Please Don’t Nominate This Woman
“It’s just…it’s, it’s the same old tired gags, isn’t it? I mean, let’s give the audience some credit.” - Bumblebee Man
I long assumed Hillary Clinton’s campaign was going to implode on itself, and it looked like that might be the case right up until the New Hampshire primary. But she keeps winning things, and that makes me nervous because I’ve also long assumed that Hillary Clinton is about the only Blue candidate with a realistic chance of losing in November. When you stop to lay it all out, the case against Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee is pretty damning. So let’s go ahead and do that, shall we?
I’m looking strictly at elect ability in the general election here. I’m sure she’s a very nice person in general and she’s supposed to be naturally inclined to get into the details of policy, which would be a welcome change from the current situation. But I don’t care about any of that because it seems utterly irrelevant in the context of the larger election.
The first strike against her is her last name. Every time I mention the fact that we might be about to go Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton it makes people cringe. I remember how jarring it was, right after Bush the Younger was inaugurated, to hear people talk about “President Bush” in the present tense again. The distinct whiff of banana republic, handing off the presidency between overly entitled families, was pretty hard to avoid. And let’s not forget that restorations don’t tend to end well. Certainly the Bush restoration has been a disaster.
In a year like 2008, where the Democrats have all the advantages, Clinton also strikes me as the one nominee who could scuttle things because she really is the only thing on which Republicans of all stripes can agree. This has been pointed out so many times amongst politics fans that it’s almost trite, but it’s still true. It boils down to some version of, “Screw the bitch” and it so excites Republican passions that it makes liberal loathing of Bush the Younger seem downright calm. Our current president won two squeaker elections by turning out every person in American slightly inclined to vote Republican. None of the Republican candidates can excite the voters the way Bush did, but Hillary Clinton sure can.
I’ve seen that point reversed, to make it a positive for Hillary Clinton. The idea being that she and the rest of the Clinton team are the best Blues have at bare knuckle political fighting and in the general election that’s what it’s going to take. Again, I find this logic puzzling. A bare knuckled brawl plays to Republican strengths. A candidate like say, Barack Obama, could ride the overwhelming tide of dissatisfaction; uplifting platitudes are exactly the right tactic to use. If Hillary Clinton is the choice, it will certainly turn into an all out war and, let’s face it, there is no reason to believe that the Democrats can win that kind of campaign.
And be afraid, very afraid, if Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee. He is the worst possible opponent for her. The man got himself elected Governor of Massachusetts as a Republican and a mere two years later is serious position to grab the Republican nomination for President! There’s nothing he can’t do. The malleability of his positions is not a weakness, it is a strength, particularly in a general election against Hillary Clinton. Romney has proved in the past that he can have crossover appeal, in the bluest of blue states no less. We know Clinton has little to no crossover appeal.
Mr. Obama, sir, we need you buddy.
