The American Spectator

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Over the Hillary

1.7.08 @ 12:01AM

END OF AN E.R.A.
Re: Philip Klein's The Last Days of the Clinton Dynasty:

In Catholic grade school we were taught never to rejoice at the misfortune of another. But Hillary's defeat in Iowa is giving me a hard time with this.
-- Herb Flanagan

I enjoyed reading Phillip Klein's article "The Last Days of the Clinton Dynasty." What a howler! That poor man needs to get some rest. Of course no one can be expected to make good sense when they're working till all hours of the night -- in this case morning.

He says, "Hillary Clinton launched her White House bid almost a year ago based largely on her husband's record, and on the promise of a return to the 1990s. Well, on Thursday night, that dog didn't hunt."

I see the situation quite differently. I think Hillary launched her campaign based on her vision of health care for all Americans, her making the case around the world that "women's rights are human rights," her vow to end the war in Iraq, her mission to use diplomacy not force to make our case abroad and honesty and openness not lies and deception to run the country at home. And I think she's made the case that she is a known, tested, tried and true candidate who can take the dirty tricks and Rovian sleaze that awaits any Democratic contender and beat them with poise and dignity, with strength and conviction and launch her own era of peace and prosperity that will far surpass her husband's.

In my estimation this [female dog] can hunt just fine, thank you very much!
-- Diane Lander-Simon

Mr. Klein quotes Hillary as saying, "You know, it is not like I'm talking about ancient Rome. We are talking ten years ago. It's within our memories."

I recall back in the 1992 election, I believe, when I watched some major TV networks discussing the campaign and recent comments from Republicans pointing to Jimmy Carter's failed policies and economy. It was quite common at the time for Republicans to hold up Jimmy's economy and foreign policy disasters as examples of failure.

Of course they had Jimmy sitting right there to respond. "You have to remember that they are talking about things over 10 years ago. That's past history and we should focus on policies and leadership needed for the '90s. This looking back into old history is ridiculous." (My paraphrase.)
-- Jeff Ehler
Omaha, Nebraska

As much as I enjoyed Philip Klein's article, I think his dismissing the Clinton candidacy may be premature. If there is one good thing I can say about the Clinton family it is that they are not going to go down without a fight, and her disappointing showing in Iowa will probably spur her campaign to redouble their efforts. It could also signal them to move away from the nostalgia of the 1990s and move toward a greater focus on Mrs. Clinton's ideas for the future. Don't count her out just yet; that could be a HUGE mistake.

As for John Edwards, did anyone really think he would win? This record played out in his last campaign for President, and it wasn't all that popular then. No one really hates the rich, most of us may envy them, and we all want to BE them one day. Attacking them every day as some sort of malignant force in the country is not going to be a successful political strategy.

On the article about evangelicals and their problems with Mormonism and Mitt, the problems are related but still different. Many will form judgments about Mitt because of his faith, and I for one think it is fair; your religious world view inform the decisions you make in every facet of your life. As for Mormonism itself, evangelical or "mainstream" Christianity is very far removed from it theologically and there is hardly any relationship between them. It is not wrong for Christians to look at Mormonism and have problems with its theology, nor is it wrong for them to point those differences out. What I do have a problem with is having a Mormon write the article about the issue, since I do not think the writer can avoid making the issue personal. I understand that this is primarily an opinion/analysis site, but the analysis would be better coming from someone without a dog in this particular fight.
-- Eric Edwards
Walnut Cove, North Carolina

The voters in Iowa spoke loud and clearly that they want change, reconciliation, and hope and an end to the polarization and lying the Clintons are so famous for. The voters in New Hampshire will need to decide whether they want a candidate like Barack Obama who will bring the nation together to solve the problems we face and has an excellent first lady in his wife Michelle, a woman of intelligence, class, grace, and dignity, or whether they want to go back to the good old days of the Clintons and Monica, Travelgate, White Water, Vast Right Wing conspiracies, unending lying and polarization. I for one, a lifelong Democrat, choose Barack Obama, and thus choose change, reconciliation and hope.
-- Mark Jeffery Koch

Phillip Klein's column about Hillary is beautifully crafted, but in the end he ignores the demands of his own logic when he proclaims that Mrs. Clinton is history. "Though some would hesitate to be so bold," he says, "as far as this observer is concerned, the era of the Clintons is over." He is echoed in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, where Peggy Noonan declares that, "There's something about [Hillary] that makes you look, watch, think, look again, weigh and say: No." Once thought to be inevitable, Mrs. Clinton is now deemed to be too shopworn to defeat a smarmy little lawyer and a first term senator with a past. Despite her best efforts and the help of her friends, she is too obviously flawed to be the people's choice. It's wishful thinking.

Recall the days when Reagan's decision to ignore Iowa was sure to cost him the nomination, when no one as seedy as Nixon could win a national election, when no cornpone liberal with satyriasis and a bitchy wife could trounce George Herbert Walker Bush, Conqueror of Iraq. More ominously and closer to home, let us remember the day when Watergate-exhaustion so soured the public that they sought the embrace of a Georgia bumpkin with an idiot's grin and the backbone of a candy bar. Sweet reason seldom inhibits the American electorate, nor will a national gag-reflex slow Mrs. Clinton's progress. She is going to be nominated, she is going to be elected, she is going to drag America to the brink of civil war.

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