The Face of Evil
Posted on 04/18/2005 9:22:40 PM PDT by kingattax
Pollster Scott Rasmussen has begun publishing a regular "Hillary Meter." The purpose of this is to track Sen. Hillary Clinton's movement to the political center by determining how much of the American public considers her to be middle-of-the-road. I find this to be a fascinating story, because it says quite a bit about Hillary and her political skills--or lack thereof.
It is, of course, gospel that Hillary Clinton is a political genius, or something to that effect. She is so brilliant that potential Democratic opponents are warned by pundits everywhere that she will work her secret devil arts on the poor fool who dares cross her. She is that good. Ostensibly, the only hope that humble conservatives have to keep her from being the first female president is some tawdry book by Ed Klein.
I have never understood this. Where do her political credentials come from? It seems to me that she was a great supporting player to a good (though highly overrated) politician. She played the part of the forgiving, intelligent, driven wife with great effectiveness. When she takes center stage, however, the results are quite mixed. She botched health-care reform so badly that President Clinton got absolutely nothing from a Democratic Congress. She coined the term "vast right-wing conspiracy"--guaranteeing that conservatives everywhere would curse her existence until the end of time.
She did win that New York Senate seat, but that, to my mind, was pretty unimpressive. She beat latecomer Rick Lazio, who was not a formidable candidate, to say the least (the word "sophomoric" comes to mind).
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
The Face of Evil
INTREP
Should be noted that the author is the guy that ran the brilliant Horserace Blog.
I think the future for Jay Cost is unbelievably bright whatever he does.
We should overestimate her so she is crushed at the polls. Utterly crushed.
The Rats think that sKerry inflamed the opposition??? Just wait to see what happens when Shillary runs.
Boortz thinks she will be elected. I doubt it seriously.
youre absolutely right
I have been making the point to every democrap I meet to please please please run hillary in '08.
who is a better screamer......her or crazy howie dean ?
Most likely from her ability to evade the law in all her shady dealings. The dems would consider that a real ass...umm, asset.
Good article.
If Hillary runs she may win the nomination of the Dems. But she will not win the presidency unless the Republicans manage to repeat Bush 41's failed presidency in Bush 43's ssecond term AND nominate a sure fire loser for 2008.
No Democrat who can't play the moderate card has won since 1964. And Hillary most defintely cannot play that card however she triangulates over the next couple of years...
I think she's much more dangerous as a running mate to AL GORE, who is definitely running again, IMO.
She has a lot working against her for prez. Age is one of them, sorry to say, everyone knows sex-appeal wins votes -- check Kennedy vs Nixon. By 2008, she will simply look old (men get "distinguished"... it's a terrible double standard).
Standing by your man only wins you points if your man was right or at least honest.
She is toast in the red states, and most of the blue.
I don't know why anyone thinks she is electable outside of New York.
But then, I couldn't undersand why the dems nominated Kerry, either.
This woman hasn't aged gracefully. She has to run in '08. She'll be too ugly by '12.
She is demonstrably ham-handed in producing programs, to be sure - Hillary-care was a bureaucratic disaster. This is irrelevant. She is adept in the acquisition of power and anyone skilled in that area and not in employing that power for the good of the country is a very dangerous person.
Dean... but the competition was fierce.
If the White House released everything they hasd on this women it would be over for her. But they are not Demorats.
Not even Gore is that stupid.
The Veep is "a heartbeat from the Presidency". With Hitlery as Veep, Gores Presidency would be measured in hours.
And you don't think those conditions are possible? When the press is done with Hillary, she will be a saint, she will walk on water. Every woman will be challenged to vote for her. Every sensitive man will feel guilt if he thinks for a moment about voting for a man instead. The only ones who will be dead set against her from start to finish are the true conservatives. If the Republicans don't do well in Bush's second term, and if they don't put up a good candidate to oppose Hillary, she could win.
The ones with the greatest potential to ruin her chances are Bill and Hillary. There is always a chance that something truly ugly, new or old, will come to light in the next two years. It's one of the thoughts that keeps me going when things look dark.
"No Democrat who can't play the moderate card has won since 1964."
John Kerry came close to winning (within a couple percentage points in popular vote, and also close in Ohio, etc), and I barely heard him moderating any positions. He ran as an anti-death-penalty, pro-abortion gun-grabber who was confused about whether he was anti-war or pro-war.
In any case, if he had the brains to talk about border security, I have a feeling that might have been worth enough votes for him to win. He came very, very close in Nevada and New Mexico, and I wonder if Colorado or Florida might have swung to him, as well. And perhaps Ohio too, although I'm not sure if the issue has the same resonance there.
But my point is that Hillary's probably going to be running against a weaker candidate than George W Bush. If she makes a few smart moves (like running to the right on border sovereignty and illegal immigration), she may pull it off.
That's true for those who watch politics, but wasn't there a poll recently that found 40+% now regard her as a "moderate".
What's the quote from Lincoln?--you can fool some of the people all of the time. And she only needs to fool some. She can count on the dummies.
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