Who Died And Made You Queen?
Lots of chatter today over this ridiculous story:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new commandment for the 2008 presidential field: Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband.
With a swift response to attacks from a former supporter last week, advisers to the New York Democrat offered a glimpse of their strategy for handling one of the most awkward chapters of her biography. They declared her husband’s impeachment in 1998 — or, more accurately, the embarrassing personal behavior that led to it — taboo, putting her rivals on notice and all but daring other Democrats to mention the ordeal again.
Oh, please…if Hillary thinks she can dictate the campaign…well, it’s the side of Hillary that makes so many people think perhaps David Geffen is right. As Mickey Kaus puts it:
Does Hillary realize that this taboo-enforcement strategy plays into the worst aspect of her public image–the dogmatic PC enforcer whose loyal aides seem, at least in public, to live in zombie-like fear that too much candor could incur her wrath? I don’t think it’s too much to draw a line from Hillary’s attempt to suppress the speech of her fellow candidates to a general, instinctive distaste for the tumult and self-expression inherent in democracy itself.
Hillary remains the undisputed Democratic frontrunner because of her deep organizational backing and the long list of still-loyal Clintonistas – and because there is no good alternative, it seems, since Obama is running far behind in the polls (so far), and Edwards has limited mainstream appeal (I’m being excessively polite here).
I’m seriously starting to wonder, though, if she can make it to the finish line without imploding…
Dear Hillary,
Your husband got a beaner in the oval office from a 21 year old overweight bimbo. Deal with it. He lied, was impeached, disbarred, and more. With all of that, he is still more likable than you.
The difference between you and Monica is she is 21, and a bimbo. Otherwise you are both females, and fat. She actually seems nice. That’s more than most of us can say about you.
I am talking about this because….I CAN!!! I am part of the vast right wing conspracy. Actually, I am just right of center and am on board with Rudy.
Bring it on.
Mike
My prediction is that Hillary and Obama beat each other up for the next six months, and then Al Gore enters the race two or three months before the primaries and gets the nomination. He positions himself as the Clinton agenda without the Clinton baggage, and as the guy who got Iraq right and got the environment right before anyone else. He picks Obama as his VP.
McCain and Rudy get caught in You Tube moments and both get bloodied up in the primaries. McCain gets the nomination and picks Rudy as VP, who declines. McCain loses to Gore in the general election.
Peter, there’s a problem with your scenario, though – how can Al Gore raise the hundreds of millions of dollars a present-day presidential campaign will take by waiting that long?…
I don’t see that as an issue —
a) he certainly has the name recognition — he doesn’t have Tom Vilsack’s problem (anonymity) or Hillary’s (has to spend money for gauzy campaign ads showing her as something other than calculated and cold-hearted
b) I am sure that he is hooked up with big money and can raise it quickly — hopefully all those Buddhist Temple visits did some good
c) if he has the look of a winner, money will gush in the door
This week’s Economist quotes James Carville saying that running for President is to politicians what sex is to more normal people — if given the chance, you want to do it more than once –
Well, I respectfully disagree with you – sure, Al Gore could raise millions in a heartbeat – maybe even $10 or $15 million. But that’s not enough these days…the money problem has grown disproportionately…
Maybe you’re right; certainly there will be a large group of “ABH” (anyone but Hillary) Democrats if she continues to lead Obama and Edwards by healthy margins…but I don’t think he can wait as long as you do…
I don’t see Gore taking the nomination for two reasons. One, and probably most importantly, in just about every presidential cycle, there’s a period of buyer’s remorse where people talk wistfully about some dream candidate who will ride in, solve all problems and save the day. And yet, it never happens. I don’t see any reason why it should happen this time, especially because with the frontloading of the primaries, the nominations could be pretty close to sewn up by early March.
The second reason is that, even if Hollywood loves Gore, the rest of the nation doesn’t. Look at these numbers from a recent Quinnipiac poll:
These mirror other favorable/unfavorable numbers I’ve seen for Gore. (For an example from one year ago, check this page and scroll down to the Fox poll from Feb. 7-8, 2006. If the concern is that Hillary Clinton is too divisive and her negatives are too high, and if she yanks Obama’s negatives up in the process, Gore is no better.
I see hillary’s queen act eventually doing her in. the average person is not much into the race yet and know hillary and few other than that. The novelty of a first lady running and the 3 week campaign of trying to appear as a nice person the average person is thinking positive. However, the cracks are showing. She cannot keep up the looking like she is a nice person when her real self is a shrew. The strain of the campaign and the questions and the having to always be around the little people will take it’s toll.
She is now conspiring with Bill to take down Obama who she sees as her real threat.
Obama is narrowing her lead fast and drawing amazing crowds. Long time Clintonistas are beginning to look his way and people like Geffen are speaking out.
Bill is holding his own fundraisers for her but, they will find money cannot buy everything.
The queen is not going to get her crown. And Bill’s behavior will come up as an issue whether Hillary likes it or not. making it taboo has opened her up for the arrows to come. the pundits will have a great time and people will be reminded of what they hated about the Clintons.
In the end the nomination will go to the person who deserves it. Obama
To be fair, America is not ready for an African American to lead this country. Americans still can’t see past the same sex mariage issues as well as abortion rights and not to mention it’s racist views on “what an American should look like”. Like it or not this country is still racist no matter what our flag stands for. I just finished reading an artical on the Evangelical “christian” party that has much influence on how the vote for 08′ pans out. What I read was somewhat promising for the Liberal party but at the same time they are not finished with being a threat. These people all believe that somehow they “know” Jesus personally and what he expects of us. Anyone with half a brain can figure out the age old questions of his expectations. It’s simple no one knows until you actually meet your creator. I guess what I am getting at is we need to push these religious radicals out the door if we want a black man or a woman as Chief Of Staff. By the way think long and hard people when you bash President Clinton, Do your homework …..Clinton put this country in a great place only to put a religious radical as well as a hooked on phonics president like Bush in his place. Bush has destroyed this country with his PERSONAL agenda. Bill getting layed didn’t turn this country into the land of the hated and doomed, Bush did! Lifes a sh** sandwich eat or starve! It’s the truth so swallow it! GO HILLARY!