Hillary the destroyer
One way to take the measure of a person is to listen to what the person's enemies say about him or her. William Safire, a Republican and a columnist of The New York Times, once called the Clintons "congenital liars," who would cheat, say anything, do anything, and break any rule to have their way.
Candidate Bill Clinton received over 90% of African-American votes in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. Bill Clinton would not have survived his impeachment ordeal in 1998-1999 without the steadfast support of the blacks, the only community that solidly stood by him.
African-American columnists like Bob Herbert of The New York Times were Clinton's staunchest defenders in the media.
So, what does Bill Clinton do when his wife faces a serious African-American candidate in 2008? He compares Obama's victory in South Carolina to that of Jesse Jackson, who in the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns won less than 10% of white votes.
Just before the Pennsylvania primary last week, Bill Clinton claimed that the Obama campaign was playing the race card against him!
All this proved too much for South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, the highest ranking African American in Congress and an uncommitted superdelegate. Calling the Clintons' and their surrogates' tactics "bizarre," "disingenuous," and "scurrilous," he opined that the Clintons were "hell-bound" to damage Obama to such an an extent that he would be unelectable in November. This was doing irreparable damage to the relationship between the Clintons and the blacks, Clyburn complained.
The Clinton campaign's response was that the Republicans would come after Obama much harder than them. Really? Let's examine events closely.
Asked about Rev. Wright, presumptive Republican nominee, Senator McCain said that he knew Obama to be a decent person, who clearly did not share Rev. Wright's bigotry.
When former Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, a former preacher himself, was asked about Rev. Wright, he said that preachers said plenty of objectionable things, but they were not transferable to the members of the congregation.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, said: "Rev. Wright would not have been my pastor. We do not choose our relatives; but we choose our pastor. I would not have listened to Rev. Wright for twenty years; I would have left the church." Translation: Rev. Wright's views are transferrable to Obama.
The North Carolina Republication Party is running ads showing, on a split screen, a picture of Barack Obama and Rev. Wright together, while Rev. Wright spouts his venom.
Senator McCain and the Republican National Committee condemned the ad and asked the North Carolina Republican party not to run it. Asked to comment, the Hillary campaign remained silent. Translation: keep on running the Rev. Wright ad.
Asked to comment whether Obama was an "elitist," in light of the "bitter-gate," Senator McCain said "no." Hillary, on the other hand, was telling any Pennsylvanian who would listen that Obama was an "elitist," "out of touch" with average Americans, and that his comments were "condescending," "demeaning,"and "patronising."
Hillary had said that she and McCain would bring a lifetime of experience to the presidency while "Obama would bring a speech;" that she and McCain "had passed the commander-in-chief test," while Obama had not.
Bill Clinton said that it would be nice to see Hillary and McCain, "two candidates who love their country," go head to head in November, with a clear innuendo that Obama is not patriotic.
Republicans were not sure how to run against him. Now they are quite confident. They say they will use Hillary's playbook against Obama.
So, what is Hillary's end game? Hillary won Pennsylvania by 9.2%, not 10%. She won only 10 more pledged delegates than Obama. Currently, Obama leads by 135 total delegates (1,717 to 1,592) and by 156 among pledged delegates (1,489 to 1,333). The magic number is 2,024. The delegate math is against Hillary. She is not going to catch Obama.
Although the purpose of the primaries and caucuses is to select, through popular votes, pledged delegates, who along with superdelegates nominate a candidate; "pledged delegates" are dirty words to Hillary, she wants the superdelegates to overturn the voters' will by nominating a candidate perceived to be a better bet in November.
Although every poll shows that Obama beats McCain more handily than Hillary does in head to head contests, Hillary is convinced she is the better candidate. Chances are that at the end of the last primary and caucus in early June, Obama will lead in pledged delegates and in popular votes. But that will not dissuade Hillary.
Some believe that Hillary's real aim is to damage Obama to such an extent that he loses to McCain in November. Then Hillary, 64 in 2012, can run again. This is a good explanation, except that it is devoid of logic. If Hillary is responsible for Obama's defeat, Democrats will not turn to her in 2012.
The Republicans treat their candidates honourably. Although Ronald Reagan pushed President Gerald Ford to the convention before Ford was nominated in 1976, and many believe that it contributed to Ford's defeat, Reagan was nominted four years later.
Republicans reward loyalty. 1996 was Bob Dole's turn; this year it is John McCain's, the candidate George W. Bush defeated in 2000.
Democrats, on the other hand, are merciless to losers and party crashers. The last person Democrats nominated a presidential loser was Adlai Stevenson, who lost to Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. Since then, Hubert Humphrey (1968), George McGovern (1972), Walter Mondale (1984), Al Gore (2000) and John Kerry (2004) were allowed to lose only once.
Party wreckers like Ted Kennedy, who challenged sitting President Carter in 1980 into the convention, never ran again. If Hillary is to make a comeback, she must not wreck her party's chances in 2008.
According to Maureen Dowd of The New York Times, Hillary, looking rosy-cheeked like a vampire, seems to have sucked the blood out of a wan and listless Obama. Having done damage to Obama, for her own sake and for the sake of the party, Dowd advises Hillary "to go away" now.
Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is a Rhodes Scholar and a Daily Star columnist.
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