When Barbara Bush did it, however,
she was sledding at Camp David. Hillary Clinton's downhill adventure is a metaphorical one, but may take longer to get over than a broken leg.
From
The New York TimesBy FRANK RICH
Published: February 24, 2008
WHEN people one day look back at the remarkable implosion of the
Hillary Clinton campaign, they may notice that it both began and ended
in the long dark shadow of Iraq.
It's not just that her candidacy's central premise -- the priceless
value of "experience" -- was fatally poisoned from the start by her
still ill-explained vote to authorize the fiasco. Senator Clinton then
compounded that 2002 misjudgment by pursuing a 2008 campaign strategy
that uncannily mimicked the disastrous Bush Iraq war plan. After
promising a cakewalk to the nomination -- "It will be me," Mrs. Clinton told Katie Couric in November -- she was routed by an insurgency.
Let's take a break right there. Both Clinton and Obama have sponsored local initiatives in Arkansas and illinois, respectively. Something to take note of is that although H.R.C. took office in the U.S. Senate in 2001 while Barack Obama didn't make it to the
U.S. senate until 2005 he was a member of the Illinois State Senate since 1997. So if we do the math, Barack has 11 years of experience as an elected official compared to Mrs. Clinton's 7. I also think that it's worth remembering that Hillary thinks that being First Lady for 8 years counts as experience.
Hillary's supporters (according to Frank Rich's article) would have us believe that their candidate's assumed position as Democratic Nominee for President was usurped by a slick hustler riding a wave of undeserved popularity. If you want to talk about "undeserved" why not mention that her position that led to all this great executive experience was only granted to her by virtue of the fact that she was married to the President. She wasn't elected or even appointed to the position based on merit or competence. She just happened to be married to the latest person elected to the office of President.
Moving on to the humor of the situation is that PR powerhouse Mark Penn doesn't, apparently, take H.R.C.'s bid for the Democratic nomination seriously enough to take time off from his day job, where his biggest client is Microsoft. He's even recycling strategy. Just like it was assumed that Window's Vista would be welcomed with open arms because it has the Misrosoft name it looks like he was counting on Hillary's last name (well, the latter half of it) to carry her into office.
PR woes aside just remember that if you really want to place as much importance on experience as Hillary that Barack has 50% more of it than she does as an elected official.
