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Statist self delusion

· North American affairs

One way to guarantee Bush’s reelection.

June 30th, 2004 |

22 comments to Statist self delusion

  • Roger Nelson
    June 30, 2004 at 6:13 pm

    Osama bin Laden has guaranteed Dubya’s re-election already. Surely he can’t lose?

    Hillary Clinton knows this – that’s why she’s keeping her challenge for 2008, when I predict she’ll become the first female president.

    The country will truly be sick of war (or overseas peacekeeping) by then and a mantra of “Healthcare not war fare” will appeal.

  • Julian Morrison
    June 30, 2004 at 6:20 pm

    I doubt Kelly would be so stupid. Pick a running mate whom everyone knows, and at least half the country hates with a flaming passion? He’d have to be nuts, he’d deserve to lose from sheer incompetence alone.

  • telcontar
    June 30, 2004 at 7:22 pm

    Sen. Clinton will appeal mainly to a bloc of voters that Kerry already has: women. Kerry needs a masculine running mate; he is weak on defense.

  • bdb
    June 30, 2004 at 7:41 pm

    Karl Rove: “Let’s spend the $200 million on t.v. ads with Shillary saying ‘We will take all your money away.'”

  • Conspiracy Andy
    June 30, 2004 at 8:08 pm

    There’s no way in hell Hillary will be Kerry’s running mate. She wants to be president in 2008 and if she runs with Kerry in 04 (and he wins), that means her bid to be prez will be put off til 2012.

    Why do you think that the Clintons are doing everything they can to distract attention away from Kerry? (like Clinton’s book coming out THIS summer?) And how did the golden boy Dean fall from grace so quickly?

    (excuse me while I go look for black helicopters now)

  • david
    June 30, 2004 at 8:12 pm

    Yea thats going to get a lot of redneck votes in Alabama 🙂

  • MHallex
    June 30, 2004 at 8:16 pm

    Hillary as a running mate starts up the anti-Clinton machine. Plenty of resentment directed against her, and honestly, I think its a black mark that we elected her here in New York…

    I dont think that this is something that would scare the average voter. Honestly, who doesnt enjoy the populist thrill of “lets screw the rich, and up with us middle class folks!”

    Property rights is one of those dull topics, getting at those fat cats(who, as we know, are all evil and have inherited or exploited their way to the top) is fun for the whole family.

    Gephardt could be a decent VP, if only to try to get support in rust belt swing states, Michigan for instance.

    Clark perhaps, military record is a good selling point plus hes from the south.

  • Lexington Green
    June 30, 2004 at 9:00 pm

    I am total disagreement with this post and most of the comments.

    Hillary as a running mate would be a powerful boost for Kerry. The swing voters in this very polarized election are suburban women who don’t follow politics and who decide late whom to vote for. Hillary as a female will pick up votes in this critical category. She has been tougher on Iraq than Kerry, so she adds strength there, she talks centrist (most of the time), which will help, while at the same time being a proven and trusted commodity to the liberal core of the party. She has universal name recognition and she is reasonably popular. She is a decent public speaker, and she is a hard worker. To the extent the anti-Clintonism of the right is stoked up, that too helps Kerry since moderate voters liked Bill Clinton and recoiled from the attacks made on him and punished those who attacked him.

    I greatly fear this combination. It could doom Bush.

    Don’t, ever, ever, ever under-estimate the Clintons.

  • flaime
    June 30, 2004 at 9:06 pm

    Hillary would be a victory for the vast right wing agenda. She is as much an authoritarian free marketeer as Bush is. She just supports abortion.

  • Ivan Kirigin
    June 30, 2004 at 9:12 pm

    Cheney is too old to run in 2008 after Bush wins.

    I want to see a Rice vs. Hillary in 2008. Or maybe Powel, or McCain. Anyone but Hillary.

    Either way, Bush isn’t given enough props for putting a black woman in such a powerful position. This is probably because her position has nothing to do with her race or sex.

  • R C Dean
    June 30, 2004 at 9:29 pm

    I don’t think, on net, Hillary! is a boost for Kerry. Hillary! has proven herself to be a pretty decent campaigner, but I don’t recall her doing that well in outstate New York. She fires up both parties’ bases, so on that front she is a wash, and I don’t think she can bring in more than half the swing voters.

