Last week was officially the moment that the race for the Democratic
nomination slipped through the looking glass into surrealism. Here is a
brief list of those people who are now actively supporting Hillary Clinton’s
candidacy: Pat Buchanan, a charming man slightly to the right of Genghis
Khan; Rush Limbaugh, the most voluble and incendiary of right-wing talk-show
hosts; Richard Mellon Scaife, the media mogul who financed the virulently
antiClinton crusades of the 1990s; and, if you read between the lines, even
Karl Rove, the “architect” of the past decade or so of Republican dominance
in electoral politics.
Am I hallucinating? I promise you I’m not. The merging of the forces that once
persecuted the Clintons with the Clinton campaign itself has been a wonder
to behold. Some on the once solidly anti-Clinton right have even been
directly urging people to register as Democrats to vote for her.
Limbaugh began his pro-Clinton campaign when Ohio and Texas were at stake.
Last Wednesday he claimed success in getting enough Republicans to vote for
Clinton in Pennsylvania to keep her candidacy alive. Limbaugh calls his
initiative Operation Chaos. “Were it not for Operation Chaos, [Barack] Obama
could win this by winning the primary process. But he can’t now,” he bragged
last week. Yes, this is the same Limbaugh who rose to fame hawking
White-water and Lewinsky for eight years. Now he wants to save the couple he
once wanted to impeach.
Or take Rove. In a brilliant opinion piece last week in The Wall Street
Journal he insisted Obama could not win white ethnic voters in the autumn,
and he even endorsed one of the Clinton campaign’s least persuasive
arguments: that the votes in the Michigan and Florida primaries – deemed
illegitimate by party bosses ahead of time because the states broke the
rules by scheduling their primaries out of order – should be counted in the
popular vote tally.
I don’t know anyone outside Clinton’s inner circle who actually believes that
those states’ decision to violate the rules (and her choice to put her name
on the illegitimate Michigan ballot) should now count retroactively in her
favour. But Rove now does – and is clearly doing what he can to legitimise
Clinton’s only chance of winning the nomination.
You have to pinch yourself as Buchanan – the former senior adviser to
Presidents Nixon, Ford and Rea-gan, and a man who clearly believes John
McCain is a flaming liberal – all but endorses Clinton night after night on
television. Buchanan’s rationale: “Obama cannot concede that the anger of
white America – that its right to equal justice has been sacrificed to salve
the consciences of guilt-besotted liberals – is a legitimate anger.”
Meanwhile we witnessed another surreal inversion. Last Tuesday night Terry
McAuliffe, the Clintons’ money man, appeared on a network that many
Democrats view as anathema and said: “Let me congratulate Fox [the TV
network], because you were the first to call it for Hillary Clinton. Fair
and balanced Fox: you beat them all.” Fox is now using the Clinton spokesman
as part of an ad promo.
The icing on the cake was the endorsement of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
owned by Scaife, the man who bankrolled the impeachment of Bill Clinton in
the 1990s. Hillary even sat down with Scaife for a fawning interview. His
paper concluded: “Clinton’s decision to sit down with the Trib was
courageous, given our long-standing criticism of her . . . Political courage
is essential in a president. Clinton has demonstrated it; Obama has not. She
has a real record. He doesn’t. She has experience of value to a president.
He doesn’t.”
The Clintons are pragmatists, to put it kindly, when it comes to advancing
their own interests and have long played the politics of “the enemy of my
enemy is my friend”. It’s also indisputable that Obama gave them a gift with
his unforced error about “bitter” Pennsylvania voters.
The shrewd and subtle invocation of racial tropes against Obama is also
something that these Arkansan operators know well. One recalls that Bill
Clinton interrupted his primary campaign in 1992 to return to Arkansas to
preside over the execution of a mentally retarded black man. He was a master
at bonding with African-Ameri-cans while signalling to white voters that he
was also a Bubba underneath.
This time, after telling North Carolina voters last week that a black
candidate doesn’t care about “people like you”, he has allowed Bubba to
become the public face. His wife’s emergence in Pennsylvania as a tribune of
the white working classes is part of the Clintons’, er, flexibility.
But what explains the Republicans’ sudden love for the Clintons is a little
less obvious than the reasons for the Clintons’ sudden love for them. On
paper, there is no actual policy difference to speak of between Obama and
Hillary Clinton. Their one main disagreement is on healthcare mandates – and
on that question, Obama is, if anything, slightly to Clinton’s right.
