Friday, October 19, 2007

The Right's Best Hope Is -- The Far Left?

Instead of sticking to my boring centrist stance let me project our past and upcoming presidential elections from the Right's standpoint.

The credit for our GWB's 2000 presidential victory goes largely to Al Gore himself. He gave the election to us by distancing himself from that Bill Clinton. Of course Ralph Nader, Jeb Bush's operatives in Florida and our Republican appointed Supreme Court gave some crucial support.

But in 2004 it was Howard Dean and his enthusiastic supporters who really helped our cause by forcing Kerry to veer sharply left to counter Dean in order to win the Democratic primaries. Thereafter Kerry never recovered enough ground to win the face-off with GWB. Our Karl Rove of course brilliantly helped in painting Kerry as a flip-flopper when he tried to return to the center.

The same dynamic may work this time around. Polls may not look too bright for our 2008 hopefuls, but it's still early. Democratic polls show Hillary pulling ahead of her rivals, but the General Election polls show her in a statistical dead heat with our Rudy Giuliani. Our far left and liberal friends may again come to our aid. They already see Hillary as too much of a centrist, and our labelling her as "calculating" has influenced many impressionable women and some men.

The New York Times and Jon Stewart's Daily Show are also helping us by regularly sniping at her and promoting Barack Obama. Just look at NYT's Maureen Dowd who is one of Hillary's fiercest critics and an Obama loyalist. Among her numerous efforts here's her nice attack of September 30 which cleverly lumps Hillary with GWB, and another piece of October 10. Even Paul Krugman who's been a thorn in our side has been undermining Hillary - the man has his uses.

Obama for his part was brilliant on the Jay Leno show on October 17, lobbing carefully rehearsed barbs while making them sound spontaneous. And they think Hillary is calculating! For example when asked if Hillary had taken an insurmountable lead he correctly pointed to how the Iowa polls outcome can change everything, then added "This is not a first time a leader has declared 'Mission Accomplished' and been proven wrong." In one stroke he portrayed Hillary as overconfident and lumped her with GWB. The enthusiastic young Leno audience exploded in laughter and applause.

Of course, Hillary is actually cautious and even paranoid about the primaries, and has never said or implied that she's sure about being nominated. But Obama has learned from our Karl Rowe and Dick Cheney - don't worry too much about being factual, and you can get a lot of mileage from inaccurate implications. Useful guy, this Obama. He can either weaken Hillary so Rudy (or maybe another GOP nominee) can beat her, or if he actually secures the Democratic nomination he'll be so much easier to beat. But Shhhhh, make sure to call him a tougher opponent to encourage Democrats to vote for him.

So take heart, Republicans. An enemy's enemy is a friend. Have faith, including in the liberal and far left factions. After all, they helped the American people choose our current President a second time. Why not this time around as well?

6 comments:

kenrod said...

Hillary's problem is she's climbed up too fast. As you know, when a monkey climbs up the tree all you start seeing is the ass the higher it goes. That's what everyone sees of Hillary... her ass and weaknesses.

However, the London bookies give the Dems a 60% chance of winning the WH in '08. And the chances are Hillary and Billary will be on that ticket. Even Dick Armey, GOP speaker in the 90's, has conceded the election to her.

SandipM said...

I like strong women. So of the two things you mention "everyone sees of Hillary" I don't mind the former. :-) But knowing how you feel about Hillary - don't despair yet. Her Democratic coronation is far from assured. There's considerable capacity for poor judgement (from my view) by Democrats and the general electorate alike.

Obama made quite a speech at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner last Saturday, and the press is playing it up. I like him less the more I see of him but I don't underestimate his capacity to upset the apple cart.

Hillary hasn't helped herself the past couple of days either. I admit I was bothered by those planted questions asked in a Hillary gathering. It's not just a distateful thing to do but incredibly stupid as well, given all the adverse publicity on the subject around FEMA and Bush's press briefings. I hope she was telling the truth when she said she didn't know about it.

kenrod said...

Hillary's lead is still double digits and she's hungry. Obama doesn't want the job bad enough and it shows. But Clinton-speak is equivalent to double talk, though for that job, I don't have a big problem with that.

But to voters she will come across as sleazy. Not only for the double talk, but also the financial shenanigans. The "question planting" doesn't help that image either.

SandipM said...

Kenrod, our preferences may shape our perceptions at least as much as the other way around. You see Hillary as hungry, while I see Obama and Edwards that way, and sleazy too.

But I was turned off by the planted question episode as well, and you're right, this doesn't help her image. Edwards made a dig at her on this in the Vegas debate on 11/15. Though that fell flat, let's see if she / her staff learn enough from such mistakes.

Anonymous said...

Sandip,

How do you read Iowa? Obama won and Hillary came third? And what about the GOP? Some huckster has stolen the show? Big guns like Guiliani didn't even register? How does the Sandip pundit read the tea leaves?

And shifting to Pakistan... did Musharuf have a hand in Bhutto's assination? Either way he's damned because he's negligent or complicit. Are the nukes going to come out of the closet?
Jadra

SandipM said...

Jadra, it's your query that prompted me to respond with a full post today on Iowa.

Benazir's death is a real tragedy for all sane and moderate people. I don't think Musharraf had anything to do with her death - he is worse off with her passing away. Besides this may sound quirky but I don't think he's the type to resort to murder, particularly of a woman.

There were security lapses and incompetence that contributed to her assassination, but then it is very difficult to protect someone from determined suicide bombers. I hope the kid (Benazir's son who's now leading her Party) and even Musharraf himself stay safe.