What Hillary Stands For

A few days after her roughest night as a candidate — the Oct. 30 Democratic presidential debate — Hillary Clinton could be found ambling along a spectacular bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in a town called Clinton, Iowa, with former Vice President Walter Mondale, a ghost of Democratic disasters past. It was the photo op for an endorsement that seemed a potential kiss of death. Mondale is a smart and decent man, but he ran the worst sort of cautious front-runner campaign for the nomination in 1984, was nearly upended by the younger, more dynamic Gary Hart in the primaries and was utterly trounced by Ronald Reagan in the general election, in part because, in an untypically incautious moment in his acceptance speech for the nomination, he said he would raise taxes.

Clinton has been accused of running a cautious front-runner campaign. She is challenged by a pair of dynamic younger candidates in Barack Obama and John Edwards. She has endorsed higher taxes for the wealthy. And more than a few Democrats worry that she cannot win a general election, even against a disgraced and exhausted Republican Party. In other ways, however, Clinton is the furthest thing from Mondale imaginable. A vote for Clinton is, at bottom, a radical proposition. It is a vote for the first woman President, the most dramatic expansion of American possibility since a Catholic was elected President in 1960. In the past six months, Clinton has transformed herself into a far more dynamic campaigner than Mondale ever was. But most important, there is a stark difference in political philosophy between them: Clinton is a pragmatic moderate, and Mondale was an old-fashioned liberal.

Hillary Clinton's American Conservative Union (ACU) voting record:

2006 2005 Lifetime

8% 12% 9.0%

John Kerry's American Conservative Union (ACU) voting record:

2006 2005 Lifetime

12% 8% 5.6%

HIllary Clinton's Americans for Democratic Action (ADA/Commie) voting record:

2006 2005

95% 100%

John Kerry's Americans for Democratic Action (ADA/Commie) voting record:

2006 2005

95% 100%

Yeah, she's a moderate.

This is a kind of back-handed way of Joe Klein and Time to show their growing disapproval of Herself, the Cold and Joyless. Condemnation by faint praise is still perdition, in this case. The examination, while still cautions, is getting more bold all the time, and some shibboleths are being slipped in there.

Such as, Herself being a “moderate” as compared to an “old-fashioned” liberal. Joe Klein obviously is troubled by this development, as if Herself were less “pure” than she ought to be. and by trying to reach back to Walter Mondale, does that somehow also cause the “impurity” to contaminate the old-fashioned liberals?

“Cautious” front running is also frowned upon, as Joe Klein furrows his brow and pontificates huffily that by not giving a real polish to the primary, Herself is also somehow crippling her chances in the general election.

Clue: Herself is already damaged goods, and while much of the press is unwilling to take a stand on her demonstrated incompetence, they are even more unwilling to present the way in which Herself is setting up her run for the White House. Of all the mentors in history that were available, Herself has adopted the pattern used by Richard Nixon in his drive for the White House in 1968 - build wide but largely unacknowledged support out there in the grass roots, and when the push came, go after a failed President of the opposite political party, even when it was clear that Johnson would not be a candidate for the 1968 election.

Nixon had, in fact, gone directly to the Chinese and laid out his agenda, which was a considerable factor in reshaping the war in Viet Nam. The Chinese withdrew a considerable amount of their tacit support for the North Vietnamese, and allowed a military victory early in the first Nixon term, one that was inexplicibly given away by apparent sabotages within the State Department at the time.

Herself has this idea the Islamofascist Muslims will behave in a manner similar to that of the Red Chinese, with whom Herself already has strong and multiple ties. By sheer force of will, Herself believes the Islamofascists shall be charmed, and they will accede to Herself in a way that Bush never could achieve. Thus, no war would be necessary.

Only one thing is missing from this equation - when Herself actually DOES come into confrontation with these Islamofascists, they shall accord Herself very little respect, because a) Herself is genericly a female, and therefore inferior; and b) they are pretty sure that Herself will not use any serious force to back up demands on behalf of the US and the West, since the US military in Iraq will be “redeployed” with all possible speed, once Herself is within the Oval Office.

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