What’s going on, I think, is a classic bluff – as well as a simple desire to
keep the Democrats’ agony going. Yes, Obama does have obvious problems
winning over older and whiter voters in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
His recent sub-par performances have not helped. But in a hypothetical
contest between McCain and Clinton, the very forces that help keep Clinton
ahead among these voters in the primaries would aid McCain against Clinton
in the general election. McCain’s a Scots-Irish Vietnam vet with an
independent streak. He should beat her easily in this demographic.
If, however, Clinton becomes the nominee by wrestling superdelegates away from
Obama at the convention (which, barring a catastrophe, is the only way she
can do it), McCain’s advantages grow even more.
The Democrats led by Clinton would haemorrhage desperately needed black votes
and young votes. All the new money, new votes and new enthusiasm that Obama
has brought into his party would not just disappear; the new voters would be
actively enraged, sit out the election or even vote for McCain.
For all these reasons, the Republicans know that Clinton is still one of their
key assets. That’s why they have a sudden, new-found love for her. Obama
scrambles politics in ways they do not fully understand yet, and profoundly
fear. Endorsing Clinton’s attempt to redefine him as an elitist, leftist
snob is win-win for them.
If Clinton prevails, they know how to beat her. If she loses, she will have
legitimised a main Republican line of attack against Obama. It’s not that
hard to understand. And it’s even more intelligible when you absorb a simple
fact. Beneath the headlines about suicidal Democrats, there is a sobering
reality for the Republicans in the current polling.
Even now – as the Democrats are tearing themselves apart – the polls are still
showing that McCain and Obama are all but tied in the national vote. In a
swing state such as Minne-sota, Obama actually has a 14-point lead over
McCain, as of last Thursday.
The death match is now. And the Clintons and the Republicans need all the
mutual support they can muster.
Why was no one complaining back when the Republican machine SUPPORTED Obama as a way of derailing Hillary? The main reason he has the lead he does is because talk radio -- Hannity, etc. -- urged independents and Republicans, where there were open primaries, to go out and vote against Clinton.
Adam, Clearwater, FL, USA
I like your suggestion, Robert; and I have wondered why he hasn't already done it.
Assume that HIS opponent in the fall will be McCain and posture himself to beat McCain.
Mike, Louisville, USA
It's not surprising that Scaife would reach out to Hillary. Like Rush Limblah and his ilk, he would love to see her get the nomination. The right has been waiting for Hillary to run for President for a long time. They have all the hate mongering, name calling and distortions all ready to go. Not to mention that she's helping to turn Democrats against each other. Hillary indeed will do ANYTHING to get the nomination!
George Arndt, Norwalk, USA
Tim from Leeds: It's a swing-state this year if the matchup is McCain vs. Clinton.
Tony, Durham,
It has been often said, but it is so true: Hillary Clinton & Co. will do anything, say anything, partner with anyone to secure this nomination. She is growing increasingly desperate, which makes her more dangerous.
IN & NC voters: Please end this charade. The world is watching.
Susan, PA, USA
Mr. Sullivan writes well and makes good points but he has no more interest in Obama getting elected than the right-wingers we writes about. Like Limbaugh he is choosing a Democratic nominee for the primary but will switch over to McCain for the general election.
Michael Fisher, Tampa, FL, US
You democrats don't get it. The Reps will vote for Hillary- 1000's of them-just to break the glass ceiling. They don't want a woman to be the last to be president as they were last to get the vote. So, Hillary or McCain gets these votes. Take it or leave it. Obama is too liberal to get them.
Bev, Chicago, US
The Republicans would love nothing better than to be able to run against putting Billary back in the White House. The fact that the Clintons got away with his scandalous behavior the first time was bad enough. Should they now be rewarded with a return to the presidency? They know how this is so disturbing to so many Americans that it could help even a weak candidate like McCain win.
Obama's tactical problem is that he simply cannot say this, because too many Democrats are too invested in the view that the Moncia-Whitewater business was the right-wing conspiracy's war against all the rest of us. That's true, of course, but how does that excuse the president hitting on a young female intern in the White House and then lying repeatedly about it to the nation?
P.S. Of course Minnesota is a swing state. It's been getting closer and closer over recent presidential elections.
Bill, Beijing, China
Guess Andy (who supported Kerry) is banking on Obama supporting gay marriage.
Joe, nYC, NY, USA
What? Minnesota is not a swing state. It has voted Democrat in every election since 1972.
Tim, Leeds, UK
Unlike the Clintons, the problem with Obama is his inability to simulate regularness. Unlike most European countries, you have to be fake to win an election in the USA.... Yep, despite all the lies and pretense, Hillary Clinton is still standing! Majority of Americans are just very gullible....
