That's a disturbing notion...
Posted on 10/29/2003 11:39:56 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Hillary's game plan
Posted: October 30, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
There has been a lot of talk recently about Hillary Clinton's political game plan. Will she run for president in 2004? Wait until 2008? Is she backing Gen. Wesley Clark, or some other stalking horse, for the 2004 nomination? Might she take the vice presidential spot on his team, expecting him to lose but polishing her own credentials for the top spot next time? Or does she have some even more devious scheme in mind?
Actually, Clinton's game plan, though suitably Machiavellian, is not all that complicated.
Sen. Clinton wants to be president of the United States. She has a large constituency of passionate admirers around the country that wants her to be president. There is also a large constituency that will oppose her until its dying breath. As a matter of fact, I suspect the latter to be larger than the former, but I may be wrong. In any case, she is certainly entitled to try her luck. Moreover, polls indicate that she is the overwhelming choice of Democrats for the nomination, any year she decides to run. So why not give it a shot?
The conventional wisdom, however, is that President Bush is going to be extremely hard to be beat next year. That was certainly true in the aftermath of Sept. 11, and the victorious wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And while his poll ratings have been declining recently, as the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq have proved more painful than anticipated, he is still the odds-on favorite to win in 2004. This will be particularly true if the economy continues to improve and if the situation in Iraq begins to look better. Above all, the voters regard Bush as a strong leader in the all-important war against terrorism.
So Sen. Clinton's present intention is to skip 2004 and set her sights on 2008. However, for this plan to be successful, the Democratic candidate in 2004 must lose. If not, he or she will be running for re-election in 2008 and Clinton will have to cool her heels.
Luckily, as noted above, the 2004 Democratic nominee is very likely to lose. Then Sen. Clinton must contrive her own re-election to the Senate in 2006 (to lose that would effectively end her political career). Unfortunately, it is quite possible that the Republican nominee for her seat will be former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a fearsomely popular figure who would give Sen. Clinton a truly exhilarating run for her money. But she has no choice but to run that risk and has a reasonable chance of surviving.
Once re-elected to the Senate in 2006, Clinton can breeze to the 2008 Democratic nomination. She has only to indicate her willingness to run, and the party will nominate her by little short of acclamation.
Of course, the Republicans will have a candidate, too – perhaps Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida or the attractive governor of Colorado, Bill Owens. But Sen. Clinton can hope that eight years of George W. Bush will, at least temporarily, have worn out the popular welcome of the Bush family and that, after eight years of government by the GOP, voters will be ready to give the Democrats a chance to show what they can do.
But what if, despite all expectations, the economy and situation in the Middle East conspire to render President Bush a political basket case by, say, next spring? In other words, what if it suddenly appears that the Democratic nominee in 2004 is likely to win?
There is no reason why Sen. Clinton can't accelerate her schedule and let her party know that she is, after all, willing to accept its presidential nomination in 2004. Poor Howard Dean will simply have to return to Vermont and practice medicine. Neither he nor any other candidate could withstand the tsunami of enthusiasm for Clinton.
One way or another, we are going to encounter that lady in our future. We had better be ready.
William Rusher is a Distinguished Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. If you wish to write to Mr. Rusher, you can contact him c/o United Media; Editorial Dept., 4th Floor; New York, N.Y. 10016.
There is NO backroom politics anymore, no how, no way, no nothing and Hitlery! will NOT be named Dem presidential candidate, by acclimation, at their convention. Those who claim that, either in articles, on T.V., or in posts on FR, just do NOT inderstand how politics work/enjoy frightening themselves silly, with imagined plots of their own devising.
No Dem, in the 9 dwarves group, is going to allow her to steam roll them out of their hard won primary wins. Today, when a person wins the primary ( unless the state allows for split votes at the convention ), those sworn to cast their state ballots, for XX, MUST give them to that person and that person alone, until the winner is totatled and then, by aclimation ALL of the votes are given to the Dem candidate who has the highest totals. If she doesn't venture out into the likes of Iowa, New Hampsire et al, she has NO, none, nada, zilch, bupkis delegate votes.
If backroom politics REALLy was still viable, the powers that be, knowing full well,Bill Clinton's background/history, would have NEVER have allowed him to run for president in the first place.That's how it USED to work, no longer does work, and is why this kind of garbage is just a lot of sound and fury/meaningless garbage.
Yes, Hitlery! yearns to be president again. No, she does NOPT ever go after that which she can NOT win; especially if it means that she's going to have an emense problem to boot and President Bush, the upturning economy, etc. IS more than she can overcome right now. Arnold's win in California didn't help matters any either.
Will she run in '08 ? Probably; however nothing is certain.
Jeb Bush will NOT run in '08. You can bet the manse ( if you have one ) on that!
Will Rudy run for her Senate seat in '06 ? Maybe, maybe not ... he'd also like to be govenor.
But if no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, there has to be a process by which the delegates are eventually released--otherwise the dems could not nominate anyone. This eventuality could result in a HRC nomination.
Without any delegates pleged to her, Hitlery! can NOT even be thrown into the mix. Al Sharpton would go balistic, Howard Dean would throw the hissy fit to end ALL hissy fits, and that's just for starters.
There is NO possible way, today, that none of the 9 dwarves would not have the majority needed, after the primary season, to be proclaimed the Dem candidate. That isn't a conjecture; it's a fact.
That's a disturbing notion...
True .. but do you think Hellary really cares what they think or want??
Remember, it's all about her and her wants
Dean has rabid followers, as rabid as any the Clintons had/have. Even before Conservatives began to scream, many Dems would go insanely ballistic, should she even harbor the thought of a take over. She may be evil, devious, malevliant, but she is just NOT that stupid!
They are masters of political assassination, and have zero morals or scruples.
Yes, the Clintons have NO morals, they ARE out for themselves alone, they ARE power mad ( she much more so than he ), they are NOT above doing all manner of horrid things to their preceived opponents, no matter WHO they are; however, they won't do anything like what some claim they will, re the '04 election.
Ticket : Clark / Hitlery
2004 : Hillary skips out on all the Presidental debates because she has the magnetism of navel lint.
2004: Al-Q detonates a nuclear device on american soil.
October : Bill clinton dies in an 'accident' .... Hitlery gets women sympathy vote.
2005 : Hitlery is VP ..... Clarke is then taken out with a 'sniper weapon' so that the dems can now go after hunting rifles.
late 2005 : Second Civil War in America begins.
No threats just an image of how the worst case scenario can go.
The time for that kind of query, is IF the nominee elect selects her as V.P. and NOT before.
If there is a devious way for Hillary to capture the nomination and ascend to the Presidency (with or without a fair election), she will try it. I'm not writing her off until Nov. 4, 2004.
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