Dan Kennedy: why the Democrats would be crazy to nominate Hillary Clinton

[whometense]

Interesting article.

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/dont_quote_me/multi-page/documents/04761836.asp

...This past Sunday, Alan Ehrenhalt, reviewing John Harris’s The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (Random House) for the New York Times Book Review, wrote, "The passion of the Clinton haters is a phenomenon without equal in recent American politics.... It surpasses even the liberals’ longstanding detestation of Richard Nixon."

Yet Hillary Clinton is arguably the most popular Democratic politician in the country — among Democrats, anyway. She is a fundraising star, a policy wonk whose only match is her husband, and a moderately inclined problem-solver who’s earned unexpected praise from New York Republicans — and even from Newt Gingrich.

Still, if she decides to run for president, the Clinton wars, reduced to a simmer for the past four years, will blaze anew. She will resume her status as the most divisive figure in the country, not because of anything she’s said or even who she is, but because of what she seems to represent. It may not be fair. But since when has politics been fair?

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

1. These people should think again.

*ANY* Dem will be dragged through the mud by the thugs/media and then promptly dubbed "divisive".

If anybody has any doubts, one just has to look back to the last year and see how a war hero was treated...

[TayTay]

2. That is so true, it's what Rethugs do

It's what they have invested billions of dollars in building: a smear machine. The person opposing them is irrelevent, they just gear up the machine and it starts spewing out poison.

These guys can be had. But Dems have to stop the circular firing squad and start building their own viable mechanisms for promoting our candidates. I don't hate Hillary Clinton, I jst am not going to vote for her in a primary. (I do not want the presidency to be bounced between two families. I find that to be undemocratic.)

[TayTay]

3. The Hate mcahine also extends to policy

Gawd, read this Robert F. Kennedy, Jr article in Salon today. My gawd, if that doesn't fill you with righteous indignation, check your pulse, you might be dead.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/06/16/thimerosal/print.html

[karynnj]

4. In fairness, although they hate Hillary immensely,

they certainly hate John Kerry, and they will hate .... (whoever we nominate). What amazed me most were the people who felt that EVEN IN THE CONTEXT OF A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION it was wrong to criticize a war time President even over "mistakes" he made. Kerry has been called polite and well mannered for at least 35 years, his criticisms were on policy issues and were factual. Even so, there were people who felt he was just attacking. ("If you're not with us you're with the terrorists".)

[paulk]

5. they hated her husband with equal ferocity

and he got elected twice...


and a note to Dan Kennedy - Hillary is not the most divisive figure in the country - that idiot squatting in the White House is.

[beachmom]

6. What's causing the divisiveness?

The radical wing of the Republican party, of course. Everybody acts like it's both sides, but the Left is mostly reacting to policy and political practices of the Repubs. The radicals attack, attack, attack. And the attacks are personal. They're below the belt attacks and we've become so used to it, we hardly notice how unprofessional it has become. JK refused to play their game, sticking to policy attacks, and now everybody is critisizing him for it. Well, I for one think we need to blame a group of people who thus far have seemed to escape criticism: gullible American voters who fall for this shit! Anything apart from the policy and ethics of a candidate is irrelevant. When someone starts to tell me gossip about *, I immediately brush it off -- it's unproven and irrelevant. My problem is and always will be with his policies and his lack of ethics. Period. Until the American public starts to realize that it's the policies, stupid, they will continue to elect idiots. Yes, the right wing media sucks, but anybody who was to take the time to find out what's going on (local newspaper, Jim Lehrer News Hour) COULD know a lot about what's going on. But they don't. Because Rush Limbaugh is more fun to listen to. And you don't have to think. You just have to say ditto. Or, they just don't bother to watch or read much news at all, and rely on how witty John Kerry was or wasn't on Good Morning America, and decide their vote based on his performance 2 hours before they voted on election day (true story -- that's how a friend of mine decided to vote for * -- Kerry didn't have a sense of humor, she said).

I think the shit is going to have to hit the fan for these people to wake up to the disaster that this Party is creating for us. They're going to have to lose their job or home or realize they're not going to be able to retire until they're 69 OR terrorism starts happening a lot here, or the religious right starts taking their rights away. Then they'll suddenly say "hey, what the fuck is going on here?" And I'll say right back, "it's been going on the whole time. Where were you? Oh yeah, watching 'American Idol' again".

Didn't mean to get on a rant, but the combination of personal attacks and public ignorance spells polarization between those in the "know" and those asleep to the reality of our world.