Pot… Kettle… Get The Picture?

Hillary Clinton’s struggling in Iowa, and now we see polling data indicate that her once vast lead in New Hampshire is evaporating.  Despite the best spin the best political campaign in the race right now can provide, the once “inevitable” Hillary juggernaut is beginning to look more vulnerable day by day.

While the casual observer may believe that this is a blip, and the Clinton campaign is as unconcerned, I think there is evidence to the contrary.  The least of which would be silly and sloppy attacks such as this one:

SHENANDOAH, Iowa — Hillary Rodham Clinton ridiculed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Tuesday for his contention that living in a foreign country as a child helped give him a better understanding of the foreign policy challenges facing the U.S.

‘‘Voters will have to judge if living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face,’’ Clinton said. ‘‘I think we need a president with more experience than that, someone the rest of the world knows, looks up to and has confidence in.’’

Oh how this is sloppy, let me count the ways.  The entire purpose of an attack like this is to continue to build upon the narrative that Hillary Clinton is more experienced than Obama by a large margin, of course, “experience” can be a relative term, and in the terms of experience, Hillary Clinton is not everything she sells herself to be.

First things first, let’s get this pesky “35 years” of experience Clinton’s constantly on about.  Unless of course we are now counting service as a lawyer at a private practice, or sitting on the Wal*Mart board of directors counts as the kind of strong experience we progressives are looking for in our next president.  If that’s the case, I missed the memo.

Also, I think it’s important to know that while, technically, yes, Hillary has served as a US Senator longer than Barack Obama, but by that same token, it might be worth mentioning that Senator Barack Obama has served for three more years in elected office than Hillary.

Mrs. Clinton, who engaged in a successful Senate run in New York following her own husband’s wildly popular Presidential tenure, did not begin life as a public servant until 2000.  Barack Obama, by contrast, was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 1997.  I know, small potatoes, but then, Obama’s not the one trying pass himself off as this greatly experienced candidate.

Which leads to Hillary’s experience as First Lady, which is all great and all, but what do we know?  She took on Health Care, and failed in that aspect and we don’t know much beyond that.  We know that she did a lot of travel, but without the release of those pesky records she’s trying to keep bottled up until the nomination is wrapped up, even that travel doesn’t really account for too terribly much more than what Obama gained from spending so much of his youth abroad.

And speaking of those records, what the hell is she afraid of?  The recent Iowa poll that has Obama leading the statistical dead heat has him standing head and shoulders above Clinton in trustworthiness, and I wonder why?

I mean, let’s get real, Hillary Clinton won’t even allow records to be released which would at the very least back up these claims of all this experience she supposedly has.  On the other hand, Obama’s got no qualms airing out his own dirty laundry.

Even the great Mr. Clinton wouldn’t admit to inhaling.

If Senator Dodd, Senator Biden, Governor Richardson, even Congressman Kucinich wanted to take Obama to task for experience, fine.  But Hillary hardly is in the position to level that criticism at the man.

Oh, and by the way, the only President that DOESN’T need “on the job training” for the position of President of the United States is an incumbent.