Iowa Voters Repudiated Clinton 'Dynasty'

By Robert Parry, Consortium News. Posted January 5, 2008.

The vaunted Clinton machine is sure to rev up its operations to salvage Hillary Clinton’s political future -- and the Bush Family’s Republican Establishment likely will settle on an acceptable GOP representative to protect the status quo, possibly John McCain.

But the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 dealt a stunning blow to the Bush-Clinton duopoly, with Sen. Barack Obama thrashing Sen. Clinton on the Democratic side and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee trouncing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who had the backing of some elements of the Bush Family.

Though the presidential selection process has a long way to go, the inevitability of another election between representatives of the Democratic/Republican establishments was thrown into severe doubt by the victories of Obama and Huckabee.

On the Democratic side, the contrast was visible during the post-caucus speeches by Clinton and Obama. Sen. Clinton was surrounded by old faces from Washington's Democratic hierarchy, which has compromised its way through the past quarter century of Republican political dominance.

There was former Democratic National Committee chairman (and renowned fundraiser) Terry McAuliffe, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, and Bill Clinton, looking especially weary as he maintained a smile throughout his wife's workmanlike political speech.

When Obama spoke to his supporters, the tableau was entirely different. He stood on a platform with his wife and two young daughters, with mostly young supporters behind him, not a single nationally recognized face among them.

Obama's soaring rhetoric about "hope" and "change" also contrasted with Hillary Clinton's more mundane appeal to her backers. Obama appears to have touched the idealistic sentiments of many young voters as well as the Democratic "base," while Clinton's carefully calibrated message in Iowa came across as stale and uninspiring.

Bill to the Rescue?

Stung by the Iowa loss, Hillary Clinton's campaign quickly announced that it would dispatch former President Clinton to New Hampshire for the next five days, seeking to repair the political damage and shore up the dikes against the flood of political insurrection that is building.

But Bill Clinton appears to have lost some of his legendary political touch. Though he remains popular with many Democrats, he seems oblivious to the resentment within the Democratic "base" - and among many young voters and independents - toward the business-as-usual Washington Democrats that his wife's candidacy reflects.

On Dec. 17, seeking to show how President Hillary Clinton would govern, Bill Clinton announced that his wife's first act in the White House would be to send him and George H.W. Bush on an around-the-world mission to repair America's damaged image.

"The first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again," said Bill Clinton, who has accompanied the senior Bush on humanitarian missions over the past several years.

However, rather than earning plaudits from rank-and-file Democrats, Clinton's boast about his cozy relationship with the senior Bush was like fingernails across a chalkboard. The last thing that many Democrats wanted to hear about was more collegiality between the Clintons and the Bushes.

See more stories tagged with: dynasty, bill clinton, hillary clinton, bush family, election 2008, iowa caucuses

Robert Parry's new book is Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »