Posted on 11/13/2007 3:14:13 PM PST by Hillary4Penetentiary
If the 2008 presidential election were held today, Hillary Rodham Clinton would win.
Hillary’s minor stumbles in last week’s debate notwithstanding, she is simply running the most disciplined and effective campaign. She’s one of the most able politicians in America, and no one should underestimate her desire to be President and her calculating focus.
What you need to understand is that Hillary Clinton is, quite simply, craftier and more aggressive than the rest of the field. I know this firsthand, having battled with the Clinton Administration throughout the 1990’s while serving as a leader in Congress.
She’s only gotten tougher since then.
Early on, there were many fights, but one of the most important was over Hillary Clinton’s 1993 plan to expand government control of the health-care system. We were lucky to stop it, and we did so by standing our ground on the principle of putting patients ahead of bureaucracies. But now she’s back, and the health-care issue is a perfect example of the way she’s learned on the job and evolved her tactics.
Her latest health-care plan is more of the same stuff—greater federal control of our lives—but this time she’s presenting it in a way that is far more politically savvy. She leaves open questions of funding and enforcement, and is actively working to buy off the groups who opposed her plan in 1993.
Hillary Clinton and her agenda are not going to fade away. She is relentless and determined. Once she resolves a course of action in her mind, she is not going to be wishy-washy. The other candidates, and the rest of the world, will quickly learn that Hillary Clinton means business.
No doubt, Hillary Clinton has the Democrat primary all wrapped up. A couple of one-term senators are simply no match for the political machine she and her husband have built. I won’t go so far as to say that it’s not possible for a Republican to defeat her in the general election. But as things stand today, the GOP has a very real set of problems that are larger than any of the party’s candidates.
First and foremost, the Republican brand as effective stewards of the taxpayer dollar is in tatters, and the shredding doesn’t look to stop any time soon. Just yesterday, 138 House Republicans joined the Democrats in voting to override the president’s veto of a wasteful and pork-ridden Water Resources bill. That vote was a shameful display of personal politics over the national interest, and it contains the seeds of destruction of whatever conservative principles remain in the Republican party.
The callow accommodation to big-spending Democrats in Congress is one of the ways the Republican party will return itself to the days of serving as a compliant, permanent minority. Happy for table scraps, elected Republicans will simply abandon the ideas of their party in order to “get along”.
No wonder Americans prefer Democrats on the economy, taxes, and spending issues, according to recent polling data. When the choice is between Democrats, and the Democrat-lite ideas the GOP has become so comfortable offering, the Democrats will win every time.
The only way the Republican party will beat Hillary Clinton is to return to its limited-government roots. That’s the only way to rebuild a majority coalition.
For example, today religious conservatives are confused, disillusioned, and somewhat fractured. Too many of the current crop of self-appointed social conservative leaders have embraced an agenda that splits the GOP coalition. Big government ideas— runaway spending on “conservative” social programs, social engineering in the tax code, and greater government intervention into Americans’ personal lives—are the wrong path. This pandering has hurt the GOP in swing states, especially in the Mountain West and Great Lakes states.
To counter Hillary Clinton’s perfectly oiled political machine, Republicans need to return to their Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan roots. They need to present an alternative vision for America—a positive vision that limits government and trusts individuals and leaves families, churches, and businesses free to make their own decisions, and not have bureaucrats and politicians calling the shots.
Right now, the country is headed toward a date with Hillary Clinton, and big government is on the agenda. The only way to change that rendezvous is for candidates to offer a clear, principled, limited government alternative.
And people claim that Ron Paul isn't a real Republican!
He is the only consistent Republican in the group!
Our country survived 12 years of the likes of Clinton and Carter and it makes me sick to my stomach to think of 4-8 years of another Clinton. The country would survive it but I don’t know if I would.
That is true. I thought for sure that America was gone during Carter Administration and I was in Second Grade when he started. lol. Clinton was painful but did not have the same feeling of doom as the Carter Administration. Another Clinton would be like a knat but I do believe that we will survive but we definitely should at least fight to have Duncan Hunter win the Presidency and then we won’t even have to worry about that at all!
This election Hillry is consumed in winning alll for herself that highest position on this planet is well planned, networked and financed.
Republicans have sought to emulate liberal politicking and they call it the Big Tent what they have become is a circus, and they have demonstrated that anybody can rise to the level of Ringmaster no matter who they are or what they believe.
I think that rank and file Republicans look at the field and see the two most liberal of the candidates - Giuliani and Romney - as the most electable. And unlike the strong socon contingency that posts here, to those Republicans defeating Hillary trumps all other issues.
