Exit Stage Left
Saturday, January 26th, 2008The LA Times Jonathan Chait is getting tired of the Clintons’ scorched earth tactics. In fact, he thinks it’s time for them to exit stage left:
Something strange happened the other day. All these different people, friends, co-workers, relatives, people on a liberal e-mail list I read, kept saying the same thing: They’ve suddenly developed a disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I think we’ve reached an irrevocable turning point in liberal opinion of the Clintons.
The sentiment seems to be concentrated among Barack Obama supporters. Going into the campaign, most of us liked Hillary Clinton just fine, but the fact that tens of millions of Americans are seized with irrational loathing for her suggested that she might not be a good Democratic nominee. But now that loathing seems a lot less irrational. We’re not frothing Clinton haters like…well, name pretty much any conservative. We just really wish they’d go away.
The big turning point seems to be this week, when the Clintons slammed Obama for acknowledging that Ronald Reagan changed the country. Everyone knows Reagan changed the country. Bill and Hillary have said he changed the country. But they falsely claimed that Obama praised Reagan’s ideas, saying he was a better president than Clinton, something he didn’t say and surely does not believe.
It’s amazing that people on the left didn’t say anything about the Clintons when they directed their attacks at conservatives but now they’re frothing at the mouth now that they’re attacking a liberal. I won’t belabor the point that there is a double standard; that isn’t news. (more…)