From the same editorial board that endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton three months ago

The Low Road to Victory

Hillary Clinton paves the way to undermine our probable Democratic nominee and hit those low blows that even Republicans are reluctant to strike

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/opinion/...r=1&oref=slogin

Editorial
The Low Road to Victory

Published: April 23, 2008

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

"The rhetoric should be over and work should begin. Bring my Son home from Iraq. Help my neighbors save their home. Bring gas prices down so my co-workers can keep their jobs. ... Let's get this nomination race to the finish line for all of US."

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned.

If that was supposed to bolster Mrs. Clinton’s argument that she is the better prepared to be president in a dangerous world, she sent the opposite message on Tuesday morning by declaring in an interview on ABC News that if Iran attacked Israel while she were president: “We would be able to totally obliterate them.”

By staying on the attack and not engaging Mr. Obama on the substance of issues like terrorism, the economy and how to organize an orderly exit from Iraq, Mrs. Clinton does more than just turn off voters who don’t like negative campaigning. She undercuts the rationale for her candidacy that led this page and others to support her: that she is more qualified, right now, to be president than Mr. Obama.

Mr. Obama is not blameless when it comes to the negative and vapid nature of this campaign. He is increasingly rising to Mrs. Clinton’s bait, undercutting his own claims that he is offering a higher more inclusive form of politics. When she criticized his comments about “bitter” voters, Mr. Obama mocked her as an Annie Oakley wannabe. All that does is remind Americans who are on the fence about his relative youth and inexperience.

No matter what the high-priced political operatives (from both camps) may think, it is not a disadvantage that Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton share many of the same essential values and sensible policy prescriptions. It is their strength, and they are doing their best to make voters forget it. And if they think that only Democrats are paying attention to this spectacle, they’re wrong.

After seven years of George W. Bush’s failed with-us-or-against-us presidency, all American voters deserve to hear a nuanced debate — right now and through the general campaign — about how each candidate will combat terrorism, protect civil liberties, address the housing crisis and end the war in Iraq.

It is getting to be time for the superdelegates to do what the Democrats had in mind when they created superdelegates: settle a bloody race that cannot be won at the ballot box. Mrs. Clinton once had a big lead among the party elders, but has been steadily losing it, in large part because of her negative campaign. If she is ever to have a hope of persuading these most loyal of Democrats to come back to her side, let alone win over the larger body of voters, she has to call off the dogs.

:rolleyes: Puh-leeeeez.

If Obama can't stand the heat, he should get out of the political kitchen.

RELEASE THE HOUNDS!

Don't forget HRC has a philandering husband who was impeached. If she gets the nomination, the right wing surely will bring up those wonderful memories.

I mean no offense but if Bill had behaved Al Gore would be the President of United States.

Watch Hillary sweat out that heat if she gets the nomination. Anyway I thought she had better things to do than be in a kitchen all day.

This is Hillary's paper too

They are right
enough already

Time to fight McCain

1. Keep going all the way to the Convention, Hillary!!!

2. Go negative, baby! Do it with substance, not personal attacks, but DO IT. Attack, attack, attack!

Fire torpedo one! Fire torpedo two! Fire all torpedos!

"Let's saddle up and have an argument!" - Bill Clinton -

With advice like that, who needs Mark Penn?

Go Hillary / Lieberman 2008!

If something is possible -- and there are infinitely many "serious" attempts -- then it will happen.

The point is --- Clintoons do not have infinite attempts to attack.

Senator Obama will win the race. Clintoons need to find a back-door mechanism to steal the elections. Attacks won't work. Learn from Bush 2000.

Now see here, I'm punch-drunk from exhaustion after taking a 3 plus hour credentialing exam this morning so I may be having trouble getting it, but.......are you serious? :?:

TNBlue just fooling around a bit. Don't get worked up and get some rest. It amazes me to see Clintoon supporters advocating attack on my senator from Illinois -- as they have nothing else going on for them. I am yet to see more delusional campaign than clintoon campaign -- it is worse than Alice in the Wonderland.

Ohhhhhhh....hee hee hee. :rolleyes: Too bad there's not a "tongue-in-cheek" emoticon.