Hillary Clinton is betting her political future that you're an idiot. She's betting that I'm an idiot as well. She's helplessly standing by watching her once inevitable coronation disintegrate into a resounding defeat. There's little to be learned from watching a person display grace and class while the adoring masses ceremoniously anoint you with champagne, rose petals and beaming smiles. You can only see the true soul of a person when they've engaged their opponent on equal turf and relinquished their sword to the victor in a symbolic show of defeat. Whereas, there's no shame in acknowledging defeat after putting forth your best effort, there's an abundance of dishonor and disgrace when you assign blame in every direction, except from within.
I'll always remember the closing line from a movie about the late football player Brian Piccolo. The Chicago Bear running back died in 1970 at the age of 26 from cancer. He was seemingly a devoted husband, father and teammate to all he played with. In the movie aptly titled Brian's Song, Piccolo displayed unlimited courage in how hard he fought to make the Bear roster as a long shot prospect out of college and ultimately how he dealt with the disease that he knew would soon kill him. As you watched the closing scene of the movie, a narrator urged viewers not to remember how Brian Piccolo died, but instead how he lived. I don't ever want to forget that line because the meaning behind it is so applicable in how we as humans can approach both our successes and failures. Maybe Hillary Clinton needs an infusion of that same humility and responsibility as she reflects on the way her very own "song" is presently being played.
It never passes muster when you hear an individual in a team environment exalt in victory by proclaiming "I won," and later using that same analysis to lament in defeat by moaning "we lost." Sticking with that philosophy, Team Clinton was soundly routed in three more contests last evening. Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. voters overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama ranging from nearly two to one to three to one margins. The only thing close about these primaries were the proximity of all three locales to the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. As is her usual practice, when the polling indicates her staff caused more one sided losses, she can't get to an airport soon enough to clandestinely skulk out of town to the next state that she plans to win on her own.
Team Clinton saw its ranks shrunk by two top staff members this week. Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle and deputy campaign manger Mike Henry both "resigned" this week. They reigned? Let's be honest, they were fired like a gun at a shooting range. The white campaign manager was replaced by an African-American woman. A little late in the game to be playing the race card yet again. Hillary's caricature of a devoted and loyal husband already tried another version of that same card and was soundly body slammed for it. It's late in the third quarter. These cheap stunts of choreographing staff to fall on your sword are both ineffective and tawdry. Hillary needs to stop looking in every direction on the compass for people to blame and instead take a hard look at herself in the mirror. Stop claiming you're battle tested and tough one day and then sob like a school girl the next. Stop pimping your 28 year old plastic covered and porcelain daughter by having her cold call super delegates on your behalf and then excoriate the media for speaking of it. Stop citing the same tired "I have 35 years of experience and will be ready to lead on day one" and then refuse to list your tax returns or your personal papers under lock and key in your own husband's presidential library in Arkansas.
Presidential candidates must now think they exist only to accept personal gratitude and credit for successes. Failures are a result of everybody else. George W. Bush has taken this scenario to an artform only because he's a classically trained American idiot. You can never reason with an idiot or a drunk because they're either too mentally impaired or too stupid to comprehend what you're talking about. Bush, who excels in both categories, has that unique advantage that sober intellects can't compete with. Presidential campaigns are about laying out your vision for the coming four years. You can expound on this vision with bumper sticker slogans all you want, but mostly you need to give people a genuine reason to hope things will be better tomorrow than they are today. 35 years of "unexplained experience." Ready to lead, ready to lead what on day one and the self theorizing nonsense you're a battle tested commander-in-chief, are merely unsubstantiated slogans. Hillary is betting you are willing to act as the white bread to her gravy and just sop it up, eat it up and then shut it up. No I can't. I'm not about to bet my future on empty slogans from the past. I, instead, would rather bet my future on the hopes and dreams that Barack Obama offers, than risk them on the failures and nightmares that Hillary Clinton guarantees....
I'll always remember the closing line from a movie about the late football player Brian Piccolo. The Chicago Bear running back died in 1970 at the age of 26 from cancer. He was seemingly a devoted husband, father and teammate to all he played with. In the movie aptly titled Brian's Song, Piccolo displayed unlimited courage in how hard he fought to make the Bear roster as a long shot prospect out of college and ultimately how he dealt with the disease that he knew would soon kill him. As you watched the closing scene of the movie, a narrator urged viewers not to remember how Brian Piccolo died, but instead how he lived. I don't ever want to forget that line because the meaning behind it is so applicable in how we as humans can approach both our successes and failures. Maybe Hillary Clinton needs an infusion of that same humility and responsibility as she reflects on the way her very own "song" is presently being played.
It never passes muster when you hear an individual in a team environment exalt in victory by proclaiming "I won," and later using that same analysis to lament in defeat by moaning "we lost." Sticking with that philosophy, Team Clinton was soundly routed in three more contests last evening. Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. voters overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama ranging from nearly two to one to three to one margins. The only thing close about these primaries were the proximity of all three locales to the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. As is her usual practice, when the polling indicates her staff caused more one sided losses, she can't get to an airport soon enough to clandestinely skulk out of town to the next state that she plans to win on her own.
Team Clinton saw its ranks shrunk by two top staff members this week. Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle and deputy campaign manger Mike Henry both "resigned" this week. They reigned? Let's be honest, they were fired like a gun at a shooting range. The white campaign manager was replaced by an African-American woman. A little late in the game to be playing the race card yet again. Hillary's caricature of a devoted and loyal husband already tried another version of that same card and was soundly body slammed for it. It's late in the third quarter. These cheap stunts of choreographing staff to fall on your sword are both ineffective and tawdry. Hillary needs to stop looking in every direction on the compass for people to blame and instead take a hard look at herself in the mirror. Stop claiming you're battle tested and tough one day and then sob like a school girl the next. Stop pimping your 28 year old plastic covered and porcelain daughter by having her cold call super delegates on your behalf and then excoriate the media for speaking of it. Stop citing the same tired "I have 35 years of experience and will be ready to lead on day one" and then refuse to list your tax returns or your personal papers under lock and key in your own husband's presidential library in Arkansas.
Presidential candidates must now think they exist only to accept personal gratitude and credit for successes. Failures are a result of everybody else. George W. Bush has taken this scenario to an artform only because he's a classically trained American idiot. You can never reason with an idiot or a drunk because they're either too mentally impaired or too stupid to comprehend what you're talking about. Bush, who excels in both categories, has that unique advantage that sober intellects can't compete with. Presidential campaigns are about laying out your vision for the coming four years. You can expound on this vision with bumper sticker slogans all you want, but mostly you need to give people a genuine reason to hope things will be better tomorrow than they are today. 35 years of "unexplained experience." Ready to lead, ready to lead what on day one and the self theorizing nonsense you're a battle tested commander-in-chief, are merely unsubstantiated slogans. Hillary is betting you are willing to act as the white bread to her gravy and just sop it up, eat it up and then shut it up. No I can't. I'm not about to bet my future on empty slogans from the past. I, instead, would rather bet my future on the hopes and dreams that Barack Obama offers, than risk them on the failures and nightmares that Hillary Clinton guarantees....
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