The Billary Road to Republican Victory

[Lauri]

The Billary Road to Republican Victory
comments (502)


 
By FRANK RICH
Published: January 27, 2008

IN the wake of George W. Bush, even a miracle might not be enough for the Republicans to hold on to the White House in 2008. But what about two miracles? The new year’s twin resurrections of Bill Clinton and John McCain, should they not evaporate, at last give the G.O.P. a highly plausible route to victory.

Amazingly, neither party seems to fully recognize the contours of the road map. In the Democrats’ case, the full-throttle emergence of Billary, the joint Clinton candidacy, is measured mainly within the narrow confines of the short-term horse race: Do Bill Clinton’s red-faced eruptions and fact-challenged rants enhance or diminish his wife as a woman and a candidate?

Absent from this debate is any sober recognition that a Hillary Clinton nomination, if it happens, will send the Democrats into the general election with a new and huge peril that may well dwarf the current wars over race, gender and who said what about Ronald Reagan.

What has gone unspoken is this: Up until this moment, Hillary has successfully deflected rough questions about Bill by saying, “I’m running on my own” or, as she snapped at Barack Obama in the last debate, “Well, I’m here; he’s not.” This sleight of hand became officially inoperative once her husband became a co-candidate, even to the point of taking over entirely when she vacated South Carolina last week. With “two for the price of one” back as the unabashed modus operandi, both Clintons are in play.

For the Republicans, that means not just a double dose of the one steroid, Clinton hatred, that might yet restore their party’s unity but also two fat targets. Mrs. Clinton repeatedly talks of how she’s been “vetted” and that “there are no surprises” left to be mined by her opponents. On the “Today” show Friday, she joked that the Republican attacks “are just so old.” So far. Now that Mr. Clinton is ubiquitous, not only is his past back on the table but his post-presidency must be vetted as well. To get a taste of what surprises may be in store, you need merely revisit the Bill Clinton questions that Hillary Clinton has avoided to date.

the rest at the link http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

[Chris_]

Heh... I almost posted that.

Clinton Fatigue Sets In

It's hard to keep up with the flood of commentary from the left about Bill Clinton's increasingly negative role in the Democratic primary. Bob Moser of The Nation pens a particularly harsh assessment:

<snip>

Frank Rich warns of the perils of Billary in this morning's New York Times. Even avid Clinton supporter Josh Marshall is having his doubts, saying he has been feeling "a mounting sense of unease verging into disgust with Bill Clinton's increasingly aggressive role in the campaign over the last couple of weeks."

With Caroline Kennedy's endorsement this morning, and this tease by Mark Halperin suggesting Uncle Teddy's isn't far behind, there's a growing sense that the Democratic establishment is getting ready to throw the Clinton era into the dustbin of history. Of course, the Clintons will not be shoved aside easily, if at all.


http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/01/coconut_grove_its_hard.html

[Lord Undies]

It is not the end of January yet and already the Clintons are turning stomachs everywhere.  I think the Black Magic Woman and her never-popular-to-begin-with husband have seen their day come and now they are seeing it go.  They are bringing back too many memories, which is not goo for their survival.

I think we may soon see Hillary Clinton turn into 'Sunset Boulevard''s faded Norman Desmond, then into Baby Jane Hudson, and finally into 'Great Expectation''s (Dicken's) Miss Havisham.   She's been Cruella DeVille far too long.

[Chris_]

It is not the end of January yet and already the Clintons are turning stomachs everywhere.  I think the Black Magic Woman and her never-popular-to-begin-with husband have seen their day come and now they are seeing it go.  They are bringing back too many memories, which is not goo for their survival.

I think we may soon see Hillary Clinton turn into 'Sunset Boulevard''s faded Norman Desmond, then into Baby Jane Hudson, and finally into 'Great Expectation''s (Dicken's) Miss Havisham.   She's been Cruella DeVille far too long.

If we get Obama, then we get a two-fer: 

1) Your projection comes true and we don't have Satan at the helm ever.

2) Barak's premature run not only makes him unelectable,  but it messes up the Dimocrats for at least 2 and maybe 3 election cycles.  If he wold have held off until 2012 he would have had a good chance.  But, blown it he has.

[Lauri]

It is not the end of January yet and already the Clintons are turning stomachs everywhere.  I think the Black Magic Woman and her never-popular-to-begin-with husband have seen their day come and now they are seeing it go.  They are bringing back too many memories, which is not goo for their survival.

I think we may soon see Hillary Clinton turn into 'Sunset Boulevard''s faded Norman Desmond, then into Baby Jane Hudson, and finally into 'Great Expectation''s (Dicken's) Miss Havisham.   She's been Cruella DeVille far too long.

I was wondering how this might work... if she gets the nomination before everyone figures her out, Hilary will be scorched in the general.

If they dont pick her for the nominee because she is finally seen as the corrupt SOB she is, then Obama wins it.

If Obama wins the nomination, the Dems (and the rest of the world) will quickly see how inexperienced he is, and vote against him..

I think all of that is highly probable now..