Hillary’s inevitable nomination undercut

November 14, 2007

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Her fall from grace, while not complete, is easy to understand when considering that her entire candidacy is built on the inevitability of her winning the Democratic Party's nomination, and ultimately the presidency.

Until recently er campaign strategy has worked. Democrats eager to retake the White House know Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to win consecutive terms as president.

Hillary received the benefit of the doubt from many Democrats, not because she is a stellar candidate but because of the enormous confidence they have in her husband. Most assumed as far back as 2000 that she would be the nominee.

So far she hasn't had to do the typical left-wing song and dance. Since announcing her candidacy she has tried to run a more middle-of-the-road campaign in hopes of insulating herself from attacks once she gets a Republican opponent.

While not happy with her walk down the middle on the only issue in this campaign - the war in Iraq - the majority of left-wing Democrats have been forgiving, bottling up their frustration, because they believe it is inevitable she will be the next president.

In the recent debate Hillary tried to dance around the issue of New York issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, but her feet got tangled in the process. She expressed support, then tried to back away, only to have her campaign issue a statement the next day claiming support for the program; then she waffled hours later, claiming it depends on the state.

Her campaign complained that her Democratic opponents - and even the debate's moderator, NBC's Tim Russert - were tough and at times unfair.

But, the most telling response came from Bill Clinton. He rushed to his wife's aid, claiming that Hillary wasn't going to be "swiftboated" like John Kerry, who famously claimed in 2004 that he had voted for the defense appropriation to fund the war before he voted against it.

The Bush folks made an issue out of Kerry voting against the $87 billion to fund troops in Iraq. They then used Kerry's own words against him, by running a tape of Kerry saying that he actually voted for the money before he voted against it. Only days before the vote was taken, Kerry said he couldn't imagine anyone who would vote against supplying the troops with the tools to win the war.

Kerry was forced to explain the details of the votes, the intricacies of the bill, and on and on. The net effect was the Bush folks won that battle … and the presidency.

The entire Hillary-on-four-sides-of-the-drivers-license-issue episode left the impression that she perhaps isn't quite ready for prime time and was primed to be "swiftboated." If she couldn't endure a little roughhousing from her Democratic "boys," how then could anyone expect her to endure the aerial bombardment that would come in a general election.

Things got no better last week as it was revealed that Hillary's campaign had planted softball questions with audience members at a few of her campaign stops, which continued to fuel the notion that the candidate may be out of her league.

On Monday, I visited with someone who recently had attended a Hillary fundraiser in New York City. Her observation was that the Clinton campaign was consumed with a feeling of entitlement. Hillary's staffers treated the Democratic nomination as something that rightfully belongs to her and the primaries are a hassle they must endure to get to the main event - the general election.

The result is that Hillary is riding a one-legged stool that may be easy to topple, especially considering that not all of her Democratic opponents buy into the inevitability of her presidency.

Source: Arkansas News

Posted by Hillary · Filed Under 2008, Bill Clinton, Commentary, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Flipflops, Hillary Clinton Make Overs, Hillary Clinton in the News

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Hillary’s inevitable nomination undercut

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