The Mighty One Has Fallen
by Big Dog on Dec 31, 2006 at 10:48 Political
Hillary Clinton has been the anointed one of the Democratic party for the past few years with speculation running wild over whether or not she would run for the presidency. People with a brain knew all along that she was going to run despite her protestations about not thinking past her reelection to the Senate. Days after she won handily, she was already making plans to become the next president. Not too bad for a person who was not thinking about it. Her staffers indicated she was following the timetable she had long ago worked out so that pretty much dispelled the idea of “not thinking about it.”
Hillary was doing well until an upstart named Obama showed up and garnered a lot of attention. Then, ambulance chaser John Edwards joined the fray from New Orleans where he decided that after such a long time of government inaction, he needed to get there and shovel some dirt. Edwards played his two Americas theme using the backdrop of the battered city of New Orleans, a city he did not lift a finger to help prior to his announcement. Edwards could not pick any or the places in Florida that have been waiting for years to rebuild because that would not fit his theme. Seems that even well off white people can be devastated by a natural disaster and end up waiting to rebuild. Edwards instead, chose a place where the inhabitants are mostly poor to push home his idea of two Americas.
Hillary can not like all the attention her rivals are getting and the latest polls from Iowa can not be too comforting either. Hillary has slipped to fourth place in a poll of likely Democratic voters and her 23 point lead in New Hampshire has dwindled down to a mere 1 point over Obama and Clinton is baffled as to how she should handle it:
Several Democratic strategists last week urged Clinton to unleash a “charisma offensive†in the new year to counter the saturated media coverage that has helped propel Obama up the polls. Times UK
Hillary Clinton is nothing like her husband who, if nothing else, is a charismatic man and a good speaker. Hillary is shrill and robotic and comes off as a calculating manipulative drone. Asking Hillary to be charismatic is like asking a Great White not to eat meat. It just can not happen and if a candidate has to force charm on people then it says little for that candidate’s ability to persuade people effectively.
Like them or not Obama and Edwards have more charm and appeal than Hillary can ever muster and she is going to have to go dirty in order to beat these two out for the top billing. That is more likely what her team is working on in the dark, dank bowels of the Queens dungeon. Look for some low shots to come out in the near future. Hillary should make it interesting because her opponents will have plenty of ammunition to shoot back should the cold one decide to go dirty.
Tags: Political