Hillary Clinton Continues Negative Campaign

There’s been speculation now that pretty much everyone realizes that the race is over and Obama has won the nomination that Hillary Clinton would at least drop the negative campaigning if she remained in the race. Clinton sure has proven those who believed that to be wrong. She launched another negative and misleading attack against Obama today:

You’ve got to have a seamless health care system which covers every single person. My plan does, my opponent’s doesn’t…. How can anyone run to be the Democratic nominee and not have a universal health care plan?

Let’s see. Obama’s plan includes everyone except those who voluntarily do not want to be included. That’s called choice–what Democrats support on issues such as abortion and should support on private economic matters. As for running for the Democratic nominee, Obama’s plan is more universal than John Kerry’s plan in 2004. It is also more universal than the plans of John Edwards, Howard Dean, and pretty much all the other candidates other than Dennis Kucinich.

I have a better question. How can anyone run to be the Democratic nominee and not have opposed the Iraq war before it began? Anyone who made this big a blunder on the biggest foreign policy decision in many years has no business running to be president, at least as a Democrat. (Note I’m stipulating before the war began. I forgave John Kerry for voting for the IWR as he made it clear at the time of the vote that he did not consider it a vote to go to war, and he came out against the war well before it started. Hillary Clinton has also used John Kerry’s arguments except it doesn’t count when she didn’t make them until well after the war started and it was the politically safe position to take.)

Wesley Crusher Fires Photon Torpedos At Hillary Clinton

Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation–yeah I know, blame the writers for the character; Wil was just the young actor who wound up playing him) does not like Hillary Clinton. He writes:

The thing about all of this is that, with a Clinton victory in the primary about as likely as jumping off the roof of your house and landing on the moon, it’s become clear that this whole thing isn’t about Democrats or beating McCain (who is inexplicably running for Bush’s third term) or saving our country from the catastrophic failure of the Bush years. No, it’s all about her. It’s about her ego. It’s about refusing to admit that she did her best, but voters (except those encouraged by Rush Limbaugh to cross party lines and fuck with our primary) have pretty clearly said “No thanks. You’re a good senator, but we want something different now.”

It’s been crystal clear for weeks, yet she refuses to put party and country over personal ambition and drop out of the race, forcing Barack Obama to not only run against McCain and the Media, but also against her. It’s particularly galling, because she can only win if her campaign can force Democratic superdelegates (one of the worst creations in the history of politics) to tell millions of Democratic voters — many of them first time voters who, like me, finally feel truly inspired by someone — to go fuck themselves.

It’s driving me crazy, and I hope that someone sits her down with a calculator so she’ll make this primary that is just strengthening McCain — who, I feel obligated to point out again, is running for Bush’s third term. That would be George W. Bush, the most universally hated president in American history.

Along these lines of someone who refuses to quit when it is over, Wil links to the following characterization of her as Hillary Clinton: The Psycho Ex-Girlfriend of the Democratic Party:

Despite all the math counting her out, Hillary Clinton fervently remains in the race to become the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. She has become the Democratic Party’s psycho ex-girlfriend, and she’s not going away without a restraining order.

It’s 2:31 AM. The Democratic Party is sleeping peacefully when it hears its phone buzz on the night stand. It rolls over and sees “Hillary” on the caller ID. It pauses briefly, considering pushing “END” and not dealing with this shit tonight. The thought is appealing but the Democratic Party knows that if it doesn’t take this call, another one is only minutes away.

DEMS: …Hello?

Hillary: Hey baby.

DEMS: C’mon Hillary. Enough with this.

Hillary: Don’t you get it? You NEED me.

DEMS: No, I don’t. It was fun while it lasted but I’m with Barack now. I made my choice, it’s done.

Hillary: You can’t really mean that. How can you say that after all the good times we had?

DEMS: To be honest, I started hanging out with you because Bill’s pretty awesome.

Hillary: But I’m just like Bill!

DEMS: No, you’re not. Bill is charismatic, inspiring, and gets me really good weed.

Hillary: Fuck you. You’re elitist!

DEMS: I’m going back to sleep.

Hillary: No, no, wait. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. Listen… there’s still got to be a chance. Remember when people told George W it was all over. When the numbers were against him?

DEMS: Yeah but…

Hillary: Remember?! And remember how everyone said America didn’t really want to be with George W? But they stuck it out anyway?

DEMS: Yeah and they’re really fucked up now, Hillary.

Hillary: But WE’LL make it work. Forget Barack, baby. Just take me back and we can forget this ever happened.

DEMS: Look, I think you’re a really good Senator… let’s just keep it that way, OK?

Hillary: …I’ll see you at the convention.

DEMS: No! Hillary I told you…

CLICK

DEMS: Dammit. Crazy bitch.

This has been posted all over the internets today, with some Clinton supporters coming out with cries of sexism. This is a joke about relationships and not letting things go, not sexism. Or to be more blunt, I’ll quote Wil again who wrote, “I’m not sexist. This isn’t sexist. That’s a stupid straw man, and if you try to make that claim, I will point and laugh at you.” If that doesn’t convince you, some of the arguments of sexism are coming from Big Tent Democrat. If you want to take the same side as Big Tent Democrat on virtually anything, you really deserve to be pointed at and laughed at. Besides, calling Hillary a psycho ex-girlfriend is nowhere as bad as comparing her to Hitler in the bunker.

Two Pundits From the “Bartlet Adminstration” Weigh In on Controversy

When Arianna Huffington wound up in a dispute with John McCain she was fortunate to have two members of The West Wing’s fictional Bartlet Administration on hand to back up her story. On Monday Huffington wrote that John McCain told her at a dinner party that he had not voted for George W. Bush in 2000. McCain denied this. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have printed stories in which Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman), and Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler), have backed up Arianna’s account.

Maybe McCain is much slyer than he is given credit for. While some Republicans might object, it could help McCain to have stories such as this demonstrating that even he realized that Bush was dangerous and he didn’t trust him.

ABC Shows Obama Taking Lead Among Superdelegates

Yesterday I noted that presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama had pulled within 8.5 superdelegates of Clinton per the count at Politico. The stampede away from Clinton continues and this morning Obama only trails by 3.5 superdelegates by their count. (The half comes from Americans abroad where there are four delegates with one-half vote each, and one remains uncommitted.)

Due to uncertainty as to where each superdelegate stands, different news organizations have different numbers. By ABC’s count, Obama has taken the lead over Clinton 267-265. Several other news organizations still show Clinton with a narrow lead, but this is unlikely to last much longer. The superdelegates clearly are not convinced by Clinton’s funny math which falsely claims to place her in the lead in the popular vote and the superdelegates are not going to ignore the results of the full set of primaries and caucuses.

Besides picking up more superdelegates, Obama is picking up more union support. The American Federation of Government Employees has endorsed Obama.

Update: As of Friday afternoon, Politico now has Obama leading by 1.5 superdelegate. The New York Times gives Obama an edge of three superdelegates.