Whitewater anyone?

Hillary has successfully pushed back against what she deems a media bias against her. She played the damsel in distress tied to the railroad tracks and the media came running to her rescue almost on cue.

Hillary really has everyone backed into a corner now. If someone criticizes her, it means they hate women. If there is a broad reporting of something about her campaign and Hillary doesn’t like that particular reporting style then it just shows how misogynistic our society is. If video of her is played on the TV featuring some of her negative moments it’s somehow construed as a personal attack against her.

This has provided Hillary the necessary cover she needs to be able to safely lob dirt bombs at Obama. Everyone expects Hillary to be down in the mud throwing feces but no one expects Obama to do it. He is held to a different standard by the voting public and for the most part he is holding himself to a higher standard rather than simply engaging in political mudslinging with Hillary.

This allows Hillary to drop names like Rezko with the implication being that since he has been indicted it means Obama is just another dirty politician…like her. Everyone expects Hillary to be dirty (Whitewater) but since Obama has for the most part run an above-board campaign, it comes as a shock to everyone that he could even know someone who might have broken the law.

The media now is also doing their best to carry water for Hillary lest they be accused again of bias in favor of Obama. Thus they run with stories on Rezko and Canadian Politics parroting the Hillary campaign talking points with barely any fact checking.

It’s hard to say exactly why the media has turned on a dime to once again favor Hillary. I have three possible theories:

1) They really are concerned the public is perceiving a bias in the media against Hillary and fear it will turn people off.

2) Media Corporations like GE (NBC), Viacom, Disney (ABC), and Newscorp (FOX) have decided they would rather have Hillary as the candidate than Obama. They might think they can work with Hillary and fear Obama may do too much to reign in the power and monopolies of the media conglomerates.

3) The media wants a horse race. The media pushed the meme starting in January ’07 that Hillary was the shoe-in candidate. By mid-summer people started tuning out because they were being told Hillary was the next President. After Obama won Iowa the media enjoyed a ratings boost and they wanted to keep it going. The way to do that is to keep the race going. The way to keep the race going is to do their best to ensure there is no clear winner.

I happen to believe theory number 3 is probably closer to the truth. It benefits Fox, MSNBC, and CNN to have a horse race. They can have wall to wall coverage of the election and actually gain in viewership. Where as if at this point there was a clear winner most people would not be paying attention to today’s election.

For example, most people are not following the Republican Primary because it’s clear McCain has the nomination locked up. But the race between Obama and Hillary is still up for grabs.

One thing that puzzles me is how much projection Hillary is able to get away with. She is able to accuse Obama of using Rove style Republican politics while simultaneously running a fear mongering red phone ad. She is able to insinuate that Obama has engaged in some sort of shady land deal with Rezko when she has her own shady Whitewater land dealings. It’s as if it’s ok for her to use fear mongering Rove tactics and ok for her to engage in shady below board land deals.

There has been a lot of political calculus going on the past week and it will come to fruition today. Hillary and Obama are diametrically opposed. Hillary is playing the fear card while wallowing in the mud slinging feces at Obama. She’s been desperately trying to get Obama down in the mud with her for months. The only way her campaign thinks she can win is by taking Obama to the ground. In short, Hillary has taken the political low road.

Obama on the other hand has chosen to not engage her. For the most part he is ignoring the dirt balls being lobbed at him. Obama is attempting as best he can to take the political high road.

What will be determined tonight is what style of politics wins. If Hillary wins her campaign lead by Mark Penn and Terry McAuliffe will assume it was due to fear mongering and dirty negative political tactics. This will mean an even more negative campaign will follow. If Obama wins it means the politics of Hope and Change trumped fear and smear campaigns.

Lest we forget what Bill Clinton said in 2004:

Now, one of Clinton's laws of politics is this. If one candidate is trying to scare you and the other one is try get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope

-Bill Clinton