Politico is a new website that is being set up to compete in the mainstream. They hired away Washington Post heavyweight Jim VandeHei and others. What kind of product can we expect from them? More right-wing crap. Apparently Hillary Clinton is already our nominee and she is unbeatable.
What many conservatives regard as the nightmare scenario — President Hillary Rodham Clinton — is increasingly seen by veteran Republican politicians and strategists as virtual inevitability.
In GOP circles, the Democratic front-runner is seen as so strong, and the political climate for Republicans so hostile, that many influential voices — including current and former lawmakers, and veterans of President Bush’s campaigns — have grown despairing. These partisans describe a political equivalent of the stages of grief, starting with denial, then resentment and ending with acceptance.
For now, these Republicans say the party needs good luck, including a change of fortune in Iraq, and a revival of organization and leadership in the conservative movement to avert another Clinton presidency.
This will stir up support for a bankrupt Republican Party but beyond that it ignores that Hillary is polling at around 4% in the netroots. Write us off if you want. It remains to be seen whether we have real influence. Less than one out of twenty-six netroots Democrats wants Hillary to be our nominee.
Think about it.
to wake up the base…they haven’t really got anyone on their own side to push so they’re raising the bogeywoman spectre.
There’s still lots of time — plenty of time for all the players to sort out, and there may still be a few surprises in store.
I don’t want Hillary — but I’ll take Hillary over any of the Republicans out there…
No but I am not all that enthused about the others either. After Finegold quit I am in lessor evil territory. Edwards had me going until the Iran comments. Obama has my attention over his firm war resolution.
The election is too far away to call it for Hillary yet.
Right now, I support Obama, Vilsack or Gravel for their anti-escalation stance. Have yet to hear what they think about Bush’s push for war with Iran? I’d like to see a woman president. But hate the idea of going from Bush, to Clinton, to Bush, to Clinton as if they were royal families. Also, I don’t trust Hillary on the war issues. Wish Feingold were running.
Sounds like Hillary’s campaign is writing some of the articles.
What do you expect. The msm has either been totally bought by the Clinton’s or just is stupid enough to buy into the “inevitability” crap they are peddling.
Either way, I think maybe the blogs and readers should start letting themselves be heard and make some noise about the fact that Hillary is inevitably going to crash and burn and not be the nominee if we can help it.
Hillary is polling at around 4% in the netroots. Write us off if you want.
She wants so she will. So what?
She won’t do blogs, she won’t even do progressive talk radio. (Of course that policy “speaks” for itself.)
Clinton 101 is: Never waste a watt appealing to anyone who won’t vote R. The netroots would never consider voting R, so we’re not going to see any more of her than some press releases.
Clintonism is not about vision, about outreach, about anything except harvesting the lowest-hanging fruit.
Of course we have to fight for a candidate the world needs us to pick, as long and hard as we can. If we lose, which is not certain but likely, we activists then need to step away from the Presidential race, lock, stock and barrel, leave it to the nobility to settle, and go back to our most appropriate role of filling the party from the bottom up with progressives.
down pat. I think she STILL has to appeal to the dem base to get past the primaries. Maybe the Big Dog can do it for her, I dunno. But, even as much as I would like to see a woman break that big glass ceiling, I am not happy with her views, I am not happy about the war, I am not happy that she has yet to come out with any progressive ideas.
She won’t get my vote in the primaries, but I do have to admit that I am leaning towards supporting her if she wins the primaries. I certainly don’t want a republican again and I really, really, want to see a woman win before I die. One of the things that I dislike about Hillary is she doesn’t seem honest. When the political discourse moves right, so does she and vice versa. On the other hand, a democratically controlled government might show that she is not nearly as conservative as she has been playing these past 6 years.
Looks like I’m just going to plop down on the fence for now. :>)
If she wins the primaries, we’re dead meat. Hillary is no liberal. She flies in formation with the neo-cons. Don’t be fooled. Her primary win guaratees the WH to the GOP.
Madam Hillary Thatcher-Clinton speaking to AIPAC:
Sen. Clinton: We cannot, we should not, we must not permit Iran to acquire nuclear weapons “No option can be taken off the table.”
Well it’s bombs away as she’ll continue the 30 year war.
Repubs now what they are doing: playing with public perception.
They perfectly know that progressive netroots are not fond of Hillary. They are even sure that the netroots can stop her. They know that Hillary may not be the nominee for many other reasosns. But pushing Hillary now is the best move for them at this moment. We may not see the significance yet, but come the primaries, and they will be prepared for any outcome: be it Hillary nominated, or not. They are grandmasters in this game.
