Be careful, Hillary: you may reap what you sow

There is little doubt that things look a little more bleak this weekend for Barack Hussein Obama than they did a month ago. While he remains ahead of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination, the final decision will be taken by the super-delegates. These party elders are known to favour Clinton ahead of Obama and this week's polls may well encourage them to defy the wishes of ordinary voters (who narrowly favour Obama) in favour of choosing a candidate with whom they'd feel more comfortable. It's a dangerous game for the establishment of the Democratic Party to play (and shows the irony inherent in that party's name).

Since the revelations of the foul invective emanating from the mouth of Obama's pastor, his poll ratings have fallen markedly. John S McCain III leads both Clinton and Obama by a sizeable margin - albeit there is still a very long way yet to go until polling day.

Clinton rightly senses that Obama's difficulties present her with an opportunity. And yet she needs to play things very carefully indeed lest this backfires on her spectacularly. I'm not even sure why Clinton or her campaign feel the need to comment on Obama's difficulties at all. Far better from their point of view to let the mainstream media and conservatives lead the charge against Obama. And yet it seems she and her supporters are unable to resist the temptation. Already a photo of President Clinton and Reverend Wright has surfaced so even the Clintons aren't immune from being associated with the zealot.

The contest between Obama and Clinton has been particularly bad tempered, even by the standards of US political primaries. The likelihood of the so-called dream ticket fades with each passing day. If the Clinton Attack Machine isn't careful, a host of Clinton scandals, known and as yet unknown, may well begin to appear in the media - and this time it won't be the vast right-wing conspiracy to blame. And while all this bloodletting continues on the Democratic side of the aisle, there sits McCain - serene and relaxed and ahead in the polls. Beautiful, ain't it?

Hey Democrats: Keep it up and McCain wins!

Is anyone else enjoying the sight of the Democrats tearing themselves apart during the current primary and caucus process?

We had a delightful cameo this week from the sanctimonious Eliot Spitzer, the soon-to-be former Governor of New York, who was caught indulging in his love of hookers (and who had previously endorsed Hillary Clinton, although you are not to read anything into those two facts being juxtaposed).

And yesterday former Democrat vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro really spoiled us. She had asserted that Barack Hussein Obama would not be in his current frontrunner position were it not for the fact he is black. The joy of seeing Democrats getting attacked by their erstwhile allies for being racists is unconfined.

Hillary Clinton clearly hates Barack Obama even more than she hates Monica Lewinsky. The idea that the two of them could work together as president and vice-president is absurd. Obama has been very brave indeed to cross the Clinton machine given what happened to so many others who dared to get in the way of the Clintons in the past. Some speculate a similar fate may befall him although that must be viewed as highly unlikely.

Watching the whole fiasco from the sidelines is Senator John McCain. If he has any sense he is spending every waking moment reuniting the GOP, bring conservatives on board, replenishing his coffers and undertaking the tedious but necessary on-the-ground organisational work that will hopefully see the GOP retain the presidency in November.

Clinton v Obama: the latest

Election commentary from the comedian Chris Rock during his New Year's Day performance at Madison Square Garden:

"I think America's ready for a woman president...just not that woman. Being married to somebody doesn't make you good at their job. I've been with my wife 10 years now. If she got up here right now, y'all wouldn't laugh. At all. You get on a plane tomorrow, youw ant the pilot's wife flying you?"

Hat Tip: Townhall Magazine.

UPDATE (11.00): Have a look at this latest twist in the campaign. Hillary's team seem to have darkened Obama's skin colour in a recent ad!

And I was told it was only the GOP that were nasty

And so in her desperation, Hillary Rodham Clinton gets nasty. First, she resorts to sarcasm (having exhausted tears and tugging at the heart strings).

Then her staff release a picture of her opponent, Barack Hussein Obama, that plays to the prejudices of those who feel uneasy at someone called Hussein becoming President.

And we are told that Republicans are the racists!

