Thanks SO MUCH for the FULL posting, FRiend! :-)
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-
Nobody can paint a word picture like Mark Steyn. Nobody.
I'm reposting that. That's too funny.
I love Condi, but she's unmarried as well. I'm not sure how that would go over. In a way, you could look at it as a benefit, but it could be a liability as well.
I can definitely see that happening. They are already fawning over her--Chris Matthews and the lot. They act like she's already got the nomination.
That being said, the party could just roll over, and all my money will be taken for the greater good.
*SIGH* Seems like there are no winners in 2008...
Cheers,
CSG
George Allen.
VP is still TBD.
Have a look at the photos of Condi Rice and Jeb Bush together at yesterdays OAS meeting in Fort Lauderdale.
IMO, they looked quite good together and they piqued my interest in the possibility of a Bush/Rice ticket..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1417724/posts
"I have to say I would much prefer Hillary in the White House with a strong Republican Congress"
For as long as I can remember (which, admittedly, hasn't been that long) "strong Republican Congress" is nothing but an oxymoron. I don't see that changing by 2008.
They couldn't assemble a complete spine if they took parts from every Republican currently in Congressional leadership.
"Read the latest on Sensenbrenner"
Some people on FR think he's great. It's amazing that this is what passes for conservative leadership these days.
I think Rudy's personal problems will make it almost impossible for him to win the nomination. We had 8 years being diverted from serious business by personal scandals of a womanizing president, then 8 years of a President whose marriage is the envy of almost everyone. I doubt many voters are nostalgic for the clintoon era.
Rudy could only win the nomination if his main competition was someone with an equally troubled personal history.
But she wouldn't be selected for such shallow reasons. She is eminently qualified for the job. Maybe the best we have. Her biggest problem is that she has never run for elective office before. That's why she would be better in the VP slot than the Presidential one.
It's not easy for accomplished women to find a mate. And it's even harder for a Black woman to do so. Remember, in her early 20's, she was a concert pianist, an accomplished figure skater, and an admired scholar. How many men wouldn't be intimidated by that?
I think she's better off single than having to explain a crooked husband like Geraldine Ferraro did, or maybe even having a husband like bill clintoon.
Thank you.
Being unmarried does have its positives in a position like that and I certainly don't hold it against her--just not sure if it would go over well with the public or not.
"I think Rudy's personal problems will make it almost impossible for him to win the nomination."
What personal problems? I have no idea what you're referring to.
"Rudy could only win the nomination if his main competition was someone with an equally troubled personal history."
He is happily married after getting divorced years ago. What are you talking about?
You're missing a lot of Rudy's bio. He was having an affair with his current wife, Judith Nathan, long before he divorced Donna Hanover.
"You're missing a lot of Rudy's bio. He was having an affair with his current wife, Judith Nathan, long before he divorced Donna Hanover."
Not that I approve of marital affairs, but your point is...?
He did end up marrying her, didn't he? Rudy would be running for President, not Sainthood. After all, let's see -
Clinton, Reagan, Eisenhower,FDR, just to name a few, were hardly the paragons of perfect "family men" now, were they?
Only Gary Hart became disqualified for the Presidency due to an affair, and that was because he acted like an idiot.
He dared the media to "prove" his rumored infidelity, and they did.(Donna Rice on the boat.)
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