Biyio, Memphis TN, USA
.....All you need to do is to feed them with a little bit of lies, a small portion of racism, and bombard them with hollow TV shows, and unintelligent political analysts. Gullibility is what makes American to listen/watch nincompoop like Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough etc
Biyio, Memphis TN, USA
Awesomely true, what Sullivan says here. Obama's own emphasis on his race will be his undoing. If he wins, it will be blamed on his fanatical bloc of black voters, which he swings by 90%. If he loses, it will be blamed on them as well, and either way, this will totally turn everyone else off.
J Cline, Seattle,
Americans arnt happy with ANY of the choices Every Democrat and Republican i talk to says the same thing: we are sick of the world and want to take care of our own people and stop exporting our jobs and giving away our tax dollars. Both parties are just as bad about that. Are we to keep quiet?
William Carson, Atlanta, USA
re democratic chaos: NOT-- more new voters are registering than ever. The process may be seemingly chaotic, but at each primary, organization is being established that will help in November. New registrations, new donors, new people with yard signs for the first time.
Jonathan, Santa Cruz, USA
This is beyond SURREAL. In what should be a slam dunk year for the Dems..., it has turned into utter kaos. But that is the way they operate, on emotion not fact and principle. mcCain looks ever more Presidential and a world leader.
Jay, L.A., U.S.A.
Republicans are laughing at the chaos, because Dems and their voters have shown over and over how stupid they are - any party who nominates stiffs like McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry deserves to lose, and they get their butts whipped every 4 years, don't they? They will never learn.....
rob, brussels,
One of the reasons why the Clintons continue to fight Obama, even theough they know he would be the Democratic nominee, is because after they damaged him so hard McCain will win the election.
Mcain has said he will be a one term president leaving 2012 open for Hillary.
Karlo, Bowie, USA
well, maybe somebody should teach the democrats how to run a presidential campaign. they don't seem able to figure it out for themselves. comedians are also pulling for godzillary. she's two-thirds of my act. she'd be the greatest president since nixon.
tommy jonq, carbondale, usa
Barack Obama just doesn't have enough substance to win it all,
while a great speaker, he has been really slow to touch the real economic issues hitting this country...inflation has destroyed the
modern economic system...chicago board of exchange, wall street and main street all reeling ...
scott alden stabler, bellevue, wa
I have to agree with this assessment by Andrew Sullivan. Billary and HillBilly are in pursuit of power, and nothing will stand in their way, definitely NOT ethics or morality. Never has, so why would they start now. The Red-Neck Nutters have never let it stand in their way either.
Dazza Perrett, Roma, Australia.
Hillary has morphed into the monster her enemies claimed her to be during the '90's. Let's stop fretting about the slime the right wing trolls will throw at any Democratic nominee, and consider: Do we really want a candidate as vicious as Scaife, machiavellian as Rove, and demented as Limbaugh?
Linnea, Kent, Ohio
Finally, an analysis that actually shows the true elements behind the Clinton campaign. Her win in Pa was tainted by her negativity in which she actually lost up to 15 points in less than a month. I look forward to McCain vs Obama, at least McCain has declared attacks through association off limits.
Othello, columbus,
If Mr. Sullivan could be bothered to actually listen to US conservatives instead of catcalling them, they would tell him the answer he desperately is grasping for. Conservatives are simply helping the Dems to self-destruct. Both of those truly incompetent and wildly narcisstic candidates deserve it!
Barry Aronoff, San Francisco , US
When dyed-in-the-wool Republicans back Hillary, it is indeed suspicious. If she gets the nomination, they can just reverse their opinions. They must see Obama as the real threat.
margie , victoria, australia
I am repulsed by the parade of stupid republicans, mentioned above, who sing her praises. If she steals the nomination, she will whip McCain like a rented mule. The country loses big time and those dopes will never get it until it is too late.
Tom Greene, Winnetka , UA
This is why many of us life long democrats have been saying the Clintons "win at all costs with their ruthlessness" will cost us the Elections. They are playing right into the Republicans hands. And, I for one will not vote for the Clintons. they are too self serving and full of themselves.
Unci, Rapid City, USA
Excellent comment by Andrew Sullivan. We might add the very negative rating of Hillary's personality in comparison to Obama and McCain. Hillary is unellectable, in particular as Billary with the baggage of Bills repeated racist remarks.
Bertram, Nanaimo, Canada
Look, all Obama has to do is to just ignore Mrs. Clinton. Lets not mention her at all on any t.v. ads or on his speeches. Lets focus our attention on McCain from now till the Nov. election. He needs to spend his money on getting ready to win the general electiion
robert, los angeles, usa
Very simplistic way to buy the movie plot the Obama side has sold to the simpletons over here in the states - congratulations.
Rex, Madison, USA