Bearing in mind the way Bill Clinton sought to play the race card in South Carolina earlier in the campaign (and that Democrats sought to block the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s and it was the Republicans who freed the slaves a century beforehand) I have never understood why everyone assumes that Democrats are the good guys and the GOP are evil.

Will Hillary agree to be Obama's VP?

Now that Barack Hussein Obama has won his tenth primary in a row with his wins in Hawaii and Wisconsin last night, he undoubtedly has "the Big Mo" as the battle heads towards Texas and Ohio on 4 March. There does seem to be an air of the Zeitgeist about his campaign - far more so than in the case of Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose campaign has come across as reactive, negative and backward-looking.

Many Democrat supporters desperately hope that both Obama and Clinton will be on the presidential ticket. Were Clinton the nominee, the younger Obama would be well positioned for a future run for the White House as the heir apparent. But what if Obama is the nominee? Will Clinton agree to be his running mate?

The Vice-Presidency has been derided as a pointless job - including by many who have actually held that role! And yet would not Hillary want to be the first female Vice-President in US history? She would be only a heartbeat away from the Presidency itself (and enough doom-sayers are predicting that Obama will be assassinated in any event).

Or will Hillary take the view that if Obama is the candidate, he will lose to McCain - and given his age, McCain would be a one-term president such that she might have a free run herself in 2012 (when she would still be young enough to give it another go)?

Is Bill deliberately jeopardising Hillary's campaign?

There's a fascinating theory doing the rounds, namely that Bill Clinton is deliberately jeopardising his wife's presidential campaign. 

It sounds far fetched - and after reading this post I'm no surer than I was - but it's certainly an interesting angle on the race for the Democratic Party nomination.

Vote Clinton - for slower growth!

Has Bill Clinton gone senile or does he simply not want his wife to win the Democrat nomination or the White House in November?

Not content with confusing himself as to what the "Race for the White House" means (hint: it means nothing to do with banging on about your wife's opponent's race, Bubba) he has spent much of the past month showing even less decorum as a former President than even he managed as when he was President.

Now he proclaims that "we just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren".

You read that right. Just at the time when Americans are crapping themselves that the economy is on the skids, the man from Hope tells us it's time to wear a hair shirt "but dang, don't it feel good".

The eloquent, calm and charismatic politician who was the very personification of a triangulator seems to have been replaced by an angry, unnecessarily combative zealot. Not that I mind, of course, as it will help ensure that the last vestiges of independent voters who might have voted for a Clinton are repelled towards the GOP.

But if Hillary wins, prepare to welcome in a recession cause with the same level of deliberate misregard for the welfare of the citizenry as Robert Mugabe managed in Zimbabwe.

Ted Kennedy endorses Obama

This weekend two Kennedys have endorsed the JFK-esque campaign of Barack Hussein Obama. First, JFK's daughter Caroline endorsed Obama. Then we learn that Ted Kennedy, JFK's youngest brother and the veteran Senator for Massachusetts, is to endorse Obama too.

The endorsement of the Kennedys is much prized among Democrats and this will come as a blow to Hillary Clinton. While she has never been particularly liked by her colleagues, her husband was always thought to have been popular. Bill Clinton was also seen to have been America's first black President. And yet in the last month Clinton has taken the term "attack dog" to new depths of depravity while foolishly playing the race card against Obama in South Carolina.

Obama will no doubt benefit from the support of a high profile Democrat of the nature of Ted Kennedy in the primary process, particularly in the run-up to Super Tuesday. Some advice, however: just don't let Ted Kennedy drive you anywhere...

Tory MPs should not be backing Hillary

The report that three Conservative MPs - Nadine Dorries, Alan Duncan and the preposterous Simon Burns - have endorsed Hillary Clinton for President is a grave disappointment, particularly when David Cameron has (perhaps ill-advisedly) thrown his weight behind John McCain. Notwithstanding the ignorant posts of some on the blogosphere who will say that a Hillary-led Democratic Party has more in common with Cameron's Tories than a Bush-led GOP, the Tories and the GOP should be a natural alliance.

