Hillary and the past.....

I hesitate to jump to the defense of the Clintons, other than to say that Bill Clinton, to me, represents the kind of intellect and personality that defines modern political leadership. Hillary, I've heard, shares many of the same traits that make her husband such a compelling individual: incredibly smart and polished, extremely well spoken, engaging at both a personal and professional level.

Do not underestimate the well placed desire for revenge that many who lived through the right's assault on the Clinton presidency still feel towards the perpetrators and abettors of that coordinated attack on the Clintons. The irony is too rich. Those who were happy to tear down the Presidency in the late 1990s on false charges and thinly veiled innuendo now bristle at the criticism of the same office, where tragic hubris and monumental incompetence destroy the reputation of our country in the eyes of the world.

Joe Conason calls out the New York Times for their mealy-mouthed story on the right wing smear machine that lies in wait for another Clinton candidacy. Aside from being dead wrong on the supposed change in heart that Dick Scaife and his minions have had, they paper over their own culpability in the sad story of Whitewater. It cost this country $70 million and eight years time to find out that the story was about nothing. The New York Times never shied away from regurgitating each and every pernicious rumor, much to their discredit.

Digby also mentions this meme in a post on Chris Matthews, who seems to think that there may be something undiscovered yet in the Clinton's closet:

Every single allegation was aired in the press either through leaks or salacious official "reports." An entire batalion of rightwing operatives also spent eight years making up dirt, including allegations of murder and drug running. They went all the way back to the Clintons' college days, looked into financial transactions from the 70's and interviewed virtually every person the Clintons had ever met. Libraries could be filled with the books and magazine articles written about their personal history along with vast numbers of psychological profiles and speculation about everything from Bill being a manchurian candidate to their sex lives. There were no limits and no stone was left unturned.

What in God's name does Chris think they could possibly find after all that?

Will the press go after Clinton for being a "calculating" bitch? (I think that word's been used more in the past month than ever before in history.) Of course. Will they attack her mercilessly and dredge up every old trope that was used against her back in the day? Undoubtedly. But it is almost impossible to believe they could come up with any real dirt on her because there has never been a more thoroughly vetted candidate in history. Not that the swift-boaters won't just make stuff up like they always do, but it should not be believable to anyone in the mainstream media and it should be greeted with so much skepticism as to be laughable on its face.

Hillary has a huge hill to climb. Only 75% of the eligible voters in this country would vote for a woman. I have not seen what percentage would vote for a black man. These are the real hurdles to the Democratic front-runners. We'll have to see what artificial hurdles the right wing smear machine throw up.