How does she manage to fit her broomstick inside her purse?
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.
Time causes to forget. Last March the French Looking One was riding high, and had low negatives. Additionally, Bush was under daily attack from the Demorats, but the Bush team did not begin to respond till around April.
When the Bush team put on its first media blitz, it immediately drove up Kerry's negatives. Bush would have won in a landslide if it weren't for his awful performance in the first debate.
The Clinton strategy, given where we are in the political cycle is utterly irrelevant, except that it confirms what a false and deceptive power-hungry political slut she is.
"It’s easy to anticipate that Republican Joe Scarborough will soon be either purged or gelded. Gelding would take the form of Kaplan requiring that every conservative guest and statement on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country” be “balanced” with a Leftist guest or statement. At best this will dilute the show and destroy its savor and ability to balance Matthews. At worst it will goad Scarborough to turn his attention to relatively apolitical topics like the Michael Jackson scandals."
"If this comes to pass, then Joe Scarborough will likely remain on the air until the day following the November election, when a loyalist of the Hillary 2008 campaign will replace him. That’s trickle-down politics. That’s Rick “Capo” Kaplan, reportedly the new boss of a now-dying private network that once held much promise, MSNBC."
The GOP turnout is going to be hugh against the witch, they will raise more money than they ever raised if the pig runs.
Hillary getting popular??
I have been saying it all along.
As I've said before, Hillary has a relatively good chance of becoming President and a better chance than any other person now alive.
The February 15th issue of the Wall Street Journal Political Diary had an interesting speculation:
What Sen. Clinton needs is what New York Gov. George Pataki never seemed to get. To earn a larger leadership position, a politician needs to cement a reputation by doing at least one big thing that command national attention and applause. Rudy Giuliani did it by solving New York City's crime problem. Ronald Reagan cemented his conservative leadership status by delivering a hard-hitting prime time speech endorsing Barry Goldwater. If Gov. Pataki had killed rent control in New York City, he'd be the darling of the right. Gov. Bredesen is killing TennCare, his state's failing and unaffordable program of health care subsidies for thousands of able-bodied adults -- and earning national attention as an effective manager not bogged down by liberal shibboleths.Hillary Clinton is a smart politician -- much smarter than Gore or Kerry. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she pulled off something such as the above. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if we soon had another 4 or 8 years of a Clinton White House.Sen. Clinton could be her party's great middle hope if she would reach across the aisle now. If she helped make Social Security private accounts possible, she'd get almost as much credit as President Bush -- and begin to erase her lingering image as a left-wing reactionary to voters in much of the country. That would go a long way towards driving down her negatives nationally and cementing her reputation as being the person who can bring electoral victory.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
What do you think they are talking about right now with immigration ? Buy a clue.
How does she manage to fit her broomstick inside her purse?
Oh, I would never underestimate Hillary---she is cold-blooded---I just hope that the pajama people get really good at finding out secrets so that all of hers that haven't been exposed yet, will be---
BTW, another segment on Scarborough tonight that floored me!!! Joe said that they took a straw poll of 4000 people at the CPAC convention this last weekend and asked who they thought should be the Rep. candidate for 2008---do you know who won the straw poll from a CONSERVATIVE group?
Rudy Guiliani!!! couldn't believe my eyes--
after him came, Condi Rice, George Allen, someone else, and I think the last name was John McCain---
Even Monica Crowley couldn't believe that CPAC would put Guiliani on the top of the list---
John Kerry almost managed to lose a Democratic Senate seat in 1996 in Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the country. He's a lousy politician. Always has been.
He managed to win the nomination between 9 RATS, and your point is ?
You are in dreamland.
The Left has Karl Rove as the all-powerful supervillain; the Right seems to have chosen Hillary Clinton for that role. She's a skilled politician, yes, but hardly the virtuosa that so many FReepers seem to believe. It's important not to underestimate your opponents, but also vital not to overestimate them. We'll combat her when the time comes, but we shouldn't spend years in pointless fear of a charicature-Clinton.
I suggest you wake up
For me, the key to defeating her is to get serious about our party and our platform, and to make sure that it stands for something that represents real CONSERVATIVE values, and which will be popular with the voters.
Securing the border is a conservative value. Reducing the size of government is a conservative value. Building up our military is a conservative value.
Immigration amnesty, pork-barrel spending, tax increases (e.g. raising cap on SS wages), and closing military bases are not conservative values. And we need to remember the lessons of 1992. The people may choose a Clinton over a confused Republican party.
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