GOP FEAR OF CLINTON 2016 TURNS TO PANIC

The fact that Hillary Clinton is a shoo in for the 2016 Presidential election, with all its political and social implications, has turned fear into panic in the Republican ranks. In some ways Hillary is stronger than she was in 2008 having completed 8 years of representing the USA in an apolitical cabinet position. She looks Presidential and her appeal is even broader than 2008.

Jay H Ell has blogged about the Republican response to Hillary’s candidacy previously. (Obama and the “New” Nullifying Politics, Stopping Clinton in 2016 starts at Benghazi and Carry on Benghazi: Stop Hillary 2016 Part 2). As the date is now August 2013 one wonders when it will reach fever pitch hysteria. Then it will go into status irreversible fever pitch hysteria. But for now it just good old fashioned irrational panic. This has manifested in an out and attack by Reince Priebus, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, (RNC), on certain of the media planning to do biographies of Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY

Hillary Clinton is not just any old anybody. She is Hillary Rodham Clinton. While she is inextricably bound to Bill Clinton in many ways she is a remarkable persona in her own right. (Her bond with Bill does her no harm, in fact a massive good, but that is not the issue at hand at the moment.) Hillary has a political career of her own. Staring off as a Republican she was an activist from the word go. She assisted counsel in the Nixon impeachment hearings, was actively involved in endless projects as first lady of Arkansas and the USA, Senator for New York where she earned the highest praise for hard work and dedication from the doyen of the Senate, Robert Byrd, and most recently was considered the most industrious USA Secretary of State in history.

In short when compared with the nonentities that she may have to run against in the 2016 Presidential Election, she is in another league.

TRADITONAL MEDIA IN ALL OF THIS

The traditional media is now, for practical purposes, television, (The New York Times is a holdout as even the historic Washington Post has become a memorabilia collection item for George Bizos of Amazon). Television is still hanging in there as it is more comfortably able to connect with the internet and social media and still be a significant player.

The television players are unashamedly concerned with ratings. Regardless of their value system it is, at the end of the day, all about selling soap. Thank heavens everyone needs soap so that to a certain extent television stations can still punt one or other political philosophy. However they all maintain that they are about “pursuing the truth”.

In the television political world there are three major players. These are FOX, MSNBC and CNN. The latter has a national and international following. While all purport to be balanced, Fox is the mouthpiece of the Republican Party and one of the unelected institutions that are in fact running the Party. MSNBC have endless programs with a pro Democratic Party bent. CNN, notwithstanding Republican smears, is the one channel that is attempting to steer a middle road. CNN have a massive infrastructure and are internationally recognized as the news program of choice. (This does not necessarily translate into ratings at home). CNN are heavily involved in organizing debates in the Primaries and between Presidential Candidates.

By and large the media to date have vigorously defended one another when anyone of their ilk have their freedoms challenged 

POLITICS OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

These players and the media in general all believe fervently in the freedom of the press. This value is time honored in the USA to the extent that it is enshrined in the Constitution as Freedom of Speech. There are Supreme Court decisions, almost reductio absurdio, upholding this value. This includes the right, to burn the flag, to wear obscene t shirts, utter the most inflammatory speech, purvey pornography and comment on the merits of judicial proceedings that obviously will have to impact on the minds of those deciding the outcome of a trial.

This is not really a Party Political issue but one or other Party invariably attacks the other for not truly honoring the Freedom concept. In the last election for example, the same Reince Priebus, the RNC Chairman, attacked Obama for changing the American way of life, It was Romney that would uphold Liberty and Freedom.

Not really a party political issue till now that is.

RNC’S PRIEBUS'S  RANT AGAINST THE MEDIA

Now MSNBC and CNN are working on biographies of Hillary, who has not as yet announced her candidacy for Presidency. The apparent scheduling of the pieces is in a year. Priebus went ballistic and stated if these programs were not canned the RNC would not allow any of its candidates to participate in any debates organized by these organizations. All this was giving Hillary an unfair advantage. CNN and MSNBC were given a week to stop production.

The media have also focused disproportionately on certain Republicans. Time Covers and other media have, for example, recently, repeatedly, featured Chris Christie and Tom Cruz, who are two of the Republicans fighting desperately to be the voice of the Party. Surely the other Republican dignitaries who are hoping to be Presidential Candidates have a right to complain? Come on Reince Priebus surely you have a responsibility to see to it that all your luminaries receive equal exposure or you will end up with the Republican nominee being the media choice and not your Party’s choice!

Also the GOP establishment attacking a Hillary movie is hypocritical in the extreme. In 2008 the Federal Electoral Commission banned a hate movie about Hillary made by one of the GOP paymasters, Citizen United. The reason they banned it was that they did not deem it a bona fide movie. It had been financed by electoral contributions and therefore was electioneering. It was against a provision in the Electoral Act. Needless to say the Supreme Court, by 5 – 4, declared that that provision of the Electoral Act was unconstitutional and spending as much money as you like on whatever you liked in elections was also Freedom of Speech! So apparently knowingly bad movies on Hillary are ok at election time but not those you have no control over.

PRIEBUS ON REPUBLICANS IN DEBATES

Incidentally, in their post election autopsy one of the RNC’S recommendations was to cut down the number of debates. The problem with the debates is that we learned too much about the Republican candidates. Romney was a hypocrite outsourcing jobs, Santorum was against women using contraception, Cain was crazy, Trump was a chump, Perry couldn’t remember which departments he was going to close down when elected, Gingrich confirmed his inability to be a Presidential candidate, to enumerate just a few of the gaffes. It is thus not a bad idea to hide all your candidates from public view because the less the electorate knows about them the better.

The ante was upped even further when Fox applauded Priebus’s decision who then pushed his media policy one notch higher, stating the RNC must stand up to the networks who do not promote Republican candidates. The way Priebus is going he must be the current Republican frontrunner for the nomination.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN

There is little doubt that CNN and MSNBC will not take any notice of Priebus who has merely given Hillary even more publicity and conceded that the RNC are terrified of her. MSNBC have already said that this was a decision of the entertainment division of their company not the political one. (Hillary obviously has the potential to draw a large viewership and thus garner adverts). CNN and MSNBC must be rather pleased with the free publicity their productions are getting.

NBC, the parent company of MSNBC, have further elaborated on the project. They have in the works a four part mini series of the life of Hillary with Diane Lane playing the part of Hillary. CNN are preparing a documentary. Ironically, Hillary needs this all like a hole in the head. She has enough recognition and who knows how these television pieces will all pan out.

There is also little doubt that Reince Priebus will carry out his threat, on August 14, to pass a motion forbidding Republican candidates from participating in debates organized by CNN and NBC/MSNBC

So this will all escalate and it is obviously a no win situation for the Republicans. What Priebus forgets that regardless of whom the media may politically lean to they want viewership. However, obvious it is that one candidate is ahead they work hard at spinning  that the encounter is close. All of media in the last election, to the last minute, ran stories stating that the Romney – Obama race was too close to call. This when it was patently obvious that Obama would win in a landslide.

The Republicans cannot win just talking to FOX news and Rush Limbaugh. How they get out of this mess will be fascinating to watch. One thing is for sure when Hillary announces, and Jay H Ell’s guess is that will be after the 2014 midterm elections, hysteria will set in.

For what it is worth Jay H. Ell’s advice would be for the Republicans to develop a political agenda rather than persisting with nullifying everything so nothing ever gets done and then wailing that the fight is not fair because they haven’t got a candidate to match Hillary.