Superdelegatious

[akirlu]

There are so many reasons to love Michael Bérubé, and certainly coining a term like "superdelegatious" is one of them.

But beyond that, Bérubé points out something that needs saying: yes, Sen. Clinton has indeed already been subjected to the howling fury of the Republican Noise Machine in a way that Sen. Obama has not; but having survived it doesn't mean she survived it with her image unscathed. It doesn't mean she spun it well.

The fact is, she didn't spin it well. A lot of that slime stuck. And the most memorable come-back she managed in all that time was the plaintive cry about being the victim of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Now, she was right about that, the Clintons really were the victims of a right-wing conspiracy. But she didn't have enough nous to realize that it isn't just about being right, it's also about sounding strong, and being plausible. Because if you don't already know about Richard Mellon Scaife's Arkansas Project, then the talk about conspiracies just makes you sound nutty and hysterical. And there are lots of voters for whom that nutty and hysterical image is what lingered, not Mrs. Clinton's grace under fire.

There are whole swathes of the country where Mrs. Clinton's image is in the toilet. This is why her negatives are so much higher than Mr. Obama's. And undoubtedly, his negatives would go up once the noise machine gets cranking. But so would hers. And she hasn't given us much reason to believe that she could effectively combat that.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

To my perception, the news media has been super dooper careful to not cast the slightest aspersions on Obama because he's you-know, but when they report about Clinton, there's just always that air of "So when did you stop beating your kids?"

A month ago: "So, Senator Obama experienced a ten point drop in approval ratings."

"Clinton dove down another ten points in approval ratings."

"Senator Obama soared three states in early elections."

"Clinton barely scraped up three states in early elections."

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I think it depends on what coverage you're catching, and your angle on the candidates. I've observed Clinton getting a buy on lots of stuff. Last night I was listening to some talking heads on CNN blithely blathering away about how Clinton's claims of being better qualified to be Commander in Chief were fact. The phrase "the fact that" was used.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Could very well be. I have to admit I get only a slice of what's out there. news media tend to make me cranky. Though I love for the moments when Olberman proclaims Karl Rove and Kick Cheney "Worst person in the worrrrrrrrld!"

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yep--this makes sense.