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And the bear that Senator Obama has not yet killed is a particularly ferocious eight-footed beast with a joint century of experience in politcs and the law, and that fights only to win. Anyone who underrates the Clintons does so at their own peril. Senator Obama did himself no favours at all by talking as if he had legally won the Democratic primary last night; he has not. He should remember the good old American saying "It ain't over till the fat lady sings"; and between now and the convention, apart from the time they have already spent on it, a thin lady and her tall husband will spend every waking moment of their lives going down the list of every single delegate, looking for anyone whom they can convince, cajole, coherce, threaten or swindle or bribe into voting for them. I do not mean only independent super-delegates, or even those elected in the interest of lesser candidates in the early stages of the election; the Obama camp had better look to its own supporters. Every one of them. Because if there are any representatives anywhere who can in any way be turned, the Clintons will sniff them out and turn them.
The media have consistently undermined the sheer determination of the Clintons to win by any means necessary. One has to understand that this is a man who clawed his way from a southern poor-white background to a Rhodes Scholarship and an internship with the legendary Senator Fulbright, who was a governor in the state of his birth in his forties and President in his fifties. One does not get there by being a nice guy; not even by being corrupt. One has to be the kind of person, luckily rare, who wakes up every morning thinking "what can I do today that will get me closer to being President?" And Hillary is, in this, his absolute soul-mate. The fact that she was sacked from the Nixon investigation as a young woman, for proposing means to hobble the defence that were absolutely illegal, has been widely bruited about the conservative media. But they have not drawn the most serious conclusion: that this is a woman who will do absolutely anything to win a case, especially if she believes she is right. Tricky Dicky was such an obvious target that the idea that he had rights same as any other citizen did not even begin to enter her head. Women in general are much more ruthless than men once they have identified an enemy (something to which I bear personal witness); they do not believe in rules, in holding back, or in leaving anyone any space for personal dignity even in defeat. And then there is the experience of an American law school. Again, this is something I have met in person - in my several encounters with![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
heidi8: they form a mentality, incomprehensible to sane mankind, whereby to get a decision in any kind of court or forum, by whatever means, and for whatever reason, so long as it is not incompatible with written rules, is exactly the same as to get the most crushing moral victory. They genuinely see no difference between moral righteousness and victory. And Hillary and Bill are both American lawyers, Hillary even more so than Bill.
Senator Obama has done his country no good at all by his premature claim of victory. He probably could not have held back his supporters anyway; their desire to see him elected goes beyond the merely political into the world of profound psychological personal motivation. But by encouraging them to believe that that consummation devoutly to be wished was already there, he has laid the basis for a terrible explosion if anything goes wrong. However much he may have tried to move to the centre, there are some pretty scary characters among his supporters. And if they come to feel that they have been cheated - and feeling will be enough, whatever the facts are - they will make Denver 08 worse than Chicago 68. I would not exclude the possibility of a party split of the kind that took place among the Republicans in 1912; and at any rate the nation would go to the polls in the most poisonous atmosphere it has seen in a century or more.
(By the way, the saying I started with is attached to a very nice Aesop-type fable. In the mountains of Italy, bears can still be found, and once upon a time it was a title of honour for a huntsman to kill one. So it happened that two friends decided to go and look for one. They were both experienced huntsmen, and so confident that they were already talking about what they would do with the money for the bearskin that they were sure to get.
THEN THEY HEARD A ROAR! The bear they were after had completely got the drop on them. One of the friends, scared out of his wits, ran for the nearest high tree and climbed it till he was beyond reach - leaving his gun behind. The other man ran, fell, tumbled into a dell, and lay there, hoping that he bear would think him dead and leave him alone. The bear came down till he could touch him; hung around a bit; gave him one or two good sniffs; and then left.
When the bear had finally gone away, the first man came down from his tree, picked up his rifle, and made his way down to the second. Feeling rather witty, he asked him: "Well, what did the bear have to tell you that was so important?" For the bear had been sniffing at his head.
"Very important things indeed," answered the second huntsman bitterly. "First, never to trust in friends who run up a tree when you are in danger, and, second, never to sell the bearskin before you've killed the bear.")
The media have consistently undermined the sheer determination of the Clintons to win by any means necessary. One has to understand that this is a man who clawed his way from a southern poor-white background to a Rhodes Scholarship and an internship with the legendary Senator Fulbright, who was a governor in the state of his birth in his forties and President in his fifties. One does not get there by being a nice guy; not even by being corrupt. One has to be the kind of person, luckily rare, who wakes up every morning thinking "what can I do today that will get me closer to being President?" And Hillary is, in this, his absolute soul-mate. The fact that she was sacked from the Nixon investigation as a young woman, for proposing means to hobble the defence that were absolutely illegal, has been widely bruited about the conservative media. But they have not drawn the most serious conclusion: that this is a woman who will do absolutely anything to win a case, especially if she believes she is right. Tricky Dicky was such an obvious target that the idea that he had rights same as any other citizen did not even begin to enter her head. Women in general are much more ruthless than men once they have identified an enemy (something to which I bear personal witness); they do not believe in rules, in holding back, or in leaving anyone any space for personal dignity even in defeat. And then there is the experience of an American law school. Again, this is something I have met in person - in my several encounters with
heidi8: they form a mentality, incomprehensible to sane mankind, whereby to get a decision in any kind of court or forum, by whatever means, and for whatever reason, so long as it is not incompatible with written rules, is exactly the same as to get the most crushing moral victory. They genuinely see no difference between moral righteousness and victory. And Hillary and Bill are both American lawyers, Hillary even more so than Bill.Senator Obama has done his country no good at all by his premature claim of victory. He probably could not have held back his supporters anyway; their desire to see him elected goes beyond the merely political into the world of profound psychological personal motivation. But by encouraging them to believe that that consummation devoutly to be wished was already there, he has laid the basis for a terrible explosion if anything goes wrong. However much he may have tried to move to the centre, there are some pretty scary characters among his supporters. And if they come to feel that they have been cheated - and feeling will be enough, whatever the facts are - they will make Denver 08 worse than Chicago 68. I would not exclude the possibility of a party split of the kind that took place among the Republicans in 1912; and at any rate the nation would go to the polls in the most poisonous atmosphere it has seen in a century or more.
(By the way, the saying I started with is attached to a very nice Aesop-type fable. In the mountains of Italy, bears can still be found, and once upon a time it was a title of honour for a huntsman to kill one. So it happened that two friends decided to go and look for one. They were both experienced huntsmen, and so confident that they were already talking about what they would do with the money for the bearskin that they were sure to get.
THEN THEY HEARD A ROAR! The bear they were after had completely got the drop on them. One of the friends, scared out of his wits, ran for the nearest high tree and climbed it till he was beyond reach - leaving his gun behind. The other man ran, fell, tumbled into a dell, and lay there, hoping that he bear would think him dead and leave him alone. The bear came down till he could touch him; hung around a bit; gave him one or two good sniffs; and then left.
When the bear had finally gone away, the first man came down from his tree, picked up his rifle, and made his way down to the second. Feeling rather witty, he asked him: "Well, what did the bear have to tell you that was so important?" For the bear had been sniffing at his head.
"Very important things indeed," answered the second huntsman bitterly. "First, never to trust in friends who run up a tree when you are in danger, and, second, never to sell the bearskin before you've killed the bear.")
