Surprise, Surprise! Hillary Clinton wins neoconservative support: Daily Bullshit, July 26, 2016 (updated)

Updated for the record: The Democratic Party has officially nominated Hillary Clinton for president.[1]


Hillary Clinton

It appears that many neoconservatives who detest Donald Trump will indeed back Hillary Clinton.[2] This shouldn’t be terribly surprising: Her disastrous foreign policy record[3] is, in significant part, their foreign policy record and she enthusiastically followed up on her husband’s neoliberal push with advocacy of her own both during her husband’s presidency and since. Since, for neoconservatives, neoliberalism is a moral imperative, she should by all rights, except for her negligence with classified information in email,[4] absolutely be their candidate. But, for the most part, they also weren’t able to acknowledge that they got nearly everything they wanted on foreign policy from Barack Obama.[5]

Jonathan Easley, “Democrats nominate Hillary Clinton for president,” Hill, July 26, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/289319-demsinate-clinton-for-president

Rania Khalek, “Robert Kagan and Other Neocons Are Backing Hillary Clinton,” Intercept, July 25, 2016, https://theintercept.com/2016/07/25/robert-kagan-and-other-neocons-back-hillary-clinton/


Bernie Sanders

“If you’re for somebody, you either have to leave and go to work for their campaign or you have to shut up. You cannot have this kind of dialogue at the [Democratic National Committee]. I don’t get it at all.”[6] But some commentators continue to insist that Hillary Clinton won “fair and square,” which is entirely to deny that a clearly biased DNC had any impact at all with its thumb on the scales.[7] It’s yet another way in which Clinton benefits from special treatment, yet just like wealthy and powerful people generally, acts like she earned her privilege.

Louis Nelson, “Howard Dean ‘shocked and incredibly disappointed’ over DNC emails,” Politico, July 26, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/dnc-emails-howard-dean-226199


