Matt Taibbi: Hillary's Bitter Victory

[flvegan]

How the Democratic campaign turned into an absurd and acrimonious culture war that threatens to split the party in two



Zero hour, the night of the excruciating Pennsylvania primary. I'm in the ballroom of the Park Hyatt hotel in Philadelphia, site of Hillary Clinton's victory speech. The place is going nuts. The floor is a teeming mass of celebrating Lifetime demographic; I haven't seen this many strong, independent women in one place since . Clinton, who has just kicked Obama's ass all over the state, is onstage spooning out her rap.

<snip>

As Hillary finishes her speech in the ballroom, plumes of confetti shoot into the air out of a pair of paper-cannons. The loudspeaker — which for hours now has been playing an agonizing loop of patriotic classic rock, with heavy emphasis on Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" — is now blasting John Cougar Mellencamp's "Our Country."

I raise an eyebrow. The song is (1) the soundtrack to a hideously overplayed truck commercial and (2) possibly, just possibly, a weird and weirdly gratuitous dig at Obama, who at that very moment was making his gloomy "I'm fucked" concession speech in Evansville, Indiana, flanked by Indiana native Mellencamp and his wife, Elaine. Is the Clinton camp trying to make a joke about the fact that Obama is grasping for the endorsement of some gnomish Eighties B-lister while Hillary is grabbing America by the balls? Yeah, this is our country, motherfucker! Suck on this!

Has it come to this? The political equivalent of "I know you are, but what am I?" On both sides, this Obama-Clinton race has turned into something very like the vicious rivalry of a pair of blood-lusting high school student bodies — Odessa Permian versus Midland Lee, only with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance.

This race has already seen such juvenilia as one would previously have considered inconceivable in a contest between two ostensibly cerebral Democratic presidential candidates, including a surprisingly serious argument over which camp had the right to invoke Rocky references in their Pennsylvania campaign rhetoric — an argument settled, amazingly, when Gov. Ed Rendell declared "by executive order" that the right was Hillary's alone. The problem has been exacerbated by the relatively minor policy differences between the two candidates, although one suspects that even if those differences were major, they would take a back seat to the emerging tribal schism now cleaving the Democratic Party — a wholesale regression to clashing teenage emotions that turns these supposedly profound electoral battles into feverish squalls of car-honking and sarcastic sloganeering.


Much more:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20626517/hillarys_bitter_victory

[BeyondGeography]

1. It's all about these people now

[SoCalDem]

2. You forgot these people

[BeyondGeography]

3. Looks regular enough for Tweety to me

[Adelante]

4. This is some ugly shit

:(

[Cha]

8. Yeah, I'm at work..all alone &

couldn't resist logging to see what's up. :( I knew she didn't have "bowing out plans". Not after getting to know the lowdown on hilary this past YEAR.

[LeftyMom]

5. Oh shit, I'm out of popcorn.

I have tofutti cuties, can those be the official snack food of this erupting flamewar instead?

[BootinUp]

6. This writer has a great imagination. Just don't take it too seriously

would be my advice.

[flvegan]

22. I like Taibbi.

But, I don't take most writers seriously in these regards.

[TragedyandHope]

7. On CNN today, Carl Bernstein said Hillary has gone too far with her "pickup truck" image

He said there is a skeptical, resentful backlash building among her intended target audience. "This isn't a NASCAR race."

[LeftyMom]

9. It reminds me of Forbes' flannel shirts.

Her running as some kind of working class hero is just too condescendingly fake to be believed.

[K Gardner]

13. "Rich people - God Bless US... we deserve to keep everything we have." If

Obama had said this, it'd be Richgate 24/7. Hillary on O'Reilly.. not a mention of it.

[Beacool]

10. Is this guy for real???????

Pitted against physical beauty and inspirational rhetoric, Hillary made herself the champion of everything stylistically ordinary, superficially unimpressive and ignored.

Another one having an orgasm over Obama, just like Tweety and most of the gang at MSNBC.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[walldude]

11. Are you?

[Beacool]

12. Yep, and I don't buy what the guy is selling.

All smoke and mirrors.......

[walldude]

14. That may be, but he has a right to his opinion.

I haven't read the article yet but most of his stuff has been on the money. He gave some great inside looks at the "campaign trail".

[flvegan]

15. No wonder

with that avatar.

[Beacool]

17. Well, yours represents how I feel about your candidate. n/t

[flvegan]

18. Hmmm...pretty strong feelings towards Dennis Kucinich, huh?

[Beacool]

19. No, to me the skull represents death.

Hopefully the death of his vapid campaign.

[flvegan]

20. You want the Re-elect Kucinich campaign to die?

That's a House seat we really need, and a congressman we need to keep in office.

If you're implying that Obama is my candidate, you'd be very much mistaken. I don't care for either of the two, thanks.

[Beacool]

21. I got no problem with Dennis.

If he's your candidate, then rock on!!

I do have an issue, though, with the empty suit who might be our nominee.

[NashVegas]

16. "I know you are, but what am I?"

Dude, stop stealing my shit.