An old friend, now living in NYC, writes concerning the Presidential race:
Been following your blog on this. I’m another one who favored HRC — I’ve known her for a long time, have worked with her in the WH and in the Senate, and think highly of her.
The way Bill Clinton has used race in the recent campaign is inexcusable and has cost her my vote. The Republican-style distortion — he’s antichoice, he said the Republicans have the best ideas — had brought me close to that point already. The race talk has absolutely done it, and has undone years worth of respect both of them had earned for who they are and what they’ve done. They should be ashamed of themselves; I’m certainly ashamed of them.
Isn’t it amazing how WJC has blown a career’s worth of goodwill in three short weeks? It’s not as if I can’t sympathize; if my sister were running for office her campaign folks would have to put me in a straitjacket. But he has really and truly screwed the pooch.
Of course it’s not clear how this will play out with the mass of (non-black) Democratic voters. But I think the high-attention voters are likely to be peeling away rather quickly about now. (As Hilzoy points out, when there are liars around, you have to be really high-attention to know the score. That puts an extra tax on citizenship, which is one of the many reasons why lying in politics is wrong.)