Barack and Hillary sittin’ in a tree
by digby
I’m watching people on MSNBC deconstruct the Obama Hillary interview on 60 Minutes last night and marveling that they are pretending to be so much alike and share so many viewpoints. There are also many snarky exchanges about the 08 primary election saying that it can’t possibly be true because they were so horribly nasty to one another, replete with tired references to “you’re likeable enough” and implying that Barack had to do this to keep the crazy “ruthless” bitch close so she doesn’t ruin his legacy. Oy vey.
As someone who believed in ’08 that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between them, (and still have the scars to prove that it was a very unpopular position) the interview was totally unsurprising. This is absolutely correct:
Secretary Clinton: … after I ended my campaign, I immediately did everything I could to help the president get elected, because despite our hard-fought primary, we had such agreement on what needed to be done for our country.
President Obama: Made for tough debates, by the way, ’cause we–
Secretary Clinton: It did. We could never figure out what we were different on. Yeah, we worked at that pretty hard.
’08 was nasty not because they were so different but because they were so much alike. Their most ardent followers had to find reasons to justify their passion. But the fact is that they have always been intellectually sympatico, pragmatic technocrat types and both ran as moderate Democrats. On policy, I totally believe Hillary when she says they could often communicate wordlessly. If there was any difference, I believe that Clinton might have been less naive about the possibility of bipartisan comity — but then Obama had much less baggage, which is very meaningful in that town full of vipers.
I don’t know who’s going to run in 2016 and at this moment I could not care less. I would love to back a hardcore progressive woman in the primaries at least, but who knows if that chance will come? I do know that if the B list Village prattlers haven’t come any farther than this in the last four years, I really hope Clinton doesn’t run at all. It’s clear that whatever it is that makes people turn into slobbering sexists when it comes to her is still just lurking under the surface. Maybe someone else wouldn’t flip that switch.
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