Mark Steyn on Hillary...

Steyn has an excellent analysis of why Hillary Clinton controls her own destiny in her pursuit of the 2008 Democrat Nomination: she's the only one "who can get away with ignoring the loopy demands of the party's base". Unlike Kerry who was forced into an unwinnable position on Iraq by the Soros/Moore-led Left, the Senator from New York can pretend to tack to the center and not suffer the wrath of the party activists.

Steyn also floats the idea that a Rodham Clinton Presidency need not cause utter panic to spread through the ranks of the GOP. He explains:

The distinguishing characteristic (as Paula Jones would say) of the Clintons' Democratic Party is that it was swell for the Clintons, disastrous for the Democratic Party: throughout the 1990s, the Democrats lost everything - Congress, state legislatures, governors' mansions, tumbling to their smallest share of elected offices since the 1920s. But somehow Bill and Hill were always the lone exceptions that proved the rule. There is no reason to believe the Clintons' amazing historical immunity to their party's remorseless decay will not continue.

Could a second Clinton Presidency, thwarted by a Republican majority in Congress, be as beneficial to the GOP has the first one was? Perhaps. But I for one prefer not find out. Hillary needs to be taken seriously in 2008 because even disgruntled Democrats will find enough reason to unite behind her - even if they disagree with some of her public positions. This will perhaps be the Democrats' last best chance to take back the White House for some time with the Red and Blue States heading in opposite directions in terms of electoral vote strength. And Hillary will seen as the party's savior:

For the last decade the Democratic Party's been a Frankenstein monster only the Clintons can jolt into life. In 2004, Michael Moore and co shot the corpse full of juice and still couldn't jump-start it. Six months after the election, new chairman Howard Dean's supposed "revitalization" of the party is already a bust. Hillary's the warrior queen on a field of corpses, and in today's Democratic Party that's more than enough.

Update: Sully weighs in.

It's too early, of course, to say anything with much conviction about the future. But you can confidently say that Hillary has prepared herself with a discipline and intelligence that has prompted some of her critics, including me, to take another look. She has the money, she has the beginnings of a centrist appeal, she'll have a Democratic party desperate to win back the White House. Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton?

In the strange nepotism that has always bedevilled American politics weirder things have happened.

While I think Sullivan overestimates her appeal to Republicans, his assessment pretty much mirrors Steyn's.

Posted by: Gary at 12:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 464 words, total size 3 kb.