It depends on who the audience is. She has already made overtures to the pro-choice movement, emphazing that abortion should be extremely rare. She will, as most politicians do, avoid taking hard stances on controversial issues. She will finesse them. GWB is pro-life but he has said that he is not in favor of overturning Roe vs Wade, but rather, convincing the Pro-choice people to come over to his side.
Hillary will be to the Left of any GOP candidate, the question is public perception of how far left.
What is Hillary Clinton stand on Health care?
I think this will a big issue in 2008. With more than 43 million Americans without health insurance and the looming bankruptcy of Medicare hastened by the perscription drug program, some major public policy decisions will have to be made concerning health care. It could be a plus or minus for Hillary, depending on how she handles it. She could come out with a more moderate proposal and actually trumpet the past failure as prescience. She identified the problem, but not the solution the first time around.
The midterm elections will give us a preview on the mood of the public. I am a political realist and understand what were are dealing with.
On health care, it won't be the first time in history a politician won by losing. By having the voters say, "You were ahead of your time. You were right and we should have listened."
Frankly, jveritas, I think it will be Hillary's election to lose if she keeps doing what she's doing. There is such a need for a cultural conservative/economic populist now that the American people will be inclined to see what they want to see. Remember that back in 1992 the American people chose to believe what they wanted to believe about Clinton after the "bimbo eruption". If the GOP chooses a cultural liberal like Giuliani or an open borders pro illegal immigration type she can start picking the White House chef.
Back during NAFTA, I felt it would be a net minus for Democrats because like Peel in the Corn Laws, he was screwing his own base. NAFTA was a declaration that the New Democrat did not care about the economic interests or respect the values of blue collar Joe and cared only about latte liberals. After all, couldn't displaced factory workers go to community college and study Visual Basic and HTML ? It was a political blunder because the same Republicans who gave Clinton the "victory" on NAFTA went after his scalp on impeachment. I think Hillary is smart enough to recognize the shifting consensus away from free trade at all costs globalism.