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".
I like Condi, but she is a female chipmunk that would break down and cry at the sight of real trouble. No way.
Look out for Rick Santorum (R-from PA)during Bush's next term. He will be doing international stuff for the push in 08. Heck, let me go farther, Santorum will be our next VP under Bush.
You heard it hear first.
I know what I would do (would likely involve breaking the law) --- just wondering what others plan to do if that Hell-on-earth day were to occur.
Makes it sound like she wants to be President. With her negatives there is no way she will make it. The DNC is going through a major Civil War right now and the evil pair will not let go w/o a fight. Don't look for Dean to give BJ a major roll at the convention.
PRay for W and the Truth
She must run in 2004.
Can you imagine what scrutiny George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush would face if they had to return over $100,000.00 of stolen furniture and gifts from the White House after they left the White House?...Here we are talking about the wife of an impeached President who was knee deep in every criminal act, or it's ensuing cover up, her husband committed.
I can't help but think that John Ashcroft and GWB have some serious dirt on Bill and Hillary and they are not pursuing it because of promise GWB made during his campaign change the tone of Washington and not get involved in the politics of personal destruction.
I don't see Hillary running in 2004, nor do I see her getting elected to a second term as New York's junior Senator in 2006. I believe their will be a major shake up in the DNC after they get shellacked in 2004, Terry McAuliffe will be driven out as the Chair of the DNC at the end of a pitch fork by January 2004, Bill and Hillary will be rightfully held responsible for the fall of the democrat party and it will be democrats like John Breaux and Zell Miller who will take the party back from the poisonous far left
And so the "smartest woman in the world" manages to somehow endorse Carol Mosely Braun, the only official female now running on the two Party tickets.
Unless, of course, people are so accustomed to Hillary being sly and deceitful that they don't believe her words above are meant for the openly declared candidate.
Heckofa legacy when you deliberately state things *knowing* that your own fans won't believe you meant it openly and honestly.
Though, I still think it's important to never trust the ____ lest she actually succeed. Scary, ain't it?
She's totally scary. Part of me wants to see her run in 2004, because I don't think there's any possible way she could win. On the other hand, the chances of me being wrong are great enough for me to be terrified of a Hillary run.
To quote Barbara K. Olson (God rest her soul):
"We came to see that, essentially, Hillary is a woman animated by a lifelong ambition. That ambition is to make the world accept the ideas she embraced in the sanctuaries of liberation theology, radical feminism, and the hard left. We came to see her as a politician who invented her own strategies of protective coloration, who learned to mask her true feelings and intentions. She has become a master manipulator of the press, the public, her staff, and--likely--even the president."
n the demonRATS should give the honor of being their first woman candidate to the the woman that has done so much for the party...
barbara striesand... ($$$$$$$$$$$)
Silencio, viejo!
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