The Looming Hillary Debacle - Democratic Underground

Parisle

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Sun Aug-20-06 06:35 PM
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The Looming Hillary Debacle

----The Democrats appear poised to do it yet again,... blow an election by forgetting against whom they are running. Nominating Hillary Clinton for the 2008 presidential election will accomplish that. Not that I have anything against Sen. Clinton,.. in fact, I kind of like her. But the 2008 election is going to be one of the most important in the nation's history,... too important to gamble on the political/sociological experiment of running the first woman presidential candidate in the nation's history. Save that for a time when the first woman candidate can be bidding to succeed a 2-term president from the same party. Why, it would even be nice to see about 25 years' experience in government in the first female nominee,... you know,... Congess,.. governorship,..that sort of thing. And less baggage. Hillary? Uh-uh.

----Hillary's "frontrunner" status in the Democratic party means absolutely nothing in the general election. There is a vast difference between a nominating process which turns on party mechanics and intra-party "pull," .... and one which more closely resembles a shrewd marketing strategy. And while at this stage of the process, name recognition and intra-party machinations may be the key to the nomination, they won't win the election. The democrats first need to come up with a couple of countervailing ideas with which to do more than merely "rebut," but also to undermine the republican playbook... Ideas with some "bite" to them,... which can be stated simply,.. and which directly address traditional Democratic weaknesses at the polls. Once this is done, then a ticket consisting of some combination of Edwards, Clark, Warner, possibly Gore, etc., can be picked to carry the ball. But you have to have "the ball" first.

----The ideas needed by the democrats may be strategically thought of as initiatives which put the republicans in their own weakest positions. For example,... shut the hell up about gun control. In fact, do this: In the 2007 Congress, launch a legislative initiative which stipulates that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES may an administration do anything to undercut or suspend 2nd amendment firearm rights. If there is any substance to those "martial law" stories, then this will be a difficult one for the Bush administration to agree to. Fine. Put them in the position of having to vote against it. The NRA oughta find that interesting.

----Here's one which will truly capture the public imagination and sentiment, but it will take some guts (and other organs) to do it. How about a bill proposing an across-the-board 10% reduction in all federal pensions, and a "stay" on federal salary increases? Hell,.. we already know that the electorate doesn't think congress or the government in general is doing its job. Who knows if it will pass? PROPOSE IT! Make the republicans look bad. That's the whole point. Catching on, yet? This may be a drop in the bucket,.... but it plays well on Mainstreet.

----Come down hard on "offshoring" of tax liabilities. I know you get your money from the same people as the republicans, but the people hate this, so you've got to hate it, too? Is that so hard to grasp?

----Security, terrorism, all that crap: You can't win by saying you won't be any worse than the republicans. You've got to show that you are better. (pay attention here) And you will be "better" because the US will once again have "allies" after the neocons are pushed out. Friends. International cooperation AGAINST terrorism,.. Go with it.

----There are a few more I'd like to add to this list,... but this post is getting rather long,.. and its point was really to say that a party popularity contest was the quickest way to lose the election,..... and by extension, that an analysis of the GOP record makes it fairly easy to offer America what it's been missing. But please,... no mealy-mouthed generalities.