O’Connor: King Obama v. Queen Clinton — Check or Checkmate?

Chess is a war game.

You win by playing your opponent, not the game.

The patient, wily, and deft player often triumphs more frequently than the flashy, lightening quick one.

A grand master will pick off the pawns as they cross into enemy territory and then concentrate on checking the King.

The Queen has the greatest maneuverability of all the chess pieces. She can be the most lethal.

The King, by contrast, is often barricaded behind a wall of defenders, with little room to escape-save in a bold and risky fashion.

The King is dying. Long live the Queen.

Quietly, and under almost everyone’s radar, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been vanquishing her foes, while President Barack Obama has been multiplying his.

Furthermore, she has been paying off her debts, while Obama has been multiplying his (and the country’s) I.O.U.s.

Obama is down in the polls. Clinton is up. He is losing his liberal base and taking heat on health care, the wars, broken promises, gate crashers, the bailouts, and a grand design that leaves his base behind.

As New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd  wrote Sunday, “The Obama White House is morphing into the Bush White House with frightening speed. Its transparency is already fogged up.”

Watch Tuesday night in Massachusetts

On Tuesday night, Clinton may win promotion of another pawn to a valuable seat in the U.S. Senate-and enhance her position on the political chess board.

A non-Kennedy, non-Obama candidate  may win the special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, and become the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate from that ultra liberal state.

If Clinton supporter and Massachusetts Attorney General  Martha Coakley wins  that will make the ninth score that Clinton has settled. And it will have happened in the state that the Kennedy family once ruled.

Monday, in a surprise announcement, former President Bill Clinton just endorsed Coakley and has recorded a message to be sent to 500,000 Massachusetts voters to get out and vote for Coakley.

Ironically, it was Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama in the Iowa caucus that ended the Clintons’ dreams of reclaiming the White House, and started the vendettas.

For the Kennedy family’s efforts, Caroline Kennedy came to believe that she earned appointment to the U.S. Senate seat, eventually vacated by Clinton.

Instead, the Governor of New York appointed Kirstin Gillibrand — a Clinton, not an Obama ally — and it is no secret that the Clintons made it happen.

Less well known was that Obama did not “lift a finger to help Caroline Kennedy.”

Perhaps Caroline, too, hopes for revenge Tuesday night in Massachusetts.

Appearing at a weekend fundraiser for the non-Clinton candidate, Caroline opined how “amazing” it would be if Alan Khazei won. This, may have added impetus to Bill Clinton’s late breaking endorsement.

Clinton’s political obituary

Remember not long ago, Clinton, once seen as becoming the first woman ever elected President of the U.S., was just another spectator at the swearing in of America’s first black President.

Clamors of “get out” were blogged from the Obama team after her early, and unexpected, primary defeat in the Iowa caucus.

Indeed, many pundits openly cheered and penned her political obituary, but she trudged onto the snows in New Hampshire.

As did I.

Watching Bill Clinton sit two blocks away from the main polling spot in Exeter (at the chocolate shop) where every local news outlet sat down and interviewed the former President, and almost every poll showed Obama with a nine-point lead, it became obvious that the Clintons were their own best “ground game.”

They sensed a change in that frigid New England air. They were right. Clinton turned the tables and won by 3 percent, a 12 percent swing that rocked the polling industry’s credibility.

Next, came the caucus/primary in Nevada, and again I witnessed the Clinton ground game when two Edwards delegates came out of the closed doors almost in tears saying, “They couldn’t even speak English. It was awful.” Clinton’s  union supporters bagged Nevada.

And I will be in Boston for Tuesday night’s election, to watch another Grand Master chess move. No historian can resist.

King Obama’s weakness

Obama’s lifelong habit of being cautious, voting “present” and splitting everything down the middle, may not get him re-elected.

If as the Clintons might already sense, that Obama is in trouble, his biggest threat remains Clinton.

Understanding this, and intent on keeping his enemies close, Obama appointed Clinton as Secretary of State, hoping, undoubtedly to woo her ardent supporters and to smother her with irrelevance.

Just to be certain that Clinton couldn’t upstage him, Obama appointed several “special envoys” to take over negotiations on the high-profile hot spots of the international stage.

The King’s chess move, thought to be “brilliant,” underestimated the patience of the Queen.

Ironically, Obama sacrificed another pawn to check the Queen.

Just last week, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) –also an Obama supporter in a state that Hillary won large — admitted that he coveted her current post of Secretary of State.

That makes Clinton 2; Obama 0. [Caroline Kennedy and John Kerry].

The remaining six pawns

Here are the former foes from the Democratic primary who took on Clinton — as Obama surrogates-hoping to be elevated to Knights, Rooks, or Bishops, but lost it all.

3. John Edwards: 2004 vice presidential candidate, 2008 presidential candidate of the “two Americas” theme, former North Carolina senator, and wannabe Attorney General in the Obama Administration.

