Posted on 05/12/2008 9:42:44 PM PDT by The_Republican
Hillary Clinton still has a lot to win this year, but not the presidency and not the vice presidency.
With Barack Obama having effectively secured the Democratic presidential nomination, it is hard for the Clinton camp to focus on her successes in this contest. But Clinton now possesses strengths she did not enjoy when the campaign began.
She is, more than ever before, her own person, having emerged decisively from the shadow of her husband. Indeed, she did far better when Bill Clinton played a supporting role than when he was out front, notably during the disastrous South Carolina primary. There is now a Hillary Clinton constituency in the Democratic Party distinct from the one the former president built.
Cartoonists and satirists mocked Hillary Clinton's incarnation as a fighter for blue-collar voters. Yet those who know her well think the fighting Hillary is closer to her self-image -- as someone who has had to overcome many blows in life -- than the inevitable nominee who wove a web of entitlement around herself and ran on experience, much of which was derivative of her husband's.
The Hillary Clinton of the late primaries dispelled this portrait, campaigning more on empathy than resume, and more on the problems of today's economy than on her husband's economic achievements.
And Clinton did her party and Obama a favor by focusing on the Democrats' potential weaknesses among blue-collar whites. This problem is not unique to Obama. Both Gore and Kerry underperformed with these voters, particularly among males. That Obama has been pushed off his oratorical pedestal and encouraged to connect with disaffected whites will save him trouble in fall. Clinton, widely seen as the champion of older, well-educated feminist women, could be remembered as the politician who brought the party back to its working-class roots.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
When her royal heinous gets back to the senate, she’s going have a laundry list of names that threw her under the bus to back Obamama or droped her like a crusty pantsuit mid-race. Its going to be open war on them all.
Complete BS...
Any Power Hillary has was derived from the fact that she was “Inevitably” going to be the next President.
The Power-brokers that financed her didn’t do it because they wanted to back a Senator, they did it because they expected to be paid back, IN SPADES, for thier donantions from the easily-bought Clinton’s.
And the HUGE Shadow Party network isn’t going to fit in well with the Obama Disciples.
Even though MoveOn’s membership overwhelmingly voted to support Obama, instead of Hillary, that support has been tepid, at most. The PEOPLE in charge of Moveon, and like orgs are all run by Clintonites.
Empathy as the new angle!! Hogwash.
Where has Dionne been the past 18 YEARS. Hillary has played the “I’m a victim card” ever since she set foot in the WH.
I suspect when she gets back to the Senate as a stubborn-headed loser who hurt the party, she will garner a little less respect than KERRY. The other senators will have no real reason to give her the time of day after this.
As many have said here in FR, her next logical move is to be John McStupid’s VP. Probably wouldn’t be that hard to persuade him to offer her the job (it certainly wouldn’t violate any of his “principles”) and he’d be an easy person to suddenly have a “heart attack” in the middle of the night in a WH bedroom. (The Clintons just seem to be lucky that way.)
The only thing she’d have to deal with is having that pesky R beside her name instead of a D.
But she shouldn’t let that bother her. It doesn’t bother a whole slew of leftists in the House and Senate who happen to wear the R label. I think Hillary will fit right in.
SHE IS A LOSER!
“as someone who has had to overcome many blows in life”
Well, Monica certainly fits the bill.
Dionne is not writing this for the masses. He is communicating to Herself from the party elders in Washington, for whom he speaks.
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