Posted by
King Liberal on Friday, November 02, 2007 5:20:23 PM
While the Democratic debate this week produced little new information about the candidates it did provide the MSM, commentators, and political reporters some new grist for the Hillary-Mill. Up until this week the narrative had been that the Hillary campaign had flawlessly maneuvered through a variety of minefields and snafus ranging from Norman Hsu to her choice of pantsuit. Now after a less than stellar debate performance a cry has gone through out the land; she's vulnerable! Or in the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger "If it bleeds, we can kill it." Yes the political sharks smelled blood in the water and one by one they pilled on Hillary like rabid dogs fighting over a piece of fresh meat. Perhaps of all the attacks the most salient was from the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus who in summation claimed that Hillary cry of "sexism foul play" was way out of line. And that may be true. Certainly the boys were not in attack mode driven by gender but rather by her commanding lead in the polls. Recent Rasmussen presidential pols taken after the debate in PA show Hillary still beating Rudy and remaining some 20 percentage points ahead of her fellow democrat competitors. Some have said this is the week where Hillary's campaign jumped the shark but I feel one bad week does not a campaign make. Hillary was already in damage control mode on Wednesday where her chief strategist Mark Penn attempted to smooth out her immigration flop with liberal bloggers. On the other side of the coin conservative talk show shouter Rush Limbaugh spent the first hour of his Wednesday program playing clips of Hillary's laugh and saying that the alleged "gang-up" on Hillary was far from anything spectacular. And in that rush is 100% right; if that was the best her opponents could bring to bear it will be smooth sailing from here on in. What the Right Wing Talkers seem to be forgetting is that their audience does not comprise Democrats or moderate independents, they are for the most part "preaching to choir" who have all memorized the same anti-Hillary hymn. On the flip side the more they screech the more opportunities arise for Hillary to defend herself in front of a mesmerized left who want to see her "deck the opposition." The right's most strident shouters are doing their own base a disservice by bashing Hillary when they should be boosting their own candidates. The right has already made up its mind about Hillary, about their own choices; not so much.