Hillary the Shrewd

"I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette."


Is Hillary Clinton electable as president of the United States?

First things first--

Can Hillary get the Democrats' nomination?

Call it the front-runner's paradox.

While Hillary Rodham Clinton tops every national poll of likely 2008 Democratic presidential contenders, the New York senator is dogged by questions of "electability" _ political code for whether she can win enough swing states to prevail in a general election.

It's a gauge typically applied to Democrats, as few question the crossover appeal of the GOP front-runner, Arizona Sen. John McCain. And for activists eager to recapture the White House after eight years of George W. Bush, electability remains a crucial yardstick by which Clinton, especially, seems to be measured.

Clinton began discussions last week with fellow New York lawmakers about her White House prospects and met Sunday with the state's Democratic governor-elect _ all indications she is stepping up plans to join a growing field of potential contenders for 2008.

But some Democrats still believe the odds are against her actually being elected president. Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party not aligned with any presidential hopeful, is among the nay-sayers.

"She's a senator, she'd be the first woman running, and she's Hillary Clinton," he said. "All of that is almost insurmountable for a general election."

He added: "There are people who would write a check and die for her, but there are plenty of others who wouldn't vote for her if she promised to eliminate the income tax and give free ice cream to everyone. People have made up their minds about her, and that doesn't give her much room to maneuver."

Clinton has not yet declared she plans to seek the presidency, and aides say the question of whether she can win tops the list of considerations. She's also said she is eager to return to the Senate, where, come January, she'll be a member of the new Democratic majority.

...Hillary Clinton enjoys several advantages. She has millions in the bank and a topflight team of advisers. She was handily re-elected to a second term in the Senate, winning even the most conservative areas of her adopted home state of New York. And her husband is the Democratic Party's best campaign strategist and biggest fundraising draw.

But analysts say there are other, significant downsides to a Clinton candidacy.

Despite her centrist six-year Senate voting record, Clinton's reputation remains deeply rooted in her polarizing eight years as first lady. Skeptics say she may still be too liberal for many voters, who recall her husband's scandal-plagued presidency and her own audacious effort to reform the nation's health care system. And no one knows how her status as the first serious female candidate would play out.

This Associated Press analysis is pointless.

Why even bother to examine the plusses and minuses of Hillary as the 2008 nominee?

Many consider it to be a done deal because she has the cash and she has the power of the Clinton machine behind her.

The radical far Left won't be happy.

They want an out of the closet ultra-lib like Russ Feingold; but I'm sure these Lefties will come around.

The fact is Hillary is extremely liberal.

She's following her husband's example and doing her best to appear to be a centrist, but like Bill, she's not.

A simple review of her voting record clears that up.

She can't hide from the fact that she is among the top ranks of libs in the Senate.

No doubt, the radical Left will continue to pressure her to be more vocal against the war in Iraq. Depending on how things go in Iraq, that may be a moot point. By the time the primary season gets into full swing, it may be very easy for Hillary to be outspoken when it comes to Iraq.

Who knows?

Lib media outlets will certainly push the Female Factor. Recall how they drooled over the prospect of Nancy Pelosi being the first woman to be Speaker of the House.

I don't think Hillary's sex is a negative among voters. If anything, it's a plus.

The clueless may vote for Hillary simply because she is a woman.

(By the way, I'd like to see a gender verfication test done, like for competition in the Olympics, before we declare her to be the first woman nominee for president.)

When it comes to her HINO, the scandal-plagued Bill Clinton, I don't think he will be an albatross around her neck.

Fans of the Clintons dismissed the scandals and so did the independents.

It's a Jerry Springer world that we live in.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Monica Lewinsky campaigning for Hillary.

Can you picture Monica and Hillary on stage somewhere, locked arm in arm?

Surreal?

Yes.

Impossible?

Nothing is impossible. Highly unlikely, but not impossible.

Other than John Kerry or Al Gore, I think the band of supposedly delusional Dems hoping to win the nomination are really positioning themselves for the number two spot. They want to be the John Edwards of 2008.

They have to know that they don't stand a chance against the Clinton machine. It's tilting at windmills to think that the Hillary juggernaut can be derailed.

In the end, the rank and file Dems will abandon their Barack Obama dreams and get on board to embrace Hillary.

The radical Lefties will swallow hard and support her rather than let a third party candidate put another Republican in the White House.

The Democrat nomination is for Hillary to lose.

That's not going to happen.

Now, can she be elected president?

Even without a Republican front-runner at this point, that's more difficult to predict.

I think of Walter Cronkite's remark:

"We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders."

Uncle Walter said that in the fall of 2005, when the Republicans were firmly in charge.

Libs agreed.

Elitist libs declared American voters to be stupid.

I suspect libs and Cronkite have flip-flopped on that.

Surely uneducated voters couldn't have given the Dems the House and the Senate, right?

Will those same brilliant voters put Hillary in the Oval Office and give Bill's the keys to the White House again?

I would hope the threat of a Hillary presidency would bring conservatives out to vote in droves; but I'm less confident that will happen than I was just a few months ago.

Excuse me. I have to stop writing. I'm feeling nauseous.