The Ugly Truth

Revelations about the Clinton campaign's "un-American" ideas reveal more than just a penchant for nasty politics.

By Jack White

TheRoot.com

Updated: 10:39 AM ET Aug 13, 2008

Aug. 13, 2008--Thanks to the digging of The Atlantic Monthly's Joshua Green, we now have a sense of what a Hillary Clinton presidency would have been like. And, Lord knows, it would not have been pretty.

The most eye-catching detail to emerge from The Atlantic's reporting, thus far, is the battle plan devised by Clinton's chief strategist Mark Penn to attack Obama for his "limited" connection to "basic American values and culture."

But the overall picture painted by the astonishing collection of internal memos and e-mails that Green collected from Clinton campaign insiders is that, when it comes to leadership, the former first lady is, to put it plainly, a dysfunctional mess.

As Green puts it, "What is clear from the internal documents is that Clinton's loss derived not from any specific decision she made but rather from the preponderance of the many she did not make. Her hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency."

Clinton has presided over only two big enterprises in her life, the ill-fated attempt at health-care reform during her husband's first term and her bid for the White House. It is now safe to say that she botched both of them badly.

Imagine the consequences if what Green describes as the "anger and toxic obsessions" that characterized her campaign were to erupt in a Clinton administration suddenly confronted with, oh let's say, a Russian invasion of Georgia on the eve of the Olympics.

Green's disclosures are already being exhaustively analyzed by top notch reporters like Dan Balz of The Washington Post and Mike Allen of Politico. Predictably, Penn's strategy of painting Obama as some kind of exotic alien is dominating the headlines.

In one memo, Penn quipped, "Won't a single tape of [the Rev. Jeremiah] Wright going off on America with Obama sitting there be a game ender?"

In another, he proclaimed "I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values. He told the people of NH yesterday he has a Kansas accent because his mother was from there. His mother lived in many states as far as we can tell—but this is an example of the nonsense he uses to cover this up."

Clinton declined most of Penn's advice, but she signed off on an attempt to portray Obama as a power-hungry fanatic by dredging up a paper he wrote in kindergarten titled, "I Want to be President." How petty can you get?

This is all fascinating stuff, and could offer John McCain a roadmap for a negative blitz. But I'm more interested in what these revelations—along with John Edwards' carefully crafted confession last week about his unfaithfulness—say about how close the country came to selecting a leader whose public image is totally at odds with her or his actual personality.

Clinton based her campaign on the idea that her experience made her ready to lead on day one. It's now pretty obvious that she does not have the chops to manage a large organization effectively.

Edwards projected the image of a heroic battler for the underdog, whose passion was exemplified by his loyalty to his cancer-victim wife. It turns out, he's a cad.

All of us should breathe a sigh of relief that we found out about these candidates' flaws when we did. Had the truth about either of them emerged after they won the nomination, the Republicans would likely have cruised into the White House. If we had learned the facts after they entered the White House, it would have been a disaster.

We must always be on guard.

One of these days there may be comparable leaks about Obama's campaign, telling us things about him we never imagined.

We'll find out what he really felt about Jeremiah Wright's cantankerous performance at the National Press Club and McCain's comical but effective TV spots likening the Illinois senator to Charleton Heston's Moses parting the Red Sea. We'll understand more why he made cynical political moves like reversing himself on Bush's FISA bill and off-shore drilling.

We'll be able to see more clearly the steely ambition and cynical compromises that lifted him out of obscurity to being only one step away from becoming the most powerful man in the world in a remarkably short time.

Lord knows, not everything we will learn about Obama is going to be pretty. No politician ever lives up to our expectations, and he will be no exception.

We can only hope that the divide between his true self and his public image is not as wide as those of his rivals.

Or, to put it another way, that if he's a phony, he's not as phony as they are.

Jack White is a freelance writer in Richmond, Virginia.

URL: http://www.theroot.com/id/47645

(CNN) -- Soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for the theme from the 1971 action film "Shaft," has died, sheriff's officials in Memphis, Tennessee, reported Sunday.

Relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill, said Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff's Department.

Paramedics attempted to revive him and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., the sheriff's department said.

No foul play is suspected, the agency said in a written statement.

More at CNN.com

R. I. P. Issac

This news is so, so sad.

Rumors were flying all last week that comedian Bernie Mac had died. But the Chicago Sun-Times' Stella Foster reports that the top comedian passed away early this morning.

Actor, comedian Bernie Mac, dies at 50

August 9, 2008

Comedian Bernie Mac died at Northwestern Memorial hospital early Saturday morning, according to Sun-Times Columnist, Stella Foster. He was 50.

