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Hillary, You’re Bringing Me Down.
By Bill | August 14, 2007 | Email This Post
The Democrats find themselves with the awkward suspicion that, should their most prominent candidate win the nomination, the result would be a backlash turnout among otherwise apathetic Republican and undecided voters. In short, if the Dems run Hillary, they risk squandering - or at least minimizing - what ought to be the natural advantage of the current anti-Bush sentiment running high in the country.
Quotes (from Democratic party organizers, mind you) run from “[not] fatal… but a drag” and “damn unpopular” all the way to an outright “nightmare.” These comments are understandably anonymous at the moment - does anyone doubt Hillary would come through with the sword of retribution given a chance? - but they’re percolating.
Polls show her unfavorable rating running at 49%, and that’s projected to rise as the campaign moves along. (Interestingly enough, this graph shows both favorable and unfavorable ratings converging in the 47-49% range each, with “undecided” nearly falling off the charts - love or hate Hillary Clinton, she does inspire strong feelings.)
The situation is such that Congressional and Senate candidates in close races are being advised to distance themselves from Hillary, in contrast to the usual practice of riding a Presidential candidate’s coattails. However, the situation is not entirely bleak. Some conservative observers are so sure of a Democratic victory that they have seized on Hillary as the least objectionable of the possible options. And I personally know one woman who maintains that she will vote for the first woman nominated for President by a major party solely because of her sex, regardles of ideology. (Presumably there are men who will vote against her for that same reason.)
Either way, running Hillary would be a risk. Are the Democrats likely to take it? Or will individual Hillary supporters as a whole even be able to look past their own leanings to better pursue the more strategic goal of capturing the White House and Capitol Hill? (And if so, should they? In the most idealistic view the nominee is supposed to embody the views of most of the party, after all.) Moreover, although the Democrats are gamely putting on the unified party face about Hillary at the moment, in a close race, who is going to be the first one to crack and say flat-out that she’s unlikeable?
Topics: Democrats, Hillary Clinton |
August 20th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
[…] Hillary, You’re Bringing Me Down. […]