Published: March 24, 2008 01:00 pm         

Hillary Clinton stokes the crowd

ANDERSON, Ind. — Hillary Clinton was in town recently. For this working class city of 58,000 that has been decimated with the loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs, she said all the right things.

It was a blue-collar speech delivered with fervor by a lady dressed in blue. She was accompanied by Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, in a blue shirt with his sleeves rolled up.

This was the first time a primary candidate visited Indiana since Robert Kennedy stopped by in 1968, the last time there was a heated Democratic presidential race.

Clinton didn’t attack Sen. Barack Obama, her opponent, but she let George W. Bush have it to wild applause. Since this area has seen auto manufacturing jobs go from 25,000 to zero, a couple former auto workers joined Clinton on stage.

There are issues that affect workers — jobs, health care, housing foreclosures, stagnant wages — and Clinton hit them all. She talked about trade agreements, such as NAFTA, that need to be rewritten to take into account workers, communities and the environment. (Obama is for this too. Republican candidate John McCain is not.) Clinton has some answering to do here, however, since NAFTA was signed into law by her husband, a Democrat, and she gave speeches defending NAFTA.

There was also a lot of foreign bashing because that plays well with blue-collar workers, and candidates get to weasel out of the real reasons for economic troubles: their corporate backers. Clinton did say she’d ask the corporations why they don’t put America first. That was the most impressive thing I heard her say. It could be time for a little economic nationalism.

If Clinton would do as she said, her policies would work well for the American middle class. If. Certainly whatever route she takes, as with Obama, would be far superior to what the country has endured since 2000 and would continue to endure if McCain moved into the White House. Clinton’s speech, as benign and generalized as it was, didn’t reflect the increasing animosity between her and Obama. Both are taking the gloves off in this bitter fight.

The struggle between the two is getting so acrimonious that the Republicans can just sit back and grin. This is good political theater, but it’s an ominous sight to see the doddering McCain doing nothing to win over the country.

During Hillary and Barack’s spats, McCain went to Iraq to tell us how wonderful things are. It would be nice if he’d just stay there, say, for 100 years. But he’ll get a free ride by the media who will show pictures of McCain waving from the Green Zone while Clinton and Obama spar.

The result is obvious, and it’s already happened. McCain gets a jump in the polls. In my newspaper’s daily poll question, we asked which of the three candidates people would vote for as president. McCain won.

Of course, things will change this summer when two political candidates go toe to toe. But they will probably change for the worse for the Democrats. The contest between Clinton and Obama has been ugly and divisive, but it will pale compared to what the Republicans will do to either of them.

With Clinton, every transgression of her husband’s years in the White House will be hung on her. And there will be overt insults to her gender. For Obama, his middle name of Hussein and his radical pastor will be used against him at every turn. All the racial and Islamic fears the GOP can conjure up and put Obama’s face next to will characterize the GOP campaign. The Republicans will write off the Latino vote by going medieval on immigration. If you thought the Willie Horton ad was bad in 1988, you ain’t seen nothing yet. If the Democrats stand by and take it, as John Kerry did in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000, it’s a cakewalk for McCain, a radical warmonger and flip-flop extraordinaire if there ever was one.

In the end, I’m afraid McCain will take the White House. How the American people can vote for another four years of extreme conservatism is beyond my comprehension. But the white male is going to continue to rule. Democrats can feel good that they put forth two outstanding candidates who did offer a difference to the cycle of conservatism that has run this country into the ground. But what will Democrats say when they lose again? What will it say about America when they lose? It’s going to be the ugliest election in American history, a fitting end to the ugliest presidency in American history.

Of course, the American people can make things turn out differently. Will they cast aside their racism, sexism and Islamophobia — all the things McCain’s party will be scaring America with and look for a new economic and foreign policy direction? Anything is possible. But it will take a concerted effort by Democrats to get out the vote and use this opportunity to make history instead of being subjected to it.



Stephen Dick wries for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind. He can be reached at steve.dick@heraldbulletin.com.