Hillary: “flailing?”
The problem that began for Hillary Clinton in the debate a week ago seems to be lingering on. According to Yuval Levin at The Corner and Mickey Kaus at Slate, the issue is not so much her position on the issue itself—licenses for illegal aliens—as what the incident and her subsequent behavior reveals about her personality.
Kaus describes her as “flailing,” not a good image for someone who wants to convince us she’s made of Presidential timber. And Levin describes her campaign as “panicked.”
Although both statements contain a bit of hyperbole, I agree that Hillary is showing traits that are counterproductive to the image she wishes to project: firm, unflappable, cerebral; a cool head in a crisis. I’m not a Hillary hater, although back in my liberal Democrat days I was only a lukewarm Clinton supporter at best. There was just something too slick and smarmy about him, too laserlike about her.
I agree with Kaus that Hillary would do best to take a stand, then quit fussing with the subject and move on. The current brouhaha is not all that important except as a revealer of character. It shows her as a person who is more easily flustered than we may have thought.
I’ve said before that I’m already very tired of this election, and we’ve still got a year to go. But one benefit of the incredibly lengthy Presidential campaign process these days is that it takes stamina on the part of the candidates, and over time it continues to reveal character. Stamina is a trait that’s very much needed in a President, and character issues are vital in evaluating how a person would perform in that terribly pressured role.
The campaign marathon may seem endless already, but it’s really just getting going. We’re nowhere near Heartbreak Hill yet, but we’re learning more and more about the toughness of the participants.
Toughness is an odd trait. We all need a certain amount of it, and Presidents need far more than most. Too much qualifies as ruthlessness and coldness, too little as weakness. But no one ever said running for President was easy.
I think Hillary’s biggest drawback is her nictitating membrane. Totally off-putting.
Reptiles do not adapt to cold weather, and neither does Hillary. Adaptablility in all conditions is an important trait for a President.
Though Hillary’s stamina is formidable, I believe her top flight campaign operatives enable her to move forward with a minimum of strain. Therefore, I credit her stamina less than I otherwise might. Hillary’s people are experts at running a campaign. They know how to care for a candidate’s needs.
Not one wit of a surprise. Absolutely none. She isnt fooling the hardcore left either. She may be more closely aligned with the left, but they cant trust her to maintain a conviction in the face of polling numbers anymore than I would.
Her husband was so much better at the “triangulation thing”. Either that, or we’ve all just grown too familiar with the old Clintonite bait & switch.
Its going to be a lot harder to hide what your really about with the electorate. That got to be frustrating.
Hillary thinks of herself as royalty in American politics and is above being critized. She said, this is a game of “got ya.” She was got and was pinned down trying to give two different answers to the same question. If she is nominated 2008 for the Democrats it will look similiar to 1984 when they ran Walter Mondale.
James Carville said early in the year “that the good news for the Democrats is the only way they can lose the election is if they talk their way out of it: the good news for the Republicans is that Democrats are certainly capable of doing it.” So far it looks like they are!
Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana
I agree with Kaus that Hillary would do best to take a stand, then quit fussing with the subject and move on. The current brouhaha is not all that important except as a revealer of character. It shows her as a person who is more easily flustered than we may have thought.
Why is it that it’s imperative that Hillary take an immediate stand on this issue, and that her failure to do so reflects poorly on her character, yet Bush gets a free ride for failing to have even a clue about such things as the legal status of security contractors in Iraq?
As much as I’d like to see a woman president, I don’t trust Hillary as far as I can throw her.