June 5, 2008
One of life’s important lessons, that not enough of us learn, is to quit while you’re ahead. Some people take the term “ahead” to mean “ahead”, as in “leading” or “beating the game”. Most of us other, more humble, people take that word in this context to mean “before you have lost very much”. This week, both Hillary and Bill Clinton have demonstrated such ignominious failures in this lesson as to have simultaneously destroyed the Clinton brand.
Hillary should have abandoned her Presidential campaign at the point when it became mathematically impossible for her to gain enough delegates to win. That was back on March 13, when Dick Morris (who had been Bill Clinton’s political consultant for his 1996 re-election bid) and others made that observation. Whatever motivated her to continue on, ultimately resulted in the dissociative speech she gave on the night of Tuesday, June 3, 2008, when Barack Obama earned enough delegates to guarantee himself the Democratic Presidential nomination. She spoke to her relatively small audience of sycophants and losers, as though she had just assured the nomination for herself. On the following day, she was faced with conference calls from 28 House members and 8 Senators, both pledged delegates and superdelegates for Clinton. According to Howard Fineman of Newsweek, these people made it clear that they were beyond disappointment that she had not given a concession speech. They were outraged by her arrogance and gave her an ultimatum: Hillary must release them as her delegates, or they would endorse Obama, regardless of her consent. Hillary agreed to a concession event, to take place on Saturday, June 7, at which time she would formally endorse Obama.
Invoking the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as an excuse for staying in the race was bad enough. However, here we had that same loser, unwilling to concede to the man for whom she had raised the prospect (or perhaps, fantasy) of assassination in her own mind and shared it with the public. So … was she going to wait for Sirhan, Jr. or what? The Senators and House members, upon the suggestion of a (now former) Clinton advisor, made that “wake-up call” to Hillary a little later than 3 a.m. The message was clear: she had overplayed her hand. She was now toxic. Continued association with her could spell political doom.
Meanwhile, back at the Chappaqua ranch, (actually while in Milbank, South Dakota) Bill had already shocked the world with his reaction to the Vanity Fair article about him, linking him to the steamy-hot Ms. Gina Gershon. Mayhill Fowler of The Huffington Post asked him if that story had been weighing on his mind. Bill became unhinged. Unlike the charming Bill Clinton we once knew, he called the Vanity Fair author (Todd Purdum) a “sleazy” “dishonest” “scumbag” and linked Obama operatives to some sort of Vanity Fair conspiracy against him. Bill went on to lash out at the media in general.
Is anyone really going to want to pay Bill’s high-dollar speaking fees after this? He has now sunk below “B-list”.
This is really sad. Bill was always such a charismatic fellow. Even after Monicagate, many of us still loved him. This charismatic quality, contrasted with Bill’s recent antics and his history of temper tantrums, brings to mind the subject of what is called “borderline personality disorder”. Many people with this disorder are considered quite charismatic, most of the time. Then Dr. Jekyll suddenly becomes Mr. Hyde. Research that subject on webmd.com or your favorite resource. Think about Bill when you read it.
With Hillary toxic and Bill “off the charts” nuts, there is now little left of the Clinton brand. This could have been avoided if Hillary had just faced up to the fact that she lost, back when many astute observers said she did. Instead, both Hillary and Bill fought on, destroying the Clinton brand in the process. Sound familiar? According to Dick Morris, Bill could have settled the sexual harassment claim of Paula Jones, although it was Hillary who opposed this. Monicagate could have been completely avoided if Bill had just settled Paula Jones’ claim. Then, as now, it was Hillary’s decision to ride the scandal down the toilet. In the Jones case, it resulted in Monicagate and impeachment. Now in 2008, Hillary’s decision to ride her Presidential campaign down the toilet has destroyed the precious Clinton brand, which was supposed to bring her to The White House. You have to know how to quit when you’re ahead – and that means: “before you have lost very much”.