Hillary's problem is one any female candidate would have, traditionalist voters who tend to swing elections will have a hard time seeing her as commander in chief, especially if they can pick McCain instead, who is easy to imagine as commander in chief, even he is wrong about Iraq.
Since I want the democrat to win in 2008, I am also hoping she is not our standard-bearer, because though she has tried to de-polarize herself, she can't help but be someone 45% of the country are going to intensely dislike. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the rightwing smear campaign against her, or the fact that she let her husband cheat on her. Whatever the case, it's hard enough for any woman to win, but she doesn't seem to me to be the best woman to crack that glass ceiling. Not her, not yet, and not when dems have such a good chance of winning. I am afraid Hillary would be far too vulnerable. It also goes back to that commander in chief issue. Can you see her commanding our military? I can't.
This is why I am defying conventional wisdom and expecting Gore, Kerry or Biden to end up the nominee. If Gore runs, I think he's got it and can win. Otherwise, Kerry, and there is nothing wrong with Kerry as a candidate. The fact that the Bushies and smearvets wounded him with lies and dishonest TV ads in 2004 raises concern, but there is no way they can repeat those kind of attacks. All the smearvets charges have been discredited so the MSM won't touch them, and "weak on defense" would be a laugher after how badly Bush-Cheney blew it in Iraq. |
