When George Bush predicted Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for President, he wasn’t just tipping his hat to her campaign prowess, or her unassailable plans to fix healthcare, Iraq, and any other number of societal ills. He was voicing the hopes of Republicans who share the vision of retaining the executive seat in the White House. One might even say he was trying to conjure her nomination into being. After all, no matter how many lies this administration tells, nor how dangerous the lies are, the sheeple still assemble to graze on the fetid crumbs that lead straight to Bush. If he predicted Mickey Mouse would be the nominee, shares in Disney stock would skyrocket. When most early polls predicted an eventual Clinton smackdown of Obama, many Republicans were ecstatic. Watching the current inter-Democratic bickering must have them buying new underwear by the case.
Nothing is quite as entertaining as reading news jockeys’ creative interpretations of even more creatively scripted campaign rhetoric. Whatever meaning lurks in the flighty banter that Obama, Clinton, and their respective supporters have exchanged, the press is sure to exacerbate the matter. In much the same way the rabid news corps wrongly built up Obama’s preordained New Hampshire win, mainstream journalists have now focused on the flap over race and Obama’s prior drug use. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next AP headline simply recited the often heard chant from my childhood, “A Fight, A Fight, A Nigger and a White”.
As I was finalizing this post, I noticed headlines stating that Obama and Clinton were backing away from the divisive posturing the media has focused on for the past few days. If either of them or any other Democrat hopes to win this election, they need to continue the detente. They’ve both tapped into a wide and deep dissatisfaction with the status quo in government. Basing a campaign around change can be a positive thing. But the last seven years have shown that merely changing the race (Powell), ethnicity (Gonzales), and sex (Rice) of the players isn’t enough. Democrats need to focus on the issues; corporate media and Republicans are the only winners in these trite arguments about race and prior drug use. Kudos to Obama for beginning the drawdown. The real fight has just begun and it’s going to be tedious enough without these petty distractions.