Hank Kalet

Cutting loose the past

James Carroll of The Boston Globe writes today of the deleterious impact that Bill Clinton’s presidency had on the Democratic Party. It wasn’t just that his presence in the White House helped create the momentum to shift the House of Representatives over to the GOP. Or that he governed as a moderate, Nelson Rockefeller-esque Republican, rather than as a populist Democrat.

The list of policy failures that corrupted the party includes a foreign policy that “kept the nuclear arms race going” and that “led directly to today’s simmering crises with Iran and Russia” and includes NAFTA, welfare reform and his tough-on-crime stance. (This could be the shore on which the choice of Joe Biden as vice president founders.)

There is something else, as well:

In rallying to him when, through his dalliances, Clinton made himself vulnerable to the “great right-wing conspiracy” and impeachment, Democrats never reckoned with the ethical fallout to themselves of their defense of the dichotomy between public responsibility and private morality.

Clinton proved exactly what kind of person he is not so much when he committed indiscretions with the young Monica Lewinsky, but when – “I did not have sexual relations . . .” – he showed himself ready to destroy her. Not merely flawed, Clinton is utterly lacking in character. That he is still a celebrated figure among Democrats mortally compromises the party.

He adds another important point, about the Hillary Clinton campaign and its echoes in the general election campaign:

Hillary Clinton’s evident civic virtue was undercut by the deliberate, if never acknowledged, strategy she adopted in her primary competition with Obama. Her campaign was accused of sly exploitation of racial prejudice, but that was not the real issue. Race is certainly a factor in Obama’s political fate, but the Clinton campaign played a different card, an older one.

Clinton adviser Mark Penn’s advice to attack Obama for his “lack of American roots” was supposedly repudiated, but the fake contrast between beer-swigging, Bible-believing Hillary and the elitist thin man who might be a Muslim was a subliminal exploitation of just that theme. The many Clinton supporters who remain suspicious of Obama were prepped by her campaign for the McCain pitch that this black man with the funny name and background is not really “one of us.”

The most damaging political idea is that patriotism is somehow undercut by concern for, and ties to, the larger world. In its darkest form, this prejudice has been used against Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and various immigrant groups. Attacking “deracinated cosmopolitans” is standard fare of reactionary politics, and history shows it to be dangerous.

Hillary Clinton, he says, “a true cosmopolitan,” should have known better that her “her narrow-minded, class-baiting campaign persona” was a hazardous gambit.

She has unleashed a dynamic that may poison the fall campaign, turning one of Obama’s great strengths, an unfettered mind born of an expansive background, into the occasion of his defeat. If that happens, America will be a smaller, nastier place.

Hypocrisy on the trail

Paul Krugman reminds readers of the hypocrisy of the Republican attack dogs and the need for Democrats to turn up the heat on John McCain, if they want to win the White House even after nearly eight disastrous years of Republican misrule.

Runner’s diary, Monday

I learned something this morning: I am in the worst shape I’ve been in all year. I ran three miles after nine days of inactivity and finished, but only barely. I guess the lesson is that I need to pay closer attention to what I eat again, and I need to just keep on training hard.

Talk, talk, it’s all talk

Watching MSNBC’s coverage of the Democratic Convention, one thing is clear — there is way too much down time for the talking heads, who insist on talking and talking and saying nothing. Ugh.

Obama no longer Biden his time

Barack Obama is a liberal centrist — always has been. In fact, the Democratic primary featured just two candidates who could not be characterized in that way — the progressive Ohio Congressman, Dennis Kucinich, and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who cannot be categorized.

So the short list of vice-presidential candidates — and the eventual choice of Joe Biden — fits within the world view of Barack Obama.

Biden offers several pluses on the electoral front, as all the pundits point out: He is willing to go on the attack and he has long experience in foreign affairs, Obama’s weakest area (experience-wise).

And there are negatives — speaking his mind sometimes means speaking to much.

(TPM Election Central has the most interesting take on the Biden pick.)

What I find interesting, however, is the impact that Biden could have on governing. He offers Obama someone who is respected in the Senate, who has a history of working across party lines (with arch-conservative Jesse Helms, for instance), but who is not afraid to tangle with the GOP, to battle for what he believes in.

In the end, however, Obama’s choice will matter little. The election will not hinge on the choice of Biden — orMcCain’s eventual choice — but on the candidates at the top of the ticket.