Posted on 06/06/2005 9:08:04 AM PDT by quidnunc
Like almost everything about the Clintons, it started as a joke and somehow turned real. Hillary Rodham Clinton running for President wasn’t a bad gag: she’s widely believed to be consumed by ambition; her husband, her chosen vessel these last several decades, was a spent force, politically if not in the DNA fabric-analysis sense; and it was unlikely that she’d become Senator for New York in order to spend the next couple of decades attending to the complaints of whiny losers in upstate welfare backwaters. For many on the right, the faux warnings about a Rodhamite restoration in the White House were a way of prolonging the turbulent passions of the Clinton years in a relatively harmless way — like playing Civil War re-enactments on a Saturday afternoon, it offered the frisson of the great primal conflict with none of the pain. After all, the idea of Hillary becoming President is patently absurd, isn’t it?
Yes, it is — as absurd as a woman who’s never run for elected office and with stunningly high negatives becoming Senator of a state she’s never lived in. Just because something’s absurd doesn’t mean it can’t happen. So here we are trembling on the brink of the early positioning for the 2008 nomination, and suddenly Hillary, if not exactly a shoo-in, is looking like the least worst choice for the Democratic Party. Officially, she's focused on getting re-elected to the Senate next year, but any serious threat to that prospect (Rudy Giuliani, say) fades with every month. The real energy's being concentrated on the White House run.
Right now I’d say President Rodham Clinton is a better-than-evens probability, mainly because of the rule promulgated by my own senator, Bob Smith of New Hampshire, after her husband’s impeachment trial. “He’s won,” said Senator Smith, a Republican, after dutifully casting his vote to nail Slick Willie’s puffy butt. “He always wins. Let’s move on.” The Clintons always win but they never move on. The distinguishing characteristic (as Paula Jones would say) of the Clintons’ Democratic Party is that it was swell for the Clintons, disastrous for the Democratic Party: throughout the 1990s, the Democrats lost everything — Congress, state legislatures, governors’ mansions, tumbling to their smallest share of elected offices since the 1920s. But somehow Bill and Hill were always the lone exceptions that proved the rule. There is no reason to believe the Clintons’ amazing historical immunity to their party’s remorseless decay will not continue.
-snip-
Steyn - don't ever go away...
How does he do it day after day?
If hillary runs on the Dem ticket, I think the GOP could really win with a Jeb/Condi ticket.
The dynasty issue would be neutralized, as would be Jeb's wife's and daughter's problems. Condi as VP candidate would neutralize the women's issue.
The only thing left would be the real issues (foreign policy, taxes, the economy, family values, etc.) and the GOP wins on all of those.
Jeb is a successful governor, and Condi (so far) is a successful SoS. What better credentials could we ask for?
Steyn is right on again (as usual).
I have to say I would much prefer Hillary in the White House with a strong Republican Congress than I would John McCain and the whimps who occupy that establishment currently. In the former case we would actually have a chance at an intact republic after four to eight years.
I'm reading this to my hubby, and when he heard this line he just groaned and said, "I can hear Katie Couric asking this."
Well, you know, that's the only reason that Republicans contested the Washington election. /dripping sarcasm
Qwinn
Ooo, would you mind putting me on the Lileks list? Thanks!
Offer them the tantalizing possibility of Condi.
Thanks for the ping, Pokey! Personally, I don't think sHrillary can win; anybody that can cause deafness in dogs when she gets wound up won't win the hearts and minds of a majority of the people. And I believe that people ARE getting more conservative; they won't buy her schtick just because of her "identity politics" anymore.
No WAY will this female be voting for sHrillary, not even if she switched back to being a Republican (since she claims she was once a "Goldwater girl").
Thanks Pokey. Absolutely brilliant Steyn.
Until I ping another article, you can check out FR Keyword: LILEKS
I hate to see the suffrage.
Small-l libertarian talk show host Neil Boortz regularly half-jokingly suggests repeal of the XIXth.
'"You will be appalled at how many otherwise thoughtful, sensible women will express intent to vote for Hillary because "it's about time a woman got to be president." '
I've been telling people that for several years and that's the precise reason we need Sec'y Rice to oppose her. Ms. Rice not only counters the woman issue, but adds to her appeal with the complexion; that would be a nuclear bomb delvered to the Dims. As the Dims complain about her being an Uncle Tom, they will be alienating more undecided blacks.
"ya beat Hillary in New York in 2006 and she's toast. Failure to do so will mean a successful presidency bid."
You are so right!
And, she can win.
They will go on the offense, making the number one issue, Isn't it time we had a woman president? What, you have a problem with a strong woman for president?
The flat-footed Repubs will be falling over themselves to say No, we wouldn't mind a woman! (Few will be strong enought to look the camera in the eye and say, I have no problem with a woman president...just not that woman.)
Especially if we run deer-in-the-headlights, flaccid Frist. And if McCainiac takes part.
This country has enough disgruntled, grievance-carrying women and feminized men to put her in the Whitehouse.
Our only hope is an Allen-Bush ticket. George, Jeb.
Or hell, the other way around, I don't care.
Let's put things in perspective.It's so early. didn't we just re-elect Bush?
Having said that, I believe the Repub.ticket for 2008 will be Giuliani/Rice. Rudy will start creeping rightward on social issues, and would be invulnerable to attack of "flip-flopping, because he'll be running against the "flip-flopping queen."
IMO, despite the Dem. ticket being headed by Her majesty, a Giuliani/Rice ticket may well be unbeatable. New Jersey and Pennsylvania would be very vulnerable as "blue states" with
this Repub. slate.
bttt
Condi is fine for VP intrinsically, but I just am not crazy about twofers. A woman or a black, fine. But a black woman could be just too cute.
bttt
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