Clinton's Inconsistency

Time and time again, I wonder who Hillary Clinton really is. Is she the nasty candidate who viciously cuts into her opponents? Or is she the nice woman who runs attack-campaigns on bad advice, and occasionally 'drops her guard' and lets her truer, warmer colors come through? I'd like to think the latter, except that just when I think it's authentic I hear that her dropping of the guard involved an almost verbatim quote of John Edwards' closing remarks mixed with an almost verbatim quote of a successful Bill Clinton closing remark. And this from someone who wasted her (and our) time accusing Obama of plagiarism.

Now she is giving me more pause for reflection on this matter. In Ohio, which she desperately needs to win and where a disproportionate number of workers have lost jobs to 'free trade', Hillary is taking up the John Edwards mantle and is proclaiming that NAFTA and other free trade agreements have hurt America. She is trying to paint Obama as the mainstream candidate Ohio doesn't need, while saying that she alone is for eliminating the tide of lost jobs to Asia and Central America.

I'd love to believe that Hillary means it. I'd love to believe that she has had a sudden conversion. As late as 2004, she was fully supportive of her husband's NAFTA agreement, and
said it was good for America. I'll bet she isn't campaigning against NAFTA in Texas where she's trying to hang on to the Mexican-American vote. She hasn't made it a campaign issue before now. Is it possible that Hillary, who has lost 10 states in a row to Obama, is trying on the fully progressive role as a last ditch, desperation move? The problem with that is that I don't know what she really thinks. I don't trust her canned 'emotional' releases. And I don't trust her waffling on issues such as these. I distinctly get the impression that she'll say whatever she needs to in order to get elected.

And an inconsistency such as that is very different than a consistent pragmatic strategy that is designed to unite disparate factions on a progressive course. I think Obama has done the latter. We need to elect Obama.