Old News is Good News

So, I had a few emails come in yesterday that were pretty insistent that I weigh in on that Eliot Spitzer story. That’s the one about the NY state governor who got caught in a call girl sting operation. Another “surprise” investigation of a Democrat governor (shades of Alabama) by a GOP controlled Department of Justice that has been in the headlines in the last couple years for politicizing the legal system.

To me, it’s a clear case of an idiot with his own money, blowing some of it on a hooker while on a business trip. Nothing spectacular, except for the fact that he’s the guy who ran through Wall Street like the Black Death, and then turned that holocaust into a political step ladder into the top Executive Branch slot in the state that hosts this vaunted boulevard of every capitalist’s wet dream of ultimate financial windfall.

I considered it all: a Democrat leader of the Executive Branch, caught diddling on his wife as a result of an unrelated investigation, with calls from a GOP controlled legislature for his resignation under threat of impending impeachment, as a nation holds its breath.

It sounded pretty familiar. Only, the last time I got caught up in it, there was a president involved, and the stakes were a lot higher than this time around. I also liked the last guy a lot more than this repugnant little headhunting fast-tracker. In fact, this greaseball has at least as much blood on his hands as anyone gunning for him right now. To me, it’s like a mob war hit. Just so long as the shooting doesn’t take out any innocents, I’m all for letting these crooks work this one out for themselves.

Besides the obvious fact of the Wall Street overlords’ use of the federal Justice Department, once again, as their private assassination squad, I’m not moved at all by any of this. The bastard wined and dined some prostitute while out of town, on Valentine’s Day no less, and then has the nerve to make his wife stand next to him on the podium as he pretends to be ashamed of himself for what he did. I don’t like guys who betray their wives. I don’t trust guys who betray their wives. I don’t want guys who betray their wives making big decisions about the rest of us , who they have also sworn to love, honor and obey. I am tired of also being betrayed by those guys. One less is no loss.

So, in essence, the Eliot Spitzer story is only a story if you are Eliot Spitzer, or one of the Wall Street aristocracy that has hired the DOJ to run him down liken the dog he apparently is. I guess it’s a story if you are married to the creep as well. Which I’m not. So, forget that circus.

This is what I really want to discuss.

I had an epiphany this morning. This was after yesterday’s gut churning revelation that the Clinton campaign had gone from pulling out the Karl Rove “fear” playbook, to reaching into Strom Thurmond’s grave for the vile segregationist’s manual that even Ol’ Strom had tossed in there years before he was slipped in as a reformed man, a guy who had come to realize the evil of diminishing people due to the color of their skin.

I actually had, what I hope to be, a realization concerning Geraldine Ferraro’s unbelievable statement to the Daily Breeze of Torrance, CA;

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

This was followed by Hillary’s “sort of” rejection of her campaign fund-raiser’s repugnant suggestion that Barack Obama is running to be our first

“Affirmative Action” hire in the Oval Office: “I do not agree with that,” and later adding, “It’s regrettable that any of our supporters — on both sides, because we both have this experience — say things that kind of veer off into the personal. We ought to keep this on the issues. there are differences between us” on approaches to health care, energy, experience.

I must admit that Hillary’s lack of real focus on the behavior of Ferraro in her statement, said more to me than I wanted it to say, and certainly more than I expected it to say. In fact, what it did say to me – loud and clear – was that the Ferraro comments were likely no surprise to Hillary or the campaign itself. Especially considering the fact that Geraldine has since become absolutely unapologetic in subsequent statements, further drawing the comparison between Barack Obama and that legendary black guy or gal that every white person has heard of that got his/her job due to racial quotas and was unable to perform in that job.

I guess that you can say anything you like if your political career is long over and all you have to do is deal with the politics of the boardroom, where there aren’t as many people concerned about the “niceties” of human decency.

Oh, and Hillary hasn’t asked Geraldine to lose her cell number over any of this either. I find that fascinating considering how loud the calls were for Obama to can that unpaid foreign policy professor after she called Hillary “a monster” during an “of the record” segment of an interview with a Scottish journalist who was initially focusing on the woman’s recent book. So, one woman calling another woman “a monster” is more odious than the first woman to ever run on a presidential ticket calling the truly viable black presidential contender a racial quota hire? What year is this anyway? I look outside and the cars in the street sure appear to belong to 2008. It’s like one of those Rod Serling things. I’m waiting for the clarification, and it just doesn’t seem to be forthcoming.

But then, this morning, it hit me. Of course. It all makes sense now. This must be what it’s all about. I believe I’ve finally figured out why all of this bizarre foolishness is playing through the DNC primary contest. I think I have uncovered the brilliant and amazingly selfless charade being perpetuated by the Clinton campaign as it becomes increasingly more obvious that it can’t ever succeed in placing Senator Clinton into the presidency this time around. I’m kind of excited about this, to be honest. It renews my faith in humanity, and gives me just the kind of enthusiasm that I needed to keep working on bringing a few more people around to a more sane and reasonable point of perspective.

I’m pretty worked up here, but I’ll try to stay focused and hit all the highlights.

So, whenever an issue is brought up in any campaign, and if that issue is either directly or indirectly related to an issue that was properly fleshed out previously in that same campaign, the candidate in question has the right to say “That’s old news” and to expect that all involved will pull away from that specific issue and move along. This has been the “Old News” rule since I can recall there being political campaign issues – which stretches back to the days of Nixon/Agnew v Humphrey/Muskie and all that cool news footage of riots in Chicago over stuff I had no concern over as a pre-teen rockstar wannabe.

