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Monday, October 22, 2007

Hillary Clinton, the Bogeywoman

posted by on October 22 at 8:54 AM

Why—as demonstrated by the 34 shout outs she got last night at the GOP debate—are the Republicans obsessing over Hillary Clinton?

Is it because her impressive campaign machine, her command of the issues, and her willingness to punch back scare the hell out of them?

Or it because she galvanizes Republican voters like no other Democratic candidate, and so they’re dying to take her on next year?

The Carpetbagger Report takes up the question here.

RSS icon Comments

1

Anybody that makes Republicans shit their pants is all right in my book.

Posted by Greg | October 22, 2007 9:00 AM
2

Don't look in the briar patch!

Posted by Brer Rabbit | October 22, 2007 9:04 AM
3

Some young Republicans plan on protesting her today outside Benaroya: http://www.movered.org. I guess they decided that would be a better way to support the troops than enlisting.

Posted by lorax | October 22, 2007 9:10 AM
4

Some feel like she'll win no matter what, for reasons that have been stated and assumed again and again. Some believe she'll lose. Some are okay with her winning, because they think she'll fuck everything up (even more). All of them believe she, and Obama, and any other democrat, is wrong on practically everything, because 99.9% of the Republican party is closed-minded. Kind of like our party. Only we're right.

But from what I've heard via my right-wing friends basically revolves around her fucking-everything-up.

Especially when it comes to health care. In their eyes, they see being pro free health care as saying that kids whose moms are whores and don't know who their dad is should get free health care so they can live to spawn more fatherless households. Old people need it to be free so that they can spend even more of their "socialism security" checks at the casino. And a government run system would be just so much more efficient at finding cures to diseases (they can take credit for 4% of all the cures so far, blah blah blah). And they honestly do believe that free health care will fuck everything up. Everything.

Republicans are funny. They want a Dem to take office and screw up big time. They need that. Bad.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 22, 2007 9:11 AM
5

@4 - Except she's no longer pro free health care; she's pro insurance company, just like all the Dems.

Not that I expect most R voters to understand the distinction, or even bother to figure out what her position now might be, rather than assuming it's exactly the same as it was in 1993, but still.

Posted by Levislade | October 22, 2007 9:21 AM
6

"One thing was telling, though. Fox News’ Chris Wallace confronted several of the top candidates with recent poll numbers, and each trailed Clinton in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups. Not one of those asked — Romney, Giuliani, McCain — could explain why Clinton is beating them, and what they’d do to win."

Ummmmmmmmmm. Deeply satisfying....

Posted by Big Sven | October 22, 2007 9:22 AM
7

@4: The problem with that hope, of course, is that there probably isn't anybody who could fuck things up as badly as BushCorp. has done already.

Posted by Greg | October 22, 2007 9:22 AM
8

@5

True; but they don't have much to argue with right now, anyway. So they'll take whatever dirt they can and drive it to the extreme to sound like they have a point. They can't say much without Bush's actions being shot right in their face.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 22, 2007 9:24 AM
9

I agree that the GOP hopes that Hillary will galvinze their base since the right hated Hillary far more than her husband.

It will be interesting to see if the left will be as galvanized in showing up to the polls in November after going through a two year campaign where everyone is going to be sick to death of the politicing. That is going to be the real challenge for Hillary: not the GOP. And we have learned the GOP only needs to make the election really close, close enough to steal the rest of the votes they need.

Posted by Just Me | October 22, 2007 9:29 AM
10

C'mon, it's the Republicans. They are propping up Hillary as the heir apparent because they are afraid of her.

It's reverse psychology. They are propping her up because they think Democrat voters will think the reason is because she's the only beatable one in the general election and it's really Edwards/Obama that they are afraid of. By making Demcorat voters think they want her as an opponent, perhaps voters will think twice about nominating her.

But, face it. Clinton is the most intelligent, prepared, professional, and CONSERVATIVE candidate in the Democratic field. The Republicans are terrified of her.

Posted by Mahtli69 | October 22, 2007 9:30 AM
11

The reason they all bash her at every opportunity is because they know their base. Redneck macho barely-literate rubes that still think America Should Kick Ass everywhere. These people were taught to be afraid of The Commies since they were wee litte honkies, and the right has done a very good job of connecting HRC to socialism.

So all they have to do is say, "HILLARY! OOOOOO!!!!" and these dumbfucks will vote for whomever is running against her.

Their strategy is to make it close enough to cheat, just like they did in 2000 & 2004.

Posted by Mike in MO | October 22, 2007 9:32 AM
12

Mr. Poe is a liberal? Jesus.

Posted by Kiru Banzai | October 22, 2007 10:46 AM
13

Read "A Woman in Charge." Hillary was the one who finally said "fuck 'em [the right wing attack machine], let's start attacking Ken Star" which ultimately led to the defeat of the biggest right wing smear job ever, the impeachment of Bill. Who had higher approval ratings than the impeachers did.

That's what we need now.

Democrats who attack and fight the right wing.

Obama can't even figure out how to attack Hillary. Edwards, the same.

Republicans are focusing on Senator Clinton simply because she is going to win, she's thirty points ahead in the polls, and like always, they attack early and bitterly. Kerry let them make him his bitch by not responding.

Hillary won't let that happen.

Posted by unPC | October 22, 2007 10:50 AM
14

I don't like Hillary Clinton's center-right politics (for example, she's always been in favor of insurance-controlled health care and war in the Middle East), but I keep finding myself defending her against attacks from both conservatives and liberals.

She really is the smartest, most capable, most experienced, and most personally appealing of the Democratic candidates. While she's had some bad votes in Congress, so have most of her rivals in the Senate.

It's the issues where she's bad for progressives, but even that is often overplayed by her liberal opponents. She's not more conservative on her position on the war (Dodd, Biden, and Edwards voted for it too and none will end the war outright) or civil liberties (everyone in a position to vote except Kucinich voted for USA-PATRIOT and its 2005 extension, voted against confirming AG Gonzales, and voted against surveillance legislation). She did vote for Kyl-Lieberman recently, but that's the only time I can think of where she was significantly worse than her rivals. If you want someone who is progressive on the issues, vote for Kucinich. If you want someone who is running as a progressive despite a moderate record, vote Edwards. If you only care about the war, Richardson is a defensible vote because he wants out now and has more foreign policy credibility than anyone else.

But aside from that? Hillary's got some uninspired, Clintonian advisors that are the same sort that ruined Bill's presidency. There's the whole Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton thing. And that's it.

As for someone who will kick right-wing ass and not put up with their bullshit? She's top of the list. So even with all the negatives, there are good reasons to support her candidacy.

Posted by Cascadian | October 22, 2007 12:02 PM

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