I've said before that I think Hillary Clinton is unelectable to the Presidency due to her high negatives, but as I considered it today I thought of one advantage she'll have over any other Democratic competitors in 2008. Hillary's base on the left is enormous and unassailable, which means that after primaries are over she can tack as hard to the right as necessary without endangering her core. Even if she has to say stuff like, "Yeah, universal health care in the 1990s was a crazy idea, and now I've learned my lesson" it won't matter. The left would support her no matter what... and she might be convincing enough to win middlers from the right.
Get your Tim Geithner TAX CHEAT! stamps!
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High negatives are only half of Hillary's problems. The other half is that she isn't a natural politician. She is her husband's opposite: a rigid, ideological true-believer whose voice rises to fingernails-on-a-blackboard pitch when she gets excited. She is an unreconstructed, unapologetic seventies feminist whose political foundation consists of love for Gloria Steinem and hatred for Richard Nixon.
Like the majority of her party, Hillary strikes me as still living in the past. Put her under the national spotlight, and she will make John Kerry look graceful and charismatic.
You're right that she ought to tack to the right, just as Kerry should have taken Bill's advice a few months ago and come out against gay marriage. But Kerry didn't take Bill's advice, and neither will Hillary. They can't, because they don't have Bill's complete lack of principle. They can't, because they actually and sincerely believe in something, even if it's the old-fashioned liberalism that modern voters find repulsive.
Bill Clinton will rightly go down in history as the most politically skilled president America has ever seen. But it’s a personal skill. He can’t give it to his wife, and I doubt that she would take it if she could. She’s a different person, and she will have to stand on her own in 2008.
What Ben Bateman said.
Also, consider that she is a *Senator* from the Northeast. Senators have a poor track record for the Presidency, and Governors have an excellent one. IF the Dems are wise, they will take this into account.
Still, one important thing needs to be remembered: The Democrats settled for Kerry, they LOVE Hillary. That will make a difference.
"The Democrats settled for Kerry, they LOVE Hillary. That will make a difference."
Yes, Mark, but what kind of difference? Those same people love Michael Moore, too. You won't see him in elected office soon.
The rabid liberals love Hillary, not necessarily the rank-and-file Democrats. And the fringe's love is an obstacle for a serious candidate. It ties her to them. Reduces her flexibility. And she likes it that way. That's her problem. Bill had no problem sticking his thumb in Sister Soulja's eye for political gain. Can Hillary do the same?
There's another aspect to this. True, the left loves Hillary, and they probably would stick by her. The right, however, absolutely cannot stand her. They fear and hate her. They see her as the antichrist and satan in person. If she runs, it will mobilize the right in a way we've never seen before. I think that if she runs, it guarantees another Republican victory.