Today's revelation that New York Governor and close ally of Hillary Clinton, Elliot Spitzer is under investigation for paying for sex (which will in all probability lead to his resignation and possible indictment) could not have come at a worse time for the Senator from New York/presidential candidate.
After last Tuesday's primary wins and her pounding of Barack Obama for his lack of experience and unpreparedness for the presidency, her campaign which had seemed on the verge of folding up its tent mere weeks ago was just beginning to start to get some traction again. The last thing she needs right now is a reminder of some of her own weaknesses; and a reminder of her cluelessness about the dirty dealings of the men around her is one of her most glaring failings. Hillary has, up until now been able to make two mutually incompatible "facts" work for her. On the one hand she is the wonk, the smartest, most experienced woman in the world. On the other hand she is the trusting, loving woman who stupidly trusted a rat. No normal candidate could make such inconsistency work, but Hillary is, of course no ordinary candidate.
But that inconsistency is not something she wants to remind people of, especially now when she is hitting the wet-behind-the-ears Senator from Illinois on the matter of who is ready to serve and who isn't. While it is probably unfair to expect that Hillary could have had any idea of Spitzer's sexual dalliances, it is the Democrats who have always made an issue not just of wrongdoing but even the appearance of wrongdoing and while not knowing that Spitzer was catting around may be understandable and may not mean Hillary is an idiot, it sure does make it appear that she is one. Is this naive' woman really ready to take that 3 AM crisis call in the White House that she claims she can?
It may be too impolite for Obama to come out directly and say that there is something wrong with Hillary because so many men are able to pull the wool over her eyes but behind the scenes, in off the record talks with the media, it is hard to believe that isn't exactly the message he's sending. At some point the media is likely to take that particular ball and start to run with it.
Hillary - world's smartest woman - except around scummy men who lie. That doesn't exactly make for the world's best campaign slogan. Elliot Spitzer didn't just create a problem for himself today. At a very bad point in time Hillary finds herself contending with yet another man who done her wrong.
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