It’s been 48 hours since the polls came in on Tuesday on Hillary RI, OH, and TX-primary victory. Before that victory there was a lot of questionable behavior coming from the Clinton team. Since then she has outright gone Republican-in-Democrat’s clothing on us. Let me explain.

NATFAgate
Just before the Tuesday vote there was a story about a Senior Advisor from the Obama camp talking to the Canadian ambassador about the debate and NAFTA. In that conversation it was reported that this Senior Advisor said “don’t worry, it’s just campaign rhetoric”. This story got some traction and the Obama camp denied the conversation took place. Then a memo was released “confirming some conversation happened” and Obama came out unaware the conversation happened but had to start backpedaling. Well it has now turned out that the call did not come from the Obama camp, but rather the Clinton camp. The Clinton camp denies this but this is a growing story. Mind you this story could have very well cost Obama votes in OH where NAFTA is a big issue.

Hillary for McCain?
So if you are running for President would you psudo-endorse your contender on the other side of the aisle? Of course not, but Hillary has done just that.

“I think you’ll be able to imagine many things Senator McCain will be able to say,” she said. “He’s never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002.”

And apparently there is a Commander in Chief threshold to boot to. Who would have known?

“I think that since we now know Sen. (John) McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that. And I think it’s imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold. I believe that I’ve done that. Certainly, Sen. McCain has done that and you’ll have to ask Sen. Obama with respect to his candidacy.” And “Both of us will be on that stage having crossed that threshold. That is a critical criterion for the next Democratic nominee to deal with.”

So apparently not only is Obama only worth a single anti-war speech he made in 2002 but McCain is better than him. And now there is this new Hillary-threshold-level that Obama can’t reach. This is beyond surprising this is flat out dirty and something you would expect from Bush/Rove. But wait it gets better…

Ken Starr == Obama!?!?!
Since Obama lost on Tuesday the Obama camp has been getting aggressive with Hillary leading like this statement

This week she made a series of arguments about why she would be a superior candidate, She made the experience argument that she’s been making repeatedly, particularly about foreign policy and her ability to handle a crisis. I think it’s important to examine that claim and not just allow her to assert it. Which I think has been going on for quite some time.”

For instance, “What exactly is this foreign experience that she’s claiming? I know she talks about visiting 80 countries” as First Lady, but “it’s not clear what she had negotiated — treaties or agreements, or she was handling crises during this period of time? My sense is, the answer is no. So, I have not seen any evidence she is better equipped to handle a crisis. And if the only criteria is longevity in Washington, then she’s certainly not going to beat John McCain on that.”

Later, Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod was unequivocal that the Obama team had had enough.”What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” he said. “There’s no doubt we have held ourselves to a standard of engagement. I don’t think the public is looking for the candidates to savage each other…but you can’t play by two sets of rules, and we understand that.”

“Let’s let there be a vetting, but the vetting is going to be on both candidates,” Axelrod said. “She doesn’t want to release her tax returns, okay, fine. She says she’s a master at foreign policy. She’s a master at health care. What happened? Why was it such an abysmal failure? Why did we have to wait 14 more years?”

So now that Obama is getting a aggressive the Hillary camp has now equated this to the Ken Starr investigation on Bill:

“When Sen. Obama was confronted with questions over whether he was ready to be commander in chief and steward of the economy, he chose not to address those questions, but to attack Sen. Clinton,” Wolfson said. “I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president.”

Seriously did she steal Karl Rove’s playbook? These trends I am sure are just the tip of the iceberg and we can only imagine what other things she will say to try to get the nomination. This race is going to get a lot nastier.

So it’s been nearly 24 hours since the first polls closed giving Obama a decisive victory in VT, only to see him lose TX (in the primary), RI, and OH in the later hours. While the victory for Hillary has given her new legs in the media, it is nearly impossible for her to catch up to Barack’s delegate count so now it seems that either candidate will either have to “make nice” or go through a brokered election. I can’t help but be a bit put off on her tactics as of late. Like SC, the Clinton camp went for the scorched earth technique (dubed the Kitchen Sink) and went as negative as they could go. This included a very sour commment about experience:

“I think you’ll be able to imagine many things Senator McCain will be able to say,” she said. “He’s never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002.”

So for those that does not realize the impact of that statement, she considers McCain ahead of Obama, just not the best statement to make. Clinton may have won 3 states on Tuesday but as other contests have shown she fights very dirty for those votes.

I find it interesting what the base of Hillary is (except for the last Obama 12 victories ). Poor, uneducated, women of all age groups, half of white men, and older voters. It seems that Obama still has a uphil battle with these core voters given the false claims that Obama has to contest at ever juncture.

There are some rumblings now to have a “dream ticket” of Obama and Hillary and while I am sure that the DNC wants this to happen now so the infighting stops, it’s political suicide for either VP candidate. If Obama is the lead than adding Hillary to the VP spot adds the serious baggage the Clinton brand comes with. If Hillary asks Obama to be on the ticket, Obama risks becoming part of the establishment and worse he will be a lame-duck VP since Bill will be the defacto VP. While the “dream ticket” might settle some weary voters’ minds it could cost the party dearly.

So now we have many weeks till PA, and a possible revote for FL and MI. This is one long and dragged out primary season to be sure! And just to show how long it will get it seems Obama has had enough and it’s time to take it to the matress.

This week she made a series of arguments about why she would be a superior candidate,” Obama said, a whiff of frustration in his voice that he may have waited too long. “She made the experience argument that she’s been making repeatedly, particularly about foreign policy and her ability to handle a crisis. I think it’s important to examine that claim and not just allow her to assert it. Which I think has been going on for quite some time.”

For instance, “What exactly is this foreign experience that she’s claiming? I know she talks about visiting 80 countries” as First Lady, but “it’s not clear what she had negotiated — treaties or agreements, or she was handling crises during this period of time? My sense is, the answer is no. So, I have not seen any evidence she is better equipped to handle a crisis. And if the only criteria is longevity in Washington, then she’s certainly not going to beat John McCain on that.”

Character issues also would be explored, Obama predicted. “She’s made the argument that she’s been thoroughly vetted in contrast to me. I think it’s important to examine that argument because if the suggestion is somehow on issues of ethics or disclosure or transparency, that somehow she’s going to have the better record than I have, and will be better able to withstand Republican attacks, I think that’s an issue that should be tested,” said Obama. “So, I think that over the coming weeks, we will join her in that argument.”

Later, Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod was unequivocal that the Obama team had had enough.”What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” he said. “There’s no doubt we have held ourselves to a standard of engagement. I don’t think the public is looking for the candidates to savage each other…but you can’t play by two sets of rules, and we understand that.”

“Let’s let there be a vetting, but the vetting is going to be on both candidates,” Axelrod said. “She doesn’t want to release her tax returns, okay, fine. She says she’s a master at foreign policy. She’s a master at health care. What happened? Why was it such an abysmal failure? Why did we have to wait 14 more years?”

She asked for it, now it’s a battle. Wyoming is next on March 8th and Mississippi on March 11th then the long stretch to April 22nd and the “Keystone State”.

As I am planning out my 2009 data-center implementation at my job I learned that Dell and HP are going to be releasing their servers with VMWare ESX 3i “embedded” in early April for Dell and March 31, 2008 for HP. For those considering virtualized environments and are considering diskless servers, this might be the way to go!