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Less Hate and Loathing in 2008
Townhall.com ^ | October 3, 2007 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 10/03/2007 9:26:56 AM PDT by Kaslin

I'm done hating the Clintons. They're not worth the anger. Voters elected Bill Clinton to serve two terms in the White House, and the nation survived.

Besides, hating the Clintons only makes them stronger. They've turned victimhood into a victory formula. She parlayed his indiscretion into a U.S. Senate seat, and he fared well in national polls largely because the public disapproved more of his Republican critics than of him.

Besides, I always disliked him more than her -- and wanted no part of the misogynist element to Hillary-bashing.

At her campaign block party in downtown Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton showed why she is polling ahead of the other contenders in the Democratic primary. Not only did Clinton press all of the Dems' buttons, she also pledged that if she is elected, ordinary Americans will not feel "invisible" -- as too many voters feel with George W. Bush as president. She came across as authoritative, likable and accessible.

I didn't hear the HRC cackle -- the Sunday talk-show big laugh, which you know had to be the fruit of focus groups that led consultants to conclude that voters want to see the lighter side of La Hil. Is it phony? Sure. It's a politician's laugh. But what am I going to do -- hate her for hiring the best brains in the campaign business?

Instead, I'll acknowledge that Hillary Clinton has become a very able politician, who also knows enough to move to the center. As one aide told U.S. News & World Report: "She does not touch a hot stove a second time -- I can't see her overreaching. She saw what happened to her husband and herself. She will have lofty ambitions, but she will pursue them with balance."

Of course, I disagree with Clinton on vital issues. I don't like her sort-of promise to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Maybe.

It scares me to think how much Clinton wants to expand the size of an already-big government. She doesn't just want universal health care, but also universal preschool. Then there's the $5,000 "baby bond," an idea she just tossed out last week. Don't worry about how to pay for her programs.

No doubt only the rich, smokers and oil companies will have to pony up.

On Sunday, Clinton talked up regulations to curb global warming at an event in which she also criticized higher gas prices. Again, don't you worry about the federal government making you curb your energy use -- Clintonia II promises to squeeze other people's energy consumption.

Clinton also told the Oakland audience that she would unite America. Be it noted that if a President Hillary Clinton passed the sort of programs San Francisco Bay Area voters like, then she surely would divide the country.

Back to Iraq. While I cannot prove it, I believe that Clinton voted for the Iraq war resolution not because she thought it was the right thing to do for the country, but because she believed it was the right thing to do for her presidential aspirations.

I know Democrats who oppose the war -- who think Clinton's Iraq war vote was pure calculation -- and nonetheless plan to vote for Clinton. Why?

Because they think she can win. (I guess it's more acceptable to have supported the war if you did not believe in it.)

I may well be wrong, but I don't think the Democrats can win if Hillary Clinton -- or any other Democrat who voted for the 2002 Iraq war resolution -- is the nominee. In 2004, voters faced a choice between two candidates who supported the war in 2002. (Oddly, many Democrats who opposed the war supported John Kerry, who had voted for the war resolution, because they thought he was more electable.)

In the end, Americans chose the candidate who did not back away from it. That's why Illinois Sen. Barack Obama may be the Democrats' best hope. But if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, and if she wins in November, it will be because she ran the best campaign and she knew how to reach out to the American public. I may not like it, but she will have earned it.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
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I agree with the author that hating the Clintons only makes them stronger, but I disagree that Hillary will have earned it if she is elected

Thank God for the little word "if"

1 posted on 10/03/2007 9:26:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The Clintons belong in prison. Period.


2 posted on 10/03/2007 9:32:28 AM PDT by Lexington Green (There ain't no news in the news no more.)
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To: Lexington Green

Exactly


3 posted on 10/03/2007 9:34:03 AM PDT by Kaslin (The Surge has worked and the li(e)berals know it)
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To: Kaslin

That depends on what the meaning of the word “if” is.


4 posted on 10/03/2007 9:36:03 AM PDT by wastedyears (George Orwell was a clairvoyant.)
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To: Kaslin

“and wanted no part of the misogynist element to Hillary-bashing.”

Misogynist? He’s playing fast and loose with words.

We haven’t figured out if it’s even human, much less what sex it is.


5 posted on 10/03/2007 9:37:27 AM PDT by EEDUDE
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To: Kaslin
I'm done hating the Clintons.

I may retire from hating them professionally but will still enjoy it at my leisure... especially that nasty commie hag

6 posted on 10/03/2007 9:38:51 AM PDT by NativeSon (off the Rez without a pass...)
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To: Kaslin

Many Freepers have “Clinton Derangement Syndrome” ie they would vote for Joseph Stalin if it meant “stopping Hillary.”


7 posted on 10/03/2007 9:43:51 AM PDT by Clemenza (Rudy Giuliani, like Pesto and Seattle, belongs in the scrap heap of '90s Culture)
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To: Kaslin
She came across as authoritative

Authoritarian is closer to home. Or autocratic, despotic, dictatorial, totalitarian, tyrannical.

