Hillary In Free Fall
November 8, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-commanding lead in New Hampshire has been slashed - a sign that the simmering driver's-license controversy may have bled into the critical first-primary state, a new poll shows.
Clinton leads top Democratic rival Barack Obama by only 10 percentage points - 34 to 24 - in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll, her smallest edge of the season. John Edwards comes in third, at 15 percent.
A month ago, Clinton had a 23-point lead in the same survey. [A 57% DROP!]
Last week, before Clinton stumbled in a Democratic presidential debate over Gov. Spitzer's plan to let illegal immigrants get driver's licenses, she led by 16 percent.
The survey also revealed that 66 percent of Democrats are against letting illegal immigrants get driver's licenses, with only 19 percent supporting the idea, an indication that Clinton's positive - but severely hedged - stance won't sell well in the Granite State.
Bill Clinton, speaking in Chicago yesterday, shifted his comments to warn about "swift boat" attacks from Republicans - rather than from fellow Democrats - after getting slammed by Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd for "over the top" criticism of his wife's rivals.
"I thought it made all the Democrats vulnerable to a 'swift boat' kind of ad in the general election," the ex-president told reporters after a rally.
Also, a new survey in Iowa shows Clinton's lead dipping to just 3 points. She leads Obama, 28-25 percent, with Edwards at 21.
HILLARY'S COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF PROBLEM
Mia T, 10.02.05
"It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem." (G. K. Chesterton)
While America appears not to be ready for a female president under any circumstances, the post-9/11 realities pose special problems for a female presidential candidate. Add to these the problems unique to missus clinton. The reviews make the mistake of focusing on the problems of the generic female presidential candidate running during ordinary times.
These are not ordinary times. America is waging the global War on Terror; the uncharted territory of asymmetric netherworlds is the battlefield; the enemy is brutal, subhuman; the threat of global conflagration is real.
Defeating the enemy isn't sufficient. For America to prevail, she must also defeat a retrograde, misogynous mindset. To successfully prosecute the War on Terror, it is essential that the collective patriarchal islamic culture perceives America as politically and militarily strong. This requirement presents an insurmountable hurdle for any female presidential candidate, and especially missus clinton, historically anti-military--(an image, incidentally, that is only enhanced today by her clumsy, termagant parody of Thatcher), forever the pitiful victim, and, according to Dick Morris, "the biggest dove in the clinton administration."
It is ironic that had the clintons not failed utterly to fight terrorism... not failed to take bin Laden from Sudan... not failed repeatedly to decapitate a nascent, still stoppable al Qaeda... the generic female president as a construct would still be viable... missus clinton's obstacles would be limited largely to standard-issue clintonisms: corruption, abuse, malpractice, malfeasance, megalomania, rape and treason... and, in spite of Juanita Broaddrick, or perhaps because of her, Rod Lurie would be reduced to perversely hawking the "First Gentleman" instead of the "Commander-in-Chief."