My admiration for Keith Olbermann should hardly come as a surprise to anyone who’s hung ‘round these parts for any length of time. His special comments are one of the few true examples of moral courage and thoughtful, incisive analysis that can be found in today’s mainstream media. Yes, they’re passionately and sometimes over-cooked and verbose, but Olbermann does lay it on the line. In this case, he’s spot-on about Hillary Clinton and her dismal excuse for a campaign. Last night’s special comment took Sen. Clinton to task for the increasing divisive and negative tone of her campaign. As Olbermann said, given the tenor that Sen. Clinton and her surrogates have introduced into the Democratic primary campaign, you could be forgiven for thinking the Sen. Clinton was the Republican and Sen. Obama the Democrat. This is doing nothing to improve the prospects of the eventual Democratic nominee in November. Slash-and-burn is no way to elevate the level of debate in a campaign, yet it appears that the Clinton campaign if far more concerned with winning the Democratic nomination than in doing what’s best for the party and the American people. It’s almost as if Clinton and her surrogates believes she deserves the nomination and Obama should wait his turn.
When winning at all cost becomes the modus operandi, how does that improve the chances of defeating John McCain? How does it help to get Americans focused on the real issues facing this country? The short answer is that it doesn’t, and I hold Sen. Clinton responsible for that. She could require that her campaign be raised to a level of dignity and fair play that wouldn’t leave her open to charges that she’s employing Republican tactics. So far she hasn’t, which to me indicates tacit approval of a “win at any cost” strategy. In the long run, this will not advance her interests, nor will it put Democrats in a better position to defeat John McCain come November.
And you wonder why my esteem and respect for Sen. Clinton decreases with each passing day?
WE DESERVE BETTER….
