
and there has been little action from either Hillary or Barack.

I have no idea why Hillary ruined that salient point with the dumb “I
spoke out in the Senate against Iraq before Barack did” nonsense. Barack
beat her out by eight whole days on that account. Whoopi.

Both Clintons have a long history of playing fast and loose with the facts.
Barack has less of a history it is true. The thing is that Barack has less of
history period. For all intents and purposes he only had year or two in the
Illinois legislature when he could actually do something. Now did he really
pass that legislation he claims he did? Some of his state legislature colleges
have grumbled about his stealing their glory. Is his taking credit for others
long work and sacrifice a “lie” or is it just an exaggeration?

When Hillary told the story about the ride in to Tuzla, there was a grain
of truth. The plane did have land in way to avoid possible sniper fire. There
was a danger there if remote. Did she lie or did she exaggerate? In “Dreams
of My Father” did Obama lie or exaggerate about his schooling? He went
to a very top-notched school and it seems he was not as much of lost youth as
he paints himself.

Obama has been very lucky so far. He has been able to write his own narrative.
This has been literally true as he has written two autobiographical sketches
of his life. Both Clintons have had no such fortune. Theirs has been a rearguard
action trying to counter right-wing smears of their lives. Many times they have
been less than candid about their actions. They have been overly sensitive and
overly secretive. But just because you are paranoid does not mean people are
not out to get you.

Barack has not had someone like Richard Melon Scaife looking into every nook
and cranny of his life. What fun “facts” would we be learning about
Michele, about Rezko, about others in his group of friends if there was an unlimited
source of funding to find any kind of dirt on Obama? The Clintons had to put
up with 20 years of that kind of garbage. You know the lyrics; sing along with
the bouncing ball: Troopergate, Whitewater, Vince Foster, etc, etc, etc, etc.

What did the entire poking and prodding amount to? The only thing that stuck
was the Lewinsky affair. Millions and millions of tax payer monies spent on
investigating an act of consensual oral sex. Of course that lead to the whopper
that Bill told the nation about not having a relationship with Monica. But what
did we really learn there? Honestly we already knew the man had a zipper problem.
He “corrected” his statement in the civil trial, thus making any talk
of “perjury” moot. His impeachment and trial were political theater,
a stain on the Congress and the Senate.

Even after that whole sorry bit of business Clinton was still very popular.
The only two-term Democrat since FDR, he left office with a 60% approval rating.
Clinton haters need to chew on that fact for a while. Since FDR only Republicans
have managed to get re-elected president. Nixon, Reagan, Bush Jr. all were two
term presidents. Clinton broke the mold and was punished for it.

It is understandable why Republicans might hate the Clintons. The Elephants
tossed everything they had against Bill and Hillary, and they still lost. Bill
constantly out maneuvered them and outflanked them, he stole many of their ideas
and gave them a Democratic spin. Obama, truth be told, does much the same. In
Obama case is called being “post-partisan” or being a “unifier”
in Hillary’s case it is called “pandering” and “selling out.”

People really need to take off the rose-colored glasses. Obama still has not
been fully vetted. He is still getting a pass for things that Hillary would
be flame-sprayed for. He is not the nominee, he is ahead. His lead is mostly
due to Clinton’s failure to have a post-super-Tuesday strategy. Obama romped
and stomped in February winning a series of small state caucuses and primaries.
Still he has only shaded Clinton by a percentage point in the popular vote.
He failed to kill off Clinton in Texas and got creamed in Ohio. He keeps failing
to deliver the Coupe de Grass on Hillary. She keeps winning the critical big
states. The only large state Obama carried was his home state of Illinois; he
lost in NJ, California, NY, and Mass. It was his team that scuppered a revote
in MI and FL, could not afford to loose twice could he? Reminds us of his first
election when he lawyered his way into an uncontested primary. Thing is MI and
FL do get to vote in the general- they will remember Obama negating their choices
in the primaries.

Let us face the facts; both the remaining candidates are Centrist Democrats.
The last real progressive standing, John Edwards, bowed out before California.
Both candidates are problematic on Iraq. Hillary is actually a little “better”
on Iraq as she has not painted herself in to as deep a corner as Barack has.
To really leave Iraq we would have to abandon the Embassy. Neither of the candidates
has bitten that particular bullet. Neither will bite the bullet in the General
for fear of looking like a “defeatist” against McCain. Most likely
scenario for either candidate is 75,000 troops in Iraq in 2012 protecting the
1,000 State Department employees in the Embassy. Of course that possibility
is not even being broached by Clinton or Obama. Is this too a shared lie?

There is a believability gap between Hillary and Obama. Barack is more trusted
than Hillary in most recent polls. If we have learned anything about polls though
we should be extra careful about interpreting this one; there might be less
than meets the eye. Hillary has probably maxed out on the trust/distrust scale.
Barack, he has only one way to go-down. No one can honestly say where he will
stand on trust after the 527 are done with him. Maybe that is the reason he
is willing for Hillary to stay in the race. As long as Ms. Clinton is in the
fight, she catches almost all of the flack. Once she is gone, if she is gone,
then he is going to become a prime target for smear.

We are only seeing the first few notes from the mighty Wurlitzer of the Rovian
Scheme Machine. It is just being tuned up; we have the pledge nonsense, the
lapel pin silliness and finally Rev Wright. We know the theme of the piece:
fear. What we don’t know are the particulars. With Clinton this is easy; everyone
knows the lyrics of that song. It is an oldie, people tune it out. With Obama
it is a different thing all together.

If Barack does get the nod it will be interesting to see how he handles the
inevitable over-reaching by his campaign. How will he do under the thousand-power
microscope that Hillary has to endure? How will he handle a talking point that
was not fully vetted? How will the Barack supporters feel when the hyperbole
they pummel Clinton with is then meted out to them by McCain supporters? Remember
Republicans don’t have to really worry about being called racists. They are
going for the white vote; they have to. They have zero support among blacks
and they have lost the Latino vote. Thus it will be a classic campaign of energizing
their base while scaring the independents to vote the Elephant party. It will
be all about “The Dangerous Black Man.” The Republicans will play
up Obama’s relationships with New-Left radicals of all stripes. The meme
will be “he looks decent enough on the surface, but he just waiting to
screw you over.” It will be the Manchurian Candidate meme-Barack as a
Trojan horse for Black radicals to inflict a racial comeuppance against whites.
As Barack has a hard time wooing Reagan Democrats as it is, this meme might
totally put them out of reach.

It may get a little clearer after Pennsylvania; if Barack wins outright it
is all over. Thanks to John Murtha Hillary has to beat Obama convincingly, by
ten points or more, to beat the expectations game. If she wins by more than
ten points, Hillary can make a dent in Barack’s “inevitability”
claim. One thing for sure, we will see the real ‘impact” of Rev
Wright, the Tuzla kerfuffle, and the health care tragedy that wasn’t.

People are registering in droves in PA. How many “Democrats for a day”
are in this cohort is anybodies guess. People want to make their opinions known,
that is for sure.

Hopefully all those new Democrats will stick around for the General and for
years to come. That is one good thing you can still say about both Obama and
Clinton; they are still energizing the voters- people are still flocking in
droves to the Donkey.

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