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| The Logo for Hillary's Next Campaign |
At this point, nobody seems to know who's behind the Draft Hillary movement. It has popped up across the country, materializing overnight like mushrooms in a soggy pasture. She certainly has not indicated publicly she's gunning for the White House. So we have a mystery. There are suspicions Republicans are orchestrating the movement in order to undercut Obama and drive a wedge into the Democrats -- splitting them into camps of Hillary backers and those who back the President. There are suspicions that the Clinton's was to nudge Vice President Joe Biden off the 2012 ticket so Hillary can fill that job and position herself for 2016. There are suspicions that Occupy movement supporters have soured on Obama and will do anything to stop his reelection.
The Daily Bellwether's crack staff is digging into the mystery but hasn't come up with anything solid yet. Jason Johnson writes on Politics 365 and dismisses Draft Hillary as a total political scam. That sentiment is shared by top local and Ohio Democrats The Daily Bellwether has quizzed. Here's Johnson, a political science professor at Hiram College outside Cleveland, who's heard draft Hillary robocalls:
Whatever Republican operative set up these calls (and you know that is who’s behind them) is just a touch too late for the political zeitgeist of 2012. A year ago, before the Republican field made their debut and right after the mid-term shellacking there were plenty of calls for Obama to step aside and let Hillary run.
However, on the eve of the 2012 elections for anyone who is actually bothering to vote it’s not about Obama versus the imaginary Clinton presidency part 2 – it’s about Barack Obama versus whomever the Republican nominee will be. Any die hard Hillary Clinton supporters out there still pining away for her imaginary presidency dropped off the Obama bandwagon three years ago.
There is one mysterious occurrence The Daily Bellwether believes is worth nothing. Around the time the e-mails landed yesterday a few people at State.gov -- the official Web address of the U.S. State Department -- were poking around reading material on The Daily Bellwether. Perhaps they were scoping out the blog just for the hell of it. Or maybe the visit was by coincidence. Or maybe they wanted to see what was up with Draft Hillary. Read on for the full text of the Draft Hillary e-mail some Cincinnati-area Democrats have received:
Dear Friend of Hillary,
Please sign our petition asking Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
Now more than ever, the 18 million of us who voted for Hillary in 2008 need to be heard from.
America is at a critical crossroads and the stakes have never been higher:
- 25 million people are still looking for work and our young adults have become a LOST GENERATION.
- Six million middle-class homes are still in the pipeline to be foreclosed.
- Foreign countries thrive at our expense, as they manufacture and sell products to the U.S. with cheap outsourced labor.
- Our nation is falling behind in higher education, repairing our infrastructure, and in building a green jobs economy.
- Womens health, choice, and access to safe birth controlcontinue to be put at risk and compromised.
Enough is enough!
We need a President that will not compromise on core democratic values; who will make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes; and who can defeat the obstructionist Tea Party Republicans.
Clearly, we need Hillary Clinton to move our country forward.
Hillary Clinton has national polling numbers exceeding 70% job approval!
Hillary Clinton has done a wonderful job as our Secretary of State. Her diplomatic initiatives have made our world safer, she has championed the rights of women and girls, and she has helped restore our nation's honor and respect throughout the world.
Help us make history! Help us make Hillary Clinton our next President!
This letter is being sent toSecretary Clinton's past supporters and voters.
Hillary needs to hear from us today. Please sign the petition so she will decide to RUN!
Sincerely,
Run Hillary 2012
PS Please forward this letter to your network of family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers and urge them to sign the petition atwww.runhillary2012.net - Thank you!
I have not gotten one of these, and wondered why: oh, right, I changed my phone number to avoid calls from political and charitable organizations!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me what a great idea that was.
Like a good Dem shill, Hiram College prof Johnson is pretending to know what he doesn't know. There is plenty of leftover bitterness from 2008 from the PUMA (Party Unity My A**) crowd, most of whom ended up holding their noses and voting for Obama. Since then, Dems have lost the House, have been creamed in many statehouses, and are facing an at least somewhat likely loss of the Senate, while Obama's policies have created a dangerous fiscal situation. There's plenty of basis for concern on the Dem side.
ReplyDeletePat Caddell and Doug Schoen, both Dem pollsters, pleaded with Obama to step aside for Hillary several weeks ago in a WSJ op-ed. The prof acts as if none of this is happening.
Tom Blumer
BizzyBlog.com
No way is Hillary running for president in 2012. If Biden gets booted, she will be the Veep. Hillary has more brains in her little finger than Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann have in both their heads.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that right wing partisan hack Tommy Blummer chimed in speaks for itself. The entire PUMA affair was always a GOP front and it continues to be so.
ReplyDeletePat Caddell and Doug Schoen are bitter hacks who wish true Democrats nothing but ill. They would be the equivalent of telling Republicans they must abandon all their right-wing positions in order to win (which may be true but which would earn nothing but mocking scorn). This entire thing is either A. Republicans hoping fruitlessly to divide Democrats with this old fight most have abandoned or B. a group of media people who contrived it in order to have something "sexy" to write about so they can continue to ignore policy that impacts our lives and the future of our country.
ReplyDeleteoh and Tom: it's REPUBLICAN intransigence and openly stated disregard for the fate of this country's regular citizens that has created a dangerous fiscal situation. What can you say about people for whom the word "deficit" was nonexistent in the eight years the deficit was being created, but now that there is hope in sight suddenly it is the biggest (manufactured) crisis on earth? Hypocrites of the first order who unfortunately are costing those of us not lucky enough to be born in the wealthy class our security and stability.