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June 23, 2005
Will a Book Sink Hillary Clinton?
A new book entitled The Truth About Hillary Clinton is being breathlessly promoted in conservative circles as the book that will do to the Senator's presidential hopes what Unfit For Command did to John Kerry's presidential bid.
Peggy Noonan has a column today on Opinion Journal that pretty much confirms what I already suspected about the book: it doesn't live up to the hype.
Noonan, who wrote the book The Case Against Hillary Clinton, could be considered somewhat of an authority on the Senator. In addition, she is an astute political observer who understands that it will take far more than a so-called expose to undermine the Senator's presidential hopes.
Unlike John Kerry, Hillary Clinton is a known quantity after serving as First Lady for eight years and the junior Senator from New York for six years. The electorate already has strong opinions either for or against her. Democrats, anxious to regain the White House, will be willing to rally around her. Although she has recently tried to paint herself as more of a centrist, she has very liberal views that will play well to the Democratic base.
If Republicans are serious about thwarting Senator Clinton's presidential ambitions, they need to first pick a serious candidate to oppose her. In order to retain the White House, the GOP will have to mount a sustained campaign against whoever is the Democratic nominee.
Unfit For Command did help defeat John Kerry. However, John Kerry helped defeat John Kerry more than anyone else did. Conservatives should not expect one book to be enough to defeat Senator Clinton. She is a far more formidable opponent than John Kerry was. If they expect to win, they better be prepared for a difficult fight.
Posted by Tom at June 23, 2005 04:55 PM
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I'm disappointed that the newest addition to SCO has chosen politically partisan slander as his first topic of discussion instead of anything remotely religious or at least apolitical. Promoting Christianity, after all, is supposed to be what SCO is all about. Instead, Tom advertises a book that disappoints him because it isn't apparently as vicious as the Swift Boaters' mendacious, unsubstantiated accusations about John Kerry's conduct.
John Kerry isn't perfect and he certainly isn't a good communicator. But you seem to hate him simply because he is a Democrat. George Bush never demonstrated he completed his service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. And unlike the men who served with Kerry, not a single credible person stepped forward to claim he had served with Bush during the time in question. Sometimes it seems like Bush's appeal to evangelicals is derived from the mere fact that he is a Republican and because the act of invoking God to justify his policies is supposed to make him a good Christian. I guess his support for the death penalty and his forcing us into a war of choice instead of a war of necessity is superceded by his stance on abortion. I'm sure that is comforting to our brave soldiers who don't share his religious convictions.
This site is veering further away from any semblance of a Biblical calling and closer every day to being just another outlet for political mudslinging from the right. I hope you enjoy the influence the religious right has in contemporary politics. I predict it will wane in a few years. At that time I think you will realize unnecessary partisan mudslinging has led to the discrediting of your movement. And that is too bad because I think Christians and the secular left share a lot of the same goals, such as helping the less fortunate and helping our country embrace the moral vision in which it was founded. It would be encouraging to see bloggers at this site devote more energy to promoting those goals. But it is your site after all, and I am just a visitor.
Posted by: dem at June 23, 2005 10:44 PM
Tom, meet dem.
Welcome aboard ;-)
Posted by: Rick Brady at June 23, 2005 11:12 PM
You're right, dem. I'm a hard-core republican, but I don't care for partisan bickering. Unfortunately, partisan bickering is all I've seen here lately, which is why my visits are becoming more and more rare. But it brings others in, I guess. Rick and Tom are just doing what's popular.
Posted by: karl at June 24, 2005 02:46 PM