  1. [1]Jonathan Easley, “Democrats nominate Hillary Clinton for president,” Hill, July 26, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/289319-demsinate-clinton-for-president
  2. [2]Rania Khalek, “Robert Kagan and Other Neocons Are Backing Hillary Clinton,” Intercept, July 25, 2016, https://theintercept.com/2016/07/25/robert-kagan-and-other-neocons-back-hillary-clinton/
  3. [3]Medea Benjamin, “Hillary Clinton Hasn’t Learned a Thing From the Iraq Experience,” Truthdig, October 29, 2015, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hillary_clinton_hasnt_learned_a_thing_from_iraq_20151029; Marjorie Cohn, “Want Endless War? Love the U.S. Empire? Well, Hillary Clinton’s Your Choice,” Truthdig, February 1, 2016, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/want_endless_war_love_the_us_empire_hillary_clintons_your_choice_20160201; David Corn, “Hillary Clinton and Henry Kissinger: It’s Personal. Very Personal,” Mother Jones, February 12, 2016, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/hillary-clinton-kissinger-vacation-dominican-republic-de-la-renta; Greg Grandin, “Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton’s Tutor in War and Peace,” Nation, February 5, 2016, http://www.thenation.com/article/henry-kissinger-hillary-clintons-tutor-in-war-and-peace/; Daniel Larison, “Clinton’s Reliably Bad Foreign Policy,” American Conservative, April 12, 2016, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/clintons-reliably-bad-foreign-policy/; Jackson Lears, “We came, we saw, he died,” review of Hard Choices, by Hillary Clinton, and HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, London Review of Books 37, no. 3 (February 5, 2015), pp. 8-11, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n03/jackson-lears/we-came-we-saw-he-died; Lauren McCauley, “Critics Aghast at ‘Disgusting Speech’ Clinton Just Gave to AIPAC,” Common Dreams, March 21, 2016, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/21/critics-aghast-disgusting-speech-clinton-just-gave-aipac; Robert Scheer, “Go Ahead, Back Hillary Clinton and Forget All About Her Record,” Truthdig, October 9, 2015, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/go_ahead_back_hillary_clinton_and_forget_all_about_her_record_20151009; Arnie Seipel, “Why Did Hillary Clinton Say The U.S. Is ‘Where We Need To Be’ In Syria?” National Public Radio, December 20, 2015, http://www.npr.org/2015/12/20/460489791/why-did-hillary-clinton-say-the-u-s-is-where-we-need-to-be-in-syria; Stephen Zunes, “Hillary the Hawk,” Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Winter, 2016, http://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/hillary-the-hawk/; Stephen Zunes, “The Five Lamest Excuses for Hillary Clinton’s Vote to Invade Iraq,” Foreign Policy In Focus, January 26, 2016, http://fpif.org/five-lamest-excuses-hillary-clintons-vote-invade-iraq/
  4. [4]Julian Hattem, “Seven ways FBI contradicted Clinton’s email claims,” Hill, July 9, 2016, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/287052-seven-ways-fbi-contradicted-clintons-email-claims
  5. [5]David Benfell, “Oy Vey: Paleoconservatives, Neoconservatives, and Alleged Anti-Semitism,” April 1, 2014, https://parts-unknown.org/wp/2014/04/01/oy-vey-paleoconservatives-neoconservatives-and-alleged-anti-semitism/; Ray McGovern, “Why President Obama’s War on Terror Speech Was Full of Half-Truths and Deception,” Alternet, May 31, 2013, http://www.alternet.org/world/president-obamas-terrorism-speech-was-deceptive; Norman Pollack, “Obama’s Militarism-Imperialism Lite,” Counterpunch, May 27, 2013, http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/27/obamas-militarism-imperialism-lite/
  6. [6]John Dean, quoted in Louis Nelson, “Howard Dean ‘shocked and incredibly disappointed’ over DNC emails,” Politico, July 26, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/dnc-emails-howard-dean-226199
  7. [7]Aaron Blake, “Here are the latest, most damaging things in the DNC’s leaked emails,” Washington Post, July 25, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/24/here-are-the-latest-most-damaging-things-in-the-dncs-leaked-emails/; Ryan Cooper, “Hillary Clinton and the awful risk of winning ugly,” Week, December 21, 2015, http://theweek.com/articles/595141/hillary-clinton-awful-risk-winning-ugly; Christian Drake, “New Information Shows DNC Violated Its Own Rules When It Shut Down Sanders Campaign Data Access,” Addicting Info, December 19, 2015, http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/19/new-information-shows-dnc-violated-its-own-rules-when-it-shut-down-sanders-campaign-data-access/; Nick Gass, “Clinton press secretary: Superdelegates can help Clinton clinch nomination by early June,” Politico, April 14, 2016, http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/hillary-clinton-needs-superdelegates-221943; Lauren McCauley, “Thumb on the Scale? DNC Backs Off Bernie But Questions of Neutrality Linger,” Common Dreams, December 19, 2015, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/19/thumb-scale-dnc-backs-bernie-questions-neutrality-linger; William Rivers Pitt, “Naked Politics: Sanders, Clinton and How to Win When You’re Losing,” Truthout, May 18, 2016, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/36090-naked-politics-sanders-clinton-and-how-to-win-when-you-re-losing; Michael Sainato, “The Countless Failings of the DNC,” Observer, March 27, 2016, http://observer.com/2016/03/the-countless-failings-of-the-dnc/; Amy Sherman, “Democratic debates set to ‘maximize’ exposure, Wasserman Schultz claims, but evidence is dubious,” Politifact, January 20, 2016, http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2016/jan/20/debbie-wasserman-schultz/democratic-debates-maximize-exposure-debbie-wasser/; Elliot Smilowitz and Joe Uchill, “Leaked DNC emails reveal secret plans to take on Sanders,” Hill, July 22, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288900-leaked-dnc-emails-reveal-secret-plans-to-take-on-sanders; Daniel Strauss, “Bernie’s backers rage against Democratic machine,” Politico, April 13, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/bernie-sanders-supporters-democrats-221842; Caitlin Yilek, “Ex-Obama adviser: DNC ‘putting finger on scale’ for Hillary,” Hill, December 18, 2015, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/263792-ex-obama-adviser-on-sanders-scandal-dnc-putting-finger-on

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