Posted on 02/23/2007 3:38:12 PM PST by The Blitherer
I hope this doesnt get me kicked out of the conservative pundits union, but I havent been following the Obama-Hillary!-Geffen cage match this week. Having brought myself up to speed this afternoon by reading Bill Kristols and Peggy Noonans coverage of the affair, I guess Ive missed quite a show.
Kristol gives us a delightfully catty summary of the affair to date in an editorial titled You Go Geffen. (Do I spot the dark skills of Jonathan Last at work in crafting that hilarious headline?):
David Geffen spoke truth to Maureen Dowd last week. Here is what the Hollywood mogul told the New York Times gossip columnist:
I don't think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is--and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?--can bring the country together. Obama is inspirational, and he's not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. . . .
I don't think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person. . . . I think [Republicans] believe she's the easiest to defeat. . . .
It's not a very big thing to say, "I made a mistake" on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can't. She's so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base . . . that machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive. . . .
Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice? Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling.
I especially enjoyed the swipe at Maureen Dowd. Who knew she was still writing?
Anyway, as far her Rodhamness is concerned, this will leave a mark just as surely as Macho Man Randy Savage left a mark on Ricky The Dragon Steamboat when he crushed Steamboats throatal region with the ring bell in 1987. Peggy Noonan describes the damage:
At the Democratic forum in Carson City, Nev., on Tuesday, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Mrs. Clinton if Mr. Obama should renounce Mr. Geffen's remarks. She answered, "I want to run a positive campaign" and referred to "the politics of personal destruction." Every time she gets in a spot, she pulls that one out. And for good reason: It has always worked. It works because it confuses people. Is this the boys beating up the girl? Are they sticking her pigtails in the ink well? Is Geffen mean? If Obama is nice, shouldn't he make sure everyone is nice?
It's not so much a diversion as a non sequitur. Mrs. Clinton is like the little girl who steals the boy next door's candy and hits him on the head with a hammer. He runs, "Mommy, she stole my Snickers and hit me on the head!" She turns to the mother, hammer in hand, and gestures at the boy. "This . . . is the politics of personal destruction."
Even with Peggy engaging in her tiresome and customary sanctimony, I must admit that this is a satisfying moment for long-time Clinton detractors. For eight years, Bill Clinton was able to get away with rampant corruption and deceit because of his skills as a wholesale politician. Because Hillary was a member of the team, she also skated because of her husbands remarkable ability to prettify even the ugliest pig with just the right shade of lipstick.
But Hillary doesnt have any of the politicking talents that her beloved husband has. Wooden on the stump and depressingly technocratic, she doesnt have it in her to laugh off an insult from a gravitas deprived Hollywood mogul. She could have said, Gee, he liked us when he was raising $18 million for us. Maybe we shouldnt have dropped him off the Christmas card list.
But that wouldnt have been her. The Senator is as charmless as she is humorless. Her husband could deflect his former National Security Adviser committing a major federal felony with gales of laughter and good natured bonhomie. His wife gets a rhetorical broadside from a diminutive record executive and goes to DEFCON 3.
SO WHO WON? No one. One of the things Im trying to get through to everyone is that were still in the earliest days of the exhibition season. The results of these skirmishes dont matter. The only thing that matters is that a campaign is in good shape when the real games begin. That means it has to have its message sharp and the bucks on hand.
Neither Clinton nor Obama will lack for the greenbacks. The only important takeaways from this entertaining intramural struggle are the revelations about Team Obama and Team Clinton.
Although just a neophyte, Obama ran circles around Clinton. He let his surrogate do the heavy lifting while remaining above the fray. Will he be so smooth when things get hotter? Time will tell.
As for Clinton, weve learned a few things that we already knew. When a bludgeoning blow is required, she wields a mighty sledgehammer. When a velvet touch is required, she wields a mighty sledgehammer. Shes humorless, combative and not particularly likable.
Honestly, is this news to anyone?
Pretty funny.
Ain't nuthin DemocratIC about it :)
Someone should be very careful for Obama, he may come down with a serious case of Arkenside! Hitlery will stop at nothing to get into the Oval Office, no matter what!
Just remember this: Behind the scenes, she uses her broom without mercy.
bump
Plus, she's an arrogant bitch!
I just cannot imagine what it must be like to live with a heart that black.
Wonder how she defines happiness? Queen Of The World, maybe?
It is DEMOCRAT, not Democratic party.
'Honestly, is this news?' Yup, it is, but media whoredom sycophancy will give the rodhamster plenty enough cover while playing the assigned personal destruction on Geffen.
Well, considering who Geffen is, this is more like one of those Krystal and Alexis catfights in the fountain. This century's version is the flamer vs. the bull dyke.
What do we need with the Obama Royal Family?
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