Is this "Don't Cry For Me, America?"
Killery Evita Clintonista!
Posted on 02/21/2005 8:32:45 PM PST by Libloather
Clinton's Popularity Up in State, Even Among Republicans
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: February 22, 2005
Remember Hillary Rodham Clinton and the conventional wisdom about how polarizing a figure she is? Well, think again.
Recent polls have shown that Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, may have turned a corner politically, sharply reducing the number of voters in the state who harbor negative views of her.
Pollsters say the change is remarkable for a woman who has long been shadowed by a seemingly implacable group of voters - commonly referred to as Hillary haters - who dislike her, no matter what she does, and who pose a potential obstacle to any presidential ambitions she may harbor.
A measure of how far Senator Clinton has come was on display Sunday when Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, said on "Meet the Press" that he thought Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, would make a good president, although he said that he would support his party's nominee. She returned the compliment, saying when asked by the program's host, Tim Russert, that Senator McCain would be a good president.
The changing view of Mrs. Clinton coincides with a period following the November election in which she offered a series of speeches filled with references to faith and prayer, while putting less emphasis on polarizing social issues like gay marriage and abortion.
The result of these comments has been an emerging image of Senator Clinton that is far different from the caricature that Republicans have painted of her: that of a secular liberal whose stances are largely at odds with a public that they say is concerned about the nation's moral direction.
Political analysts say the themes Senator Clinton has emphasized - combined with the hard-working image she has sought to project - appear to be causing large numbers of voters to re-evaluate her in New York, although not nationally, where the number of people who disapprove of her is still high. In a Marist poll last fall, roughly 4 in 10 Americans had negative views of her.
Her progress appealing to once skeptical New Yorkers was illuminated by a New York Times poll released last week that showed that 21 percent of New Yorkers had an unfavorable opinion of how she is handling her job, down significantly from the 29 percent of voters who expressed similar sentiments in October 2002.
(In two recent back-to-back surveys, pollsters for Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Conn., also found a notable decline in the number of New York voters who expressed a negative view of Mrs. Clinton.)
At the same time, Senator Clinton's job approval rating has increased to 69 percent from 58 percent in October 2002, according to the Times poll. That is higher even than the 63 percent approval rating of Charles E. Schumer, the senior senator from New York who was re-elected last year to a second term with a record 71 percent of the vote and who is known for his attention to upstate concerns.
The new attitudes toward Mrs. Clinton may be forcing Republicans to reconsider how to deal with an opponent they had until now viewed as an enticing target because of the depth of negative feelings she inspires among large numbers of New York voters.
Independent political analysts say her strong standing may give pause to any big-name Republican thinking about challenging her in 2006, chief among them Rudolph W. Giuliani and Gov. George E. Pataki. In fact, a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month found that Mrs. Clinton would defeat both Mr. Pataki and Mr. Giuliani in head-to-head contests.
"There isn't a long line of opponents forming to take her on in 2006," said Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
But New York Republican leaders say that they are eager to challenge Senator Clinton, especially since Republicans from around the country will almost certainly provide plenty of money and other campaign support to defeat her, as they did in 2000.
New York Republicans also say that the senator has had a free ride so far and that her opponent in the campaign will have an easy time driving up her negative ratings - and halting her rise in the polls - by pointing out what they describe as her poor record of accomplishment and her liberal ideology.
I want to continue, but I'm heading to bed. Maybe tomorrow
Then explain to me how I am wrong in regards to my understanding of current immigration reform plans.
Yeah, sure NYT.
If you want more proof of SHRillery's supposed recent move to the center, all you have to do is key up the American Conservative Union's new 2004 Senate ratings at www.acuratings.com
Hillary moved to the right by scoring a big, far 0 last year. That's right, a 0. Even Chuckie the windbag socialist Schumer managed to stumble to a 12 rating last year. If anything, Hillary has gotten EVEN MORE left-wing over the past few years than she was in the White House (remember Hilarycare, brrr).
If she's a "moderate", I don't want to know what the NYT considers a liberal.
That's the problem. If Hillary runs, there will be at least the same amount of enthusiasm for her as there was for Kerry, maybe more. What Republican can generate the same kind of enthusiasm that Bush generated among his voters?
First you are assuming that people are screaming on the water cooler about illegal immigration, I do not know many people who are screaming about it and I travel all over the country frequently on business trips and I meet many people and no one is screaming about it, they have a lot of other priority political and national security issues that concern them.
You are assuming that if Hillary make a promise on illegal immigration many people including conservatives are going to believe her. You yourself is saying that this will be phony promise by Hillary to attract vote, so unless you are assuming that people are less smarter than you are, they will also find she is lying and playing politics on this issue. Do not underestimate the intelligence of the American voters and their capability of seeing lies, fake and flip flops, the 2004 election was a great proof of that.
Will you vote for Hillary Clinton if she make some phony promise on illegal immigration and you know it is a phony promise?
One issue voters are very few. good luck voting Hillary. You just marked yourself around here, not a bright move.
And at least 51% of the voters will do the same.
But in so doing, she's stealing the independent "idiot" vote (you know, those people who get treated like idiots here for not understanding how 'wonderful' free trade is for the U.S.). She's cagey there, and if the Republicans think she's not, and put up someone who can't deflect her arguments on free trade, they'll be unpleasantly surprised in 2008.
see 122
Good night. I am heading to bed too and have five hours of sleep before I head to work.
I got polled on that today. I did not answer that question.
After eight years, we always go through this it seems. The Rats manage to take advantage of it and split the party.
Looks like immigration is the wedge this time.
Well, I ain't playing that game, nor am I fussing over some of the other BS. The field is wide open and may the best man win.
Is this "Don't Cry For Me, America?"
Killery Evita Clintonista!
Her loss will be sweet ! She won't know what hit her when it's over.
OK, she gets Lou Dobb's vote, and maybe yours. What about the other 5 or 6?
Bush certainly has the rhetoric on trade, but he plays politics (still didn't get Pennsylvania, it's a sellout that causes more harm than good). I wonder if Hillary wouldn't be the perfect 'convservative' candidate because The Hammer wouldn't let her get anything past the House.
We ignore her at our peril! Now is the time to discredit her efforts to "appear balanced".
She is a leftist through and through.....and if you write her off....we all wil pay later!
The Weselley thesis is to hillary as the 180 doc is to Kerry
No one is writting her off, more like getting prepared to hand her her arse on election day. Think positive or you fall into her trap.
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