Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Hillary's Support

OK, riddle me this: Why is Hillary Clinton the leading Democratic candidate? As far as I can tell, few people come out in support of her. The progressives dislike her, conservative Democrats dislike her.

Here's a rather scathing article in The Nation. The Nation is way liberal.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, a mystery to me too. Although the polls show her with a significant lead so I am not sure how accurate the claims that progressives and more centrist Democrats really hate her. Sure, she has a lot of money in her war chest, but she also has the numbers.

Gonzo said...

Yes, she does have the numbers and that's plain weird considering how high her negatives have been, historically.

Now here's what's different from 2004 (and I recall discussing this with Garrett over lunch then) - In 2004 the more progressive candidate was leading (Dean) and the more moderates were trailing. Now it seems the opposite. I wonder why since the progressives are a lot more vocal now.

I don't think Hillary can win the general election, though, as independents and Republicans generally dislike her.

You know who would win a general election? Bill Richardson.....or maybe Obama in 8 years or so.

SeattleSusieQ said...

People said that about Hilary when she ran in NY (that Republicans hate her), but she has won over thousands and thousands of them in upstate NY, an area that is strongly Republican. So don't underestimate her ability to do so.

She's not my first choice - not even my 4th choice. But there are no Republicans that are currently running that I could vote for, so if she's the Democratic nominee, she'll get my vote.

Gonzo said...

NY state is not a good bellwether for the entire country ... it's always been a difficult state for the GOP. As I recall, Giuliani and Clinton were running neck and neck before he dropped out of the race in 2000.

Suze, let's be a bit honest here: You wouldn't ever vote for a Republican no matter what.

SeattleSusieQ said...

Don't YOU suggest who's being honest or not. I have voted for Republicans in the past - even WORKED for one and it tells me more about you that I don't like that you just ASSume that. The way the Republican party has acted in the last 2 decades makes it almost impossible to support any of them. But if I lived in NYC now I'd probably vote for Bloomberg. (OK, I'll give you the point that he switched from Dem to Republican so as to have a chance at the nomination, but I still would have voted for him over the actual nominee).

As for Republicans having trouble in NY - just shows how ignorant you are - again. There are strongholds for Democrats AND Republicans. *Each* party holds a house in the state legislature. Pataki was a Republican governor elected twice.

Hilary went straight to the Republican strongholds when she ran - and won those districts. That's why I say don't underestimate her. I even had a friend tell me about 2 months ago that no matter what, no matter who, he'd NEVER vote for Hilary. He HATED her. But now that he's had a chance to listen to her- and not just the slime from the right - he told me this week he'd consider voting for her, after all. (and you know this person :-))

Gonzo said...

Hey, I routinely vote for prinicpled Democrats - Sen. Bill Nelson comes to mind.

I actually like Bloomberg as well. He's done a good job keeping Rudy's reforms in place in tangent with pushing his own agenda.

Gonzo said...

I was interrupted before i could finish my thoughts on Hillary and NY.

When you say both parties have strongholds, you are correct. NYC is strongly Democratic (5-1 advantage in registered affiliations) and the rest of the state is mainly GOP. Or Liberal and Conservative Parties if you will.

I can't foresee circumstances in which I'd vote for her. She may say the right things but her entire history is own of political expediency and opportunism so how can one know if she's sincere?

There was a somewhat credible story of her worrying about being upstaged by Schumer in showing concern to the 9/11 victims. If I can find it, I'll post it and the lack of humanity will scare you.

Also, as to what she says, the message seems to change according to the audience. So everyone hears what they wanted to hear.

I really think Giuliani would have won in 2000 if he hadn't dropped out: Lazio was a lightweight.