14 April 2016

Twenty minutes of Hillary v. Bernie was all I could endure

Hillary Clinton’s going for the knockout punch against Bernie Sanders in tonight’s debate on CNN. Her Trump-like swaggering and sneering caused me to knock the event — which CNN, going for conflict, not enlightenment, was conducting like a TV game show — off my screen before half past the hour.

This election is personal for her. She honestly believes she’s the Democrat best qualified to be president, and that she’s earned the nomination through her loyalty to the party. To her, and to many of her followers, especially the ones who want plum jobs in her administration, Bernie Sanders’ candidacy is illegitimate, an affront to the party, and an insult to her.

In the opinion of Hillary and her sycophants, she’s going to win the nomination. Therefore, Bernie should fold his tent and say nothing more except “vote for Hillary.” His determination to exercise his right to contest the nomination until the convention makes a choice infuriates her and her camp. They want not only to win the nomination, but now, their sense of entitlement being challenged, they want to run Sanders, and those who think like him, out of the Democratic Party.

Call it political road rage. It ain’t pretty.

When she’s under pressure, as she is now, she delivers her disdain with a mannerism one expects from a street brawler, not with the dignified bearing one should expect from a former secretary of state who wants to become president. Here she is 20 years ago as President Bill Clinton’s wife, defending him. Note the mannerism.

She may win the Democratic nomination. We may have to choose between her and Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, or perhaps the “moderate” Republican, John Kasich.

God help the republic.