Clinton Fatigue is Real but Will They Still Turn to Hillary?

I had heard the phrase "Clinton fatigue" about 3 weeks ago when the famous presidential temper (his, i.e. Bill's) was erupting over the alleged "pass" the press was giving Senator Barack Obama in his audacious pursuit of the White House. Many-a tongue was wagging that perhaps the Bill and Hillary "twofer" was a bit old; that "throwbacks" were best left to sports jerseys and fish not worth eating. Perhaps the time had come for...CHANGE! And who best to provide this change, none other than the youthful Senator from Illinois.

Since declaring his candidacy, Barack Obama has been racking up presidential endorsements quicker than Bill Clinton does conquests when Hillary is out of town. To date the list is quite impressive:

·        Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is national campaign chairman.

·        Senator John Kerry

·        Oprah Winfrey

·        Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano

·        Former Conn. Senatorial Candidate Ned Lemont

·        Warren Buffet

·        Zbignew Brzezinski

·        D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty

·        Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin

·        Virginia Governor Tim Kaine

·        Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley

The Boston Globe is reporting today (Sunday, January 27, 2008) that the Senate's Old Liberal Lion himself, Edward M. Kennedy will "break his yearlong neutrality" and endorse Senator Obama tomorrow.

Caroline Kennedy, invoking nostalgic images of her youthful late father JFK, writes in the Sunday, January 27^th edition

Can you think of a statement more damaging to the joint-Clintonian ego that comparing someone else to the late John F. Kennedy? That comparison was supposed to pass to Bill Clinton/Hillary Clinton much in the way a biblical birthright was passed on in antiquity.

Yet despite this seemingly "perfect storm" of disapprobation, liberal scold/New York Times OP-Ed columnist Frank Rich pens a Cassandra-like portrait of a Democrat party that is doomed to defeat because they will invariably turn to Mother Superior- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In what for him is a surprisingly well-reasoned article entitled "The Billary Road to Republican Victory"  (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin), Mr. Rich writes of the amazing myopia both parties have with regard to the "contours of the road-map."

As this relates to Billary, a term he employs liberally to describe the joint candidacy of Hillary/Bill Clinton for the presidency, Mr. Rich bucks conventional Democrat/talking-head wisdom and basically opines that the ex-president, and his Mt. Vesuvius temper are a huge drag on his wife's candidacy. Try as she may to side-step, obfuscate, dissemble, and just plain avoid questions about Bill's doings, Hillary is has a lot of 'splainin' to do. For better and for worse, she is tied to her husband.

Consider this little nugget (what if this were a Republican presidential candidate?)

Just before the holidays, investigative reporters at both The Washington Post and The New York Times tried to find out why, with no help from the Clintons. The Post uncovered a plethora of foreign contributors, led by Saudi Arabia. The Times found an overlap between library benefactors and Hillary Clinton campaign donors, some of whom might have an agenda with a new Clinton administration. (Much as one early library supporter, Marc Rich's ex-wife, Denise, had an agenda with the last one.) "The vast scale of these secret fund-raising operations presents enormous opportunities for abuse," said Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat whose legislation to force disclosure passed overwhelmingly in the House but remains stalled in the Senate.

One has to wonder if it weren't for the Obama movement (it is no longer a phenomenon), would Mr. Rich be chronicling such legendary misdeeds from the Clinton's?

The long and short of Mr. Rich's screed is that Billary will be the gift that will keep on giving, even if the Republicans nominate John McCain.

Rich enjoins us to imagine Mrs. Clinton revisiting the line "I've been tested for 35 years;" and  Senator McCain countering with, in effect, "Yeah, while you were bivouacking at Yale Law, I had a suite in the Hanoi Hilton where I was getting the sh*t kicked out of me for five years."

Hillary as the nominee? The Dems courting disaster?

Man, this is rich!