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April 12, 2005

Clinton Not Subtle, But Not Inept

Via Michelle Malkin, read this article at Red State about Hillary Clinton and her political ineptitude

Hillary’s movement is a big deal first and foremost because everybody notices her movement. Frist and others do not get noticed because, while one can identify their political movements (only through systematic evaluation of their voting records), their positioning is more subtle. But not Hillary’s. There is nothing subtle about her strategic positioning. Not a thing. Everybody talks about Hillary’s political calculations not because they are brilliant but because they are obvious, because everything about Hillary screams political calculation. There is nothing organic to her politics, it all seems artificial.

This is the sign of a bad politician. All politicians do the same things. They all change their views. They all move with the political currents. They are all flexible and pragmatic. What differentiates the good politician from the bad one is that you never notice that the good one is pragmatic. A good politician is as smooth as a well-aged, single malt scotch. Hillary is a bad politician. She is like that bottom shelf blended garbage the ABC sells for $12/handle.

Basically the idea is that Clinton is so unsubtle about her moderate moves, people to see her as a political opportunist rather than a trusted champion and this makes her a bad politician.

It’s an interesting point and one I’m glad has been pointed out. It’s quite true that most people who are involved in politics and news aren’t really unsure of her motivations, and I’m certainly one of them.

However, I hope that no one dismisses her as easily beaten because of it. To me, her actions seem similar to that of a good con artist – rather than sneak around hoping no one sees you, go about your task boldly and openly, hoping that everyone assumes that since you look like you’re supposed to be there, you are. This road she’s taking seems like it could succeed for three reasons.

First, while she may not be moderating herself early in her career, she’s doing it far enough ahead of time that while many of your typical partially informed to uninformed voters in 2008 may realize that she’s been gunning for the presidency for a long time, most of them are not really going to remember what her views were then. People are really good at forgetting things when they haven’t heard much about them lately.

Which brings us to the second point, the media is pretty favorable towards her and will probably continue to be in the future. With stories I’ve been reading recently, it’s easy to see that while reports of Hillary’s presidential run and moderation are wide-spread, there is not so much information about the huge disparity between her now and her 10 years ago. No one is writing stories calling her on political changes in opinion. Why would they even have to? The media sees it as so obvious that it would be like reporting that the sky is blue. Voters aren’t going to stay focused on her flip-flopping if the media isn’t.

Finally, Hillary is not going to have so much of a problem with losing far-left voters as other Democrats have. Not only are Democrats pretty desperate to get one of theirs into office, but the fact that Hillary is so obvious about her moderation means that few people in her own party are calling her on her political changes of opinion. Instead they are saying behind their hands, “Yeah, Hillary, go ahead and tell the people what they want to hear, but we know what you’ll REALLY do for us once you get in office.” Again, this prevents debate on her flip-flopping from getting into the media.

Conservatives aren’t afraid of her because she’s a good politician, they’re afraid of her because she could win.


(Check out the Hillary Watch catagory for more stuff Hillary Clinton has been up to.)

UNCoRRELATED has more.

Michael Williams thinks Clinton has no chance of winning.

Posted by illuminaria at April 12, 2005 05:05 PM

Comments

I think we've all mellowed with/toward the Clintons. They called Ronald Reagan the "Teflon" president. I think some of that stuff rubbed off on Hill & Bill. (Slaps himself in the face) I'm even kinda fond of them... (more slaps) ... as I mention in my blog entry, they are HUMAN, or at least present that quality to the public, and if HRC wins the post of Commander-in-Chief, taht quality will be WHY.

Posted by: Dave Lucas at April 12, 2005 08:39 PM

Hillie is following the tried and true tactics that "His Willieness" used so adroitly all through his career. I have followed the excellent adventures of Bill&Hill since the early '80s. Always act as if you are doing what you have always done, even when it is diametrically opposed to everything you have ever done. And do it with dash and flair. That always gets you extra points! Hillary is quite skilled politically, and that is a part of what she is doing now, smoke screening, the old rope-a-dope. Everybody watch my left hand(while my right hand beatch slaps you),She ain't no hick from Ar-kansas. Those years in exile only served to sharpen her talons. Now she is in the game for blood, and too many people are discounting her ability.

Posted by: 2Hotel9 at April 13, 2005 09:08 PM

Thanks for the link!

The thing to keep in mind is that even though people may not remember what Hillary was like in 1993, we've got video and audio recordings. The net will allow them to be spread, plus talk radio and all the usual bastions of conservatism. The past can't remain hidden, and I don't forsee her disavowing her past explicitly.

Posted by: Michael Williams at April 19, 2005 12:50 PM