They see, correctly, imo, that Hillary will change the face of America like no other President has done before her. She is socialism’s Queen Bee, and she is ready to sting.
The policies she could enact with a Dem congress would relegate Conservatism to an unelectable fringe philosophy, by making sure that suffrage is extended to all those that would be beholding to a Democrat nanny-state.
Is that what you want? It’s not what mainstream Republicans want, so Rudy and Romney continue to poll well nationally. I am anti-Rudy on social issues, but I am pro-practicality above all else. (As, I believe, was Rudy, when he was whipping ultra-liberal New York City into shape).
Simply put, we can return to Conservatism after a Rudy presidency (might not his running mate be a staunch Conservative?), but we will NEVER be able to send a Conservative to the White House following a Clinton-redux presidency with a Democrat Congress.
Can you possibly believe that Hillary Clinton will allow herself to be a bridge to the next Ronald Reagan? No, my friends, Hillary will make sure those bridges are burned.
Rush, Sean and Mark will be considered to be purveyors of “hate speech”, and we will lose our voice. They will find a way to circumvent the Electoral College. They will socialize medicine. They will outrage Conservatives with impunity, knowing that we will be outvoted at every election.
This country, this party and Conservatism can withstand a Rudy presidency. They cannot withstand a Hillary presidency.
Freepers, we have to understand that our brand of Conservatism is a subset of the Republican party, even though pro-life-ism is a plank in the Republican platform. All those who are pro-life and staunch second amendment advocates, and put those issues first are Republicans - there are no Dems or Liberals with those beliefs. But NOT all Republicans place those two planks at the top of the platform - that is the cold truth.
Ronald Reagan was the perfect storm. Idealistic and practical, with a clear view of government’s role in our lives. All his views feathered in with ours as social and fiscal conservatives - and he was eminently electable. But candidates with all those attributes are very few and very far between.
But we need Republican Presidents to bridge us to the next true Conservative. That’s why this election is so different. We MUST elect a Republican. We MUST, as unpleasant and frustrating as it is, once again reshuffle our priorities in the name of practicality - and survival.
“Whenever anybody hits Hillary on her personal life, her marriage, or whether she is a lesbian or not, it plays into her hands.”
Good point. And why go there, when there’s so many policy and practice points one can hit her on. My tag line is “Remember Billy Dale” for a reason. This was an essentially low-level government employee that used his entire life’s savings to fight an malicious prosecution by Hillary’s hand-picked hatchet (wo)man, Janet Reno. This would be the same Janet Reno that wouldn’t go after REAL malfeasance in the White House in the form of Goracle fund raising.
And my response if she brings up “you focus too much on 9/11” would be tell her “sure, you’d like to forget it - you were booed off the stage at the first responder fund raiser” and then to ask her how many police/firefighter funerals did she attend. Even Schmucky Schumer made an attempt to attend several and Rudy (love him or hate him) attended every one he could.
This isn’t 92 and 96 - the conservative blogs are numerous, stronger, and Fox News isn’t about to give her a free pass. And while her Media Matters tries to shut up the likes of Rush, Hannity and Beck, the spotlight is being turned on this organization, plus Moveon.org.
I notice Media Matters doesn’t go after Levin. But then again, I believe he told Hiliary and her organization if they even tried, he’d sue them for tortious interference with contract. Time to stand up and push them back, as the Great One says.
>it will be simply the unfair leg up the media is already giving her<
True. And too many Americans are falling for it. We can’t fix that.
Damn it, you caught me!:) I’ll admit it, I thought we were going to gain (Senate, I don’t think I made any firm predictions about the House) seats last year. I thought that Republicans could pull it out. There were just too danged many missteps. As long as no one calls Hillary a “macaca”, she shouldn’t really have a chance.
I don't like Romney any more than Giuliani but he is just apt to be elected and I could vote for him. Giuliani is a Rockefeller Republican Last Hurrah and will give us the permanent Social Democrat state by losing and taking many down-ticket Republicans with him.
That’s absolutely true.
However, it disturbs me to see all these former high-profile Republicans like Armey just throwing in the towel.
Armey’s not a RINO. He’s just stupid, and in desperate need of a glimmer of the attention he once received when in office.
Because they’d rather run a campaign based on fear (against Hillary) than run one based on principles. That’s why John Kerry lost in 2006- he ran against GWB, preaching fear instead of supporting principles and ideas. Of course, that implies that democrats actually HAVE principles. But you know what I mean.
Correctamundo.
And you make a GREAT point! You have to only give people the facts, no speculation or innuendo. There are such imprecating facts out there about her faults there's no need to go downtown and take a left on Surmisal Avenue.
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