A Pilgrim’s Digression

If there was ever any doubt that Obama is finished, the Guam caucus on Saturday sealed the coffin, as far as I am concerned. Obama won by just seven votes.

“But he won!” My wife replied, finding herself in the odd position of defending a man I once believed would be the next President.

“It should have been a blowout,” I said.

If the man can’t soundly trounce Clinton in a Pacific Island caucus, I seriously doubt he is going to have a good showing in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries tomorrow. For whatever reason, Obama could not seal the deal when he had the chance, and now it’s too late. Once cracked, the egg cannot be put back together again.

Even setting aside all the negative press Obama has gotten over the past week, he seems to be doing nothing to rehabilitate himself, instead sitting on his illusory delegate count lead as if the nomination were a sure thing. He doesn’t know it yet, but the only Presidential ticket in his future is one that holds a place for him in a guided tour of the next Clinton White House.

One thing I read this weekend that has stuck in my mind was an article over at The Politico, “What Obama wishes he could say.” Although the article means to praise Obama for his restraint in attacking Clinton, what the article proves to me is that Obama doesn’t have what it takes to run against McCain.

If he isn’t willing to bring up Clinton’s unsavory associations with characters such as Webb Hubbell, or even her own brothers, who made quite a bit of money lobbying their brother-in-law for Presidential pardons for felons, then how can Obama hope to defeat John McCain in November?

And then, as the article states near the end, Obama practically apologizes for some of the negative advertising his campaign has ran in the past couple weeks? Nope. This guy can’t cut it.

There is a sense in which his refusal to engage in mud-slinging and personal attacks sounds almost out of touch with reality. Negative tactics work. How can he not see it? Negative tactics, such as guilt by association and false rumors of his lack of patriotism, have all but smothered his candidacy in its cradle. Yet he refuses to acknowledge that a little negative campaigning of his own might help him.

He looks weak. He doesn’t look like a fighter; he doesn’t act like a fighter. What he looks like to millions of Americans is someone who stands on a pedestal in the middle of a pig pen and declares himself “above” wrestling in the mud with the other hogs. Meanwhile, his pants legs are so muddy from the splashback he might as well be in the wallow with them.

This really is Clinton’s moment to shine. While Obama appears scared even to debate her, she swallows her distaste and goes on Fox, granting an interview to Bill O’Reilly in which she glows with good humor and seems downright thrilled at the back and forth of debate with O’Reilly. There is no mud on her “pretty in pink” pantsuit. That’s the beauty of the Clinton operation. They wrestle with the hogs and come out clean as a baby from the bath.

The thing that makes Clinton such a great nominee, and probably unbeatable in the Fall, is that whatever negative thing the Republicans throw at her won’t matter. Republicans will call her a liar—we already know that! Republicans will call her a hypocrite because she is a multimillionaire masquerading as a granddaughter of a factory worker—we know she is a hypocrite. Republicans will bring up all the shady dealings in her past, and none of it will matter because we already know that Hillary Clinton is dishonest in every way.

There is nothing negative we can be told about Clinton that we don’t already know. We know that she remains married to her dog of a husband out of political expediency. We know she has made her fortune via unscrupulous methods. We know that for the eight years she and her husband controlled the White House, Americans were given nothing that the Clintons promised them in terms of universal health care or relaxation of the anti-gay military policies, just to point out a few of the broken promises.

Nothing can affect Clinton’s image. For more than eight years, Republicans unloaded their entire arsenal against the Clintons. Eight years, during which Clinton was elected once, then reelected, then was impeached but expelled from office. These two Clintons are tough, damn near unbeatable. Democrats would be fools to choose anyone else as the nominee, especially someone like Obama, whose image has been turned around from a rock star to that of an effete, haughty Ivy League liberal.

Tomorrow may be the “tie breaker” Obama is hopeful for. He probably should be careful what he wishes for, though. It is highly likely that it will be him that ends the day tomorrow irreparably broken.