Currently, the disgraced philanderer, less than dutiful husband of Elizabeth Edwards, and (after repeated denials of his infidelity) the only prominent national Democrat lower in public approval ratings than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

4. Bill Richardson: the New Mexico governor, friend and political appointee of the Clintons (watched Super Bowl with Bill before publically turning on the Clintons and endorsing Obama) and wannabe Secretary of State, Commerce-or anything else-under Obama.

Currently, Richardson remains in political purgatory, caused by the taint of “scandals” due to a grand jury investigation into several questionable campaign contributions in multiple alleged “pay-to-play” schemes; (involving local contactors, bond houses and a pension scheme with a Chicago investment firm that dealt with Richardson’s Chief of Staff).

Richardson’s political career cratered into jibes on the late night comedy shows of David Letterman and Jay Leno.

5. Chris Dodd: senator of Connecticut.

Currently, in serious political trouble for re-election. Dodd’s approval ratings are on life support and he is saddled with financial scandals galore-involving all those marquee companies that all Americans have come to hate-Countrywide Financial, AIG-as well as sweetheart real estate deals, with convicted inside-traders; the very people and firms Dodd was supposed to regulate.

6. Joe Biden: vice president of the U.S.

Currently, on the losing side of the debate over sending additional troops to Afghanistan. He publicly opposed the escalation in soldiers, preferring instead the option of drones and remote, recessed firepower.

Unflattering pieces about his gaffes and his “standing in the Administration” have begun to circulate in the liberal press — like in a recent column by Sam Stein of The Huffington Post.

Add to this his less than competent role on overseeing the stimulus package and detailing its success (with exaggerated numbers and made up Congressional Districts) and you see where his “standing” is headed. The latest poll showed Biden’s approval rating lower than Dick Cheney’s in the same period!

7. However, the most stealth-like, damaging, and perhaps satisfactory capture, came from the inelegant dismissal of former Clinton White House counsel, turned Obama-supporter and Clinton basher, Greg Craig.

Craig, who turned on Clinton during the primaries, did so in a rather nasty, but effective email arguing that she failed the test as commander-in-chief, that her claims of involvement in foreign affairs were bogus, and that she “never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue-not at 3 a.m. or at any other time of day.”

Currently, Craig is out of the White House-dismissed in a manner that brought howls, from the liberal activists, and have accelerated the disbelief, doubt, and defections among the Obama “believers”.

As Elizabeth Drew wrote in Politico, the firing was “the shabbiest episode of his presidency.”

8. And finally,  Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mon.): head of the Senate Finance Committee overseeing the health care bills.

Baucus has admitted — after repeatedly denying — that he was intimately involved with his state director, when he nominated her for the position of U.S. Attorney from Montana on “her merits.”

Currently under possible ethics violation for the nomination — not the lying, or the tryst, as both parties were separated at the time — Baucus’ political capital has eroded. He, too, competes with Tiger Woods for late night comedy jibes. Baucus’ year is ending badly.

Good year for the queen

Not so the Clintons. Besides vanquishing the eight pawns on the chess board, here are few more victories for the Clintons.

• The last minute save of the Turkish-Armenian accords opening the borders between these two longtime enemies.

• Bill Clinton’s dramatic feel-good rescue of the two female reporters held hostage in North Korea

• Clinton being named No. 4 of the 25 “smartest people” of the decade by the political blog The Daily Beast: “If anyone has a more intellectually rigorous resume for the decade, we have yet to see it.” High praise.

• A flattering article about Clinton in the December issue of Vogue magazine, complete with photos by the legendary Annie Liebowitz.

• Clinton’s approval rating in the high 60-percentile while Obama’s flirts under 50.

• The near “irrelevance” of those special envoys Mitchell and Holbrooke. They have been sidelined or mired in diplomatic quicksand.

• The success in adoption of her preferred Afghan strategy — and in securing NATO troop support over the expected 5,000 offered. (Something Clinton lectured Obama about in a primary debate: never get on the plane unless the deal has already been done.)

Whether the more agile Queen has been successfully “checked” by the King or he “checkmated” by her; only history will tell.

In the meantime, looking towards a possible transfer of power, some are rephrasing the medieval shout, “The King is dying. Long live the Queen.”

Colleen O’Connor is an SDNN political columnist.

Tags: 25 smartest people of the decade, Afghanistan, aig, annie liebowitz, bailouts, Barack Obama, bill clinton, bill richardson, bush white house, caroline kennedy, chess, chris dodd, clinton poll ratings, countrywide financial, David Letterman, elizabeth drew, federal deficit, greg craig, health care bills, health care reform, Hillary Clinton, huffington post, jay leno, Joe Biden, john edwards, John Kerry, kristin gillibrand, martha coakley, massachusetts, massachusetts attorney general, massachusetts election, maureen dowd, max baucus, nancy pelosi, NATO, new england weather, New Hampshire, new york times, obama poll ratings, politico, real estate industry, sam stein, SDNN, senate elections, senate finance commitee, Ted Kennedy, the daily beast, tuesday elections, u. special envoys, Vogue

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