Why I can't support Hillary
Hillary Clinton is very smart. No one of sound mind could claim otherwise. Were she to occupy the Oval Office, she would probably bring into the administration a lot of equally smart or even smarter people, some of whom would probably have pretty good progressive credentials.
But like many smart people, Senator Clinton has blind spots. Hers are frequently of the forehead-slapping kind. Attending a fund-raiser hosted by the Neocon propaganda king Rupert Murdoch is one such of recent vintage in a long history of making bad decisions.
But that alone is not why I can't support Hillary Clinton as Democratic candidate for the 2008 Presidential election. The real reason is, plain and simple; I don't think she can win. Certainly not against John McCain, once the great centrist of the Republican party, the heir to Barry Goldwater, who despite humiliating himself in his pandering to the Republican machine and the failed Bush Presidency [check out the scene in the film "Why We Fight" when McCain interrupts his condemnation of Iraq policy to take a phone call from VP Cheney - priceless!] is likely to pull many independents and right-leaning Dems into his camp, especially if the Dems retake Congress in November.
Why don't I think Hillary can win? Because a huge swathe of the progressive base, the heart and soul of the Democratic party, including MANY women that I have talked to, feel as I do - that there's just a little too much opportunism, a little too much power-mongering, and way too much pandering towards corporate America and some imagined right-of-center contingent in the Democratic Party on the part of Hillary Clinton. And it was exactly those policies of Bill Clinton's, such as NAFTA, which rose out of the same political philosophy, that wrecked havoc here and abroad, despite his overall reasonable success as chief-of-state.
Read Molly Ivins take on the same issue here.
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4 comments:
I can't see John McCain beating her at all. He's not necessarily a shoe in for Republican nomination either. McCain may have promoted an anti-torture amendment but that doesn't a liberal or centrist make. He is very much a Republican. It would be a great mistake to fall for anti-administration noises he may have made in the past.
As for "opportunism", "power-mongering" and "pandering", how on earth else do expect anyone to get elected in the current climate? If you want to vote for either a Republican who makes the right noises (it's just noise) or for a democrat who isn't wise enough to get elected then good luck to you. A candidate who wants to effect positive changes can only do it from office, they have to get elected first. After 43 men it's time.
Her support for the war in Iraq is reason enough to say no. I consider myself a progressive. I don't consider her to be so as well. Not at heart. If you support Hillary for no better reason than the fact that she is a woman, I think you are making a mistake.
As for John McCain winning over Ms. Clinton - I still maintain that to many independent or "centrist" (I don't even know what that means anymore) voters, he is still the "unRepublican."
They may be men (sorry, Anon # 2), but I feel a hell of a lot better about Al Gore and John Edwards. Either one of 'em.
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