Its been the big question. What will the Clinton campaign decide? Theyre trailing badly, and desperately need to do something to turn things around. Will they go negative?

We expected to learn the answer last night in the debate held in Texas.

From RJ Eskow, on Huffington Post: "For most of the debate it seemed as if two Senator Clintons were taking turns on the stage. One, the statesmanlike leader, wanted to rise above petty divisions. The other, the one who thinks that going negative is the fun part, wanted to keep taking shots. But the nights only boos (that I heard) came when she overplayed her weak plagiarism hand and delivered an obviously pre-scripted line about change you can xerox.

"It was like watching behavior modification take place in real-time. She was punished for going negative and rewarded for being uplifting, and you could watch her moving toward the light as the night wore on. As a result, when the debate ended she had the best moment of her entire campaign. Thats when she said she was honored to be sharing the debate stage with Sen. Obama and spoke about her own motivation for public service, illustrating her remarks with an anecdote about wounded soldiers."

It appears that the answer to the big question was no.

Thats good news for Democratic Party. If its true.

I just have this little teeny wonderment nibbling away at the back of my mind.

Heres whats bothering me. Theres one more big debate left on the schedule: this coming Tuesday night in Ohio. Now if I were planning to go nuclear negative, Id want to time my strike so that my opponent would have little time to recover. Thats a time-honored strategy, dropping negative ads in the days right before an election when theres no time to respond. So, if Im going negative on Obama, I dont want to do it last night when theres another debate in just a couple days where he can set things right. Id wait until Tuesday?¦ Maximum impact. No time, or another debate right away in which to fight back.

I don't think thats what shes planning. Call me naïve, but I think lasts night performance was genuine. Not a rope-a-dope.

Hillary is a very smart woman, with a great future - even if she fails to win the nomination. I cant see her destroying her legacy, whats left of Bills, and the real opportunity that the Democratic Party has to recapture effective control of our government.

Consider this. What if Obama were to lose to McCain, sunk by the swift boats that are already be fueled up by the GOP admiralty? Ah! I told you so, shed say. Shed be a dead lock for the 2012 nomination.

If the primaries in Texas and Ohio dont go her way, Ill predict that she will suspend her campaign.

Unless last night was simply a ploy.



last edited: 11 months ago