Narcissists make the worst leaders yet make up the largest pool of those running for public office. Similarly narcissists are attracted to teaching yet make the worst teachers.

8 posted on 10/03/2007 9:48:19 AM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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To: Clemenza

Wouldn’t that be an oxymoron?


9 posted on 10/03/2007 9:48:33 AM PDT by Kaslin (The Surge has worked and the li(e)berals know it)
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To: Clemenza

There’s good reason for the hds she’s against ever
thing this country stand for.


10 posted on 10/03/2007 9:50:33 AM PDT by MES401067
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To: Lexington Green
The Clintons belong in prison.

Perhaps, but for some reason, they were investigated by a Republican Special Prosecutor for six years and there has been a Department of Justice headed by Republicans for the last 6.75 years and little has been done to the Clintons.

At some point you have to realize that the Clintons may not be the only criminals that have been in power.

11 posted on 10/03/2007 9:51:35 AM PDT by trumandogz
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To: Kaslin
Voters elected Bill Clinton to serve two terms

Voters elected??? 43.01% and 49.23% is what put the K'Toon in office. If voter fraud had been curtailed I have no doubt the percentages would have been much lower.

12 posted on 10/03/2007 9:55:08 AM PDT by Just A Nobody (PISSANT for President '08 - NEVER AGAIN...Support our Troops! Beware the ENEMEDIA)
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To: Kaslin

My opinion of the Clintons would have to improve before I could actually hate them...


13 posted on 10/03/2007 10:02:04 AM PDT by Little Ray (Rudy Guiliani: If his wives can't trust him, why should we?)
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To: Kaslin

My opinion of the Clintons would have to improve before I could actually hate them...


14 posted on 10/03/2007 10:02:18 AM PDT by Little Ray (Rudy Guiliani: If his wives can't trust him, why should we?)
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To: trumandogz

‘’At some point you have to realize that the Clintons may not be the only criminals that have been in power.’’

It’s obvious that behind closed doors it’s the same mafia.


15 posted on 10/03/2007 10:06:36 AM PDT by Lexington Green (There ain't no news in the news no more.)
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To: Kaslin

Yes, we should not elect anybody to be President because he or she earned it. We should vote for the person who has the right policies, who is sincere in his or her beliefs and who has the moral fortitude to do what’s best for our country. When I look at Hillary Clinton, all I can see is a very selfish person who will do anything and say anything to get elected. She cares nothing about America and, if it serves her ambition, ahe will not think twice about destroying our institutions, our economy, and the future of our children and the generations to come. I just hope enough people realizes how phony and wicked she really is and will vote to allow somebody else, from any party, to lead this nation.


16 posted on 10/03/2007 10:10:33 AM PDT by no_go_lie
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To: Lexington Green
It is rather discouraging that after years and years and thousands of pieces of evidence against the Clintons, that noting has been done even with the GOP in control of the DoJ.
17 posted on 10/03/2007 10:11:22 AM PDT by trumandogz
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To: trumandogz

If we elect presidents based on who has “earned” it and who has run the shrewdest campaign, how the hell did Jimmy Carter ever become president???


18 posted on 10/03/2007 10:55:15 AM PDT by Dems_R_Losers (Remember the Pentagon - - www.pentagonmemorial.net)
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To: Kaslin

Dear Debra Saunders:
You’re half-baked logic is emblematic of what’s wrong today. ‘If she wins, so be it’, doesn’t make the grade. I’ll bet you’re a blonde. If not, you have earned the right to be one.


19 posted on 10/03/2007 11:04:06 AM PDT by weeder
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To: Kaslin
NO third term. It is unconstitutional for Bill to assume ANY duties as Hillary has promised him and likely unconstitutional for her to return either (being elected or sworn in is not a condition of the prohibition).

http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am22.html

Amendment 22 - Presidential Term Limits

1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President, when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

Notes for this amendment:
Proposed 3/21/1947
Ratified 2/27/1951
History

Two-for-One Deal, Take Two (September 4, 2007)

Wikipedia

As First Lady of the United States, she took a more prominent position in policy matters than many before her. Her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval by the U.S. Congress in 1994, but she did succeed in establishing the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997, among other things. Clinton later became the first First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a Federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater scandal in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or several other investigations during the Clinton administration. The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion following the events of the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.

[ snip ]

Some critics called it inappropriate for the First Lady to play a central role in matters of public policy. Supporters pointed out that Clinton's role in policy was no different from that of other White House advisors and that voters were well aware that she would play an active role in her husband's Presidency.[100] Bill Clinton's campaign promise of "two for the price of one" led opponents to refer derisively to the Clintons as "co-presidents",[101] or sometimes "Billary..."


20 posted on 10/03/2007 11:15:18 AM PDT by weegee (NO THIRD TERM. America does not need another unconstitutional Clinton co-presidency.)
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