Jon Chait - Is The Right Right On Clinton?

Why the question mark in the headline?  By the end of the piece the answer is clear:

Something strange happened the other day. All these different people -- friends, co-workers, relatives, people on a liberal e-mail list I read -- kept saying the same thing: They've suddenly developed a disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I think we've reached an irrevocable turning point in liberal opinion of the Clintons.

The sentiment seems to be concentrated among Barack Obama supporters. Going into the campaign, most of us liked Hillary Clinton just fine, but the fact that tens of millions of Americans are seized with irrational loathing for her suggested that she might not be a good Democratic nominee. But now that loathing seems a lot less irrational. We're not frothing Clinton haters like ... well, name pretty much any conservative. We just really wish they'd go away.

...I crossed the Clinton Rubicon a couple of weeks ago when, in the course of introducing Hillary, Clinton supporter and Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson invoked Obama's youthful drug use. This was disgusting on its own terms, but worse still if you know anything about Johnson. I do -- I once wrote a long profile of him (From 2001, "Paint It Black").

...But the conservatives might have had a point about the Clintons' character. Bill's affair with Monica Lewinsky jeopardized the whole progressive project for momentary pleasure. The Clintons gleefully triangulated the Democrats in Congress to boost his approval rating. They do seem to have a feeling of entitlement to power.

If Hillary wins the nomination, most of us will probably vote for her because the alternative is likely to be worse. But what happens if she's embroiled in another scandal? Will liberals rally behind her, or will they remember the Democratic primary?

This overlooks the Marc Rich backlash, now forgotten.  But it also seems to have been filed before news broke of Hillary's rule-bending attempt to pick up the Michigan and Florida delegates that were not supposed to count.

Comments

[Rick Ballard]

"Bill's affair with Monica Lewinsky jeopardized the whole progressive project for momentary pleasure."

There really is a silver lining for every cloud. Thanks, Bubba.

[Clarice]

HEH,Rick!
Sweetness & Light has highlighted the transcript of Hill's interview with Matt Lauer right after the Monica story broke..just in case you forgot how mendacious and manichaean the RW is.

[RichatUF]

Rick-

I can't believe Dem's still think of Willy as "progressive".

And to go OT for a bit:

Wanted to get your take on this article at the AT and the related rumor of a Google buy-out of the NYT's.

[RichatUF]

Are there any JOM projections for the SC primary today? I've missed IA, NH, did ok on NV, and was more wishful than serious with the republican SC primary:

Obama: 36.9%
Clinton: 36.3%
Edwards: 14%

Clinton will spin this as a win because Obama will take the black vote by about 3-1. The campaign will then turn ugly. Edwards finally will get out of the race and not be heard from again.

[MikeS]

The current Clinton scandal is about the ex-President telling lies, or as Barack Obama says, "making statements that are factually inaccurate." Several Democratic politicians have also criticized Bill Clinton for his recent inaccurate and dishonest statements.

Yet somehow Chait misses that point all together. He points to Bill's sexcapades as the problem, and takes the opportunity to mention Obama's drug use again.

[Patrick Tyson]

RichatUF—

If Obama wins by less than a percentage point, it's a win for Clinton. No spin required. He should win this one fairly easily.

Rick—

Think RCP has started excluding ARG or have they just not noticed?

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

Dr. Sanity has an excellent piece up on what passes for the progressive "mind". Within her piece is a very good quote elucidating Sorel:

...Sorel argued, the revolutionary myth may, like religion, continue to thrive in "the profounder regions of our mental life," in those realms unreachable by mere reason and argument, where even a hundred proofs of failure are insufficient to wean us from those primordial illusions that we so badly wish to be true. Who doesn't want to see the wicked and the arrogant put in their place? Who among the downtrodden and the dispossessed can fail to be stirred by the promise of a world in which all men are equal, and each has what he needs?

The potential actions of the Sulzberger family must be understood in that light - there ain't a homo economicus among 'em. Now, should Junior cut the divvy (as he may well have to), then various Sulzberger trustafarians may escort him from his office with some alacrity, take the money and run, showing the ultimate lack of courage which is the true hallmark of every progressive.

While I agree with Sorel's thesis that the progressive mind is "unreachable by mere reason and argument", they also have stomachs and wants - lots and lots and lots of wants.

While the market for prog "thinking" appears unextinguishable, that does not mean that it is "growing" in any econimically measurable sense. Which leads one to specultate that Chait's tenure at the LAT (also losing readers at a remarkable rate) could draw to a close in the same inevitable manner in which Junior's tenure at the Times appears to be drawing to an end.

More silver linings.

On SC -

BHO - 44
RW - 34
Silky - 20

[Ralph L]

They'll rally to her as soon as Obama is dispatched, just as they have a hundred times before in the last 15 years. Their repulsion of conservatives trumps honor and honesty and reason.

[Other Tom]

The best part of the Chait thing was about how the "conservative" had "set a perjury trap so they could impeach him." Say what you will about those nasty old perjury traps, you still have to lie under oath to get caught in one.

I saw Morton Kondracke the other day predicting that, once Hillary has it sewed up, she'll parade around with all the usual lickspittles like Charlie Rangel, Andy Young and the rest, and by November she'll be the blacks' New Best Friend. Maybe.

[Rick Ballard]

It appears that Pirveew and I remain at odds.

Patrick,

The ARG polling really has been pathetic (except as a Clinton propaganda tool). If RCP is dropping them, I wonder if they will explain why?

[Patrick Tyson]

OT—

Should she be the nominee, she won't be the new best friend. It's not in her to be that. She'll be the only friend you got.

Rick—

Their latest Florida numbers were up last night.

[JM Hanes]

Liberals have trouble sustaining any serious effort at self-examination, so I expect the glass will shortly darken again.

[vnjagvet]

Maybe we should all invest in a company that manufactures "nose holders". Like the nose pinchers we used while swimming backstroke.

From the looks of it they will be mandatory equipment on election day for many of both parties.

[Paul Zrimsek]

Talk about youthful drug use has simply become more disgusting since 2000, for reasons about which I refuse to speculate.

[Donald]

How is getting blow jobs by a non-paid intern and affair (By the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES)? How is it not just predatory sexual behavior? sexual Somebody wanna fill me in on the difference? I know it's just become some kind of seedy history, but the fact that he did not resign on the spot makes him the seediest, most disgusting person to ever stain (HA!) the white house. People who would vote for his wife, or allow him within a hundre yards of their families need a few spurts on their face to wake them up.

[Donald]

That would be "an" affair of course.

[sophy]

I do not know how to use the habbo coins ; my friend tells me how to use.