Hillary’s kindergarten shot across the bow
I was re-reading Kaus’ “scandal bomb” story and it made me think that dipping into Barack Obama’s supposed kindergarten records was a colossally stupid campaign move for Hillary Clinton . . . unless it was a shot across the bow intended to say:
“I even know what you did in kindergarten, don’t make me expose everything else I know about you.”
RELATED:
Kaus also notes a suggestion from (Dick?) Morris that Hillary is engaged in political judo: For Hillary to win, she must first lose. That way someone not yet innoculated from scandal becomes the focus of scandal stories. That’s an intriguing idea. Plus, if Hillary knows even what Obama did as a 5-year old, you know that she knows everything there is to know about all of her opponents.*
*Which should serve as a reminder to everyone that if you think that President Bush took constitutional liberties that amount to an invasion of privacy, you haven’t seen anything compared to what President Hillary would do.
(ht:GR)
December 5th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I can’t imagine that Rodham knows anything about BO that could possibly be any worse than the fact that she used to willingly spread her legs for a low bred serial rapist in order to advance her political career….that alone should disqualify her from being thought of as a ’serious’ feminist type candidate
December 5th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
HRC will win, Bob. We miss you on TV (Hardball) with your analysis.
You see, Bob, the Clinton Machine is such that people who do not “like” her will still end up voting for her.
In the end, HRC will the primaries, and the general is an easy victory.
For Obama to win, several things have to happen;
- Obama and Edwards have to step up the incompetence of HRC (first lady is not a qualification, no innovation in Senate as a NY senator, no papers released of WH years, etc.).
- Edwards has to make his supporters make Obama as their 2nd choice.
- HRC must continue to make mistakes (e.g., see andrewsullivan.com about HRC campaign sending mail about Obama).
- The press must be fair. At this time, NYT, CNN, NPR, PBS are shamelessly covering pro-HRC.
- Gore must endorse Obama.
- Clinton’s mistakes (Marc Rich, Monica, Travelgate, Vince Foster, etc.) must be re-shared in news.
With these issues, Obama can win. Else, he will lose IA.
December 5th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Actually Kindercaper just underscores how little Hillary’s camp has on Obama. Their source? A Jan 07 AP story with an interview of Obama’s teacher:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16813267/
Who believes Obama wrote an essay in Kindergarten anyway? Who believes a teacher is going to remember it 40 years later?
Don Surber had it right. This story was resurrected to get people to see “Obama” and “Islamic” in the same headline.
Still a bone-headed move.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
You make assumptions based on a false assumption. You quote Kaus writing “if Hillary knows even what Obama did as a 5-year old….” But did Hillary know what Obama did as a 5-year old?
Did Hillary ‘know’ that 5 year-year old Barack was capable of writing an essay? Of writing an essay while living in Indonesia about the Presidency of the US?
What you miss is that it is quite likely that this entire episode is a fabrication. Five-year olds don’t ‘write essays.’ Hillary’s agents might possibly have found Obama’s kindergarten teacher [stress on ‘might’ — do we really know?]. These agents might have leaned real, real hard on this teacher to find out something, anything which might be incriminating. But that doesn’t prove that the teacher’s report was anything other than a bone to Hillary’s agents to get them to stop leaning on her. All Hillary’s contemporary publicity machine did was demonstrate that it is willing to pass along stories about something no one can prove. This story does not demonstrate skill in recovery facts from the past. It demonstrates the weakness and fallibility of ‘intelligence’ gathering.
Ed:
I agree that it is unlikely that young Master Obama wrote such an essay at age five. That’s why I called it his “supposed” kindergarten records. So you’re very possibly right that this whole story might be an unprovable fabrication. However, a corollary to my original point would still stand: If Hillary will make this stuff up about what you did as a 5-year old, imagine what she might make up about what you did when you were 45.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
“Which should serve as a reminder to everyone that if you think that President Bush took constitutional liberties that amount to an invasion of privacy, you haven’t seen anything compared to what President Hillary would do.”
hah! FILEGATE!
December 6th, 2007 at 10:23 am
So Hillary (and now the world) knows what Obama wrote in a kindergarten essay. Yet Hillary still refuses to publicly release the senior thesis she wrote in college. Which document do you think is more relevant?