    She has a shitload of baggage, including her husband, that will not play well outside of hardcore leftwing enclaves. I don’t think a polarizing figure like Hillary! can win as a challenger in divided America. Somebody has to soothe the troubled middle and woo them away from the incumbent. Soothing and wooing aren’t Hillary!’s strong point.

    [Views on Hillary! should be discounted to reflect blogger’s loathing of the woman.]

  • KevinD
    July 1, 2004 at 1:19 am

    A woman who says “We’ll take your money and use it for the common good” is a centrist?!

    Hillary Clinton is a rabid leftwinger. She has tried to play tough on Iraq just to position herself for a future run for president. Which she will never win.
    She might win a senate seat in NY by single digits, she will never win a single state between NY and California.

    Like Dick Morris said: Hillary Clinton is delusional and power hungry, a deeply disturbed human being.

  • Bill
    July 1, 2004 at 3:55 am

    Jan 30, 2005 Washington (AP) Hillary Clinton was sworn in today in the wake of the appearant suicide of president Kerry, whos body was discovered yesterday, in Ft. Marcy park alongside the assault rifle he was said to have used. The rifle, according to Clinton, did not belong to Kerry, but was the property of his family.

    Tomorrows news today.

  • Cancergiggles
    July 1, 2004 at 8:55 am

    Is there nothing in the U.S. constitution which says that only one family member is allowed to screw with the Office of the President?

  • paul d s
    July 1, 2004 at 10:42 am

    I don’t think its going to happen. But if Hilary is up for VP, Bush should drop Dick and bring on Rice….

    Touche

  • Eric Blair
    July 1, 2004 at 1:25 pm

    This is a curious piece. I am inclined to think that it is slow news day material, but its possible that they (the Democrats) are considering this.

    What would be the result? Likely a net loss for the Democrats, as Hillary just put her foot in her mouth with the recent “We’ll take your money cause we know what’s best” remark, plus she gets tarred with her husband’s administration.

    More likely is that she is banking on a loss by Kerry, which will open her up for a run at the Presidency in 2008, when the country will be ripe for a change. –If the war on terror is successful, people will want a change. If it is going bad, people will want a change. The Dems sit pretty either way.

    It will be very interesting to see who the Republicans run in 2008.

  • Pete(Detroit)
    July 1, 2004 at 1:59 pm

    Definately drop Dick, and bring on Rudy…
    oh, wait, we were supposed to be commenting on Hillary…
    The BIGGEST problem w/ a Kerry/Clinton ticket is that people would wonder why it was upside down?

  • Lynne
    July 1, 2004 at 6:14 pm

    I would love to see a Hilary-John Edwards ticket. Maybe we workers in America will get a chance to have some decent health care and some job security. I would love to see a Populist party and not a Robber Baron party in charge of America again.

  • John J. Coupal
    July 1, 2004 at 6:33 pm

    If the USA were one big Greenwich Village/San Francisco theme park, Hillary could get elected to anything.

    Fortunately, it’s not.

    For higher office, her big task is convincing the many folks living between those two locations that she is not a communist. She has never even attempted that.

  • Kim du Toit
    July 2, 2004 at 12:26 am

    “Maybe we workers in America will get a chance to have some decent health care and some job security.”

    I can’t believe I just read this.

    Yup. We’d get “decent healthcare” (just like they have in Cuba) and “job security” (just like they have in Cuba).

    I guess if you redefine decent as “available, but not of high quality”, and job as “something where they pretend to pay you, and you pretend to work”.

    That’s what they had in the Soviet Union, and still do in Cuba.

    “Populism” is just a synonym for “party rule”. Let’s keep the panties off the pork chop.

  • Zevilyn
    July 3, 2004 at 12:19 am

    I would love to see John Edwards or John McCain in the White House. Those two men are cut from a far higher quality cloth than Bush and Kerry.

    Frankly, the quality of politicians these days is depressingly mediocre.

    I don’t necessarily want a guy (or gal) I will always agree with, but what I do want is someone whose judgement I can trust when the chips are down.

    So, for me it’s McCain, Edwards, Rice, Powell, anyone but the sorry choice we have at present.

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