Still more on Hillary
Following up on the last post, I’d like to make a point about Hillary that is of the sort I usually avoid.
Hillary’s greatest strength — by far — is her connection with the first Clinton administration. There’s a strong argument to be made that if we just had Bill and Bob Rubin and the old foreign policy team running things again, everything would be a-okay. Hillary’s support comes largely from people who buy this argument. I buy this argument myself up to a certain point. But you can’t really call it change.
Pundits have suggested that Bill Clinton is a a political albatross around Hillary’s neck. In fact, the opposite is true: Bill Clinton is the only reason Hillary is a viable presidential candidate in the first place. Edwards and Obama are both talented retail politicians. Going back over all the presidential campaigns I know of, nearly every Democratic nominee has been a talented retail politician (Bill Clinton, JFK), an old party warhorse (Kerry, Gore, Mondale, Humphrey), or a state governor (Clinton, Dukakis, Carter).
The only one of these three categories Hillary can fit into is “old party warhorse” and she only fits if you consider her time as first lady in Washington and Little Rock to be the equivalent of elected or appointed office. And there’s no way you can make that argument without admitting that her election would be a restoration of the Clinton dynasty.
It’s one thing for a candidate to say “I’ve been a Senator for 30 years but I’ll bring change as president”, it’s quite another to say “I was co-president for two terms and if you give me a third, I’ll bring change.” In fact, it’s a testimony to the popularity of the first Clinton administration that, even in an election where voters say they want change, they’re still thinking about bringing back Billary for another go-round.
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Depends on which Republicans you mean. Northeast Republicans are similar to Democrats on social issues.
i saw that, and probably to the chagrin of my fiancee and brother (although they warmed up because of dk’s quirky charm), i forced my household to see it. ron paul was on leno last night also.