One of my go-to news sources is The Daily Beast. Since the merger, then de-merger, with Newsweek, I like the way site presents itself and they often have unique, intriguing content. I know, I know, they lean way left, but they don't pretend to be in the middle.
On July 13,2017, I read an article so blatantly wrong that I had to put it on the shelf and let it marinate a bit to see if time took away some of its sting. I honestly thought it was Hyperbole and had to re-read it a number of times because I couldn't believe that the article existed in a serious manner of public discourse. Even though I hated the article, it <gulp> has a right to exist.
The egregious quote is used in the byline, they aren't even trying to hide it:
"(Hillary Clinton), the most royally screwed-over person in the history of American politics should be in the White House, right now." As I type the words, incomplete thoughts stammer to my mouth, only to be left breathless in disbelief.
The writer of the piece is a gentleman named Michael Tomasky. Tomasky has now replaced Tessa Stuart over at Rolling Stone as my new least favorite national writer. (It will be damn near impossible to replace Micheal Heaton as my least favorite local writer.) Now poor Tessa, I blame her bias on youth. Back in 2016, she wrote a negative article about damn near every public figure without a (D) next to their name trying to get Hillary Clinton elected. After reading the Tomasky manifesto, I had to research him to see if he was Clinton's PR guru.
So I looked up Michael Tomasky and the internet says he "inclines" to the left. Inclines? I looked up his last 17 articles and they were all the same. GOP? BAD! Democrats? GOOD! Including such classics as: Newt Gingrich: Hypocrisy Pioneer, The GOP Doesn't Care about your Health, and The GOP's Last Lions Roll Over. His last article not on this same thread? How Sgt. Pepper Re-Invented the Record Album. In May. He wrote about a great album from 1967, in May of 2017.
Again, and I can't say this enough. Half of the people reading this article are screaming, "well, Rush Limbaugh's only touts the Right and only takes brief breaths to talk football." That's true. But Rush is a Conservative, says he is a Conservative, and doesn't even pretend to be in the middle. What I'm sick and tired of are those who are as far to the left as Tomasky trying to position themselves as the middle and "incline" to the left.
Oh, no, I'm a centrist with some left leaning tendencies. WRONG. The Statement "(Hillary Clinton), the most royally screwed-over person in the history of American politics should be in the White House, right now," makes Tomasky the unmistakeable King of the Progressives. Which is fine. Write the Article I'm the King of the Progressives and I will write a 500 word apology called I'm the King of the Histrionic. Anything short of that is spin. Every complaint that Tomasky has about the Trump family, the right was making about the Clinton family in the 90's. I remember the tagline "who elected her?" When her husband was the President.
Maybe Michael Tomasky will read this article with mirth. Well, I was the editor at The American Prospect. And maybe I'm overreacting. But one unmistakable fact remains, only the most blindly devoted lackey of the left could make the statement in red above. CLEARLY, the one thing Hillary Clinton isn't, is the victim.
Without rehashing the whole sordid Hillary Clinton history, from Whitewater in the 90's to her connections to China today, let me state, using the simplest example possible, as to why the statement is so flawed.
In the 2016 Democrat Party primaries, there were basically 2 candidates past Iowa, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Sanders had the state elections heavily slanted against him as revealed to the public in the process of the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Hillary Clinton wasn't even the most screwed over party in that 2 person primary race, let alone the past 20 years of elections, and she is certainly NOT a historically singular victim.