Going Downhillary

The Notebook post made me realize that there was more I wanted to get off my chest regarding Ms. Clinton. I have nothing against her personally. If, by some miracle, she gets the nom she will also get my vote come November, as I am not hanging the next four years on somebody with serious emotional control issues, like The Hero™. I will vote, however, with my free hand holding my nose.

The Clinton campaign will be looked back upon in years to come as the biggest disaster in modern politics. How a candidate that was easily a shoo-in a year ago could have collapsed this badly is beyond belief. It has been a series of blunders, errors, and mismanagement that would be hysterical if it weren't such a serious contest. She may well have been the unfortunate victim of timing and an opponent who appears to walk on water. As one conservative put it, expressing genuine sympathy for her plight, "She's interviewing for the job and Obama's already dating the boss." But most of her problems are of her own making.

When it came out this week that some of her staff were foregoing pay the first thing that came to my mind was, good; for the work they've been doing, they shouldn't be getting paid at all. The number of opportunities to salvage her campaign that have been squandered is amazing but the finest example may have been right before Super Tuesday. With Bill off running his mouth and treating Obama like a deluded and bratty upstart, the media started questioning the former President's tactics and decorum. In a debate that week, Hillary got a question about her husband's methods. She said that he was supporting her in his way and that, like Obama's, her spouse was standing by her, campaigning for her, committed to her. I emphasize committed because it had connotations; connotations that every single person in the country choked on. It was the wrong word because it was bullshit. Whatever qualities Bill Clinton may bring to mind, committed to his spouse isn't one of them. Her answer resembled that of an enabler defending a mate unable to keep his shit together; defending him even when that shit is raining down on her.

The opportunity for her at that moment was clear. She should have responded with a simple and radical tactic. What she should have said was, "My husband supports me as any spouse would. But he has said and done some things of late that I do not approve of and I have asked him to put a stop to it. I have also asked him to back away from my campaign as a result. His private support remains very important to me, perhaps even more than his public support. But if elected, I alone will be president, not my husband and, of that, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind."

With that simple statement she would have...

• Gotten the media off her back about the issue.
• Solidified her support from the women (and some men) who always felt she gave him a pass as regards his infidelity.
• Distanced herself and her potential administration enough from Bill's to ease some doubts of middle-of-the-roaders who are otherwise antagonistic to another Clinton White House.
• Stolen Obama's thunder.
• Allowed more focus on her plans rather than his past.

It may not have rescued the campaign, but it could've staunched the bleeding. It would have created some domestic issues in the Clinton house but, really, do we imagine they're a dream couple? They've remained married for political expediency and not much more. If it didn't make him happy, at least the politician in him would have understood. Throwing him under the bus might have cost her some votes but not as many as she would've gained. At one point I even suspected that his out of school comments were nothing but a set-up for this exact scenario, but I decided he wasn't man enough to take a hit for his wife like that.

I wouldn't have voted for her even if she had seen the light I just pointed out. Her campaign, and her potential presidency, lack vision and without that there really isn't anything but poll politics. But a lot of others might have jumped on her bandwagon or at least not abandoned it, perhaps enough to have saved some primaries and ultimately, her candidacy. The what-to-do-about-Bill debacle was just one failure among many in her sad collapse; one more thing for which Bill owes her an apology. The campaign won't be salvaged now, but it might have been then.