Tag: Hillary Clinton

Arianna isn’t buying it. I’m waiting for Obama’s announcement and the details of Clinton’s dough. Interesting stat, tho: first time senator Obama has 83,000 individual donors so far, according to Arianna. Clinton has around 50,000. There’s less here than meets the eye.

More feedback for and against. Meanwhile: a newish blog: HRCWatch. Gay people are finally not taking it any more, are they?

A reader writes:

I am in my twenties. I have only vague, pre-politically-conscious memories of Hillary’s early, controversial career as First Lady. My less vague memories are of her as a dutiful if duplicitous wife in difficult circumstances. Finally, having lived in NYC for the last six years, I know of Hillary as a popular Senator successful way beyond expectations at representing most spectrums of the state competently and fairly, including the mostly Republican northern and rural areas of the state.

So, can you or one of your readers please explain why on earth she is so loathed? By figures on both the left and right?

I understand disliking her, but hating her, often with a ferocious passion – I’m having a hard time understanding it.

Me too. Even when I feel it.

Peas in a pod, according to this reader:

I’m sorry but you realize that the post you linked to by Jonah doesn’t argue well for his ability to own up to "the bet". It is begrudging and parsed and does not come right out and say what needs to be said: that he (and many, many others) screwed up. He can’t even muster the simple "I was wrong."

He is, in short, behaving like Hillary. And so, of course, has NRO. When The New Republic famously questioned themselves on Iraq (Were We Wrong?), The Corner treated this as something to chortle at.

The Achilles heel of liberalism is not being able to recognize victories, e.g., there is a growing African-American middle class, which would not have been possible without outlawing slavery, civil rights, and, yes, affirmative action. The Achilles heel of conservatism is not knowing when to say yes and not taking responsibility for holding out, e.g. torture in Iraq, gay rights, civil rights.

Jonah and his colleagues  are true conservatives on this issue. They’re incapable of getting that they got something wrong. Like Hillary, Jonah will go to his grave, no doubt, unable to own up to the fact that he had a hand (albeit limited and indirect) in creating and enabling a disaster. Finally, to qualify this, I am an open-minded liberal. I read NRO regularly, sometimes agree with them, and greatly enjoy Jonah’s writings. So I’m not a Jonah Hater. But he has behaved most foolishly on this issue.

A reader has a paranoid theory:

I’m sorry, but the recently choreographed burst of GOP high-strategist handwringing over the possibility of a Hillary run feels purely Rovian to me, fresh from a think tank. How did we get from "A Hillary candidacy is the one thing that could galvanize the Base and save Republican prospects for the White House," to "Fear Hillary" so quickly?

And whence cometh the seemingly responsive timing to the recent and building nationwide coming out party for Obama? This is Rove-a-Dope redux. They are hoping ardently to have Hillary Clinton on the Dem lead horse. Let the ‘Base’ be regalvanized …

Feel the love.

Here’s a graph to wake you up: the public’s view of Senator Clinton seems remarkably stable over time, with a brief period of sympathy during the impeachment agony. Analysis here.

He’s brutal but perceptive about Hillary’s "listening tour":

A story by Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny in Sunday’s Times went straight to the essence: money. Who is going to get more of it? Hillary or Senator Barack Obama? In that choice, certainly, I’m for Obama.

Josh Green’s recent profile in the Atlantic, my future home, is well worth absorbing. My latest take is here.

(Photo: Jez Coulson.)

How I learned to stop hating Senator Clinton:

Hillary is essentially saying that we should trust her. She is giving us a clear signal of what a second Clinton administration would be like: all the centrism and responsibility of her husband’s eight years but without any of the charm.

Is that what Americans want? It seems that what they want is a form of escapism (in the form of Edwards), charisma (in the shape of Barack Obama), or integrity (in the guise of John McCain). But when the decision nears and the stakes, especially abroad, begin to seep in, might Hillary be right? Might they actually be yearning for dullness, competence and responsibility?