In Defense Of: Hillary Clinton

Posted by Joe Rivett on 08.21.2007

In this column I will tell you why I like Hillary, why she will win the primary, and why she will be the next president... Why else would Sean Hannity hate her so much?

It seems like everyone has a beef with Hillary Clinton. Even 411s mostly left leaning editor Jason Easley doesn't like her. I checked out the primary polls Jason put up for week 5 and Hillary hasn't received even one vote (This was Sunday night). Apparently last week was her best showing with 13% of 411 readers supporting her. Call me crazy, but I like Hillary Clinton.

I like that she is experienced. I don't want someone that has been in the senate for a couple of years. What is the deal with Obama anyway? What has he proposed that runs totally counter to Hillary Clinton on a substantial level? If Obama or Clinton becomes president, they will both represent a major change from George W. Bush.

So she takes money from lobbyists. My mother is a lobbyist. She lobbies for people with a mental illness to have Medicaid cover their treatment. Not every lobbyist represents an evil corporation or industry.

She has the most experience just being a First Lady. Most nights, she slept with the president (Note how I said most nights) and probably had lots of dinner conversations. I'm sure she learned what to do and what not to do from her hubby. Hell, my wife is a French teacher and by being with her everyday, I learn a lot about how to teach a foreign language.

She witnessed first hand how a war is run. She witnessed first hand how a policy can fail. She witnessed first hand what it is like to deal with Republicans attacking on a daily basis. I don't buy that she just picked out the state dinner menus. She was active and by default had to learn a lot about the job.

In addition to being a first lady, she is also a two term senator. She is the first New York Senator to put herself on the armed services committee. This shows that she wanted to learn about the armed services, war, and general military strategy in anticipation of becoming president, not to mention New York has a lot of military bases. Being on this committee gives her the experience necessary to be commander in chief.

Hillary also witnessed first hand how to run a state during her Arkansas days. She also isn't an idiot as she has a law degree.

Her voting record in the senate has been left-center. Interestingly enough, that is where most of America is right now. Her voting record is more moderate and non-divisive than Obama's liberal record.

It seems everyone claims that she is too calculated in her voting. I say "so what". It is called political science for a reason. It is a science to figure out how your positions are going to reach the median voter. If you are too far to the left, you can't win and if you are too far to the right, you can't win, (Especially, in a national election, if you're a leftist in Vermont or a rightist in Idaho, you'll do fine.) Very rarely does any politician vote their conscience 100% of the time.

The more common critique of Hillary that I hear all the time is that she can't win. Even our good buddy Karl Rove thinks that her negatives are historically too high. Here is a snipet of what Rove had to say on Rush Limbaugh's show…

"Look, she is who she is," Mr. Rove said on Mr. Limbaugh's syndicated program. "There is no front-runner who has entered the primary season with negatives as high as she has in the history of modern polling.
"She's going into the general election with, depending on what poll you look at, in the high 40s on the negative side and just below that on the positive side. And there's nobody who has ever won the presidency who started out in that kind of position."

She has high negatives for two reasons…

1. Everyone knows her.
2. Everyone really doesn't know her that well.
3. Kool-Aid Republicans will never like her no matter what she does.

I would like to focus on points one and two.

It is easier to hate someone you know. I'm sure most Americans would hate Mike Gravel if he was the nominee but not enough people know him in order to hate him. Negatives can also change instantly. For instance, after John Kerry became the nominee, he wasn't hated. But over time, people saw him flip flop, give uninspiring speeches, reviewed his voting record, get swiftboated, etc. Soon, his negatives took off and Bush finished him off.

One advantage Hillary has is that we know her baggage. Nothing is going to come out that will totally shock us. I mean Sean Hannity has already accused her of murder and there is a book claiming she's a lesbian. Despite that, she is still the frontrunner. But we don't know much about Obama or Richardson. I'm sure they have done some things or supported some things in their past that would increase their negatives. Hillary has been through the Republican make-shit-up hate machine. She knows how to respond.

Susan Estrich of Fox News wrote a book not long ago entitled "The Case for Hillary Clinton." In her latest column she asks the question: What has Hillary done wrong? I can't think of anything dumb she has done in THIS campaign. Here is what some others have done…

1. Obama – Meeting with enemies his first year and allowing his inexperience to be questioned.
2. Edwards – Having his wife make more headlines and $400 hair cuts.
3. Richardson – Sucked on Meet the Press
4. Rudy – Claimed he worked as hard as relief workers during 9/11, can't even count on his daughter to vote for him.
5. Romney – Favorite book is by L. Ron Hubbard, Doubling Guantanamo, Saying his children's work on the campaign is just as important as fighting in Iraq.
6. Fred Thompson – Had to fire three campaign managers.
7. John McCain – Has less money on hand than Ron Paul.

What has Hillary done wrong? She has now taken the lead in Iowa, a state that John Edwards used to poll strong. She is beating Obama by over 20%, largely with the help of the black community.

In head to head matchups vs. Giuliani she wins hands down. In a hypothetical matchup, I can't see how she loses to Rudy.

On Iraq – Hillary is with most Americans
On Health Care – Hillary is with most Americans

These are going to be the two major issues of the campaign and I don't see how Rudy's positions which amount to a semi-pro-choice Bushie are going to let him win. I don't think Rudy playing the 9/11 card will work because Hillary has dealt with terrorism and intelligence while Rudy was at the place of an attack and then his term was over. Once Rudy left politics, he made money. He didn't take on a job that would have given him experience. At least Edwards opened up a poverty think-tank and made many foreign visits to educate himself.

Karl Rove doesn't understand the Clintons. Karl Rove never had to beat the Clintons. Karl Rove can run over weak Democrats like Gore and Kerry but Hillary's best attribute is that she does not wait for Republicans to attack her, rather she goes out on the attack. The second Obama made a potential gaffe, she was all over it. She will use negative campaigning. She will not play nice and that's why I like her. I could never vote for John Kerry because he seemed like he couldn't defend himself which meant he couldn't defend the country. Hillary will not have this problem.

Is Hillary polarizing? Yes. Our politics is polarized. No matter who the Democratic nominee is, the other side is going to hate the nominee. Don't kid yourself Obama fans, Republicans aren't going to vote for him and Independents might be scared of his inexperience during a time of war and uncertainty.

Ask yourself this, why does Sean Hannity fear Hillary Clinton if she has a more moderate voting record than Obama or Edwards? He fears her because he knows the Clintons know how to win. He knows how miserable the Clintons made life like for Republicans. Plus, he knows Hillary will mean better ratings for his talk-show.

The Republican primary is forcing Republicans to move further to the Right than Bush, a man with a 30% approval rating. For the Democrats that don't like Hillary, they will still vote for her over a candidate who amounts to "Bush on steroids." Hillary will win the primary, win the presidency, and believe it or not, she'll represent change. I bet even Jason who has a NEGATIVE opinion will vote for her.