The Times of London on Hillary Clinton:
Unfortunately for Senator Hillary Clinton, long the front-runner in the Democratic drive to retake the presidency, most of them are coming at her expense.
A brace of Christmas opinion polls has left Clinton with a political hangover after a year that had appeared to cement her status as the Democrats’ best-organised, best-financed and best-connected contender for her party’s presidential nomination.
Despite winning re-election to the US Senate by a handsome margin in mid-term voting last month, Clinton has had little to celebrate as polls from the presidential primary battlegrounds signalled early trouble for her historic bid to become America’s first woman president.
In Iowa, the Midwestern state that will once again open the primary season with its caucus votes on January 14, 2008, Clinton slumped to fourth place with only 10% of the vote in a survey of 600 likely Democratic voters.
In New Hampshire, which will hold the first full primary eight days later, Clinton had appeared to be cruising comfortably with a 23-point lead over her Democrat rivals — until last weekend, when a poll in the Concord Monitor newspaper showed her only one point ahead of Senator Barack Obama, the comparative political newcomer who is considering a similarly historic attempt to become America’s first black president.
So what should Clinton do? A Charisma offensive?
What these strategists, or “gurus� don’t seem to understand is, Senator Hillary Clinton represents “business as usual�, or “status quo� to a nation of voters who are sick and tired of BOTH. She “voted for the war before she voted against it�, which makes her a HUGE part of the problem. Like her potential opponent, Senator John McCain, she has this little “problem� of being caught again and again, speaking out of both sides of her mouth; attempting to be “all things to everybody� in her twisted quest for power over the People. Also like her potential opponent, when pressed to take a specific, BOLD stance on an issue, she normally leaves the door wide open for an “about face� should the polls slip one way or the other.
We resent these CLOWNS, and that is exactly what they are to us; clowns who cannot even begin to provoke a smile from their audiences, and for this reason, well-deserved disdain for both the Democratic and Republican parties is resonating within the homes of the American People who are tired of having these plastic, shallow JERKS rammed down our throats in an effort to extract our votes. To top it all off, these so-called “gurus� are “SHOCKED� that we can see right through their ploys. They STILL think it’s a “marketing� thing, versus an “integrity� thing, which shows how daft, incompetent, and dishonest they themselves are for believing the People will fall for it.
I understand the GTL’s reasoning, but I do not agree with his view on Hillary. I do not think that Hillary is as bad as some on the left and some on the right seem to think. Yes she is a smart politician, yes she is very ambitious, but every person who runs for President is like that. It seems to me that she has quite a clear view of America’s place in the world and where she would take America would she be President.
To me, she seems to be more centrist than her husband, but – in general – her policies would most likely be very similar to Bill’s.
Would that be such a bad thing?
Lastly, I do think that Hillary’s ‘problem’ is that Obama et alia have received much more attention lately. Her campaign … has yet to begin.
Give her time.. she will come back.
Others:
Decision 08.
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.