I originally started this post as a reply to a comment on the thread Hillary is starting to get interesting.
Louisianagirl wrote:
(From the Merrriam Webster Dictionary)
1 : a bony or chitinous case or shield covering the back or part of the back of an animal (as a turtle or crab)
2 : a protective, decorative, or disguising shell
Hmmmm…
A protective, disguising shell.
Precisely my point about her for several years here on the left blogosphere.
Watch.
Read on for more.
Hillary Clinton is that rarest of all beasts, a highly skilled, subtle and professional leftist politician.
YOU know…the kind that gets elected.
The kind that lies its ass off in the pursuit of power.
Makes compromises that prompt left-wing observers to think that the tightrope dance is going to fail. Or that said politician has finally sold out.
But gets to the goal in some sort of position where things get can still done.
Not Pollyanna pie with ice cream on top.
Just the art of the possible.
She is FDR.
She is Eleanor’s revenge.
Watch.
I am more convinced with each passing move towards her goal…and I have been watching intently from NY State since she first went after her Senate seat…that she is a political genius. The coalition that she has built in NY, the fences that she has been able to mend with Republican conservative voters and powers-that-be in the red upstate regions (using tactics that ranged from the neverending schmooze through the flat-out wielding of political and media power) are snapshots of how she is going about her larger campaign now.
It worked here, and it will work nationally. People seem to think that NY State is some bastion of liberal dominance, but it reality it is a perfect picture of the country as a whole. A huge rural/small city/working class white state with one pocket of mildly leftish minority/middle-upper middle class white suburban/urban professional/academic strength in the NYC area.
19 million people in the state. Only 8 million in NYC proper, add another 3 million or so in Nassau and Westchester counties, the real NYC suburban/bedroom areas that are within NY State. And NYC itself is “conservative” enough to have elected in succession the abominable clown Rudolph Giuliani and the truly dangerous Michael R. Bloomberg, who resides to the RIGHT of Giuliani and has almost unlimited personal wealth and brains.
Given these indisputable facts? Hillary Clinton has absolutely DOMINATED the political process here for over 6 years.
She won her Senate seat 55% to 45% in 2000, and 67% to 33% in 2006.
In 2002, just to establish the REAL (relatively un-Hillaried, not yet hip to Bush/pre-2006) NY State attitude, the buffoon party hack George Pataki won in a three way gubernatorial race by 50% against 33% for the Dem (A Dem crook hack named Carl McCall who would have lost by more if he hadn’t been black) and 17% for the Independent Party candidate Tom Golisano, who is the billionaire founder of Paychex (the second-largest payroll processor in the United States) and a so-called “Libertarian.” Whatever the fuck THAT really means. But basically a white, right-wing money guy from as upstate as it gets.
Buffalo, NY.
Rust Belt Central.
To make a complicated story simple, in a state where 67% of the vote went to right wing gubernatorial candidates in 2002, 2 years BEFORE that vote Hillary Clinton won by 55%. Add the anti-Bush surge (he only real surge Bush has ever seen in any facet of his life besides an occasional cocaine rush.) in 2006…a surge which is only going to grow in the next year and a half…and she won by the same percentage that voted thoroughly right wing here in 2002.
67%
In national politics, I believe that 67% is referred to as a landslide. Being given a mandate. A green light. And I believe that Hillary Clinton plans to drive THROUGH that green light. At a safe, sane, politically intelligent pace as is her wont.
Her talent.
Supported by solid majorities in both houses of Congress.
Watch.
This is going to get VERY interesting.
Betcha.
Is she perfect?
No.
Of course not.
But she IS damned good at what she does.
Watch.
Horse players have a saying.
“Class tells.”
Watch.
Given her competition…from both parties…she is the class of the race.
Obama? Giuliani? McCain? Gingrich? Romney? Edwards?
Only Obama has equivalent political talent (Political talent. The art of making the right decision in order to win. A gift. Like all talent.), and he is a baby in comparison. A talented rookie.
She is already an All-Star due to her work with Bill plus her two (nationally prominent) wins in NY State and in my opinion she is destined for the Hall of Fame.
Watch.
She will win a Presidential election by roughly the same percentage that she won in the 2006 NY State Senatorial election, given the current popular antipathy to Bush and thus to the Ratpub Party in general.
A thoroughly earned antipathy. On the evidence.
Watch.
Class tells.
Watch.
And…stop kvetching.
It’s a done deal.
Live with it.
We could do MUCH worse.
And we quite possibly will do much worse if we keep sniping at her from the left.
Bet on it.
Enough with the kvetch. Do you REALLY think that Edwards can win in 2008? I don’t. Do you think that Obama has the politcal maturity to make it all the way? LOOK AT HIM. Every third step is a mistake. He needs seasoning.
Watch.
She is in already.
And Eleanor Roosevelt..prophetess that she was…is spinning mightily wherever she currenly resides.
“YOU GO, GIRL!!! You GO!!!”
Watch.
AG
