Obama & Clinton: The Left's Best Hope?

With five month until the Democratic convention and eight months until the general election, many Americans are expressing political fatigue over the Obama-Clinton internecine.  Democratic strategist, Bob Beckel laments this development, which some of us saw as an inevitable outcome of liberalism's stagnant political platform, because not only does it fail to provide a definitive candidate, it's counter to the spirit of bipartisanship the candidates tout.

Although it's statistically impossible for Senator Clinton to win, she sees in the super-delegates a kind of political salvation, and because of that, she'll take this contest right to the convention, Mr. Beckel's entreaties notwithstanding.  But beyond the mechanics of this battle and the daily feuding of the candidates, we're struck by the staggering immaturity of the Democrats' choices for president.

We'll stipulate that neither has a presidential resume, but, far more disturbing is the curious truth that although we have the paradigmatic Democratic choice--a man of African ancestry and a woman--both are firmly and apparently irreconcilably in the grip of the very politics they have forsworn. 

To wit, Obama professes to be a 'post-racial' candidate, but virtually every utterance confirms his deep investment in a politics of grievance and a blinkered entitlement to special treatment based on historical wrongs.  The Reverend Wright debacle, which we're all well versed on by now, is a compelling case in point, but there's also his remarkably anachronistic book, Dreams From My Father, which Hugh Hewitt has excerpted from the author's audio book.

It's replete with examples of the caustic racial politics of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, which frames every ill that blacks of African ancestry have faced as the product of systemic racism, and characterizes Caucasians as innately racist.  It's a backward looking view of America, one in stark contrast to such cutting edge blacks as Juan Williams, whose book, Enough, demands that his fellow blacks stop blaming whites for their failings, and Bill Cosby, who rants against the deterministic thinking of blacks who seem intent upon perpetuating the myth white America is hobbling their ability to succeed.

As for Senator Clinton, she has inartfully and transparently exploited her gender in ways that must make the last few feminists in America cringe.  But beyond that is her inimitable verve for blending fact with fiction.  No, we're not talking about Whitewater, the Rose Law firm billing records, Vince Foster, or Travelgate.  Rather, we're focusing on the litany of half-truths and outright fictions as cataloged by Dick Morris.

It's been observed that the will to power clouds judgment and makes people unwitting participants in a game of fictionalizing their images.  It also deludes them into harboring the wholly naive notion that their charade won't be discovered.  Mrs. Clinton's description of deplaning in Bosnia under sniper fire was laughably debunked by footage showing her walking calmly off the plane and greeting a young girl with daughter Chelsea.

There are endless examples of these incongruities, but between Obama and Clinton, serious Democrats nationwide must be asking themselves whether these two represent the left's best hope of winning the White House.  It's a hope that the likes of Mr. Beckel believes may be in jeopardy.