The news that Simon Burns has spent nine days pounding the streets for Hillary Clinton begs the question as to quite how he was able to take so much time off work to do so. It's not as if MPs can disappear at the drop of a hat. Someone will have had to give him permission to head off to the US on this jaunt.

And how will the good people of Chelmsford feel once they discover that their MP is so under-worked that he can disappear for over a week without his absence being noticed. I know he's not exactly a high-flyer in parliament after being there for 21 years but one would have at least thought that his absence might be noticed in the Commons or his constituency?

Still, one should not be surprised that Simon Burns is helping someone as out-of-touch and extreme as Mrs Clinton: he campaigned for George McGovern in 1972 against Nixon.

Clinton embarrasses self, nation

One of the funniest episodes of The Simpsons was on TV in the last few days. Krusty the Clown runs for office and with the help of Fox News, his Democrat opponent is denigrated on television.

The fictional Fox News broadcaster refers to the Democrat as "our red friend" with devil horns superimposed on him live on air and across the bottom of the screen, the ticker recites "Do Democrats cause cancer?", "Dan Quayle: Awesome" and "Hillary Clinton embarrasses self, nation".

In the current presidential campaign we are, of course, seeing the two leading Democrat contenders go at each other likes cats in a sack - encouraged in part by the most un-presidential of behaviour by Bill Clinton. That said, Bill Clinton behaving in an un-presidential manner shouldn't come as a surprise given that this week sees the 10th anniversary of the Lewinsky scandal coming out in the media thanks to Matt Drudge, a dark stain on America's psyche even today.

The sight of Bill Clinton losing it and stoking up enmity between his wife and Barack Hussein Obama is all the more astonishing given that Clinton had previously reserved such intemperate behaviour to his outlandish and exaggerated attacks on Republicans. For him to attack a fellow Democrat - and possible running mate of his wife - in the way that he has is going to make it much harder for such wounds to heal once the race proper gets underway. And it will also ruin Bill Clinton's effectiveness when he wants to attack the GOP again as people will simply think "there he goes again..."

EXCLUSIVE: New Manchester United Manager Announced

***EXCLUSIVE***

This just in:

"In a packed news conference, Cathy Ferguson announced that she will be the new manager of Manchester United next season. Cathy asserts that she is qualified to be the new manager because she has spent the past 20+ years married to Sir Alex Ferguson while he has been the manager of Manchester United. During this period of time she has become familiar with the offside rule, zonal defensive marking and other terminology of United's tactical formations. A survey of United fans shows that 50% of those polled support the move."

If this sounds idiotic and unbelievable to you, bear in mind that these are the same claims made by Hillary Rodham Clinton as to why she is qualified to be President - and 50% of Democrats polled agreed. She has never run a city, county or state.

Former Clinton advisor Dick Morris had it right - when he was told Hillary Clinton has experience because she had eight years in the White House, Morris replied: "So has the pastry chef".

The Clintons are racists too?

We're familiar with the tediously predictable tactics of the fascist left who seek to silence those of us who dare to express opinions or hold beliefs that differ from their pre-ordained worldview. We are decried as racists, homophobes, xenophobes and sexists and the mere tarring of our names with such a brush marks us out as being beyond the pale and worthy of lynching - except we discovered this week that even use of the word "lynching" is prohibited.

It is therefore with some delight that I see that the Clintons - who have spent much of the past 30 years pushing the agenda of the fascist left and decrying their opponents as bigots - are in trouble. Both are accused of making racial gaffes - offences that should disqualify them immediately from having any role whatsoever in public life, according to the racists who run groups like the NAACP. Next up: Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson...

Bill Clinton (once jokily described as America's first black president) is accused of being racially insensitive when he said that Barack Obama's campaign was "a fairytale". Try as I might I cannot see where the racial insensitivity is in that description - other than that Blowjob Bill has dared to criticise Obama's campaign and Obama is black.

