Friday, January 04, 2008

Is Iowa The Beginning Of The End Of The Clintons?

Since last night, I have had a hunch that the result in Iowa's democratic caucuses has chrystalized a series of problems with the theretofore "inevitability" of the Junior Senator from New York.

I now want to get on the record a hunch I had watching last night's coverage while live commenting on JOM, which elaborates on a comment I made on Q&O:


My question is when will Hillary!’s "surrogates" drop "the big one" on Barack Obama?

It had better be soon, because he is off to the races, and is inside Hillary!’s OODA loop. Her machine is not lean enough to respond. Her battle techniques are stale and too well-known to exploit the element of surprise.

Further, her claxon call is no longer an appeal to the youth/withit vote. From her, it still sounds like a call to the boomer generation which rapidly is turning into the geezer generation.

And whereas Barack sounds new and exciting, Hillary! sounds liks a fishwife on steroids — even when trying to deliver the same message that from Barack sounds fresh and new.

Charisma comes from within. Teddy had it, FDR had it, Ike had it, JFK had it, Reagan had it, and to some extent, Bill Clinton had it. Hillary! does not have it.

More exposure will just magnify these differences.

I may be wrong, but I have a hunch we saw the passing of the Clinton generation last evening in that nearly empty ballroom in Iowa.

Just a feeling, mind you; but real nevertheless.

11 comments:

chuck said...

Huff, huff, geeze, huff. Gotta agree, we - cough - old farts are passing into history. But we're gonna to take the youngsters' money with us.

loner said...

I wonder if I'll live to see the day when the Clintons on one side and Bush/Rove on the other are seen as nothing more than the most successful of the politicos in an age of mediocrity everywhere.

Romney's people (and others one supposes) threw what they had at Huckabee through their friendlies and he either survived by being crazy like a fox or, more likely, the voters just tuned it all out as the same old, sam old garbage that it was/is.

Hillary can do whatever she likes. Obama, thus far, hasn't given any sign during the past four years that he has self-destructive tendencies.

I don't wish her well. It'd be nice to have a positive choice for a change.

Barry Dauphin said...

Is Obama Boise State 2006 or Hawaii 2007? I do not count the Clintons out, especially after WJC survived Monica (which all the pundits immediately predicted was the end of his Presidency). The Boomers are aging, but old folks vote in greater proportion than young folks and there are a lot of geezer Boomers.

I think Obama could win the nomination (and don't think Edwards can). Hillary is not charismatic, but the Clintons are vicious when they are down, and history indicates they don't really stay down. Obama is perceived as having that certain something, and that goes a long way. Still, he has not been truly battle tested yet. I expect he will be in the next couple of months or he surely will be in Fall '08.

buddy larsen said...

How many would be SO relieved to see the Clintons sail off into the sunset? 200 million, maybe?

Rick Ballard said...

"history indicates they don't really stay down"

Barry,

Alinsky rules don't allow for "staying down" - a locked door just gets a broken window.

Boomer geezers will be just as weird as ever as they age. It will be very interesting to watch Boomer reaction to Hussein - they've been looking at "new" and "fresh" for a very long time and may have reached the generational point of discernment. Alternatively, they'll just be older suckers.

Buddy,

John Dunne was such a liar.

buddy larsen said...

that he was -- that "no man is in Ireland" is definitely a fib -- why, they say the capital city is dublin as we speak!

truepeers said...

I wonder if I'll live to see the day when the Clintons on one side and Bush/Rove on the other are seen as nothing more than the most successful of the politicos in an age of mediocrity everywhere.

-fear not!

loner said...

Barry—

That's easy. Boise State. I was hoping Hawaii would play as well until their first punt. After that, I wanted Georgia to send them home really sad though I sort of felt bad for the people who'd come all that way to support them.

Buddy—

Too low.

truepeers—

I can't say I live in Hope. Happy to see your handle again. It's been awhile.

Best.

buddy larsen said...

a pun too low is like water too wet

loner said...

Not the pun.

Free associating book/movie title from poetry alert:

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song...


Waiting impatiently for the other one, There Will Be Blood, to open here.

Brings to mind my favorite living playwright:

We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.

Too low doesn't apply to puns. If memory serves, Tim Roth who played one or the other in the movie version asked of his character in Rob Roy: How far over the top do you want me to go? The director responded: There is no top. Such was the direction that led to an AA nomination. Unfortunately for Roth, Kevin Spacey played Verbal and "the devil himself" that year.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.

buddy larsen said...

You sure throw sparks, loner -- yep, who'd've ever thought, say two or three years ago, that cormac mccarthy and the coen brothers would've gotten together ? Then when you hear that they have, there's no surprise, as it instantly seems inevitable.

Anyhoo, i haven't seen the film yet but am sure looking forward to it--