Posted on 10/24/2006 5:58:28 PM PDT by Nasty McPhilthy
Mrs. Clinton is not a sympathetic figure. Although there may still be a residue of public empathy because of her husband’s bad behavior, many people view her as an enabler, aware of his philandering from the start. As the song goes, she knew he was a snake before she took him in.
There must be, however, a modicum of compassion for her now. With the sudden emergence of Barack – make that Barack! – Obama as a likely candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, she’s gone from Hillary the inevitable to Hillary the unenviable.
Senator Obama says he’s thinking of running. What he really means is he wants Democratic voters to think of him running. And to ask, nay beg, him to accept their coronation.
There’s Obama on Oprah. There’s Obama on the cover of Time. There’s Obama persistently being hyped on cable news show as serious presidential timber.
On one program the other day, the media’s excitement was conspicuous. Chris Matthews told viewers that Senator Obama “can stand before a crowd and make them feel magic.” A Time reporter noted that the Illinois senator “really is really good.” Not to be outdone, a BBC correspondent expressed her opinion that Barack “has all sorts of charisma. He is ridiculously good looking!”
Assuredly, his pals in the mainstream media are doing what they can to peddle Obama. Yet there’s no doubting his appeal to rank-and-file Democrats as well.
Why? In a word, baggage.
Barack doesn’t have a lot. At least not a lot that’s generally known. He’s immunized himself to a certain degree by already admitting marijuana and cocaine use. That’s one skeleton that won’t tumble out of the closet.
By contrast, Mrs. Clinton needs a platoon of skycaps to lug her baggage around. Her involvement in her husband’s last-minute pardons, her brothers’ involvement in her husband’s last-minute pardons, FBI files, missing billing records, fundraising improprieties, Whitewater, her health care reform fiasco, Vince Foster, Webster Hubbell, and who hired a bar bouncer to run White House security are just a few of the choice topics that would be reexamined if she secured the nomination.
Even her most enthusiastic admirers have to know what she’s in for.
Mrs. Clinton also has something else Mr. Obama doesn’t: a six-year record of voting in the Senate. Those thousands of pieces of legislation she’s voted on will be gone over with a fine tooth comb.
Her liberalism will be evident. While this will help within her party, Democrats who, for a change of pace, want to win the presidency may wish to present a more moderate image.
All this doesn’t mean Mr. Obama will be waltzing to the White House. It’s true that he only has two years of casting votes in Washington . Still, his own liberalism will soon be obvious.
The National Journal’s evaluation for 2005 shows Mrs. Clinton voted more liberal on economic, defense and foreign policy issues than 80 percent of her colleagues. Mr. Obama’s liberal composite score was even higher, at 83 percent. Again, that might be beneficial in seeking his party’s nod, but not in November.
Mr. Obama’s record as a state senator in Illinois will be inspected. He voted for tax increases, abortions and mandated sex education from kindergarten. He opposed pornography filers on school computers, and when a vote came on banning strip clubs and porn shops within 1,000 feet of schools and churches, the best he could do was vote “present.”
Republicans will exploit that, as well as his admission that “We (Democrats) are trying to decide what our core values are.” For a smart man, the senator sure seems vague much of the time. Trying to figure out what his core values are is tricky.
His campaigning skills are untested. Mr. Obama secured his U.S. senatorial nomination in 2004 only when the frontrunner’s campaign collapsed because of scandal. Four years earlier, he tried taking a congressional nomination from former Black Panther Bobby Rush and lost by a 2-1 ratio.
Can Senator Obama survive the scrutiny brought by a presidential campaign? Can he endure the barrage of questions, even those from fawningly friendly reporters?
A generation ago another press darling, Teddy Kennedy, enjoyed widespread popularity. A 1979 Harris poll had Kennedy with a 56 to 39 percent lead among Democrats over incumbent President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 nomination. Teddy couldn’t handle the close attention, however, and his challenge fell short.
Mrs. Clinton has her failings – and I’m eager to point them out – but she won’t wilt in the glaring lights of a national campaign. Even if reporters don’t call her ridiculously good looking.