Though the cause of death has not been confirmed, Mac had been hospitalized recently for pneumonia. Foster said that she received calls early Saturday morning from a close friend of the Mac family, confirming the reports of Mac's death.

The columnist also said she was deeply saddened to receive such a phone call just an hour after Mac was pronounced dead.

"It brought tears to my eyes because Bernie Mac has always been my all-time favorite entertainer and comedian. It pains me to have to report that," Foster said during a phone interview on Saturday morning.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the actor, whose real name is, Bernard McCullough, said that he had been responding well to treatment for the illness.

Publicist Danica Smith said Thursday in a statement that Mac's condition is ''stable.'' Smith first announced on August 1st that Mac was hospitalized in Chicago.

Smith has said the pneumonia isn't related to an inflammatory lung disease Mac also has. That condition has been in remission since 2005.

Foster noted that last weekend, several web sites reported wrongly that the comedian died.

Mac made waves last month with off-color jokes during a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The comedian starred in the critically acclaimed Fox television series ''The Bernie Mac Show.'' His film credits include roles in the ''Ocean's Eleven'' franchise.

Foster says she was remembers Bernie's comedic beginnings through his show, "Midnight Mac," which aired for four shows on HBO and was taped in Chicago in 1995.

"It was a variety entertainment show," she said, "He even had dancers called Macaroni's. That was my first exposure to how talented Bernie Mac was. And after that show, that's when Hollywood started beating down his door."

The actor's upcoming movies include "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" starring Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer; and "Soul Men" with Samuel L. Jackson and Isaac Hayes.There is no word on whether public services will be held.

McCain’s Green-Eyed Monster

Not since Iago and Othello obsessed on the comely Cassio, not since Richard of Gloucester killed his two nephews, not since Nixon and Johnson glowered at the glittering J.F.K., has there been such an unseemly outpouring of boy envy.

Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards have all been crazed with envy over the ascendance of the new “It” guy, Barack Obama.

Unlike his wife, Bill Clinton — the master of fake sincerity — still continues to openly begrudge his party’s betrothed.

Asked by Kate Snow of ABC News in Africa whether Obama was ready to be president, Clinton gave a classic Clintonian answer: “You could argue that no one’s ever ready to be president.”

As always, the Big Dog was more concerned with himself — asserting that he’s not a racist — than his party. Bill Clinton is not a racist. We can posit that. But he did play subtle racial politics in the primary. It’s way past time for him to accept the fact that there’s a new wunderkind in town.

Just as Bill Clinton looks at Obama and sees his own oblivion, so does Jesse Jackson. As Shelby Steele wrote in The Wall Street Journal, Jackson and his generation of civil rights leaders “made keeping whites ‘on the hook’ the most sacred article of the post-’60s black identity,” equality pursued by manipulating white guilt.

Now John McCain is pea-green with envy. That’s the only explanation for why a man who prides himself on honor, a man who vowed not to take the low road in the campaign, having been mugged by W. and Rove in South Carolina in 2000, is engaging in a festival of juvenilia.

Bill Clinton doesn't want to relinquish his control of the Dem Party to Obama.  Plus, he has lost his Black American Card.

Jesse Jackson, along with Al Sharpton has lost their ability to use racial division as a way to get attention and receive white guilt money for their organization(s).  Also, Jesse is mad at Obama for calling HIM out concerning absent fathers... he hasn't been present in his own daughter's (from an outside marriage) life.  It's one thing to pay child support but having a strong male figure in that child's life is just as, if not more important.

Poor John McCain.  He has reduced himself from a Maverick Conservative into the NeoCon's Bitch.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AFP) — Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was in "good spirits" and confident of making a full recovery after a serious car crash left him with multiple broken bones, his spokeswoman said Monday.

The 71-year-old star, who won an Academy Award for his role in 2004's "Million Dollar Baby," was being treated in hospital in Memphis following the single vehicle accident late Sunday near Ruleville, Mississippi.

Freeman's spokeswoman Donna Lee told AFP in a statement Freeman had suffered a "broken arm, elbow and minor shoulder damage" but was talking and in "good spirits" when she spoke to the actor earlier Monday.

"He is having a little bit of surgery this afternoon or tomorrow to help correct the damage," she said. "He says he'll be OK and is looking forward to a full recovery."

A spokesman at the Memphis Regional Medical Center treating Freeman earlier said the actor was in a "serious" condition. The condition of a female passenger traveling with the actor was unknown.

"Mr. Freeman is listed in serious condition but we have no information on the condition of his passenger," hospital spokeswoman Kathy Stringer told AFP.

Freeman, who is currently starring in Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" was hospitalized after the car he was driving went off the road and flipped several times reports said, citing the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

Freeman and his passenger were airlifted to hospital.