Posted on 07/15/2010 2:26:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The rehabilitation of Hillary Clinton has been interesting to watch, and will likely get more so if this is any indication. An op-ed in today’s Wall St. Journal by Pete DuPont is making the case that Hillary Clinton could launch a formidable campaign against incumbent President Barack Obama in 2012.
The question of whether Hillary plans on making another White House run has been casually bandied about since her hard fought 2008 campaign against Obama, but this is the first time I can recall seeing it in a serious publication…though I strongly suspect it will not be the last. The speculation this time around comes as a direct result of Obama’s plunging poll numbers (Hillary, by contrast, rates 45% favorable and only 35% unfavorable) and the approaching mid-terms, which even Press Sec. Robert Gibbs is none too optimistic about. Neither of these things, of course, are remotely new challenges for a incumbent president to face — Bill Clinton in 1994 is obviously the first example to spring to mind. What is new, however, is the wave of euphoria that Obama swept into office on, making this plunge all the more dramatic. But also: Sarah Palin.
First, here are the reasons DuPont thinks Hillary would be a good choice for the Dems:
She is one of the most experienced prospective candidates the Democratic Party has had in a long while: wife of a governor, U.S. first lady [nice that these attributes are now considered boons], senator and now secretary of state. This is a good record to run on as someone who knows how the government works.
Fourth, she is an experienced foreign-policy adviser who understands the threats to our national security: unresolved conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, rising threats of nuclear capability in Iran and North Korea, and uncertainties in Pakistan.
Fifth, experience will be even more important to voters in the 2012 presidential election, whose 2008 gamble on someone with little experience is proving costly.
All good strong, reasons, and ones that are notably lacking on the GOP side. Ironically, what DuPont neglects to include is the fact that Hillary’s a woman could also be a huge selling point, particularly now that Sarah Palin has been banging the Mama Grizzly drum so consistently.
It’s not a secret that Palin of late has been ingeniously cashing in on those 18 million cracks in the ceiling Hillary so notably inspired in 2008. In fact, lest we forget, in the beginning that was Palin’s reason for being: to allow the McCain campaign to capitalize on all those women votes. In the interim however she’s built (in ways no one could have anticipated) enough national clout to be widely considered the GOP’s strongest candidate for Oval Office, which may say as much about the roster of GOP candidates as it says about Palin — who I am still not convinced actually wants to be president — but nevertheless she’s a force to be reckoned with. Likely absolutely nothing could take the wind out of those sails faster or more permanently than Hillary Clinton. A hypothetical I imagine the media is going to harp on in the next few months: could there be a greater gift to the calbers and blogosphere than a Clinton vs Palin election year?
Mind you, there’s also the question of whether Hillary Clinton wants to be president still, or would consider launching a campaign against an incumbent from her own party (the last person to seriously do so was Pat Buchanan in 1992); one imagines Obama’s poll numbers would have to be rock bottom to justify such a decision. And even then it would be tough.
Of course, it’s still early and plenty could happen in the next 12 months that would entirely change the national political stage: the hole could be plugged, the economy could rebound. That said, the media started beating the Obama drum shortly before the 2006 midterms so perhaps it’s not that early at all, if the 2008 political season is anything to go by — and granted Bush was not an incumbent — the presidential debates should begin sometime next April.
Self-made woman versus Riding on someone else’s coattails: Choose.
Uh, I think BJ’s coattails helped old Hitlery...a little bit.
I’m expecting Biden to step aside at some point and Hillary to take his place as VP before the election.
So we’ll see if my crystal ball is calibrated or not. I had to send it into the shop when I predicted Castro would be out of office before the end of Bush’s first term.
Good for her.
Here’s to Obama having a bruising primary battle in 2011-2012.
And a sitting president losing/quitting a primary battle ensures their opponent takes the White House.
Ask Hubert Humphrey or James G. Blaine.
Maybe we should run Todd Palin for Senate, then have him be an ineffective facade as Secretary of State; then HE will be qualified to run for the Presidency!
If Obama continues to fail, and Hillary ousts him as the nominee, it will be a replay of 2008. McCain was Bush to the electorate. Hillary will be Obama.
You can do better...
:-)
“Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the Continental Liar from the State of Maine!”
Hillary = marxist-lite
Operation Chaos Part II begins...
(heh, heh)
Right and even if Hillary doesn’t run, Obama wants the ‘perception’ out there...to divide women, AGAIN
HRC is Obama in a white wrapped female body. No thanks.
“Fourth, she is an experienced foreign-policy adviser who understands the threats to our national security”
Possibly, knowledge and action are two different things.
Think Kennedy vs. Carter, 1980.
The 2012 will be a cage match between the most leftwing Democrat and the most rightwing Republican coming out of their respective primaries. The center isn’t holding. Obama has too much daylight on the left to survive. Maybe Palin and Dean.
Why not Cynthia McKinney or Patty Murray?
Latest move was getting her lesbian lover/assistant married (as a beard) to Rep. Anthony Weiner. I thought it was done just to get him not to run for Governor of NY becaue she was going to run, but now that Bammy is failing she wants to be POTUS.
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