The Hillary Conundrum By Howard Kurtz / WaPo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/06/19/BL2007061900465.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

The Hillary Conundrum

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 19, 2007; 7:50 AM



Hillary Clinton is inevitable.

That, at least, is the consensus view of media wizards, strategists, pollsters and other kibitzers, that HRC is a virtual lock for the nomination. An official with a rival campaign told me that Hillary has an 80 percent chance of being the party's candidate, and most neutral observers would probably go with a higher number.

So why is there such unease about her within the party?

The conventional explanations don't fully cut it. Yes, the former first lady carries a fair amount of baggage from the 1990s. Yes, there will be concern about alternating Bush-Clinton dynasties. Yes, there is that first-woman thing, given that only men have occupied the Oval Office. And Hillary's high negatives, which were 50 percent in a recent Gallup poll.

But I don't think any of that gets at the reservations that some Democrats have about the New York senator. The baggage has been endlessly publicized. Her gender attracts lots of women. Negatives can come down if the electorate warms up to a candidate over the course of a campaign. There is something else, hinted at in that "1984" video, that some people find off-putting.

The hesitation, I think, is along the lines of this LAT piece:

"Frederick Cole wants the Democratic Party to take back the White House in 2008. 'Look what a mess we're in,' said Cole, a nurse in Louisville, Ky. 'It's time for some fresh, new-thinker ideas.'

"Yet if his party nominates Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for president, the 52-year-old Democrat plans to vote for her Republican opponent.

" 'It's a personal thing,' Cole said. 'I don't like her. I think she's condescending and arrogant, even worse than Al Gore, who has no personality.'It is a paradox of the 2008 presidential race. By a wide margin, several polls show, voters want a Democrat to win -- yet when offered head-to-head contests of leading announced candidates, many switch allegiance to the Republican."

At least women love Hillary, right? Well, in the Nation, Lakshmi Chaudhry scrutinizes "one of the great ironies of Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency. Many of the very same feminists who were her most ardent supporters as First Lady are now fiercely opposed to her historic bid to become the first female President of the United States. The woman once described by Susan Faludi as a symbol of 'the joy of female independence' now evokes ambivalence, disdain and, sometimes, outright vitriol. The right wing's favorite 'femi-nazi' now has to contend with Jane Fonda comparing her to 'a ventriloquist for the patriarchy with a skirt and a vagina.' . . .

"Let's be clear: Hillary has a 'feminist problem,' and more so with those who lean left.
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NOT THAT ANYONE'S EVER ASKED MY OPINION, BUT ALL I KNOW IS THAT I DON'T TRUST HER TO CARE ABOUT PEOPLE--PERIOD. SHE'S A CORPORATE ANIMAL.

Kurtz referred to critics of the Iraq War as "journalists of questionable patriotism".
He's married to ultra-rightwing Republican consultant and commentator Sheri Annis.

kurtz is anti-Dem, and has been for a while. That having been said, I agree with what he's written to a great extent, and agree with you, demeter, about Mrs. Clinton's being a "corporate animal". She will not get my vote in the primaries or the GE.

TC

it's not just Hillary, if they aren't corporate shills they soon become one. The alternative is the fate of the Kennedy's.

I was watching, and I they had a peice "attacking" her for her support of the war, but the language was such that it was basically building her up in the eyes of the Fox viewers. But this isn't surprising, given this:

http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/10/murdoch-hillary-fundraiser-cx_gl_0510autofacescan07.html

Hillary is up there in the echelons of whatever the hell is going on. Whether or not this means we will get anything good out her being president remains to be seen!