Sunday, March 16, 2008

On Hillary and her campaign

1. Ryan Wu lays it all out for you here. Basically, pre-campaign, Clinton and Obama were roughly equal. Then, Hillary runs one of the most dispiriting, scorched-earth primary campaigns we've seen, and Ryan's (and my) opinion of her takes a nosedive.

2. Michelle Goldberg on the bizarre turns that old-guard feminists have taken in this election. Shouldn't it actually be a victory for feminism that young women are evaluating Hillary (who, incidentally, wouldn't be in the running without her husband) based on her merits and not merely on "solidarity" because she's female?

3. Frank Rich writes on Hillary's "Audacity of Hopelessness" campaign.

4. All that being said, I can't agree with this sentiment here on Andrew Sullivan's blog. She's not a monster. She's a good politician who's running a terrible campaign. She's made the mistake of doing the Republicans' job for them, beating down the Democratic frontrunner instead of staying within the bounds of an in-party contest. She's said that the Republican nominee is more qualified than Obama in a desperate attempt to win at any cost. She's hurting the Democratic Party and she's hurting the Clintons' legacy, and she needs to stop.

But the commenter on Sullivan's blog (remember, he still claims to be conservative and doesn't really get the benefit of the doubt on sexism charges, anyway) wants to turn this into an uglier campaign than it already is, wishing to see Hillary win the nomination but lose in November merely to beat her down and teach her a lesson. The election in November has to be about repairing the damage done by George W. Bush and moving America toward a better future.

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