Hateful Hillary is in trouble too. She made a point about presidential leadership and said that it wasn't Martin Luther King who passed the Civil Rights Act - it was pushed through Congress by President Johnson. But by daring to criticise MLK - or to allow herself to be perceived as criticising MLK - Hillary now finds herself under attack and it is thought it may cost her victory in South Carolina.

It's lovely to see the Clintons under attack from the beast they bred. We should all allow ourselves some time to enjoy this moment.

That said, clearly I do not take the view either of them are racists - whatever that overused term now means. The real racists are those within the radical black community, aided by their guilt-ridden fellow travellers in America's other communities, who see racism in everything that is ever said. By crying "wolf" so often, they undermine the power of one of the most powerful words in the English language - and in doing that, they present a real opportunity for those who are truly racist down to every bone in their body.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. Jesse Jackson has opened his big mouth on this and has gone for the Clintons.

Hillary dies: but my hopes are dashed

Bleary eyed this morning, I woke with a start when I heard people on Radio 4 bemoaning the death of Hillary.

It was, alas, the sad death of Sir Edmund Hillary, brave conqueror of Everest - not Hillary Clinton, tearful conqueror of New Hampshire.

It was almost the perfect start to the day.

Hillary is the change because she's been the change

This clip shows Hillary Clinton's fundamental problem in the primaries.



She is trying on the one hand to show Americans that a vote for her is a vote for change - and yet on the other hand she is arguing that she has a wealth of experience and has already delivered change.

Hillary Clinton wants to turn America back to the Clinton era of 1993-2001. She wants to fight all the old battles rather than dealing with America as it is today. It is as if she is trying to refight the 2000 election which the Democrats lost - they lost it narrowly but they lost.

As unimpressive as Barack Hussein Obama may be in a number of ways, his soaring rhetoric gives hope to Americans who want a "kindler, gentler" America (former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has tapped into the same hopes and aspirations for the Republicans).

As much as many of us hawks might wish that Americans - and indeed our fellow countrymen - would recognise the Islamofascist threat confronting our lives, the Ostrich Tendency among voters (those who would rather bury their hands in the sand in preference to facing up to challenges) is a powerful voting bloc. Given her husband's eloquence and, some would say, vacuous platitudes, it is all the more surprising that Senator Clinton seems unable to connect with the Ostrich Tendency in a way that Obama can.

Hillary needs your help!

That paragon of virtue and decency, Shrillary Clinton, has asked for the help of the American people. She wants voters to suggest a campaign song. She is offering voters the chance to choose one of nine songs: Beautiful Day or City of Blinding Lights by U2, KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See, I’m a Believer by Smash Mouth, Get Ready by the Temptations, Shania Twain’s Rock This Country, Ready to Run by the Dixie Chicks, Right Here Right Now by Jesus Jones and I’ll Take You There by the Staple Singers.

This shortlist says a lot about Hillary Clinton. The Dixie Chicks – one of her choices – disgracefully denounced the presence in Iraq of American troops in the early days of the Iraq War. Their song – Ready To Run – sums up the Democrats’ policy on Iraq and perhaps is better know as Ready To Cut and Run.

City of Blinding Lights – the U2 classic – perhaps sums up the Clintons’ view of the potential personal wealth enhancement another term in the White House could give them. The song I’m a Believer is by Smash Mouth – and boy do I know a lot of Americans who would love to smash Hillary in the mouth. Shania Twain’s Rock This Country might better be known as Ruin This Country and as regards The Staple Singers’ song I’ll Take You There, quite where Hillary will take all of us is anyone’s guess.

I was tempted to suggest Right Here, Right Now as the song from her list of nominees provided it was preceded by Right Wing, Right Here, Right Now. But my suggestions are much simpler: Elvis Presley’s Do You Know Who I Am, Ashlee Simpson’s Surrender or the classic Who Let the Dogs Out were ones that sprung to mind.

The guys at Club for Growth in America have suggested Communist Girlfriend by Southpaw Jones, Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off by Harry Connick Jr and Jefferson Denim’s Disaster Waiting to Happen. Anyone for anymore?