When it comes to Billary, you ain't seen nothin' yet… 01-09-08

When Hillary was behind in the polls in New Hampshire, we finally got a taste of what the primaries are going to be like in the coming weeks. Bill started using Rove/Carville tactics like taking a quote or an issue out of context from Obama, and then repeating the misquote until it sounded true…even after being corrected repeatedly by Obama and the press. Hillary figured out that "experience/shrill" doesn't work with men and even a number of women, and "softened her voice" to the point of feigned sorrow.

Nasty comments about Obama being insincere, inexperienced, and full of "false hope" became the battle cry. No solutions. Just a repeating a mild variance from Obama's message to make it sound like their own…and it was enough to sway voters to give her a narrow victory. It was the Clinton triangulation method at work again. Find an issue, test it to see how it flies, run with it until the next issue comes around and start all over again. Never mind about real solutions…it's all about opinions.

In the coming weeks, we can be sure that the Billary attack machine will ramp up to full strength. Remember, these are the same two political slimebuckets who were able to successfully turn all of Bills countless paramours into "sluts and attention whores" who wanted nothing to do but undermine Bill's power. If you think that playing nice is in their playbook, forget about it. It's not going to happen. This pair is one of the most driven, self-serving, single-minded twosomes to grace the political scene since Cheney and Rove (who I still suspect are secret lovers).

The fact is, unless the American people can remove themselves from the habit of buying into every ploy these two lay out, and stop following the soap opera that this "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" Broadway revival has become, we as a nation are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past 12 years, being manipulated by polls, pundits, and pretenders to the throne.

Why do I believe that we can overcome the status quo and elect someone who offers new, fresh, and exciting ideas as Obama? It's as simple as realizing that after the Iowa Caucuses, I had a feeling of hope that I had not felt since 1968, when all hope for a better world died twice at the hands of assassins.

For the first time since 1968, I have seen a man and his family who personify the ideals and actions that would serve not only as real role models for generations to come, but would lift our country from the state of "bunker mentality" that has permeated since the Cold War days.

For the first time since 1968, I feel that we as a nation, can begin to take on the real and dangerous future that seems to await us if we continue down the same course. When it comes to experience, particularly if it means taking the same actions as we have in the past, I would prefer to think that we have learned enough from mistakes made, to not keep electing those whose "experience" got us where we are today.

Instead, I prefer to support someone who by their words and actions, would move us toward becoming a nation that leads by our compassion, trust, and innovation toward peace, rather than the current "might makes right" stance that provokes and alienates.

In the coming weeks, I have no doubt that the campaign will become contentious and personal in ways that have just begun to unfold. But, I would hope that above all, we as a nation would finally say, "Enough" and begin to judge those running on their character, hope and ideas, rather than a false sense of "experience" that is little more than saying "I was there when history was passing me by."

For in the end, Hillary's only real "experience" comes from a long history of denial, accusation, counter-attack, and defense. During the most important time of her husband's administration, she was barely speaking to him. Her accomplishments are so few, and without merit, that the only thing positive that can be said, is that she was elected to the Senate after everyone else touched by Bill's administration failed, or were forced to retreat into ancillary media jobs. Is it any wonder that Gore became a whole new person and deservedly won the Nobel Prize only after distancing himself from Billary?

When I watch Obama interacting with his family, when I listen to his wife speak, when I see the sincere hope that his supporters have, I see a man and a family that personify the American Dream. I see someone who is self-made, and has the kind of scruples and standards that would serve the nation well to emulate.

What I see in Hillary is a shrill, driven, defensive and cloying candidate with the kind of sense of entitlement that overshadows any sense of leadership. She is determined to be elected. That much is certain. It is equally certain that she will do and say whatever she needs to, to reach her goal. But, what then? Outside of trying to buff Bill's tarnished record, bringing in some of the same players from his administration (if any would agree to serve) and repeating the same mistakes of triangulation and capitulation as she did her best to defend the onslaught of questions revolving around her past, there is really little else to expect. The conservative pundits and FOX talking heads will have a field day. It will be 1996 all over again. The same accusations, same issues, same defensive strategies to save face will prevail; and all at a time when we as a nation, have no time to waste.

She was right about one thing, when she choked out that "this is not a game." The future of our nation and the world will be in the hands of the next President like no other since the early 1860s, 1940s or 1960s. And like the people who led us during those horrific times in our nation's history, the leader we choose must be a person of principal, integrity, and have the ability to draw this nation together again, from a nation divided by politics, into the UNITED States of America.

It's time to tear down partisan walls, the status quo, and political attack machines that do little but get people elected, without providing answers. It's time to start believing in what we can do as a nation. It begins by trusting our instincts of hope.