Posted on 06/13/2003 6:38:30 AM PDT by bedolido
It may be churlish for a New York Democrat to say this, but I believe Hillary Clinton's book is the best thing to happen to George W. Bush since postwar Iraq began to implode.
Several days before the book became a conversation piece - just as the media was exposing, however belatedly, the administration's bogus rationale for the war - I was listening to a public radio call-in show. The subject was why people who disagree with the president's policies still support him. One woman expressed a widely held view this way: "I'm a traditional-values person, so, though I don't like a lot of what Bush does, I go with it."
Polls indicate that the president's popularity is based both on his status as a wartime commander and on his straight-arrow persona. The public's respect for Bush's military macho can be expected to erode as evidence that he misled us into war and its chaotic aftermath mounts. But his common-decency appeal can only grow with reminders - amplified in worldwide headlines and distributed inside a million hardcovers - of his predecessor's frequent extramarital dalliances.
Hillary Clinton surely did not time her book's publication to steal the spotlight from the nine Democratic presidential candidates, but that's the result. At a moment when Bush appears to be an increasingly vulnerable target, the opposition candidates' rhetorical bulls'-eyes are muffled by the din over "Living History."
Just last week, coincidental with leaks about the book's contents, eight of the nine Democratic hopefuls spoke rousingly at a three-day progressive "Take Back America" conference in Washington. The media coverage they and their liberal ideas received was virtually nonexistent.
Hillary Clinton's ability to dominate the attention of the celebrity-conscious public has worrisome long- and short-term implications for the Democratic Party. It is no secret that, on matters of policy, she has been a disappointment to large numbers of her New York constituents. One serious misstep was on Oct. 10, when she backed giving war powers to Bush after saying, "I take the president at his word that he will try hard to pass a UN resolution and will seek to avoid war, if at all possible." Americans now know that the president did not try at all to avoid the war.
Clinton has proven she can go a long way on celebrity, and the wave of approving sentimentality that has greeted her book suggests she can go much further. She benefits from her husband's mystique - despairing Democrats don't see a promising name on the horizon other than one that worked in the past - and from the fact that she's the Clinton without carnal baggage. She clearly has the potential to influence the party's direction during a critical period.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Oh, yes she did. There shall be no viable Democrat candidates until Hitlery rides her broom to the rescue for the open seat in 2008.
ROTFL!
I assume this is refering to the lack of discovery (thus far) of evidence that Iraq had WMD prior to the start of the war. Well folks, I don't give a rat's ass about WMD. Saddam's regime is gone and that's good enough for me.
Do they think no one is paying attention? It's clear that the American people have decided that the war was justified simply because it removed an evil man from power and gave his people an opportunity at a better life
| Hillary Clinton's ability to dominate the attention of the celebrity-conscious public...
Put her on Larry King Live and she can't out-draw Clinton accuser Juanita Broaddrick. Her Barbara Walters interview drew one-third the audience that Monica Lewinsky's did. She's a tempest in a New York teapot, and that's all she is. It is true, however, that in their fascination with Miss Hillary, the New York media are blowing the Democratic presidential candidates right off the stage and right into oblivion. They are all diminished for this. Our author seems to think that this was not by Hillary's design, but I think I'm going to throw him in the 'naive' pile. |
If that happens Rudy better plan to stay off of small aircraft and we may want to suggest he invest in one of those Pope-Mobiles.
Seriously, I think anyone who gets in the way of her ultimate goal may not be long for this world.
As opposed to Clinton's bent persona.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
Oh, bullroar. The entire media frenzy over Hillary's book is self-induced. No one West of the Hudson River cares one whit what Hillary has to say about anything. It's all a bunch of New York quiche-eaters imagining that their own obsequious devotion to Her Heinous is shared by everyone else.