DefeatClinton2008.com

As exposed by blogger Berni McCoy, Hillary Clinton’s campaign recently released 30 second TV ad featuring a mock newspaper headline decrying Obama yet using filler text regarding Bill Clinton’s “Troopergate” scandal from the 1990s.

If this were not intentional it would be an unbelievable coincidence that Hillary Clinton’s advertising team would haphazardly select “Troopergate” text as filler. So, disallowing for accidental inclusion, what was the motivation behind the selection of this sordid chapter from the Clinton’s past into this quite recent political ad?

One possibility is that there is a mole in the Hillary camp, or at least a disgruntled campaign worker with access to the media production crew. The filler text is clear enough to be read on YouTube, which is no small feat, and is reportedly very clear on a normal TV. If a prankster or bitter person put this article text into the ad the intent would likely be to embarrass Hillary and the campaign and perhaps to resurrect questions of character and corruption. Perhaps a former Hillary supporter in the campaign has switched loyalties to Obama.

Another possibility is that this is an intentional strategy on the part of the Clinton Campaign to interject the sad past of embarrassing allegations on the current candidate Clinton’s husband. Perhaps this is a way to garner sympathy for poor Hillary who has suffered so much at the hands of a maniacal sex addict. If so the motivation may be akin to the New Hampshire Humility (the “cry of humanity“) that turned around Hillary’s campaign last winter.

Regardless, it reminds us of the Crass Clinton legacy and begs the question: do we really need or want more?

EL PASO (AP) - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s deputy campaign manager resigned Tuesday, the latest departure in a staff shake-up following a string of losses to Barack Obama.

Source: Yahoo! News Search Results for hillary clinton

In an interesting article, Jeff Cohen touches on the perils of a second Clinton White House, and cites the strong opposition of the “netroots” to Hillary Clinton’s candidacy - but raises the question of whether they can thwart Hillary’s media coronation in the Democratic primary. He also notes the lack of a unifying candidate for these hyper-informed bloggers to rally around - they united behind Howard Dean in 2004, but this time around their support is split cleanly in half between John Edwards and Barack Obama.

Blogger David Swanson supports Dennis Kucinich, but citing Cohen’s analysis, he calls on Obama and Edwards to join forces for the sake of defeating Hillary and preventing a Republican romp in the 2008 presidential race.

This web site is not here to endorse Edwards or Obama, or to call on either of them to withdraw and support the other. But as pointed out in a previous post, Obama and Edwards agree on the key issue of minimizing the corrosive influence of special interest money in Washington, while Hillary blithely accepts money from corporate PAC’s and Washington lobbyists. There may be advantages to having two strong anti-establishment candidates at this point in the race, but eventually all Democratic primary voters who want to break the Bush-Clinton dynasty will have to unite behind a single candidate. Until it’s clear who that candidate should be, I encourage backers of both Edwards and Obama to educate their fellow supporters in each camp on the fatal flaws of the Clinton 2008 campaign (such as her frequent position-switching, suspicious campaign funding, and unelectability - as described in previous posts here). Some may find it difficult to criticize even a bad Democratic candidate, but if we shy away from speaking against Hillary now, we may find the only question left to be answered in 2008 is whether the presidential election will bring a loss or a hollow victory.

Are Cohen’s fears of the netroots being a “paper tiger” justified? Even if progressive bloggers aren’t a representative sample of the Democratic Party, they may represent its leading edge. And our success in the race to stop Hillary Clinton will likely hinge on how fast information can spread through the American electorate. So please forward this web site to anyone you know who might need help deciding who to vote for in the Democratic primary (that means registered Democrats AND Independents in many states).

Source: Independents and Democrats United Against Hillary Clinton in 2008

A few weeks ago, an adviser to John Edwards pointed out a peculiar lunch date that Hillary Clinton had set up. Actually, Hillary’s role was more that of cupid - bringing together security industry lobbyists with some of the congresspeople who sit on the relevant appropriations committees. For the bargain rate of $1000 per Hillary donor or $25000 per bundler, these lobbyists got to sit down with the very people who could steer multi-million dollar federal contracts to the corporations who employ them. For a Beltway politician like Hillary, it’s just business as usual. For the rest of us, it’s an especially sickening example of a corrupted electoral process. But this time the corruption isn’t Clinton’s alone - let’s not forget the members of Congress who peddled their influence to earn favors with Hillary: Henry Cuellar (TX), Jane Harman (CA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX), Jim Langevin (RI), Nita Lowey (NY), Kendrick Meek (FL), Jerry Nadler (NY), Dutch Ruppersberger (MD), Joe Sestak (PA), and Ellen Tauscher (CA).

Another issue worth pointing out is Hillary Clinton’s undisputed status as the “Queen of Pork” - from 2002 to 2006 she diverted over $2,200,000,000 of taxpayer money to specific projects, and she tacked on another $150,000,000 of pork in the latest war re-authorization bill. Unfortunately though, we don’t even know the details of Hillary’s earmarks - she has refused to let the public know who she directed this money to. We do know that Hillary Clinton has sent weapons companies millions of dollars for arms the Pentagon didn’t ask for, and so maybe it’s not too surprising that Hillary Clinton has raised more campaign money from arms industry employees than any other presidential candidate (Democrat or Republican). Some of Clinton’s colleagues in Congress have been trying to curb this secretive and wasteful spending (including Barack Obama), but Hillary Clinton has voted against earmark reform, and she seems dead set against anyone finding out how she has (ab)used this practice.

