ELLEN GOODMAN THE BOSTON GLOBE
Is Hillary right for polarized times?
April 21, 2005
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This episode began when Newt Gingrich flatly told a meeting of editors that Hillary would be the next Democratic presidential nominee. Then a New York fundraising drive called "Stop Hillary Now" sent out a letter warning darkly: "Stopping Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most important thing you and I can do as Republicans in the next two years." Next we heard about the start-up of a new political action committee dubbed simply, "Stop Her Now," since apparently there is only one "Her." And finally, we got wind of another Hillary-bashing book, "The Truth About Hillary," that the publishers compared (proudly) to the attack of the Swift boat veterans on John Kerry.
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But what I find intriguing is the common wisdom of the early handicappers that Hillary's biggest hurdle is that she is so polarizing. Those who support Hillary try to counter that fear by saying she's more of a moderate than a liberal. They point to the way she has invoked religion and evoked common ground on the abortion issue.
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I have my own list of obstacles to President Hillary Rodham Clinton before we even get to fantasizing about opponents. First, there is the Bill thing. Today we may worry more about al-Qaeda than Monica. The ex-president is now an elder statesman who shares photo ops with his new best friend George Herbert Walker Bush. But there are still a lot of folks uneasy about putting the bad boy back in the East Wing. Then too, there is the woman thing. Some 72 percent of Americans said they would vote for "a woman," but when asked if their friends would, that number drops to 49 percent. We still haven't driven a stake in the heart of the double standard.
But the one thing not on my list is the fear that Hillary is disproportionately loved and hated. Too polarizing? Were you around in 2004? Need I remind you that George W. Bush was a polarizing figure? Who won? Need I remind you that John Kerry was picked as a moderate and got demonized anyway?
Like it or not – and I don't – this is a polarized country. If you are not an extremist, you will play one on your opponents' TV ads. In the current political game, the winners just rally a few more voters around their pole. And it's likely to get worse. After all, it's only 2005, and we've already had Terri Schiavo and Tom DeLay, "Justice Sunday" and Bill Frist. And pretty soon we're due for a knock-down, drag-out Supreme Court nomination fight.
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Goodman can be reached via e-mail at ellengoodman@globe.com.
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