Eleanor Clift in Newsweek: Hillary Clinton, Planting Her Flag

[flpoljunkie]

Planting Her Flag

Hillary Clinton is carefully positioning herself as a hawkish centrist. How proving that she is tougher than the boys could work for her in 2008.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 4:58 p.m. ET July 29, 2005


July 29 - Hillary Clinton wants to be the darling of the left and the candidate of the center, and why not? More than any other Democrat, save one—her husband—she knows what it takes to win, and she fully and completely comprehends the opposition.

Liberals went ballistic this week when Clinton called for a ceasefire among Democrats at a much ballyhooed appearance before the DLC, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council that helped elect her husband president. Clinton’s “Rodney King Moment,” is all about 2008, says a former John Kerry adviser: “What she’s saying is, ‘Why can’t we all get along and support me?’”

Clinton didn’t single out liberals, and her intent might have been more ecumenical in urging all wings of the party to turn their guns on the “hard-right ideology in Washington” instead of each other. But her presence at the DLC convention in Columbus, Ohio, spoke volumes. It said to the left that this is where she is planting her flag for the presidential race. And what she’s doing now is taking care of whatever perceived weaknesses she has, as well as those of the Democratic Party. She shouldn’t trim her principles, but she has the leeway to defy the liberal stereotypes. As a progressive in a country where half or more of voters are reflexively conservative, she has to find ideas that surprise people and grab their attention if she’s going to break through as a national candidate.   

This kind of intraparty warfare is familiar ground for Democrats. Hillary’s comments were almost identical to the sentiments Bill Clinton voiced some 15 years ago at a DLC event when there was a dispute with the Democratic National Committee. Having the vast left-wing conspiracy after you isn’t a bad thing in a political climate where the liberal label is problematic. Democrats can’t depend on urban strongholds anymore to carry them to victory. They’ve got to do better in the exurbs, those new subdivisions springing up everywhere. For Hillary, that means getting suburban women to cancel out the votes of their husbands. At the end of the day, criticism from the loud fringes of the party helps keep her positioned in the middle.

____________________

I would say to this, at least the Republican party has the good sense not to blow off their base--you know, the people who make it their business to vote in the primaries.

[election_2004]

1. Eleanor is blatantly pro-Hillary

She's part of the Rah-Rah Hillary bandwagon.

[GoreDean2008]

2. I Am Noticing That Mainstream Corporate Media Reporters

Do not get the power of the Internet-based undercurrent. If they do, then it means that they are fighting against the blogs to keep their status quo.

The corporate media is just corrupt. I don't like Newsweek and I never read them. It's just a newsjunk.

[election_2004]

4. Corrupt is an understatement

I prefer the term "media whores" - - a polite way of saying "Talking Heads."

[Larkspur]

3. Hillary a progressive? That's a laugh

She's a pro-corporate strumpet and a war crimminal, just like Joe Lieberman.

[d_b]

5. More power to her

I won't be supporting her.

[bribri16]

6. I make another bet here (so far I have been right twice)

Hillary will NOT run for President in 2008!!

She is smart enough to know that the mess left by the Bush cabal will be too great to make any inroads on her own legacy. She will wait until 2012. Chelsea will run for some public office and by 2018, she will run for President.

[CWebster]

7. Ugh, she is flat and uninspiring

to warrant such controversy.

She reminds me, with her deliberate enunciation of meaningless rhetoric about values and personal responsibility, of a girl running for student council.

And, what could be easier than following up Vislack, notably the dullest politician ever to drone on?