Posted on 12/06/2003 4:52:05 PM PST by blam
Hillary launches a savage assault on Bush's record
By Julian Coman in Washington
(Filed: 07/12/2003)
Hillary Clinton has launched her most blistering attack yet on President George W Bush, accusing his administration of following an "extremist agenda" that must be stopped before "irreparable harm" is done to the United States.
It was a considerably more robust performance than any of the Democrats' nine existing presidential candidates have managed, prompting renewed speculation that Mrs Clinton may have a last-minute change of heart and run for the White House in 2004.
In a comment destined to excite her admirers, she said that America should not be shy of electing its first woman president. "You've got women serving in many positions at all levels of government and in other walks of life," she said. "I was briefed by women generals, as well as men, when I was in Afghanistan and Iraq. So from my perspective, it depends on the person."
The Draft Hillary 2004 campaign, which has not been called off, is in no doubt about who that person is. Visitors to its website are urged to "send Hillary the best Christmas present of all. Sign the petition asking her to run."
Mrs Clinton took her attack on the president to the heart of Bush territory, in Austin, Texas, on Friday.
"This administration is in danger of being the first in American history to leave our nation worse off than when they found it," she said during an interview that ranged from Iraq to the American economy and health reforms.
The New York senator told the Houston Chronicle that since taking office President Bush had taken "a hard-Right turn to an extremist agenda". She said: "This President Bush has not only been radical and extreme in terms of Democratic but in terms of Republican presidents, including his own father."
Like President Bush, Mrs Clinton visited Iraq on Thanksgiving Day, though her visit was totally eclipsed by the cloak-and-dagger arrival of Air Force One. During the interview, she criticised the gung-ho militarism of the Bush administration and condemned the absence of proper postwar planning by the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld. Mr Rumsfield, she claimed, "has a view of military intervention that is out of sync with what the reality on the ground is after the military does its initial job of toppling the regime, whether it be the Taliban [in Afghanistan] or Saddam Hussein."
The combined effect of the Bush administration's policies at home and abroad was, she claimed, catastrophic: "We have to change direction before irreparable harm is done." Much of Mrs Clinton's anger was directed at President Bush's alleged determination to "undo the New Deal", referring to the postwar welfare policies that introduced social security and government assistance programmes to America.
She described the New Deal measures as "the central pillars of progress in our country during the 20th century" and ridiculed President Bush's claims to be a compassionate conservative. A reform bill on healthcare recently passed by Congress would, she said, lead existing health coverage for low and middle-earners to "wither on the vine".
Mrs Clinton ostensibly went to Texas to promote her book, Living History, and raise funds for her Senate re-election campaign in 2006. Asked again whether she was considering a presidential run, she described the speculation as flattering but added: "I just stand on trying to do a good job in the Senate."
Yet the scale and breadth of her attack on President Bush is certain to renew calls for Mrs Clinton to change her mind. Centrist Democrats are hankering for a charismatic candidate who could defeat President Bush and the rising challenge from the Left posed by Howard Dean, the front-running Democrat candidate.
Most moderate Democrats believe that Mr Dean is capable of winning the party nomination through grassroots support but fear that he would be soundly beaten by President Bush on the national stage. With centrist candidates such as John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator, faltering in the Democratic primaries, Mrs Clinton still sets moderates' pulses racing even though she is not running.
Many Democratic activists believe that Mrs Clinton will want to wait until 2008 before she runs, hoping for a weaker, less popular opponent than President Bush, who still enjoys public goodwill following September 11.
On Friday, however, Senator Clinton said she believed that the president was "beatable", because the Bush administration was making America "less free, fair, strong, smart than it deserves to be in a dangerous world".
The truth is out there.
Which of them would be pleased to see her step in and take the nomination they so covet?
But, there's another reason she won't ever win the Presidency: she's UGLY. And DUMPY. For whatever reason, really ugly people are rarely elected to any political office (OK, there's Henry Waxman ....) Remember that one of the reasons Kennedy beat Nixon was Kennedy looked good on TV compared to Nixon. And in the Internet Age, Hitlary's "ideas" will be torn to sheds.
Wow. She can't be serious. Can't believe she could choke those words out.
But Margaret Thatcher isn't running.
And as Condoleeza Rice was taking the oath of office on that brisk January day, stolen bric-a-brack was being violently hurled across the room at a house in Chappaqua...
Like President Bush, Mrs Clinton visited Iraq on Thanksgiving Day, though her visit was totally eclipsed by the cloak-and-dagger arrival of Air Force One. Lord, I bet she was royally PISSED!! Hehe. Wish I could have been a fly on the wall when one of her servants told her she'd been upstaged bigtime by GWB himself. Can you imagine the rage? Ha!
You go Hildabeaste. Spew your hatred and jealousy
What an absolutely stupid comment - shy!.
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