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Monday, May 08, 2006

Second thoughts on Hillary
Posted by Jill | 6:54 AM
There are increasing rumbles of dissatisfaction with the Inevitability of Hillary Clinton juggernaut as the 2008 presidential campaign gets underway. First we had Kos' op-ed piece in yesterday's WaPo, which points out what many of us already knew: that the much-vaunted "Clinton centrism" isn't what elected Bill Clinton, it's the fact that Bill Clinton was Bill Clinton, and arguably the most charismatic political personality in a generation. He also points out that the Democratic Party has performed abysmally since listening to its pollsters and consultants (who get paid not by producing results, but by spending campaign cash):

Despite all his successes -- and eight years of peace and prosperity is nothing to sneeze at -- he never broke the 50-percent mark in his two elections. Regardless of the president's personal popularity, Democrats held fewer congressional seats at the end of his presidency than before it. The Democratic Party atrophied during his two terms, partly because of his fealty to his "third way" of politics, which neglected key parts of the progressive movement and reserved its outreach efforts for corporate and moneyed interests.

While Republicans spent the past four decades building a vast network of small-dollar donors to fund their operations, Democrats tossed aside their base and fed off million-dollar-plus donations. The disconnect was stark, and ultimately destructive. Clinton's third way failed miserably. It killed off the Jesse Jackson wing of the Democratic Party and, despite its undivided control of the party apparatus, delivered nothing. Nothing, that is, except the loss of Congress, the perpetuation of the muddled Democratic "message," a demoralized and moribund party base, and electoral defeats in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

Those failures led the netroots to support Dean in the last presidential race. We didn't back him because he was the most "liberal" candidate. In fact, we supported him despite his moderate, pro-gun, pro-balanced-budget record, because he offered the two things we craved most: outsider credentials and leadership.

And therein lie Hillary Clinton's biggest problems. She epitomizes the "insider" label of the early crowd of 2008 Democratic contenders. She's part of the Clinton machine that decimated the national Democratic Party. And she remains surrounded by many of the old consultants who counsel meekness and caution. James Carville, the famed longtime adviser to the Clintons, told Newsweek last week, "The American people are going to be ready for an era of realism. They've seen the consequences of having too many 'big ideas.' "

[snip]

Afraid to offend, she has limited her policy proposals to minor, symbolic issues -- such as co-sponsoring legislation to ban flag burning. She doesn't have a single memorable policy or legislative accomplishment to her name. Meanwhile, she remains behind the curve or downright incoherent on pressing issues such as the war in Iraq.

On the war, Clinton's recent "I disagree with those who believe we should pull out, and I disagree with those who believe we should stay without end" seems little different from Kerry's famous "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it" line. The last thing we need is yet another Democrat afraid to stand on principle.


Today, Bob Herbert similarly questions Clinton's muddy stand on Iraq:

Few people have ever heard of Jonathan Tasini. He's a low-key labor organizer and writer from Upper Manhattan who is trying to piece together a primary challenge to the re-election bid of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, primarily because of her stance on the Iraq war.

Mr. Tasini is against the war and wants American troops pulled out of Iraq forthwith.

Senator Clinton's position is — well, that's a problem. It's not at all clear what Senator Clinton's position is. And for a Democratic Party that has suffered a succession of brutal defeats with excessively cautious candidates, Mrs. Clinton's indecisiveness on the war may be a hint of yet another disaster in the making.

Mr. Tasini is not so deluded that he thinks he can hijack the Democratic Senate nomination from Mrs. Clinton. He said, "People often ask me, 'Don't you think this race is impossible?' My answer is, 'Of course! You're dealing with someone who has enormous name recognition and celebrity.' "

But celebrity, he said, is no substitute for an honest and vigorous debate on a matter as fundamentally important as war.

[snip]

After more than three years of fighting and more than 2,400 American deaths, you still need a magnifying glass to locate the differences between Mrs. Clinton and the Bush administration on the war. It's true, as the senator argues, that she has been a frequent and sometimes harsh critic of the way the war has been conducted. In a letter to constituents last fall she wrote, "I have continually raised doubts about the president's claims, lack of planning and execution of the war, while standing firmly in support of our troops."

But in terms of overall policy, she seems to be right there with Bush, Cheney, Condi et al. She does not regret her vote to authorize the invasion, and still believes the war can be won.


Hillary Clinton will never get my vote in 2008 -- not unless she publicly renounces her vote for this war, and possibly not even then. I will no longer reward Democrats who have made it very clear that they have no need for progressives; Democrats who think they can ignore their base -- or worse -- and still receive our votes. Progressives have bought the "Any Democrat is better than any Republican" mantra for far too long, and it is no longer true -- not when the Democrats are STILL too frightened to fight a president with a 30% approval rating.

It's time for us to put our foot down and demand the kind of Democrats who offer a real alternative to the extremists that dominate the Republican Party. Yes, there will be some short-term pain. But voting for the likes of Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer and Barack Obama and John Kerry hasn't protected us from the royalist/dictatorial aims of George W. Bush even when the latter is as weakened as any president has been in our lifetime. So what's the point in rewarding their cowardice?

UPDATE: Another reason not to trust her. A woman is judged by the company she keeps.
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