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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 1:59 pm Post subject: Hillary: A Shot In The Arm Or The Foot? |
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http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opdol024162038mar02,0,574803.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
| Quote: | Hillary: A shot in the arm or the foot?
By Joseph Dolman
March 2, 2005
She prays, she listens, she learns. She knows the Midwest, understands the South and speaks New Yorkese. When her marriage nearly collapsed as a mortified world looked on, she took the advice of Tammy Wynette, after all, and stoically stood by her man.
And now, just months after a majority of Americans judged the Democratic Party as clueless about their lives, dreams and values, a startling chunk of the political cognoscenti are starting to talk up Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as the wonder woman who just might fix things.
Here is Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat who may seek the nomination himself, sizing up Clinton last Sunday on "Meet the Press":
"I think she is likely to be the nominee. She'd be the toughest person. And I think Hillary Clinton is able to be elected president of the United States."
Biden isn't alone. Some of his colleagues are on record with similar comments. Meanwhile, a New York magazine article last month called Hillary in 2008 a long shot - but added that "no two people are more adept at writing their own story than the Clintons."
But wait: How nuts is this?
I mean, the Democrats know a thing or two about wretched judgment - from Al Gore's 2000 decision to run a populist campaign to John Kerry's 2004 decision to ignore the claptrap of the Swift-Boat veterans.
And yet, at a time when the party must broaden its clout among tradition-minded voters or languish in the shadows indefinitely, some Democrats are looking to perhaps the most polarizing woman in the nation as their savior?
They are indeed. Part of the problem may be desperation. Who else has Clinton's cachet? Who else can stir the passions as she does? If only they could reverse the negative energy she weirdly seems to generate and send it back out as positive vibes - as wondrous rays of hope that might entrance the Red-state multitudes.
Don't write this off as mere magical thinking in the wake of major trauma last November. Democrats have a surprisingly logical argument to make on Clinton's behalf.
She is, in fact, religious. She is, in fact, one of America's best politicians. (The best one is her husband.) She understands the regional nature of America in all of its maddening diversity.
She's a diligent advocate for New York in the Senate. She's adept at making compromises. Even a few GOP zealots who tortured President Bill Clinton have taken a shine to her.
She sounds as mainstream as ham and eggs. Her recent suggestion that maybe Americans ought to find constructive ways to avoid abortions has won her some new friends. Her pragmatism on Iraq and her steadfastness on Israel have given her image an aura of levelheadedness. In some ways, she might even be superior to her husband.
"Bill Clinton has an almost pathological desire to please," one political operative told me. "She's a lot more steely."
Sen. Clinton seems to have created - already - one of the more amazing second acts in American life. So what's not to like about her ascendance to 2008 front-runner status once she nails down re-election to the Senate next year?
Well, remember, I said the Democrats had a surprisingly logical case to make for her. But logic has nothing to do with the nation's culture wars.
In the decidedly Democratic precincts of New York, Clinton does fine. Amid the bartering of Capitol Hill, she survives.
But for all her hard work and mainstream values, she will face the challenge of a lifetime trying to live down her activist background. Every excess of the 1960s will be her burden to carry once the GOP strategists finish with her. Remember the snarky chatter that portrayed the Clintons as incorrigible baby boomers - as amoral greedheads straight out of "The Great Gatsby"?
She will have to beat down those tendentious ideas one by one from state to state. I'm not sure there's a politician alive who could do that.
Maybe Hillary can - but the odds are she can't. No, that's not fair. But the Democrats need to find another savior.
Joseph Dolman is a columnist and member of Newsday's editorial board. |
Personally, I think she has too much 'past baggage' to successfully pull off
her chameleon act. Especially in the age of the internet bloggers.
The MSM will run interference for her but the bloggers will be exposing
all of the past words and actions of Her Royal 'Heinous' Hillary. |
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GenrXr
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 1720
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I mean, the Democrats know a thing or two about wretched judgment - from Al Gore's 2000 decision to run a populist campaign to John Kerry's 2004 decision to ignore the claptrap of the Swift-Boat veterans. |
Love how people in the MSM continue this Kerry ignored the SwiftVets when in fact he couldn't respong to them. Truth was never on his side.
As for Hillary running for Prez 08', well this would be a great gift to conservatives.
Hillary for Prez 08'!
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy |
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Tanya
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 13 Aug 2004
Posts: 570
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