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Twisted adventures of Clinton cultists Saturday, Feb 9, 2008 By John Brummett I'd write about Mike Huckabee's continuing candidacy, but it comes down to the fact that he and his brood having nothing else to do. There's only one big story out there in American politics, and it's how Barack Obama has the Clinton cultists all strung out and twisted up. Lately the Clinton cultists have taken to ridiculing the inspiration that many take from Obama's rhetoric and movement. They call all of this eerily messianic. They make fun of that video in which assorted people recite softly to music a few of the more powerful portions of one of Obama's loftier speeches. "Yes, we can," say the Obamists. "No, we can't," reply the Clinton cultists. This is ironic, of course. You have cultists calling someone else eerily messianic. And the cultists doing the ridiculing extend their odd devotion to a candidate whose uplifting message is, like Michael Dukakis' before, competence. Obama offers FDR, JFK, RFK, MLK. Hillary Clinton come at us with LBJ. She inspires at levels that are positively Eisenhoweresque. Her rhetoric falls squarely between the Bushes, less than the old man's "kinder, gentler nation" but better than the kid's manglings and malapropisms. Name one memorable thing Hillary ever said? OK, other than "vast right-wing conspiracy against my husband" and "I guess I could have stayed home and baked cookies" and "this isn't some Tammy Wynette thing about standing by my husband." (But it was.) Clinton cultists are so knotted up by Obama that they were quoting favorably on Friday a column published that morning by a right-winger they used to despise. That would be the smarmy David Brooks of The New York Times. Brooks also thinks Obama fans are scary with all this "yes, we can" carrying-on. Did Brooks and the Clinton cultists think those Peace Corps kids weird? Was that "ask not what your country can do for you" business just shallow, meaningless cant? And Dr. King with that "I have a dream" - yeah, well, Clinton cultists have a dream, too, and it's a nightmare, and it's that - oh, dear - Hillary and Bill actually might lose. The essence, indeed the sum, of Clinton politics is winning for winning's sake. The Clinton cultists say Obama is just talk, not specifics. But he is specific about getting us out of Iraq more quickly than Hillary would. He is specific about releasing his personal income tax returns and suggesting maybe Hillary should, too, since she and Bill have poured $5 million of their own lucre into the campaign. He is specific, if perhaps wrong, that we could reach for universal health insurance without mandating coverage. Look, we've seen this movie before, but only with white male actors, and without such powerful performances. Obama is Gary Hart running with "new ideas" against Walter Mondale, and Hillary is Mondale asking where the beef is. Obama is Bill Bradley running against Al Gore. Obama is Bill Clinton running as a "new Democrat," except that, well, now we're getting all twisted up again. Bill Clinton turned out to be wholly about Bill Clinton, and his new ideas turned out to be co-opting Republican policy. Oh, here's another thing: Clinton cultists say that it's misogynistic to oppose her. Let me be charitable here. I will not say it is racist to oppose Obama. I will say it is entirely possible to oppose Hillary and not hate women just as it's entirely possible to oppose Obama and not hate black people. Alas, I probably ought to calm down. Hillary's going to win. And then she'll be all that stands between us and having Mike Huckabee one aging heartbeat from the presidency. Then I'll be a Clinton cultist myself. I'll be praying for some of that LBJ and Eisenhower. ------- John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699. |
