Hypocrisy of Clinton Supporters

I'm quite sure there is sexism in this campaign directed at HRC just like there is some degree of racism directed at Obama. Any rational person should find both disgusting and repugnant.

What I find more interesting is the disconnect between the ideals and the actions of the Clinton supporters.

I'm quite certain that many Clinton supporters reviled the political tactics of Lee Atwater or Karl Rove as they were used against Democratic candidates like Gore and Kerry. Yet in their desire to see a woman nominee, her supporters turned a blind eye to the type of campaign she ran. The media euphemistically calls it the kitchen sink but we all know to what they are referring.

Clinton invoked a variety of unflattering and negative techniques from race baiting to questioning his competence and patriotism to guilt by association to accusations of drug use to gender issues to plagiarism as well as purposefully and willfully misrepresenting his positions (and later, as we all found out after Ohio, hers as well). She also took the extraordinary position of criticizing Obama while asserting that she and the Republican nominee were well qualified to run the country. The state of her campaign suggests otherwise.

Now I understand that many Clinton supporters will NOT even acknowledge she has run this type of campaign. But she did. And this is why an ex-Edwards supporter (me) became an Obama supporter.

Some obscenely obsessed Clinton supporters even argue that Obama has played the race card, that he has been sexist and that he started the negative campaigning. What world do these people live in? This is so disturbingly disingenuous that it is almost tragic in its simplicity and stupidity.

Obama started with nothing against the vaunted Clinton political machine. HRC was to be coronated on Super Tuesday. But along the way something happened and the Clintons were beaten fairly and squarely by a candidate who played by the rules.

In my view Obama had the greater burden, apart from the obvious disadvantage against going up again the Clinton machine. As this campaign proved, this country still struggles with the racial divide. The idea of a black man attacking a white woman in any form--even in a political context--is still unfathomable. Yet the Clinton supporters as evidenced by the clueless Geraldine Ferraro actually tried to make the case that Obama somehow had it easier because he is a black man in America. Well we all know how priviledged black men are in American culture...

The ridiculousness of that argument is apparent to all but not to Clinton supporters.

What gives? What allows one to check his or her own sense of integrity and ethics at the door in order to "win" a political campaign? Clinton supporters rationalize it by arguing that this is just politics, just part of the political process and if you can not take it, get out. It feeds this mythology of her toughness which I think they are confusing with her sense of entitlement.

For me this is just an excuse to behave badly. These are the kinds of tactics that most of us despise and want to change, hence Obama's public appeal. How these otherwise forward thinking people can allow themselves to be part of such distasteful practices is beyond me.

I'm sure Clinton was victimized by sexism. But when the full post mortem on her campaign is over, it will show that the candidate herself is mostly responsible for its failure. To plagiarize Ring Lardner, I'm not sure she and her supporters will like themselves in the morning.