It's the propaganda, stupid!

If you ever doubted that the Democratic Party's "culture of corruption" campaign was one big pile of hypocritical B.S., this article from the Washington Post should erase all of your doubts. Here's a key sentence which explains a great deal of the Clinton phenomenon:

One thing we know about Clinton campaigns: Nobody gets Swift Boated.

If we assume that "getting Swift Boated" is a reference to being the victim of a successful propaganda campaign by an opponent, then this is absolutely correct. The hallmark of the Clintonian election campaign -- and the Clintonian style of governance, for that matter -- is the relentless use of propaganda. On the defense, this is propaganda to muddy the waters of public opinion or to convince the public to "move on" after a cursory investigation of one scandal after another. On the offense, this is propaganda to not only defeat an opponent but to destroy that opponent's ability to compete in future elections.

The classic Clintonian propaganda moment for me was when Senator Bob Dole's 1996 catchphrase "a bridge to the past" at the 1996 Republican National Convention was quickly trumped by President Clinton's "a bridge to the future" at the later Democratic National Convention. Obviously the Clinton's use of propaganda has only been enhanced by this "hacker" point of view.

Here's another key point that the article makes about Senator Clinton:

For those who think that the politics of personal destruction might be rekindled against Hillary or her husband, we can only remind people how consistently that approach has backfired in the past. Bill Clinton would certainly be a huge asset if Hillary decided to run.

Nothing better illustrates the corruption and total unscrupulousness of the contemporary Democratic Party than the fact that it literally couldn't care less about all of the crimes and scandals of the most notorious criminal partnership since Bonnie and Clyde. Until the Democrats demand a full explanation from the Clintons about their many scandals as an inescapable precondition for nominating Senator Clinton as their presidential candidate in 2008, that party will have exactly zero credibility as political reformers.

Speaking of "Swift Boating", anyone who thinks that Senator John Kerry is some kind of big-shot, war hero might want to recall that Senator Dole was a veteran of the 10th Mountain Division. Those guys are elite commando troopers: the best of the best soldiers that the United States ever produced. If you think that military service is a necessity for a well-qualified presidentical candidate then it should have been a honor to vote for Bob Dole in 1996.