A New Hampshire Ghost: Can Hillary Clinton Avoid What Ed Muskie Couldn't?

WP: A New Hampshire Ghost
Can Hillary Clinton Avoid What Ed Muskie Couldn't?
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; Page A19

A specter was haunting Hillary Clinton as she campaigned in New Hampshire this weekend: the specter of Ed Muskie.

As the ancient or merely studious among us will recall, the Democratic senator from Maine, who'd been Hubert Humphrey's running mate in 1968, entered his party's presidential contest in 1972 as the front-runner. His prospects were dashed in the New Hampshire snows, however. As popular memory has it, an indignant Muskie started crying while refuting a silly attack on him (though whether he was genuinely upset or merely sniffling during a frigid outdoor news conference was never authoritatively resolved). Muskie's more serious problem, however, was the Vietnam War, which he opposed.

His opposition, though, had none of the fervor or long-term consistency of another Democratic senator and presidential aspirant, George McGovern. By 1972, seven years had elapsed since the United States had sent ground forces to Vietnam, and Richard Nixon, through his invasion of Cambodia and stepped-up bombing campaigns, had made clear that the road to de-escalation would entail periodic escalations, at least as long as he was president. The Democratic base was in no mood for temporizing on Vietnam.

Party voters wanted out, and they wanted a nominee who'd been right on the war (almost) from the start: McGovern. Sic transit gloria Muskie.

Today, Hillary Clinton seems almost uncannily positioned to become the Ed Muskie of 2008. She opposes the U.S. military presence in Iraq but not with the specificity, fervor or bona fides of her leading Democratic rivals. As Muskie did with Vietnam, she supported the legislation enabling the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and she has been slower and more inconstant than her party rivals in coming around to opposing the continued U.S. occupation.

Entering the race, Clinton has institutional advantages that Muskie could scarcely have dreamed of -- an unparalleled network of financial and political supporters, a universal level of public recognition. But, like Muskie, she is out of sync with her party's -- to some extent, her country's -- voters on the major issue of the day. In a Gallup Poll released Monday, the public favored, by 63 percent to 35 percent, Congress setting a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of next year. The public's position is thus aligned more closely with those of Barack Obama and John Edwards than with that of Clinton, who has yet to commit to a timetable for withdrawal....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR2007021301093.html?nav=hcmodule

I think to a small extent Hillary wants to relive the 90s and fullfill the promise of her co-presidency that was denied her by her health care fiasco.
She wants to have it as her president and it be 1992.
The country is not there anymore. They have moved on. The trauma of the past 6 years have made people long for some transparency, honesty and a realism in politics. something not by route or machine. Not triangulation or politics as usual and as gamesmanship.
They want the basics. stripped down. Big money and lobbyists out. They want something new and exciting.
A new way of doing things and a new approach.
They want the country back.
They want to be inspired to do things and be a part of something.
The Clintons do not live in that world. they are of yesterday and don't understand that people want something the Clintons cannot give.

It came from that shiteater Loeb from the fishwrap/buttwipe Manchester Union Leader. And there was no question that Ed was upset. The film doesn't lie.

Muskie was a good guy...so was Jane, his wife.

type journalism that later became so prevalent. I think Nixon would still have tried to spy on the DNC no matter who was running.

And it also got radio AND newspaper/newsmagazine play. It was one of the earlier trifecta (TV-radio-print) treatments, that's for sure.

they attacked Jane Muskie, accusing her of drinking to excess and using "colorful language" on the campaign trail. Disgusting smears. Muskie still won New Hampshire, but the margin of victory was slimmer than hoped for, and the campaign started to unravel.

Ed bounced back though to become Secretary of State during the Carter Administration.

Apparently he is the "highest ranking Polish-American in history."

They were, as they say, "good" people. They were kind, considerate, and polite. The opposite of the many assholes in government nowadays...

It was the picture of him crying that ruined his chances. In 1972, depression was barely recognized, especially in a man seeking the presidency.

slurring your wife in an unseemly fashion for the era.

Nowadays, Jane might have said "Colorful language, Mr. Loeb? Why fuck you very much!!!" But back then, forget it--any profanity by a contender's wife was a nonstarter.

Do you have a cite for that depression assertion? I'd be interested in reading about it, as would some of my family. TIA.

haunting Hillary could also be Scoop Jackson.