Presidential roundup: Doug Henwood destroys Hillary Clinton, Julian Castro for what?

Twice, no less!

First, here's Henwood on Al Jazeera, saying the case for her is remarkably thin.

Hillarycare? Yeah, that was a bigger clusterfuck than Obamacare.

Her time as Senator? Yeah, placeholding for a presidential run.

Bottom line? This:

What could we expect from a Hillary presidency? My guess is that it would be Wall Street–friendly, militarized and secretive — though seasoned with mostly empty rhetoric about uplift, community and inclusion. It would do little to address polarization and rot. In fact it would be a perfect embodiment of polarization and rot. There will be strenuous efforts over the next year and a half to argue otherwise, but they will convince no one but loyalists.

Yeah, sounds exactly right.

Next, Henwood, from the pages of Harpers, fires both barrels from last fall's archives. It's a long read, but well worth it. Seriously, it's a must-read.

I don’t want to litter this post with pull quotes, but this one from Page 5 is a must read.

This model of governance (the permanent campaign originated by Dick Morris) also depended on enemies. Bill & Co. — and Hillary was intimately involved with this choice from the beginning — picked the teachers’ union. A court had declared the Arkansas education-finance system unconstitutional: it was woefully unequal, with teachers in some districts paid so poorly that they qualified for food stamps. Raising taxes in any serious manner would be a political challenge. So the Clinton team paired a modest, one-point increase in the sales tax with a proposed competence test for teachers. The Arkansas public was not fond of the teachers’ union, Morris found, so Bill could present himself as doing it all for the kids. And, as Morris noted, it was a politically crafty break from the Old Democrat left.

Bingo. And, that’s carried over, and over, and over.

Her worst real foe, of course, is herself followed by Clintonistas. But, the permanent enemies campaign? 

When the NY Times first wrote about the Clinton email server, David Brock at Media Matters had four strokes, two heart attacks and a grand mal seizure in berating the paper. And basically told lies, half-truths and innuendos. Snake-oil salesman James Carville was at least more direct.

And, speaking of the devil, even as I wonder when we'll have a sighting related to her campaign, on page 10, Henwood ties Morris and Clinton together:

When I spoke to Dick Morris, I asked him how Hillary would differentiate herself from Obama during the 2016 campaign. His prediction: She would say that her predecessor had outlined a beautiful vision, but now voters “need someone who can get things done.” He added that she would criticize Obama for not having armed the Syrians rebels earlier. Two weeks later, in her conversation with Goldberg, Hillary did exactly that, while also suggesting that the president was to blame for the rise of ISIL. (In a revoltingly laudatory Washington Post review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, Hillary distinguishes between the president’s first term, during which they “laid the foundation” for a new approach to international relations — and the “crises of the second term,” as if the world suddenly changed when she strolled out of the State Department.)

Yeah, anybody who likes Hank the Knife is definitely not on my presidential list.

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Julian Castro is reportedly in "vice presidential training camp." Yeah, right.

Only way he gets tapped is if Marco (Rubio) Polo or Havana Ted have one of the GOP spots. Otherwise, he makes Hillary Clinton look O-L-D.

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Bernie Sanders will announce his plans, one way or the other, running or not running, by April 30. Will the lamestream media swallow his schtick whole, or will they ask him why he's as much a whore for the military-industrial complex as any Democratic hawk?

And, speaking of whoring, given his last fawning quote about Clinton, he must be angling for a Cabinet post. Secretary of Defense so he can get those F-35s in Vermont?

We know Hillary will be a hawkish Prez, as Vox details, so there you go!