Clinton a lightning rod for both sides ahead of 2008 race

San Diego Union -Tribune ^ | 7/31/05 | George E. Condon - CNS

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON – For very different reasons, Republicans and liberal Democrats found themselves together last week protesting Hillary Rodham Clinton's effort to stake out ground in the political center.

But the New York senator holds such a dominant position in the jockeying for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination – even 2½ years before the first caucus – that she has been able to brush off the early attacks from both her right and left.

When Clinton appeared in Columbus at the annual meeting of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett hurried to the scene to make sure reporters knew that the GOP was not about to let her shed her liberal reputation quite so fast.

"Hillary is now a centrist? I don't think so. We're not going to let that happen," Bennett said. His comments were echoed by the Republican National Committee, which said in a statement that "she can't run from her hard-left record."

Equally concerned Democratic Party liberals raced just as fast to their activist blogs to chide the former first lady for agreeing to consort with the party conservatives and moderates who make up the DLC.

They predicted punishment at the polls if Clinton embraces DLC positions such as free trade, a robust military or an assertive foreign policy. Their expressions of concern was the latest indication that liberals have been watching Clinton's many centrist moves in the past year.

Those moves include a much-noted speech in January in which she called for "common ground" with anti-abortion advocates, and more recently, her alliance with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on health care issues.

After Clinton's appearance in Columbus, Thomas Donnelly – an influential neoconservative backer of the Iraq war at the conservative American Enterprise Institute – saluted the senator's approach to national security and defense.

Clinton, he wrote admiringly, "actually has been working hard over the past few years to burnish her credentials on these issues, particularly in regard to Iraq. She seems to grasp what many in her party still cannot: In the post-9/11 world, the job of an American president is to be a wartime commander in chief."

All this activity comes long before most of the country has given any thought to 2008 and as Clinton insists she is looking only as far as her own re-election race in New York in 2006.

However, President Bush's nomination of a conservative, Judge John Roberts, to the Supreme Court has served to remind Democrats of what happens when you lose presidential elections. There is already an intense focus on 2008 among party activists, most of whom are liberal.

And almost every conversation about the next election begins with Clinton, wife of the only Democratic president to serve two terms in the past half-century.

That was clear at the DLC meeting, which featured three other possible presidential contenders. The delegates, primarily officeholders from 30 states, were receptive as they listened to speeches by Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. But they gave their longest and loudest cheers to Clinton.

One of those applauding was Jeannette Lewis, a school board member in suburban Denver.

"I really like Hillary. She's so dynamic," Lewis said. But she also doubted Clinton's ability to carry Colorado in the election, adding, "I'm just not sure the country's ready for her."

Those are the sort of concerns that other Democratic hopefuls will try to exploit in 2008. But the consensus among Democratic activists and some analysts is that it may be difficult to sidetrack what could become the Hillary Express to the nomination.

"It's a long way to go and one never knows what will happen, but she is the clear front-runner for the nomination," said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He called Clinton's effort to appeal to moderates a shrewd strategy.

"She correctly calculates that her problem is not with the party's base. It's with the potentially persuadable voters – independents and weak partisans – and they tend to think of her as liberal," Mann said. "And if she is to be elected, that is her biggest obstacle, not appealing to the base."

Pollster John Zogby said Clinton would enter the race with amazing strengths – and strong opposition from many. "She starts with one-third of the whole electorate just absolutely hating her guts" and one-third loving her, he said. Signs of moderation could help sway the remaining third.

One strategist close to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, acknowledged Clinton's lead as well as her ability to move to the center earlier than most candidates can risk.

"If Hillary wants it, it is hers absent some horrific mistake," said the strategist, who asked not to be identified because of his ties to Kerry. "All these other guys are going to be trying to find a way to be the alternative to her, hoping that either she makes a mistake or they can find a chink in her armor. But that chink is going to be very hard to find unless she creates it."

The Kerry strategist doubted that liberals are going to abandon Clinton, no matter how much she moves to the center.

