RE: Hillary lurches leftward
Wow! What a huge pile of...wishful thinking.
Blankley's agit-prop is obviously aimed at nervous GOP True Believers. To say that Hillary's posturing is good news for Republicans lurches (to steal Blankley's inflammatory verb) into an alternate reality. I suppose Blankley thinks that the Beast's courting of the left will energize the conservatives (and some libertarians), but he is fantasizing if he thinks those same conservatives will line up behind McCain or Giuliani. If the GOP was running candidates who weren't carbon copies of George Bush, Hillary's flirtation with MoveOn.org and Code Pink would be good news for the GOP. However, since the RNC's strategy still seems to be to continue pretending to be Democrat-lite, Hillary pretty much has a free pass for her strategy.
This isn't anything like a "lurch," either. The GOP is poised to, once again, underestimate the Clinton political machine. In that, they are being aided and abetted by the rightward political punditry's misrepresentation of reality in an effort to mobilize the right-hand base. Clinton's move toward the anti-war camp is a carefully planned and smoothly executed strategy.
Blankley employs the jingoistic tool of characterizing opposition to the war in Iraq as being a "leftist" sentiment. He is not doing the GOP any favors with that, either. A growing number of people, who do not consider themselves leftists, bridle at the suggestion that their opposition to the war somehow makes them liberals. The attitude that anyone who doesn't support the Bush/neocon doctrine of democracy-by-force is some kind of hippie liberal is one of the biggest factors that caused libertarians and more than a few conservatives to vote with their butts in 2006.
Hillary hasn't done anything lately that positions her on the far left. She isn't out chanting Marxian rhetoric like Edwards. She's not inciting class envy like Biden or Obama. She has thrown out an invitation to the anti-war base to see her in a slightly different light. She is laying the groundwork for icons of the ultra-left, like Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, and Medea Benjamin to soften their stance on her without violating what they perceive to be the trust of their supporters. On balance, she hasn't moved an inch from a solidly center-left position.
If Blankley and the other GOP cheerleaders want to stir up the base, they would spend their time more wisely by taking shots at the potentially naked emperors who lead the pack on the Republican side of the campaign. Conservatives would be far more energized by the GOP machine engaging in a conversion on the road to Washington and ousting the pretenders and Bush clones, like Giuliani, McCain, and Romney, from the front of the pack.
Blankley's agit-prop is obviously aimed at nervous GOP True Believers. To say that Hillary's posturing is good news for Republicans lurches (to steal Blankley's inflammatory verb) into an alternate reality. I suppose Blankley thinks that the Beast's courting of the left will energize the conservatives (and some libertarians), but he is fantasizing if he thinks those same conservatives will line up behind McCain or Giuliani. If the GOP was running candidates who weren't carbon copies of George Bush, Hillary's flirtation with MoveOn.org and Code Pink would be good news for the GOP. However, since the RNC's strategy still seems to be to continue pretending to be Democrat-lite, Hillary pretty much has a free pass for her strategy.
This isn't anything like a "lurch," either. The GOP is poised to, once again, underestimate the Clinton political machine. In that, they are being aided and abetted by the rightward political punditry's misrepresentation of reality in an effort to mobilize the right-hand base. Clinton's move toward the anti-war camp is a carefully planned and smoothly executed strategy.
Blankley employs the jingoistic tool of characterizing opposition to the war in Iraq as being a "leftist" sentiment. He is not doing the GOP any favors with that, either. A growing number of people, who do not consider themselves leftists, bridle at the suggestion that their opposition to the war somehow makes them liberals. The attitude that anyone who doesn't support the Bush/neocon doctrine of democracy-by-force is some kind of hippie liberal is one of the biggest factors that caused libertarians and more than a few conservatives to vote with their butts in 2006.
Hillary hasn't done anything lately that positions her on the far left. She isn't out chanting Marxian rhetoric like Edwards. She's not inciting class envy like Biden or Obama. She has thrown out an invitation to the anti-war base to see her in a slightly different light. She is laying the groundwork for icons of the ultra-left, like Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, and Medea Benjamin to soften their stance on her without violating what they perceive to be the trust of their supporters. On balance, she hasn't moved an inch from a solidly center-left position.
If Blankley and the other GOP cheerleaders want to stir up the base, they would spend their time more wisely by taking shots at the potentially naked emperors who lead the pack on the Republican side of the campaign. Conservatives would be far more energized by the GOP machine engaging in a conversion on the road to Washington and ousting the pretenders and Bush clones, like Giuliani, McCain, and Romney, from the front of the pack.
posted by Anonymous | 10:11 AM
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