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HILLARY’S GAME
Part Two
[“Part One” is copied below from my earlier
post - http://jaygaskill.com/HillarysGame.htm .]
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Is it REALLY
over for Mrs. Clinton?
A HILLARY WATCHER ALERT
Pay very close
attention to how Senator Clinton parses her predicted concession
statement. Trust me, there will be a
loophole. From the point of view of the
(1) The super-delegates have not actually cast
votes (political endorsements, including Hillary’s, are subject to “revision”);
(2) The prospect of new damaging information
about Senator Obama remains alive….
Everything that
senator Clinton has done or said of late amounts to a bid for time against
mounting pressure.
THIS IS WHY
[][][]
TONY REZKO CONVICTED OF CORRUPTION CHARGES IN CHISAGO FEDERAL
COURT
[Excerpts are reproduced here for comment purposes,
only. Copyright Chicago Sun Times 2008.]
“[Tony] Rezko to
still faces another federal trial in
AP, Fox News, other
media report the reaction of the Junior Senator from
Senator Barak Obama: “I’m saddened by today’s verdict. This
isn’t the Tony Rezko I knew, but now he has
been convicted by a jury on multiple charges....”
Sure…
The pending question
is whether this is the Barak Obama we thought we knew…
BACKGROUND
BY CHRIS FUSCO AND TIM NOVAK Staff Reporters/cfusco@suntimes.com
tnovak@suntimes.com [Excerpts are reproduced here for commentary
purposes, only. Copyright Chicago Sun
Times 2008.]
“… Sen. Barack Obama has received
nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted businessman Tony Rezko and his associates than he has publicly acknowledged…
Obama has collected at least $168,308 from Rezko and
his circle [ and] also has taken in an unknown amount
of money from people who attended fund-raising events hosted by Rezko since the mid-1990s. [S]even months ago, Obama told
the Sun-Times his ‘best estimate’ was that Rezko
raised ‘between $50,000 and $60,000’ during Obama's
political career.
“Tony Rezko has long been a key backer of Sen. Barack Obama.”
MY COMMENT
Senator and Mrs. Obama are living in a home acquired with the generous help of Mr. Rezko. The value of Mr. Rezko’s assistance has been valued in the high six figures. So far, the Senator has not been required to explain this assistance and, inter alia, why this was not a reportable contribution. Reportedly, Obama was serving in the U. S. Senate at the time….
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MORE
BACKGROUND…
HILLARY’S
GAME
Part One
Let’s assume for the sake of
discussion, as do most “neutral” observers, that it is virtually impossible for
Senator Clinton to develop an overall lead over Senator Obama in the remaining
primaries (she is likely to win them).
What could possibly motivate
her to stay in the race now?
Yes, the
Remember two key words here:
“Tony Rezko”
and “2012”.
The Democratic Party has
begun to fracture just as victory is within its grasp. The most serious split is not – as many have
argued – between the “identity politics” groups (here feminists vs. black
Americans). The split is between the
party’s “pink” activists (think anti-military “Code Pink” here) and its “true
blue” plurality (think of the socially moderate, centrist patriots here). Hillary has appeared on the stage as a sort
of neo-Scoop Jackson democrat -- leaving aside the obvious differences, she has
staked out a much more robust national security profile than the Illinois
Senator has and one at odds with the party’s internationalist left.
I believe that Hillary and
her key advisors are thinking along two lines:
(1) Obama is on a pedestal so
high that a single, unanticipated scandal could lead to a precipitate
fall. It would be foolish in the extreme
if Hillary had prematurely taken herself out of the game. The name of that potential scandal is Tony Rezko. [More on that in a minute.]
(2) Hillary and a number of
Democratic Party insiders fear that Obama might lose so badly that
congressional and senatorial seats will be lost – something like the McGovern
debacle is not out of the question. So,
in this scenario, Hillary is positioning herself for an “I told you so” rerun
in 1012, one in which a John McCain becomes a single term president. An Obama victory in 2008 is not in Hillary’s
interests.
For these reasons I would
expect Senator Clinton to run this contest all the way to
Final arguments in a
Any reasonably astute
politician worth his or her political salt knew or should have known that close
association with Mr. Rezko was likely to be
toxic. Barak should have known
better. If the Rev. Wright was Obama’s spiritual mentor, then it seems that Mr. Rezko was the young Obama’s
influence and get-ahead mentor.
Although Barak’s
name has only indirectly been mentioned in the trial, other reports have
surfaced in the
I am dead certain that the
JBG