Time to Move On…From Hillary

As are we all. What we are not looking forward to is the prospect of Hillary Clinton in the spotlight, as the Democratic nominee. She might be easier to beat than Barack Obama or John Edwards. She might take positions that are a little less distant from this magazine’s views than Obama or Edwards. But the last few weeks have reminded us–and, we suspect, many other Americans–how little we should want the Clintons back on the center stage of American politics.

First there was Bill Clinton, campaigning for his wife in Iowa, claiming falsely–manifestly and provably–that he had “opposed Iraq from the beginning.” Can’t we move on from rewriting history for the self-aggrandizement of the perennially needy former president?

Then there was the Hillary campaign press release attacking Obama for saying he hadn’t spent his whole life planning to run for president (unlike some other candidates). No! Das Hillary Apparat unearthed one Iis Darmawan, 63, “Senator Obama’s kindergarten teacher [in Indonesia].” She recalled that little Barack had written an essay in kindergarten, “I Want to Become President.” Gotcha!

This is not a joke. The Clinton campaign put out a press release on December 2 trumpeting this discovery. One notes, with open-mouthed wonder, the brazenness of Hillary Clinton’s criticizing someone else for ambition. One marvels at the mind-boggling triviality of this particular nugget mined by the legendary Clinton research operation. One also, incidentally, asks: Do kids actually write “essays” in kindergarten? About becoming president of the United States? In Jakarta? Can’t we move on from ridiculous Clintonian attacks?

The following week, the national co-chairman of the Clinton campaign, Bill Shaheen, raised the issue of Obama’s youthful drug use. Shaheen’s wife, Jeanne, is the former governor of New Hampshire and is running for the Senate next year. Bill Shaheen is an experienced operative. This was no young volunteer shooting his mouth off.

Shaheen wondered aloud to a reporter how vulnerable Obama would be to Republican attacks over Obama’s long-acknowledged youthful drug use: “It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'” An outcry forced Shaheen to apologize, and to step down as campaign co-chairman the next day. But that evening, on Hardball, Clinton strategist Mark Penn pulled a classic Clinton gambit, raising the issue again while denying he was doing so: “The issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising,” he assured one and all. Penn has been under pressure from critics within Hillary-land who’ve been trying to mount a coup against him. With this low blow, he presumably was trying to prove to Hillary and her long-time apparatchik Sidney Blumenthal his willingness to go the extra mile. We’ll see if throwing personal decency overboard for the sake of the cause saves his job.

Hillary forecast this series of assaults on December 2: “Well, now the fun part starts,” she said. “We’re going to start drawing a contrast, because I want every Iowan to have accurate information when they make their decisions.” The question became whether Obama was tough enough to stand up to it. His demolition of her at the Des Moines Register debate suggests he is. The “fun part” for the rest of us will be watching the bitter infighting among the Clintonistas as the wheels come off Hillary’s campaign.

It will be good for the country to be able to move on, sooner rather than later, from the Clintons and their brand of politics. If the Democratic primary electorate brings this about, THE WEEKLY STANDARD will be first to say something we are not accustomed to saying to the Democratic party–thank you.

–William Kristol