Comments on: An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

By: scott

scott — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:01:24 +0000

mrs. obama said america is “ignorant” and “just downright mean.”

By: Mark Mercer

Mark Mercer — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:23:07 +0000

Edmonsky–Thank you for your intelligent response and for your courtesy (a rare character trait in the blogging world). I found myself agreeing with most of what you said, except for the conclusion. Just two weeks ago, the best stragegy for Hillary would have to hold back. She was ahead in the polls, so why risk an attack that can always backfire? But Iowa is coming. Hillary has a large lead nationally, but the Iowa momentum is in Obama’s direction; polls show him to be a real threat there. Hillary has to do something. The Bentsen/Quayle comparison is a very limited one, meant only to illustrate that sometimes a well targeted arrow can hit the other candidate’s most glaring weak spot. It doesn’t necessarily elevate the one who is hit, especially if done in a slightly condescending way.
I couldn’t agree with you more, though, about Quayle being a lightweight, especially back then. “Dan, I have seen Barack Obama. I wish he were a friend of mine. Dan, you are no Barack Obama.”

Obama, I’m guessing, would not bring up ugly baggage; it would damage his own image. And who knows what baggage he might have? At 45, most people have at least something. Obama has great potential. I’m afraid that would be destroyed if he goes to the White House unprepared. He’s trying to bud too early, there’s a freeze coming, and he could die on the vine. Let Hillary handle the messes created by her husband and by the current president. We will need Obama later.

Ash, Obama is not yet a force of nature, but unless he ruins himself by winning this election, one day he will be.

Thank you both for writing. Would that all political debates could be this civil, honest, and without game-playing. –Mark Mercer

By: Ash

Ash — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:16:12 +0000

I don’t know. Seems to me that Obama is already right on up there with the big boys and ignoring him till he goes away is probably not going to work–he’s already here. Mercer’s point is “Why?”

I agree he’s a bright kid and he’s come further than I figure he would have, but I don’t see him as a “force of nature.”

By: Edmonsky

Edmonsky — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:09:06 +0000

I am sorry to say that this is a very bad piece of advice. The reason why Hilary Clinton is leading is because of the perception that she is a strong candidate with experience. If she squares off with Obama to a draw match, she will be fatally wounded. The fear Democrats have of nominating Obama is if he is tough enough to fight back Republican attack machine. Any fight against Obama by Hilary will elevate the status of the former as co-equal. It is a huge mistake to be comparing Lloyd Bentsen’s experience with Dan Quayle to Obama versus Hilary Clinton. Obama’s experience in elective public service is at par with Hilary Clinton, and same cannot be said between Dan Quayle and Bentsen; Dan Quayle is an intellectual lightweight but Obama is a force of nature.

Senators Dodd and Biden have taken on Obama on foreign policy experience and Obama shot back that he was being criticized by the authors that led US to the worst foreign policy disaster in our time, and since, both Senators have piped down. In fact, Obama is more or less baiting Hilary to attack him directly in order to hit her back with a devastating blow. You completely forgot that Hilary carries with her such a baggage that without her name recognition she can never win a statewide election to public office. Time will tell.