Obamagasmic
The Newsweek Gaggle has a very interesting notion regarding Clinton and Obama.
My next thought is that Hillary should run with him if she really wants to win, but then I remember why I think she'll lose. She's just too polarizing. Policy and brains aside, everyone thinks they know her, and most think that she's a coniving, driven biznatch. Even so, those might be good Presidential qualities.
Will I vote for her if she's the Democratic nominee? I have decided that I will vote for whomever the Dems nominate. (That is, unless McCain is the Republican, in which case I may vote for him again, but don't think he's enough a party man to get the nod.) The party alignment must change in 2008 or the GOP will hasten the demise of the Republic. What's more, my Democratic vote will not register on the Alabama landscape, unless Obama does do his thing with black voters......
This ought to be fun.
My next thought is that Hillary should run with him if she really wants to win, but then I remember why I think she'll lose. She's just too polarizing. Policy and brains aside, everyone thinks they know her, and most think that she's a coniving, driven biznatch. Even so, those might be good Presidential qualities.
Will I vote for her if she's the Democratic nominee? I have decided that I will vote for whomever the Dems nominate. (That is, unless McCain is the Republican, in which case I may vote for him again, but don't think he's enough a party man to get the nod.) The party alignment must change in 2008 or the GOP will hasten the demise of the Republic. What's more, my Democratic vote will not register on the Alabama landscape, unless Obama does do his thing with black voters......
This ought to be fun.
posted by JRB at 1:44 PM
7 Comments:
I think voting is much like hiring someone. People tend to hire people they like, and I think they tend to vote that way, as well.
Many vote issues, or are party loyal, but I think enough vote each election cycle simply for whom they like to make the difference in any kind of a close race.
Al Gore had a huge problem with this. I think if he had been likable, it wouldn't have even been close. (He has become a lot more likable in the past couple of years. And I don't mean just in relation to GW, I mean he seems to be genuinely more likable)
Back to the topic, I think Hillary is just unlikable enough to be unelectable in places other than either coastline. People do see her as a conniving opportunist who throws china and puts up with (or contributes to) marital situations most would not simply for the perks. She has moderated on many of her official positions, but there is enough baggage to be brought up over past statements and actions that even those moderations now seem to be inconsistent and disengenuous, and may actually add to the insincere conniving portrait. Whether or not that is true, or whether she can change that perception, is a question to be answered in the next couple of years, but I don't see it happening right now.
I agree.
Please note that I did not say that I like her personally either. I am one who may transcend the personal for policy reasons, but I do not suggest that's a superior posture. I voted for GWB the first time around (after voting McCain in the primary) but did not the second time. The first time was based principally on personality; the second time was based on policy - and evidence.
This next election for me will be a policy election for certain.
I'm going to get some face time with Barack tomorrow in LR. I'll tell him you said hi.
I share your angst about Hillary. She's probably one of the smartest people in congress but she is too polarizing.
Think about all of the money that the GOP will raise just from the physicians that she scared the hooey out of with national health care in 1993.
HG:
My crush on McCain faded a while back, but I like him, as Republicans go, for his virtue of compromise. The greatest political progress happens at the bargaining table on middle ground among people willing to negotiate with principle. I do not McCain's courtship with the "Christian" right recently, but I do like very much his cooperation with Obama and the rest of their "gang" recently in the "nuclear option" debate over Senate judicial confirmations. I do like his moral stand against torture, but I do not like his compromise with the President which really was no compromise at all, signing statement considered.
Thus, that's why I said I may vote for him if he were to run against Clinton. Her biznatchness might too big a pill to swallow, universal healthcare to the contrary.
That's valid criticism. I hold out a bit of hope that he still values the middle ground and working, prinicipled compromises, although he is bound by the workings of his party and the Senate. I confess to some blind optimism, hoping that he may be what we think he may be.
I am with Jeff on just about everything he said. Hillary will likely get my vote unless she is running in the general agaist McCain. I like McCains because he courts compromise and is in my mind the anti-Bush/anti-Hillary. I believe that John McCain would stand against his own party when push comes to shove. I also like him because so many hardliners in his own party don't.
Mitt Romney in '08, gentlemen!
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