Hillary Clinton has said that she has won more popular votes than her opponent, Barack Obama and is, therefore, more electable than he. Some call this an outright lie and others, like myself, call this typical Clinton Triangulation, or, saying whatever it takes to win.
Bill Clinton perfected a way to find a middle strategy in every argument. To say that Hillary Clinton has won the popular vote is partly true but she didn't "win" it in Michigan unless you view "undecided" as a worthy opponent.
Triangulation. Magical thinking. Call it what you want.
But as we call it what we want it is important to remember what Bill Clinton left some of us after he finished eight years of triangulating. Matt Bai writing in the NYTimes Sunday magazine last December wrote that in the view of some Democrats (myself included)
" ... Clinton failed to seize his moment and create a more enduring, more progressive legacy -- not just because of his personal travails and Republican attacks that hobbled his presidency, but because his centrist, "third way" political strategy, his strategy of "triangulating" ... sapped the party of its core principles." Bai goes on to say those critical of the Bill Clinton years (myself included) feel he "opened the door wide for Bush to come along and enact his extremist agenda with only token opposition."
Bill Clinton believes that George W. Bush has assaulted his progressive legacy. In my opinion, if Clinton had a solid progressive legacy it would have withstood George W. Bush and Al Gore would be finishing his second term instead of an extremist.
We are now seeing the hand of Bill Clinton and triangulation over and over in Hillary Clinton's campaign. It is an election strategy -- softening the core liberal principles, such as they are, of the Democratic Party in order to win - that won him the White House twice. It is a strategy meant to confuse by appearing to take the middle ground. For instance, Hillary declines to be called a liberal. She is a progressive. What does that mean? It is a smudgy middle ground and leaves the meaning up to a kind of political finger in the wind interpretation.
After I heard Hillary Clinton exclaim that she had more popular votes than her opponent I gave up on any hope that she could bring anything new to the Presidency if she were elected. Hillary Clinton might be electable but her way of governing will be rooted in the past and could be like chalk on a sidewalk on a rainy day.
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