DebatablePolitics.com

Hillary Clinton has spent a lot of time on the campaign trail touting her experience, highlighting the good old times for Democrats under Bill Clinton. I got to give it the Clinton's they did a remarkable job of hanging on to power, under a Democratic Party banner no less, despite incredible odds. The Republican hate machine attacked attacked and attacked and yet they survived.

I could never really understand why the Republicans hated the Clintons so much. Sure they could spin their way out of anything, but why did it draw such animus. Then Hillary lost Iowa.

I had not decided on whom to support for President until a few days before the Iowa Caucus, at which time, I threw my $25 in to Barack Obama's coffers. I am not going to opine much about the qualities I like about Obama, but as I read in an editorial today, I do believe it is time we elect a leader and not just a politician.

Back to Iowa and Hillary Clinton. The Clinton's lost Iowa. they went into to their version of damage control right away. They opened the attack machine. The Clintons are very subtle in their use of attacks, the engine of the atttack machine runs pretty quietly, but it is definitely running. First, Hillary goes into the debate pointing to the 'false hopes' of Obama's campaign. She is not drawing a distinction here she is demeaning Obama's message, not disagreeing with the message, but dismissing it out of hand.

Then Bill Clinton follows that up with his now infamous 'Fairy Tale' speech. Now I am on their side on this one, Bill Clinton was not saying that Obama's campaign, or even his position, was a fairy tale per se, he was griping about the media not questioning him about it every day for the past year. Even though I know that the fairy tale line was not specifically about Obama's candidacy or his positions, I do know that Clinton is savvy enough to know the implication of how those words would be portrayed in the media. He said it anyway.

Bill was clearly trying to sow doubt in voters minds by implication. That is at the core of people's distrust of the Clinton's. People think they are capable, smart politicians hardly a bad set of traits to have. But when people feel manipulated by the language used by the Clinton's ('"depends on what the definition of is 'is'") then they start losing trust. Being smart and capable but not trusted is the Clinton problem.

Hillary followed that up with a shot at Obama's speech where he added a further explanation of hope by further defining it. Hope is what the patriots had when they threw off British Rule against all odds, hope is what the abolitionists had in challenging the institution of slavery, hope is what the equal rights advocates had when they faced down the dogs and the water cannons, hope allowed Kennedy to not say, 'the moon, no it is too far', hope is what enabled Martin Luther King Jr. to lead the civil rights movement in the 60s...you get the jist. Hillary spent every second she was not stumping attacking that speech saying Obama was comparing himself to JFK and MLK. She knew that was untrue of course, and yet she claimed it was true over and over again. The media never once challenged her claim. I detail these things because it illustrates why I am beginning to understand the disdain republican partisans have for the Clintons.

This nonsense would have faded away if Hillary had not gained a major victory in New Hampshire. Of course, being the rough and tumble politicians they are, the Clinton Camp read this aggressive style as the key to that victory. The fact is, I believe that Edwards drawing Obama in against Hillary in the debate in an unwanted tag team, coupled with the despicable images of Hillary splashed across the media revelling in the fall of the Clinton's the day before the primary and Edwards discounting Hillary's tears (she got choked up, big deal) created an atmosphere that galvanized women against this unfair treatment of Hillary. And unfair it was. Those photos on the front pages were horrible.

I won't give a blow by blow on the following weeks, but Bill came out swinging. The Clinton campaign went to their familiar ground. They misread what happened in New Hampshire. They played the divide and conquer game with gusto. Push blacks toward Obama and sink him with the 'black candidate' label seemed to be the apparent strategy. It has back fired. The electorate is tired of it. The republicans have played the same parsing game the last 8 years. The Clintons did it in the 90's. For the last 16 years we have been victim of this divisive, parsed language brand of politics. 

I know watching the candidate I have come to support being tarred by these half truths and innuendos (Obama could have been a drug dealer coming from Mark Penn, well Jesse Jackson won South Carolina too from Bill, and the 'He is comparing himself to Kennedy' nonsense from Hillary), I also begin to understand why those on other side are frustrated and furious with the Clinton machine.

I titled this piece the Clinton Legacy, so back to that topic. As I stated at the beginning, Hillary's claim is her vast experience with a nod to the Clinton Glory years. let us look back at those years:

Bill Clinton stormed onto the scene winning the presidency on a bad economy and a desire, bordering on a mandate, of Americans to move to a national healthcare system. it did not hurt that Ross Perot neatly shaved off a healthy portion of the Bush vote in that election as well. He was a powerful speaker, I will never forget the cspan broadcast I saw of his New Hampshire Convention speech (if it wasn't the convention speech it may have been the JJ dinner). The Clinton's were given this mandate with both chambers of Congress in Democratic party control. It truly was a good time to be a Democrat. Then, after a few easily forgiven stutter steps, Hillary Clinton was given the charge of bringing the healthcare plan together. The people wanted it and the party that controlled all the branches of government wanted it and yet it failed.

The Clinton's like to lay the blame on the republicans and the insurance companies for that failure. Guess what, neither one of them had the votes to stop it. Instead of leading their party to get this mandate from the people passed, the Clinton's squandered the opportunity. The Democratic party was punished by the electorate in 1994 for that failure. It was not the Gingirch revolution nor the Contract for America or any of that nonsense that swept the republicans to power. It was the Clinton's inability to bring together their own political party to achieve what has been a party platform item for decades now and was finally a priority for the American electorate to boot. They were given the keys to the kingdom by the electorate and the Clinton's tossed it aside because they knew better.

The Democratic party has never recovered from that part of the Clinton Legacy. They lost congressional election after congressional election for 14 years. The party fielded two weak presidential candidates. Candidates that refused to rightfully challenge the constitutionally questionable elections in Florida and then Ohio. The party is still weak after the Clinton years, they were swept into office finally in 2006 to challenge this president. Bush has violated our constitution in so many ways plain for the world to see and yet the Democratic Party is too timid to even fulfill their constitutional obligation to impeach this man who behaves as a king. And this is despite the fact that clear majorities of Americans would support such a move.

So that is the Clinton Legacy. A broken Democratic party that is ruled by fear, not vision nor leadership. It is the fear that Michelle Obama addresses so eloquently in her stump speech. The fear that leads to inaction. That fear that keeps the Democratic party from doing not only the bold thing keeps them from doing the right right thing as well. It is time to turn the page on the Clinton Legacy. It is a legacy that has been destructive to not only the democratic Party, but to our country's democratic process as well.

Obama offers a different way, that is why we should all support Barack Obama for President.