As someone without a dog in this fight, I’m looking forward to the pantsuit and the empty suit duking it out.
-PJ
Are you a stalking horse, too?
The Democrats have only one person that has a snowballs chance in hell of being President and I doubt that Zell Miller will run.
I can't empathizes with a rapist-enabler.
I'm better looking than both of those dogs.
pUH-LEEEEZ!
Let Obama run!!!!!
The only two reasons why Balack Obama is even being considered as a possible contender:
1.He's not Hillary.
2. He's not white.
If he did, he'd probably change to Republican anyway. I would still vote for him.
This is the first time she has been pinned up next to any man for a long time...
And he's obviously very naive if he thinks that Democrats would let him go ahead unstopped. Is he not familiar with the racism that characterizes that party?
If that is true about Barack I want vote for either one because they both dont have any morals.
If that is true about Barack I want vote for either one because they both dont have any morals.
McPhilthy, you've got my vote.
Lets see Obama's Grandfather and Father were Muslim he was educated for two years in a Muslim school???/ Nah I dont think I want to have anything to do with him for President.
Hillary will push Obama aside like a lawn mower with a blade of grass.
Bill: "*shudder* Please don't say 'Hillary' and 'hard place' in the same sentence."
A ridiculously liberal Senator from corruption-ridden Chicago is not going to do well.
GACK!
..and there wasn't room in the picture for the carpet bags filled with BOOTY from her gig in the White House!
"Barack and Barracuda in '08!"
What a team.
I actually believe that cartoon was first published before she was elected, so she was still in the White House; she hadn't gotten her grubby paws on our loot yet.
I don't know how you sleep at night.
We know you're ridiculously good looking, but you haven't admitted to cocaine use, so you're out.
----Seriously, this guy admitted to using cocaine ( or trying it?)---doesn't everyone know what a stupid admission that is??? That automatically disqualifies him!
That trumps the "honesty" of admitting it. What a dope this guy is, not just for using coke, but for thinking he could gain advantage by admitting it.
Barack Hussein Obama has no baggage? What is this guy smoking?
How great will it be if Kerry, Edwards, Hillary, Gore, Obama, Feingold, etc. ALL run?
I don't think I'd be employable any place that didn't let me have a TV on in the background.
Pass the popcorn.
Uhh, no offense, but how old are you?
It will help him a LOT more then hurt him with anybody under 45.
Well the first thing I saw in that cartoon was her ample booty...
"Why? In a word, baggage.
Barack doesn’t have a lot."
No offense. I am older than Barack Obama. It was one thing
for Bubba Clinton to "admit" "trying" marijuana "a time or two" back in '91, and claiming "I didn't inhale", and get away with it, or actually stir up a little more interest in himself and his campaign, than it is for this new "rock Star" to admit using cocaine. Unless he qualifies it with as much rancid insincerity as Clinton did, and hangs his head , Clinton-style, in a "I-have-sinned" plea for forgiveness , he has just shot himself in the foot. Don't forget the coke, smack, crack, heroin, etc etc. users are not always the most reliable voters. Sorry, this guy, who I instinctively disliked from the beginning, has just finished his campaign before it started. The ONLY hope is for the media to completely whitewash the coke use, and/or assiduously never allow it to be brought up under their watch. This you can count on them to do.
You know when interviewed VP Cheney said Obama was "good looking" and that was like a back handed slap saying that's all he's got going for him?
It was the "I did not inhale" part that got Clinton in trouble. Had he just admitted to trying it and said nothing more, it would have ended there.
Example: Al Gore admitted to trying it too, sans the "I didn't inhale" part. I bet you didn't even know that. Why? Nobody cared.
There's a big generational gap on this. The younger generation has been raised with the drug culture all around it. Most don't approve of it, but most understand that good people might have tried a lot of things in the past. The older you get, the more they are scared off by it, statistically, I mean.
Let's hope that wasn't a "Mark Foley moment."
It's not easy.
Givin' good teleprompter is more critical than I realized.
Guess HRC's baggage was just too heavy for her fellow 'Rats.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.