Hillary Clinton's chief strategist Mark Penn came out this week with a statement that the Edwards and Obama campaigns are "stalled, failing." This not only signals that Hillary is willing to go negative, but that she is willing to use the same truth-distorting projection techniques as the Republicans in order to win.
Any rational observer, even a Hillary supporter, would have to agree that Obama and Edwards are on a roll lately. Of course, if anyone it is Hillary who has been "stalled" and "failing." Her lead has deteriorated substantially in Iowa and New Hampshire. What to do? In this case the Republican antireason playbook calls for pre-emptive labeling your opponent with your own failings. The conservatives pull this kind of lie very well, and usually liberals let them get away with it. Now it's Hillary's turn to use this trick, and to show just what kind of politician she is...
The Right lies at every turn, but especially when fighting dirty. Hillary knows this better than anyone else how they operate, and has absorbed the lesson extremely well.
She could choose to tell the truth about Bush and Iraq. She could choose to tell the truth about why she thinks she's better than Obama and Edwards. But instead she uses projective lying to turn attention from her own campaign, and to redefine her own failings as belonging to her rivals.
If this is the kind of campaign she is going to run, then she is no different, and no better than Bush. If she is going to lie to us this way, then she cannot be president. We need truth-tellers, not another would-be aristocrat would just happens to be a D instead of R.
The Right lies at every turn. Tell the truth back at them. That is the path to victory, the only path that is worth following.