Hillary Clinton Revitalizes

The tension of the primaries has risen again for the Democrats, after Hillary Clinton’s success in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island. She has had a marginal win after having led more aggressive intervention on the social terrain in the states where the crisis has already hit hard. Nevertheless it is important to note that this evolution is a common trait of each of the candidates who has entered the fray, sensitive to the expectations of opinions that are manifesting in all of the polls. The fear today isn’t that of terrorism but of aggravating the crisis.

Hillary continues to present herself as someone who has all the answers, while Obama only has his eloquent speeches, although they propose nothing. She has equally played on the discrimination of which she is a victim, being a woman. In general the press and the media have, according to her, a chauvinist preference for Barack Obama. Her partisans resumed the Witterville meeting with the slogan, “Don’t let the male press beat our president”. With this sort of low blow, she has created an advertisement showing her sleeping, ready to respond, even at night, to a call from a red phone. She is contrasting her experience with the young senator elected just 4 years ago. That is what made Obama respond with: the test of the red phone has already passed; it was Iraq. She voted for war.

In Texas and Ohio, Hillary Clinton accused her adversary of supporting the liberalization of trade agreements between the United States, Mexico and Canada, the NAFTA, responsible for the closing of businesses and outsourcings that have struck the industrial regions. She must have forgotten the warm support she gave to the treaty, at the side of Bill Clinton.

Will the great debate on the future of the country proposed by Barack Obama during these four primaries be clarified with the dozen primaries that are left until July? For his part he follows the consensual line of reconciliation and highlights the dramatic situation of workers… and on the necessity of changing the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world.

The soft focus of the candidates’ propositions and their contradictions demonstrates the bitter competition between the two candidates. Many Democratic leaders fear that the duration of this knife-drawn battle – four more months – will harm the future candidate. Meanwhile, victorious in Tuesday’s primaries, John McCain now has a free reign. To greet his success and to thank his voters, is has not neglected to launch a stance on the reformation of the health care system, without penalizing, of course, the pharmaceutical industry.

Since yesterday he has been in Washington to receive the endorsement of George Bush, whose catastrophic record McCain will need to cleanse. Difficult.