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United States News Title: “It’s the Bataan Death March”–Democratic White House Aide Describes the Hillary Campaign to Maureen Dowd HILLARY CLINTON is the Democratic nominee. Really. Just ask her. She should have been able to finally savor shattering that highest, hardest glass ceiling the one she gloried in putting 18 million cracks in last time around when she attends her convention in Philadelphia in July. Instead, she is reduced to stomping her feet on CNN, asserting her dominance in a contest that has left her looking anything but dominant. Once more attempting to shake off the old socialist dude hammering her with a sickle, Clinton insisted to Chris Cuomo on Thursday: I will be the nominee for my party, Chris. That is already done, in effect. There is no way that I wont be. Its a vexing time for the Clintons. As Bill told a crowd in Fargo, N.D., on Friday, its been an interesting year: Thats the most neutral word I can think of. After all, why should Bernie Sanders get to be the Democratic nominee when he isnt even a Democrat? And how is Donald Trump going to be the Republican nominee when he considers being a Republican merely a starting bid? It must be hard for Hillary to look at all the pictures of young women swooning over Bernie as though he were Bieber. She assumed that the fix was in, that she and the D.N.C. had arranged for the coronation that she felt she was robbed of in the tulip craze of 2008. Everyone just laughed when Sanders, a cranky loner from Vermont with a nondescript Senate record, decided to challenge Queen Hillary. Clinton and her aides intoned wink, wink that it would be healthy to have a primary fight with Sanders and Martin OMalley. But Bernie became the surprise belle of his sides revolutionary ball. And now he has gotten a taste of it and he likes it and he wont let it go. Hes bedeviling the daylight out of Hillary. Hillary and her allies are spinning a narrative that Bernie is less loyal to the Democratic cause than she was with Obama. And Trump does delight in quoting Bernies contention that Hillary lacks the judgment to be president. On Friday, when he accepted the endorsement of the N.R.A. at its convention, Trump mischievously urged Sanders to run as a third-party candidate and said he would love to have a debate with both Hillary and Bernie onstage. Hillary says Sanders needs to do his part to unify the party, as she did in 2008. But even on the day of the last primaries in that race, when she was the one who was mathematically eliminated unless the superdelegates turned, she came onstage to Terry McAuliffe heralding her as the next president of the United States. She then touted having more votes than any primary candidate in history as her fans cheered Yes, she will! and Denver! Seeing Trumps soaring negatives, Sanders thinks, if he could just get past Hillary, he could actually be president. The Bernie bro violence chair throwing, sexist name-calling and feral threats at the Nevada state party convention last weekend was denounced as a scary situation by his Senate colleague Barbara Boxer. Sanders condemned the violence while stoking the outrage, urging the Democratic Party to open the doors, let the people in. He flashed a bit of Trump, so sure in his belief that the system is rigged that he fed off the nasty energy. Boxer had to call Sanders several times before he called back. She and other Democratic Senate women are fed up with his crusade, feeling enough is enough. Ive talked to several former Clinton and Obama White House aides who dont enjoy checking in with the joyless Clinton campaign in Brooklyn. Its the Bataan Death March, one says. Hopeful acceptance of Hillary has shifted to amazed disbelief that she cant put away Bernie. Given dynasty fatigue and Hillarys age, many Democrats assumed that their front-runner would come out of the gate with a vision for the future that gave her campaign a fresh hue, instead of white papers tinkering around the edges. She should have been far over her husbands bridge to the 21st century and way down the highway by now. Instead, her big new idea is to put Bill in charge of the economy again (hopefully, with less Wall Street deregulation). Again with the two for the price of one. And please dont deny us the pleasure of seeing Bill choose the china patterns. Hillarys Bataan Death March is making Republicans reconsider their own suicide mission with Trump. More are looking at Clintons inability to get the flashing lights going like her husband, and thinking: Huh, maybe were not dead here. Maybe Teflon Don could pull this off. The 2016 race is transcendentally bizarre. We have two near-nominees with the highest unfavorables at this point in the race of any in modern history. We seem to have a majority of voters in both parties who are driven by the desire to vote against the other candidate, rather than for their own. Debbie Wasserman Schultz tries to herd young women to Hillary by raising the specter of Roe v. Wade being overturned. And former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said Trumps obsession with 10s and D-cups would come back to haunt him and give Democrats wins because there are probably more ugly women in America than attractive women. Hillary cant generate excitement on her own so she is relying on fear of Trump to get her into the White House. And Trump is relying on fear of everything to get him into the White House. So voters are stuck in the muck of the negative: What are you most afraid of? If we are lucky, she will get bayoneted at the side of the road !! Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
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