Hillary hobbled by return of the loudmouth

[emad]

Sunday Times
Tony Allen-Mills



THE first opinion poll of the 2008 presidential campaign was published in Washington last week, and it set Senator Hillary Clinton on a collision course with Howard Dean, the blunt-spoken former governor of Vermont who has improbably risen from the ashes of his Democratic primary implosion last year to become the would-be saviour of his party¡¯s Bush-whacked political fortunes.

President George W Bush¡¯s second term is less than a fortnight old, but Democrats are already divided over their strategy for revenge in 2008. Dean¡¯s expected election as party chairman next weekend will give the opposition a fire-breathing figurehead who recently declared: ¡°I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for.¡±

Yet Dean¡¯s surprise re-emergence after his crushing losses in Iowa and New Hampshire last year threatens to complicate Clinton¡¯s much-debated attempts to soften her liberal image in preparation for a 2008 presidential run.

At just the moment that Clinton has been seeking common ground with her right-wing opponents on contentious issues such as abortion, Dean is warning his party not to become ¡°Republican-lite¡±.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1471926,00.html

[asthmaticeog]

1. Good.

Screw Clinton and ALL the DLC lapdogs. I've never been much of a Deaniac, but for now, he seems to be the only prominent Dem with the right idea.

[earth mom]

4. I'm with you. Good! Who needs or wants Hillary aka repuke lite?! eom

[LittleClarkie]

7. It occurs to me that for all her centrism

She is still considered the uber-liberal by the Right. They consider the votes she's been making lately to be a move toward the center, not realizing she's always been there. Like Dean, they ignore the idea that she might actually be somewhat conservative at heart with some liberal ideas.

I don't care what she does, she's still going to be considered liberal by the Repubs, and no matter how much nice talk she aims in their direction, they are NOT going to buy it. There is no damned way. Almost nobody on the Repub side is voting for Hillary. So this tactic is wasted anyway.

Might as well be who we are, and see who flocks to that as Bush self-destructs. Gore gets it. I think Kerry gets it. And so does Dean.

[mattclearing]

13. That's the problem, though.

We let them define her as uber-liberal. Hillary is NOT a liberal.

They don't remember what a liberal looks like, and they haven't really seen one run for President since Mondale lost. Neither have we.

I'm for real progressive candidates that want to help Americans with smart, fiscally responsible policies that don't involve a bunch of manipulative schemes and crackpot ideas that don't stand up to scrutiny.

Hillary might be able to fit the bill, but I'm really not interested. There are better candidates that aren't as hated nor as easy to destroy.

[LittleClarkie]

16. Kerry came closer than most

The only thing that made him less liberal was his hawkishness. Otherwise, he has a good progressive record.

I dunno about who might be less easy to destroy. If we go too conservative, we lose our base. If we go more liberal, the right will attack that person just like all the rest.

Hillary is wholy unsatisfying. Not liberal enough for most of us, and yet defined as uberliberal to the right. I can't see her getting many votes, personally.

[mattclearing]

21. I'm all about Clark at this point.

He has all the qualities I would want. He's not the thorn in the Bushes' side that Kerry is, which is kind of a bummer, but if he sticks around for '08, I'll gladly watch him clean up.

[Hissyspit]

11. I love that Bush cameo in "The Shining" n/t

[itzamirakul]

2. Chris Matthews show this AM didn't even include her as a potential

candidate for 2008. Now they are claiming it will be a run between Kerry and Gore.

Don't you just LOVE the way rightwingers tell us what is going on in our own party? And then give us advice as to what we should do?

God! I'm like Dean...I "despise" the Republicans and everything they stand for! (Hate is a bit strong for me...but I understand what he is saying)

[Lorien]

3. What "liberal image"?

just because the RW says it doesn't make it true. All real liberals know that she's a centrist. Geez-we have to stop validating the neo-con positions by moving AWAY from them!

[LittleClarkie]

5. And that, sports fans, is one of the reasons Hillary doesn't thrill me

There is just something about her that doesn't seem natural or honest. It might be that, like Kerry, I have to get closer to her and really look at her before I'll jump in.

But there's something ... pandering about her.

[merh]

10. Pandering is way too kind!

Both she and big dawg are whoring. (imho) He wants UN head so bad, he is willing to kiss the asses of those that tried to destroy him. :puke:

She didn't vote against Rice or the certification of the Ohio votes, she has no backbone and her "faith base initiative" support lately is very disturbing.

Not Hillary in 2008.

[ChiciB1]

6. To Nominate Hillary Would Be A

BIG MISTAKE!! I don't think she's a Liberal, nor do I think she can beat a Repuke! I do admire her for her accomplishments, but of late she's gotten way too "centrist" for me.

I thought Bill Clinton was GREAT and I dare say I would vote for him AGAIN... but even while he was President I always felt he was much more conservative than I.

I simply thought he played the game very well! This is what the REPUKES always hated about HIM! He beat them at their own game and they never let up the whole 8 years! But if you look at some of the things he was able to achieve, you can't deny that he was effective.

But HILLARY??? Well, I can't go there.

[lojasmo]

8. Anything that keeps Clinton from the white house is fine by me. EOM

[Cha]

9. Is hillary going to run for Senator

again? In, 2006? And what is she going to tell her constituents..that she won't leave to run for Prez in 2008?

Cause, that's what she said in 2000 concerning the 2004 presidential race.

As for "the loudmouth"...I didn't link on cause you have to register but Dean is going to get our message out..Loud And Clear..for sure!

[DemDogs]

12. Obviously Hillary and Bill don't think Dean helps them

Whatever you think of Fineman, there is some smoke there in the Dean-Clinton fracas. I just wish I knew what was going through Ickes head.

[Clarkie1]

14. "I hate the Republicans" will not win us elections in 06' or 08'

That's horrible language to be using to win voters who are Republican, and it appears that the media has picked up on the slip of the tongue and isn't going to let it go.

Not good for us.

I'm all for Dean as DNC chair as long as he learns to think before he speaks. I would have thought he had learned that already.

[lojasmo]

15. perhaps he should speak in such a convoluted fashion so as

to assure nobody can remember what he just said.

Or perhaps he should simply parrot right-wing talking points all the time.

[mandyky]

17. Hillary's only elected office is one term senator

She is not ready to run for the presidency. And then there is the Clinton baggage. Running her would be a disaster for Democrats.
Bayh, Feingold or Richardson have much more experience, and would be great candidates.

[IrwinDC]

18. Stay away from Congress!

Stay away from Senators or anyone in Congress. I think a governor who already has a record of executive administration, preferably from a Southern or Western state.

[Adelante]

19. Welcome to DU, IrwinDC

:hi:

[IrwinDC]

20. Why thank you!

Now off to watch New England clean house!