Even within short term strategies, pushing Hillary makes sense. Look, at “serious” right-wing blogs – most of their discussions is never-ending talk about possible personal drammas of 2008 candidates, as if the world is not going down the pipes! They just have nothing better to talk about. They need to change the subject from Iraq and other Bush’s mismanagements. They have to make an impression to their readers that everything is most normal. They need to set conversation topics about nothing – god forbid a turn towards actual issues, or real qualities of possible nominees.
At the end, Hillary might be an ideal candidate for them, just as Kerry was. They know everything how to play against her. Once she becomes nominee, her fortunes will be brought “nicely” down, as it was done with Dukakis, Kerry, and as it now even happening with a French presidential candidate (female as well). What they are doing now, is talking Hillary into Democratic nomination. What they repeat endlessly, will become a presumed truth for many voters in Democratic primaries. They have scary plan with black pieces against us, while Dems are still playing as if everything will be decided fairly by objective articulation points. Ha ha!
But “Politico” looks like a pretty interesting site.
This piece is about Clinton’s seeming invulnerability to those in “GOP circles”.
Re: seeming inevitability: I think that that’s standard Rethug M.O. I have no doubt that Clinton is their preferred candidate, because they know Clinton being the nominee is their best chance to keep the presidency.
Clinton is Rethug lite. And as Truman said, when a Dem runs as a Rethug, the Rethug always wins. (Maybe he didn’t use those exact words.)
So long as Hillary appears inevitable, Congressional Republicans should be more amenable to dismantling the Unitary Executive.
Senator Feingold tells David Sirota what’s happening in DC – link to the audio in this blog:
“As you can hear, Feingold says it’s even deeper – he says this is a battle between Democrats’ Washington consultant class and the rest of the country – and he specifically targets the D.C. elites from the Clinton administration, who he accurately notes largely supported the war from the get-go.”
No. I agree with all of you who think she is just a repeat of the military/industrial establishment-Washington DLC insider candidate.
I would gladly support Clark, Richardson and Obama and think each would put war into its proper perspective – real diplomacy before war. Clark and Richardson surely have much respect beyond our borders and would be trusted.
I have no doubt that Obama could earn that same trust within a short time. He and Lugar took a trip to Russia to investigate loose nuclear material there. In his short time in the senate he has position himself quite well on many issues.
Obama’s past experience is unique but yet, so rooted in typical everyday American happenings. I remember reading his autobiography and relating his teen years to mine, and I am a 60 year-old white grandmother.
His wisdom and his understanding of “everyday” is seen by his story-telling that he manages to tell as often as he can. The gist of these stories is that he knows he is an ordinary American – no better or no less than you and me. But I wonder . . .
similar. During his campaign Bill failed to speak for labor. Perot was the only one who spoke for labor. His failure to speak for labor cost the Dems 20% of the largely labor vote that went to Perot. Instead Bill went for the center and the Republican and Independent vote. The Dems still do not have a solid labor vote. He threw away 20% of the vote and now the Dems complain about Nader’s 4-6%. He passed Welfare to Work which might have been O. K. during a good economy but there were no provisions for a depressed economy. Robert Reich, his labor secretary resigned, because of his policies toward labor. His Telecom Reform Act of 1996 screwed up the media royally. It will take years to undo its affects. His antics in the WH gave the Republicans a huge political advantage that is still with us. Before we elect Hillary let’s at least unscrew the media that Bill screwed up.
Look at it from the perspective of this new website: You’re the new kid on the block and you’re trying to get buzz and clicks before the venture capital runs out. You’re supposed to be THE new source for “insider” political scoops. But the only real electoral action is the primaries and they’re more than a year away. Way too far down the pike to make any serious predictions.
What to do, what to do? Easy: rev up the ol’ “inevitable Hllary” song yet again. You’ll get the buzz, the clintonista diehards will promote you as the greatest thing since Nostradamus, you’ll get invited to all the best cocktail parties in DC, and the copycat mainstream will echo your “wisdom” til even you are ready to puke.
And all that for the price of a little empty blather. Good deal, no?
DNC Winter Meeting & presidential candidates
My note last week to Hillary and the rest of that field of wet dreams.
I am always wary when I read in the “mainstream” that the rethugs are talking up one candidate or another. Why shouldn’t one be suspicious of such chatter? If they really were afraid of her, I doubt they would go on the record about it. They would be tearing her down.