Hillary's metamorphosis (Victor Davis Hanson)

The Washington Times ^ | 08/06/05 | Victor Davis Hanson OP/ED

[smoothsailing]

Hillary's metamorphosis

By Victor Davis Hanson

Published August 6, 2005

"I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants." Who recently blurted that out?    

 Pat Buchanan? Rep. Tom Tancredo? Nope, it was Hillary Clinton.     

Which Democratic senator has expressed little public remorse in voting for 23 counts to authorize war against Iraq, and has scoffed, "Saddam Hussein had been a real problem for the international community for more than a decade"?     

Yep, Mrs. Clinton again.     

And who frowned on frequent abortion, hoping it "does not ever have to be exercised or only in very rare circumstances"? Need I even answer that? We all know the New York senator is moving ever rightward, but why so brazenly and suddenly?     

The depressing answer is clear for any Northern liberal who wishes to be president: No Democratic presidential candidate has been elected without a Southern accent in the half-century since 1960. If the country in the last half-century has grown more conservative, the South is emblematic of that shift.     

John F. Kennedy's long-ago success came by a razor-thin margin. He pulled it off by emphasizing national defense, space exploration and tax cuts that apparently created the necessary patina of conservatism Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton later naturally had with drawly good-old-boy personas.     

In contrast, given the defeats of Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry, it seems liberals from above the Mason-Dixon Line have little chance anymore of winning enough red states to capture the Electoral College. A sort-of-Southern-sounding Al Gore came close and won the popular vote in 2000.     

Many on the left, however, feel the medicine of moving the party centerward is worse than the disease of continued irrelevance. Still, triangulation for a chameleon Mrs. Clinton relies on...

(scroll to bottom at link)

[smoothsailing]

This Hanson OP/ED was posted once on 8/04 but I thought it worth posting again for Friday Night Freepers.

[benjaminjjones]

What I don't get is that Hanson describes himself as a Clinton voter, yet has such a clear view of history, and pretty much comes down on a conservative side every time.

Anyone know that the fools at DU think of him?

[neverdem]

bump & a ping

[Terpfen]

I doubt the DUmmies are well-read enough to even know who he is.

And they're pretty ticked at old Bill right now anyway.

[upchuck]

No reason to "(scroll to bottom at link)" if you link to the printer friendly version of VDH's excellent article. The entire article on one page.

[smoothsailing]

It was a nice try upchuck,but the Washington Times doesn't allow that.They want hits,thus the "scroll to bottom".

[upchuck]

Bastards!