Apparently, Obama isn't the only one to speak positively of Ronald Reagan. Hillary and Bill have too. Yet now they are attacking Obama for what he said about the similarity between this election and the election in which Reagan came to power, and using it against him.
What is becoming clear to me regarding these petty personal attacks, including taking things out of context, overreacting, and deliberately misinterpreting (dare we say spinning?) things the other candidates say, is happening because the three candidates still in the running are basically all proposing the same types of policies. (Kucinich, who is also still in the running is proposing quite different policies and he is therefore simply ignored.) Because there is so little of substance that is really different between them, they must find other reasons to get people to vote for them. And since the stakes are so high, every word, every phrase of each of the candidates is under intense scrutiny by each of the other candidates.
The biggest offender here, although they all participate to some extent, is Senator Clinton. She, her campaign surrogates, and her husband, are all using every opportunity they can to attack Obama because they have the most to lose. Obama has a real chance to get the nominiation which makes him their biggest threat, the one who could take away their dream of re-occupying the White House, which is why they attack him far more than they attack Edwards.
There is so much for them to lose, so much that they have been counting on for nearly eight years: a chance to vindicate the former president, a chance to get even with their enemies by once again wielding power, a chance to implement all the ideas they couldn't implement in the nineties because they were under attack the whole time, a chance to rewrite their legacies. For Hillary, it is also a chance to show the country and indeed the entire world that she is not a victim, but instead the most powerful person in the world.
This is heady stuff, and the thought of achieving it so intoxicating that it seems to have caused her and her husband to lose all objectivity and, in the case of the former president, a great deal of dignity.
Hillary says she is running for president because she cares about the country. I don't doubt her sincerity in saying this as I think she actually believes it. But as a psychotherapist, I know that the real reasons people do things are often below their full awareness. We know that was true of George W. Bush, not only in his desire to run for president, but in his decision to go to war against a country that was not an immediate threat. And now, I fear, Hillary and Bill are attempting to bring their unfinished psychological business to the White House.
This is why you see so many underhanded attacks against Obama, and so much anger on the part of the former president, anger we were told about but didn't really see in his own campaigns, nor in his time in the White House. The years of planning for this potential victory, including victory over their adversaries, the ultimate payback, was within their grasp when this young (though slightly older than Bill Clinton when he ran for president in 1992) upstart dared to challenge them. At first, they didn't realize how much he would appeal to the nation, yes in much the same way that Ronald Reagan appealed to the nation. This is one reason why they are pouncing on the Reagan comments. It isn't just that they want to attack the bogeyman of progressives; it's that they can't let the story line be about a transformative election.
You can see their frustration and anger in their words and their tactics. They simply can't let Obama win. To have their long dreamed of vindication and a return to power stolen from them by this young charismatic candidate is unthinkable. The humiliation would be unbearable.
There is more at stake here than most people realize, and the Clintons are fighters. Anyone who doubts that ought to look back at the impeachment fiasco. Any other president would probably have resigned. Not Bill Clinton.
Any other first lady would have been mortified and gone into retirement. Not Hillary. She imediately began plans to run for the Senate, and now she wants the most powerful job in the world.
If Obama wins in Nevada or South Carolina, expect the smears and attacks to escalate. These people are not quitters, and they have no intention of being losers.
