Tripping Over the Inevitable - The Coming Backlash Against the Clintons

The Washington Post ^ | March 4, 2007 | George F. Will

[neverdem]

In the 1920s, the Brooklyn Dodgers finished in sixth place seven times in eight years. Late in that unfortunate period, a droll sportswriter, noting the team's listless play, wrote, "Overconfidence may yet cost Brooklyn sixth place."

Hillary Clinton's campaign did not display overconfidence when it directed the recent fusillade at Barack Obama. Her campaign's rhetorical megatonnage was in response to a prominent Obama contributor saying rude things about her. Her overreaction was one of several developments that have clarified the Democratic contest.

Bill Clinton has said, regarding presidential candidates, that Republicans like to fall in line and Democrats like to fall in love. Which explains the Clinton campaign's palpable panic: Democrats have fallen in love, but not with her.

Republicans tend to nominate the next person in line: Vice President Richard Nixon, not Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, to follow President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960; Vice President George H.W. Bush, not Sen. Robert Dole, to follow President Ronald Reagan in 1988; Dole rather than Lamar Alexander or any other contender in 1996; Gov. George W. Bush, whose dynastic lineage propelled him past Sen. John McCain in 2000.

There is a Republican tinge to Sen. Clinton's campaign: She is next in line. That fact -- combined with the Clintons' (how often the plural is pertinent) money machine, combined with the Clintons' earned reputation for ferocity -- is supposed to impart to her an aura of inevitability.

But such an aura annoys voters by telling them that they really have no choice. And that can provoke them to play the game that G.K. Chesterton called "Cheat the Prophet": The players listen politely to explanations of what is inevitable, then they make something else happen, which defeats boredom.

Boredom, the sociologist Robert Nisbet wrote, is among the universal and insistent forces driving human behavior. Mankind's...

[angkor]

There is a Republican tinge to Sen. Clinton's campaign: She is next in line.

Ummmm.......wouldn't that be Al Gore?

[okie01]

Yes, the initial aim of campaign "reforms" was less the proclaimed purpose of combating corruption or "the appearance" thereof than it was to impede the entry of inconvenient candidates into presidential campaigns. In that sense, campaign reform is a government program that has actually worked, unfortunately.

Campaign Finance "Reform" always favors the incumbent.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Candidates do have to spend too much time raising money. But that is because the government, by banning large campaign contributions, has transformed a huge American surplus -- money -- into an artificial scarcity. The government began to do this for anti-competitive purposes.

Will nails it here. Get rid of the rules and FEC regulations and let candidates raise money to their heart's content, just as long as it isn't from foreign sources, which would put candidates such as Hunter and Paul on equal footing with Romney and Giuliani.

[CyberAnt]

Interesting piece by Will.

[all the best]

He was nominated by the party and ran in '02. Remember?

[MHGinTN]

I liked that last sentence, also ... a real good Willy.

[Mr_Moonlight]

He was nominated by the party and ran in '02. Remember?

Gore was nominated and ran in '02? No, I don't remember that ... unless they were still counting chads in '02 .....

[cinives]

Gov. George W. Bush, whose dynastic lineage propelled him past Sen. John McCain in 2000

That was not why McLame lost the primaries in 2000.

[Continental Soldier]

The question we need to keep in mind is, 'Do Americans, even democrats, really want a return to the Clinton era? I'm betting we don't.

[nickcarraway]

What did he run for in '02?

[misterrob]

He was and he didn't deliver...

[misterrob]

ahhhh, I think you mean 2000

[Vermont Lt]

Which is why he didnt win. He was either too late, or way-way too early.

[Hildy]

NO MORE CLINTONS, NO MORE BUSHES....

Do people really want to see Carville and Begala all over the place again? She's not going to win.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Mankind's nervous system evolved during millions of dangerous years (saber-toothed tigers, etc.). Now, however, mankind has suddenly, in a few millennia, encountered the monotony of orderly life, which bothers human brains formed by and for hazardous circumstances.

They say that my grandfather was the first of the clan to walk fully erect!

[Luke21]

It's going to be interesting, because this Obama guy could really stick it to her if she gets the cash. There's always a likability factor. Hillary isn't likable. She's a stone hearted shrew. Even still, there are a lot of angry liberals out there who would vote for her to stick it to us. These people live every day with terrible anger.

[.cnI redruM]

What Will doesn't get into is the role of the media. They always try and suck the oxygen out the primary season and prevent a down to the wire fight. I don't know why. What could be better for the nightly news than an actual drama at a party's nominating convention?

[Continental Soldier]

I agree. Having listened to her in her recent appearances, I am more convinced than ever that she cannot carry the vote.