In fact, the “Old News” rule has saved many politicians’ bacon over the years, even when it wasn’t entirely applicable. It’s a pretty potent get-outa-trouble-free card due to the fact that every politician knows that there may come a day when it will be a card that they’ll need for themselves, so no one wants that card tossed from the game. It taketh, but it giveth at such a healthy return that no pol haseth the guts to taketh it away from any other pol who decides their latest-eth chicanery is covered by the saving grace of the “Old News” rule.

So, I’m seeing a variation of the “Old News” rule being played out here in the DNC primary, and if I’m right, Hillary is giving Barack Obama the get-outa-trouble-free card before he heads into the general election campaign with the masters of sleaze – the Grand Old Party.

I mean, it has to be what’s going on here. Turning all these issues about Obama’s race, assumed inexperience, NAFTA posturing, “Muslimness”, fear mongering, – the entire GOP handbook – even the bombshell “Affirmative Action” quota set-aside proposition, into “Old News” in a relatively safe political environment where no DNC candidate will be denied the White House over it’s introduction in a “live play” scenario is sheer genius, and given the memory cycle of the American public, none of it should impact Hillary beyond this time next year.

It certainly couldn’t be what it appears to be. Hillary doesn’t really strike me as the kind of person who would blow her political head off with a shotgun just to get her gore all over Barack’s suit, as if making him dry-clean her mess is somehow getting even with him for beating her in a head-to-head contest. I could see that happening between two alcoholic lovers lost in a fit of powerless rage with one another, and both had once been the kinds of teenagers that had that annoying habit of “playing songs at each other” when they were pissed, while the rest of us kids tried our best to ignore their embarrassingly maudlin drama. God, remember those couples? ugh.

No, Hillary has been in the political world far too long to be pulling a Britney Spears on us, over losing this first bid for her husband’s old job. Seriously, what could she possibly say to justify such childish behavior, while claiming to have the relax and even temperament required to steer the largest ship of state in the world?

Nope. I’m not buying into this whole weirdo drama. This last volley of crap has finally revealed it all for what it must be, a self-sacrifice on the part of Hillary Clinton to insulate Barack Obama from the kinds of ugly accusations and suggestions that are going to be part and parcel of the Republican attack strategy in the fall. This is also why she refuses to conceded defeat after it has become numerically impossible for her to catch Obama for the nomination. As long as she stays in, the McCain forces will stay away and let the two Democrats feed on each other. The truth just may be, however, that this feeding is forced, and the results may be a much stronger and much more Teflon-coated Barack Obama heading into the November election.

I’m really seeing this as a coordinated effort introduce everything that the GOP has gathered and ready for this first African-American presidential candidate, and turn it all into “Old News”, thereby blunt it all in the minds of the American public well before the GOP gets a shot with it. In fact, by the time Barack launches from the DNC convention and into the final stretch, it’ll seem like the GOP is working Hillary’s campaign playbook, and even the hard-Right will smell the stink of Clinton on all of it. Nothing turns GOP stomachs like Clinton stink. I’ll be interested to see how they react to being likened to Hillary and Bill as they reach in that bucket for the same tools that they watched those two use against Obama to no avail. The term “damaged goods” comes to mind as I picture the first Rovian race/fear burst launched from a 527 group. None of it will have the impact it could’ve had if it had been allowed to be launched fresh. The 10th cookie is never as good as the 1st cookie. That’s just the way it is.

I suggested this all to my wife, and she looked at me as if I had two heads. “The Clintons aren’t that strategic,” she said. “No one is that strategic.

“To which I replied, “Well then, maybe I need to get myself one of those 7 figure campaign strategy jobs, because this seems like a no-brainer to me.

“The truth is that Hillary, if she’s not actually trying to insulate Obama’s general campaign run, after hitting that tipping point where she knows it’s just not going to happen for her, then she’s acting absolutely irrational in this swan dive strategy she’s launched. Scorched earth is always a possibility, but with all that the Clintons have endured since the spring of 1992, I just don’t see these two having the lack of control, or the tragically myopic political view,to allow her campaign to devolve as it has without a very serious reason behind all of it. Bill didn’t get to be president because he was an idiot, and he’s got some say in this campaign his wife is waging.

The bottom line is that Barack Obama needs for all for this to be labeled “Old News” by the national media, and in the same manner that it’s always labeled issues like this that have been hashed out to death in previous scenarios as “Old News.” He’s poised to be the Democratic nominee, and there appears to be no sane scenario that can deny him that nomination. As DNC party heavyweights, it is critical that the Clintons do their part to ensure his success in the fall, and by lengthening the primary campaign’s public vetting of Barack Obama, and by airing out every possible issue that the GOP can bring up in the fall, turning each one into “Old News”, Barack Obama stands to gain a resilience that would have been impossible if he’d not been thoroughly tested prior to taking a run at the Republican hate machine that’s ready to attack as soon as Hillary folds her hand.

So, I’m feeling pretty good here about all of this. I firmly believe that there are grownups that are getting ready to take back the Oval Office and that we have a good shot at turning things around (to the extent that any of it can actually be turned around after the last 7 years). I can finally make some sense of what’s seemed to me to be a complete nightmare of hate and reckless childishness. It’s all clear to me now. Like debate prep, the DNC is pretending to be the GOP and Barack is getting his practice in as a political slime target, while blunting the effectiveness that “new” news has in these sorts of contests that involve the visceral reactions of regular folks just trying to make sense of what they’re hearing and seeing for the first time.

Politics 101. Just make it “Old News” and half the battle is over.

I think I’m going to enjoy the rest of this. Especially, now that I know how it all ends.