Speaking of Hillary Clinton’s shady connections to the defense industry, it recently came out that her chief strategist/pollster’s PR company recently helped Blackwater prepare for its Congressional hearing (where the CEO predictably denied the increasingly well-supported claims that his mercenaries carried out unprovoked killings of Iraqi civilians). Whether anyone can clean up Blackwater’s blood-soaked image is debatable, but Mark Penn (who Edwards calls Hillary’s Karl Rove) and his company are not afraid of tough cases - they’ve helped put a fresh face on tarnished tobacco companies, and helped coach other corporations on how to stop employees from unionizing.

Video: Former U.S. Rep. David Bonior (D) talks about the Clinton fundraiser on MSNBC’s Hardball

Source: Independents and Democrats United Against Hillary Clinton in 2008

As a public service, I’m doing my best to keep the American voter updated on Hillary Clinton’s ever-changing foreign policy views. The latest word is that Hillary has now abandoned the position she took while condemning Barack Obama’s willingness to negotiate with Iran, and returned to the position she held while criticizing George W. Bush for failing to negotiate with Iran. Naive and irresponsible to talk with Tehran? That is SO two-and-a-half-months-ago… now it’s apparently time for a fall-back to Hillary’s springtime conviction that diplomacy is the way to go.

…Except it’s worth noting that Hillary had just finished undermining her commitment to diplomacy by voting for a very hawkish resolution by former Democrat Joe Lieberman and far-right Republican Jon Kyl threatening Iran. This amendment, which Senator James Webb called “Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream” and could be viewed as a green light for military strikes against Iran (if not “war”), expressed the “sense of the Senate” (or lack thereof) that Iran’s army should be declared a terrorist group. Apparently, the Senate’s Republicans (and some Democrats, including Hillary Clinton) have been so persuaded by the president’s excuse that the sorry state of the Iraq War is all Iran’s fault that they now see themselves as better able to identify terrorist groups than the State Department. But surely our “war-on-terror” president wouldn’t use this vote as an excuse to attack the forces labeled as terrorists?

Here is a politician who rarely makes a clear statement except to contradict herself. Combine this hopscotch on Iran with the fact that Hillary has never apologized for her Iraq vote, and has never promised to withdraw from Iraq within her first term if elected, and Democratic primary voters may start to notice just how much wiggle-room she has left herself to change positions again for the general election. At this point, however, the Clinton strategy has already shifted into “say nothing mode”. As one columnist noted after the debate at Dartmouth College: “This is an excellent example of how to string together the maximum number of weasel words in one sentence. It was also pretty typical of Hillary’s entire evening.”

Please check this site frequently, as Hillary’s position may change again at any moment.

Source: Independents and Democrats United Against Hillary Clinton in 2008

Last month, when asked by an Iowan to explain her vote to label Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group, Hillary Clinton lost her temper and insinuated that Randall Rolph was a plant from an opposing campaign, saying the question was something “somebody obviously sent you.” In truth, the above link would suggest that Rolph is a concerned voter who has made a point of asking honest but challenging questions of every Demcratic candidate he’s able to see.

Now, apparently unwilling to deal with the uncertainty that arises from an open dialogue with voters, the Clinton campaign has admitted planting a question at a recent Iowa campaign stop. Hillary’s handlers acknowledge they asked a college student to pose a specific question about global warming, and John Edwards compared the practice to George W. Bush’s carefully scripted rallies. It seems, then, that Hillary is rather particular about her plants - preferring a carefully manicured garden of scripted questions over the wilderness of unpredictable inquiries that come from everyday Americans.

And yes, it looks like Hillary Clinton’s flip flops come in green too: After Hillary released an energy plan strikingly similar to plans previously unveiled by Edwards and Obama, but bore less resemblance to her own previous positions on biofuels,Obama criticized her for flip-flopping on energy policy. “If she’s willing to shift this quickly on this issue, we don’t know whether she will shift back when it gets hard.”

Since Hillary has invited voters to view her candidacy as a chance to return to the nostalgic 90’s, it’s a bit surprising that her campaign wants to bring up global warming… In spite of having Mr. Inconvenient Truth himself as VP, the Clinton administration made essentially no progress in combatting global warming - and at a time when scientific consensus on the issue had been reached and carbon reductions would have been particularly useful in slowing the threat.

Video: College student explains how Clinton staffers convinced her to ask a question from an approved list.

Source: Independents and Democrats United Against Hillary Clinton in 2008

EL PASO (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton began her first swing through the suddenly important Texas Hispanic strongholds Tuesday with a pledge to create comprehensive immigration reform.

Source: Yahoo! News Search Results for hillary clinton

EL PASO (AP) - Trying to overcome a string of losses and a staff shake-up, Hillary Rodham Clinton sought new energy Tuesday night from a boisterous crowd of about 12,000 in a state she hopes will provide a rebound in her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Source: Yahoo! News Search Results for hillary clinton

Voice of America

Obama Advisers Foresee a Delegate Draw With Clinton (Update3) Bloomberg - 20 hours ago … document projects Obama will end up in June with 1806 of the delegates who select the party’s nominee to 1789 for New York Senator Hillary Clinton. … Video: Superdelegates could tip balance reutersvideo More on the Delegate Discrepancy Wall Street Journal State Dems mull options for a do-over Detroit Free Press Detroit Free Press - Wall Street Journal all 336 news articles

Source: hillary clinton - Google News

Product Reviews

Clinton, Obama: Why Not Both? TIME - 10 hours ago … was only a matter of time before Democratic voters looked at the choice between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and asked the question, Why not both? … The Price of Overconfidence TIME Hillary Clinton and John McCain Take Super Tuesday, Barack Obama … PR.com (press release) Clinton Favored by Gamblers to Beat McCain, Bookmakers Say Bloomberg Globe and Mail - Daily Cardinal all 147 news articles

Source: hillary clinton - Google News