Former President Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton have offered to campaign for Mr. Lamont [and] his aides say the offer will be accepted....That will be fun to watch. Hillary and Bill just finished campaigning for the guy who will be running against Lamont. Presumably the question will be asked, Why the flip? The only possible answer, of course, will be "party solidarity" -- a response which ought to get quite a laugh, even in dour Connecticut.
Then there's the awkward matter of... the, pardon the expression, issues. Lamont beat Joe by being anti-war. But the most prominent AIPAC-drone War Democrat in the Senate is going to be campaigning for him? How's that going to play? "I disagree with Ned and agree with Joe on the most important issue of the day, but I still think you should vote for Ned."
Fudging the stark choices is, of course, a Clinton specialty, but this one will call for some real virtuosity. If anybody can do it, though, the Clintons can. They're the Paganinis of Fudge.
Comments (3)
A NY Times article yesterday says the Lamont campaign recognizes it now has to fine tune its message to the wider electorate in Connecticut (or maybe the Times is just saying that's what it thinks Lamont has to do.) Who better to help him fine tune (i.e. shift and empty of all content) his message than Bill and Hillary.
In their defense, I would say it's possible the whole party is in some process of changing its views, as it sees that the electorate supports a change. I'm not saying it is; just that it's possible.
Posted by bobw | August 18, 2006 12:33 PM
Posted on August 18, 2006 12:33
bobw writes:
" it's possible the whole party
is in some process of changing its views,"
indeed indeed
if by party u mean
its fearless leadership
the base has long since made the necessary changes
and moved away from the iraqupation
and if the base
keeps moving further towards peace
and adds a few more
program rip ups
in the safe and sleepy
party back pastures
like it did two weeks ago
in conn state .....
well
the top shelf may
be forced to put " re deploy "
into second gear
as always
with elecrtoral party scams
the bigs will appear to move
but only so far
and so fast.....
and the base forcing them to hurry
looks very bad
"there's after all
a proper
direction for cause and effect
and
this amounts to running
the show boat in reverse "
---------------
hey ain't
some fun here long over due ????
let us savour
the prospect
of
one huge
gruesome shameless avalanche
of undiluted opportunism
hitting the high mucks
up there in the dignitary seats
ain't it
just been a buildin and a buildin
for months now
rising higher and higher
ever closer
to that sudden moment
when
all at once
in a solid tumble
the whole stinking
lot of em burst forth
and roll in a run away stampede
all the way
down hill passed the base
and into the redeeming
waters of peace and love
like so many logs crashing
out of the front side
of
an overloaded wood bin
and into the river
on route to the saw mill
Posted by js paine | August 18, 2006 3:43 PM
Posted on August 18, 2006 15:43
Perhaps the Clintons are trying to stab him in the back with triangulation:
On one hand, they'll campaign for Lamont, but they'll do it in such a way that it puts him in a deeper hole than if they never got involved. This then would obligate him to either fight against what they're doing (which might turn people against him), or let them help sink him.
On the other hand, they then get to turn around and say that they campaigned for him to demonstrate how connected they are with voters sick of psychotics and sycophants (although the difference was never that large...), and try and put off in the minds of many the otherwise impending realization that the Clintons and all of their ilk care about one thing and one thing only: protecting their own against any potential interlopers-even if they're already rich like Lamont is.
Posted by DoubleHelix | August 19, 2006 2:40 AM
Posted on August 19, 2006 02:40