"Some people will try to run to the left of her, and they're going to say, 'Look, she's moved; she's pro-war,' " he said. "If she votes for Roberts, the left is going to have an argument with her. But she is iconic enough with the left right now that that won't be an issue."

Some liberals have suggested that a vote for Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court would badly damage Clinton's standing among liberals. But Mann said she could survive such a blow.

"We'll have to see how the hearings go, but I think a lot of Democrats will vote for Roberts in the end and I think Hillary will be among them," he said. "And I don't think it's going to hurt her."

[NormsRevenge]

One of those applauding was Jeannette Lewis, a school board member in suburban Denver.

"I really like Hillary. She's so dynamic," Lewis said. But she also doubted Clinton's ability to carry Colorado in the election, adding, "I'm just not sure the country's ready for her."

...

and Amen to that

[185JHP]

Run, Hillary, Run!

[hineybona]

She has a real good chance of becoming president. If we dont slam her every day from now until electon time , we may live to regret it.If we dont take her seriously now we will wished we did later on.

[kromike]

Or, perhaps more accurately, the country's not ready to submit to the whims of the Osama bin Laden, the French, and Kofi Annan

[NormsRevenge]

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, from New York, speaks to members and supporters of the Democratic Leadership Council Monday, July 25, 2005, in Columbus, Ohio. Clinton, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, pressed Democrats to adopt a tough stand on national security and urged the party to show a united front to counter ``the hard-right ideology in Washington.'' (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Monday the 'hard-right ideology' of the Republicans had weakened and divided the United States and called on Democrats to 'get America back in the business of building dreams again.'

At a gathering of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, the group that helped her husband Bill Clinton win the presidency, the New York senator and three other potential 2008 White House contenders called on fellow Democrats to unite behind a forward-looking agenda based on national security, helping families and strengthening the economy. Former US president Bill Clinton holds an HIV/AIDS ribbon presented to him during the launch of the Clinton Foundation Pediatric HIV/AIDS Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya, July 23 2005. (Antony Njuguna/Reuters)

[NormsRevenge]

lightning rod ping :)

[John Lenin]

This was the mildest form of theft the witch was caught in the act doing.

[Caipirabob]

Let me get this straight: People want to elect Hillary and give this impeach scumbag access to the White House again?!? They only just finished cleaning out the sinks!

Ay-yay-yay...my stomach...

[hershey]

Notice Hill's attire lately? 'Ol Crusty has been updated with a largish black and white silk ruffly collar -- enabling her to appear businesslike yet with that 'softer side'. Nothing she does or says is unscripted. She's smarter than Kerry and still has those raw FBI files. To underestimate her is suicidal.

[hershey]

To appeal to seniors, Hill will get Chelsea married and pregnant. What's the number of that African fellow with the goats? She's probably dialing his number at this very moment.

[jmaroneps37]

It would be a wonderful turn of events to wake up one day in August of 2008 and find that the rats had caved into the insane wing of their party and nominated the beast. But alas even they are too smart. Should the beast run, she would suck up all the money on the rat side. She would do to the rats in congress what clinocchio himself did in 1996 when he raised 15 million that the rats thought they would get to "correct the mistake the voters had made" in 1994. We could have our 60 votes in the Senate and push the House rat number down to the low 190's.
All bull shiite aside, whenever you hear talk about the beast running remember this number 40! 40! is the number of people out of 100 would have said in at least three different polls that under no circumstances would they vote for her. Friends no one can win an election at any level if they are giving up 40% of the vote before they start.
So let the talk of her candidacy continue. Let the stupid self-delusional rats continue to believe what they want to believe. Let zombie tell they from now until 5PM on election day that the beast will win in a landslide it's all a big pile of crap like everything else these people stand for and are.

[Mia T]

NANO-PRESIDENT, MEGA-DISASTER: history will not be kind to bill + hillary clinton
To paraphrase Einstein: The unleashed power of terrorism had changed everything but their thinking, and they thus drifted toward unparalleled catastrophes