U,S, News and World Report: Hillary begins 2008 preperations

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/041115/whispers/15whisplead.htm

Hillary: ready, set
Friends of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton tell us that the New York Democrat is set to begin the hard work of running for president in 2008. Associates say that she already has organized a team to target fundraising prospects, create voter lists, and draw up a campaign agenda. The presidential effort will run in tandem with Clinton's 2006 senatorial re-election bid.

talking repuke talking points

That's reliable.

no surprise there! :)

Anyone who thinks she isn't going to run in 2008 is bonkerz, the question is if she can make it through the primaries.

Then, if we can eliminate electronic voter fraud nationwide, otherwise we might never win another presidential election.

Do we want to lose MORE states? Do we really need to marginalize ourselves even more than we are already? If so, Hillary is the candidate to get it done. She can lose us Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michagan, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, right off the bat.

Hillary has super-high negatives. Every scandal that plagued Bill during his presidency will instantly resurface during her campaign. Plus, now she has a Senate record to defend.

Even Nancy Pelosi would have a better chance than Hillary Clinton.

every right-wing talking point about Hillary like a sponge, haven't you?

She needs to stay in the Senate.

Obviously, I must be some kind of wicked clown, come here to taunt the true believers.

However, I am not a rigid, zealous clown. If you can make a convincing case that Hillary Clinton can win the presidency, I'll take it all back.

If you really think Hillary can avoid the effects of a rehash of every pseudo-scandal to have afflicted the Clintons since Bill won the primary in 1992, by all means tell me how.

Hillary Clinton is admirable but she just carries around too much baggage with her. The country needs a fresh face.

The invective against her in here is disgusting.

Sometimes these divisive figures have a strange way of winnning in the end - just look at this last election....

Only divisive people ever bring change, be it good or bad.

She is a also a symbol who very many (unfairly) hate. Even when she was supportive of the war in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, her opponents tried to call her weak. She is like a magnet for the nut jobs on the right.

You want to energize the Right radical fringe, seek out Hillary. If Bush does serve four years (I think he may have to be impeached or committed)the religious right is going to tear the Republican Party to pieces. There is a chance for political capital for the Democrats.

We may not survive this loss and we cannot survive another loss.

and a general feeling of malaise then HRC's chances might improve...


And Reagan came within a couple of delegates of knocking off a sitting pres in 76...


Hillary will kill us...

Is it the whole culture thing?

I respect HRC...


I don't see how she can win in this political environment....We need to carry the states we carried in 04 and "steal" a couple of red ones...


I see us going backwards with HRC and possibly losing the blue states of WI , PA, and possibly MI.....

Tell you what. If Hillary can win the governorship in New York, I'll support her run for president in 2016.

two for one again....

She already knows how an executive works...

Her individual achievements, which are considerable, will be overwhelmed by her ties to the Bill Clinton legacy. Every smear that was applied to Bill can be applied to Hillary, and some of them will count double. She'll be spun into the ground. Are you ready for...

* "Whitewater!"
* "Rose Law Firm!"
* "Travelgate!"
* "Filegate!"
* "Her husband isn't satisfied. She lets him fool around. Is she a lesbian?"
* "You heard it here first, folks. She sabotaged the Democrats in 2004 to run in 2008."

And as a bonus, we get
* "A woman president? No way!"
* "She's an ugly bitch. Are you going to vote for an ugly bitch?"
* attacks on her legislative record

Again, you show me how she can overcome the bullshit, and I might change my mind. Over the last 6 months, we saw the republicans turn a decorated war hero candidate into a treacherous coward unable to tie his own shoes, let alone run the country. Do you honestly think Hillary can do better than that?

bill clinton, the most effective voice the democrats have seen in a generation campaigning with her everywhere she goes, across the country, and combating the republican bullshit point for point.

She would be their worst nightmare - they would end up lookin' bad in the end.

And Clinton picked up seats in 98 and if he coulda run in 2000 he would have won.

I think she'd appeal to center. Fuck the right-wing blowhards you just repeated all their lame ass talking points.

> She would be their worst nightmare - they would end up lookin' bad in the end.

She would be their dream candidate. They wouldn't even have to do any research.

> Clinton picked up seats in 98

I keep reading this on DU. Sherman, set the wayback machine, to 1992. In 1992, President Clinton took office with a strong congressional majority, stronger than what the republicans have now. Thanks largely to scare tactics directed against Hillary Clinton's push for national health care, Democrats lost seats big time in '94 that we still haven't recovered. 2000 was a huge congressional victory for us, we actually piked up 5 senate seats and a house seat, but that's all gone now.

Congress           Sen: D       R       I  Hs:  D       R       I
103rd 1993–1995		57	43	-	258	176	1	
104th 1995–1997		48	52	-	204	230	1	
105th 1997–1999		45	55	-	207	226	2	
106th 1999–2001		45	55	-	211	223	1	
107th 2001–2003		50	50	-	212	221	2
108th 2003–2005		48	51	1	205	229	1
109th 2005-2007 	44	55	1	201	234	1 

So the net congressional result of the Clinton presidency is -7 senate seats and -46 house seats. What a smashing victory!

> if he coulda run in 2000 he would have won.

That's what Bill says. Maybe he's right, maybe he isn't, but the premise is false anyway.

> I think she'd appeal to center

Center? Center of WHAT? Tell me the states you think she would win that Kerry/Edwards didn't take this time. Where are we going to get our 20 additional electoral college votes?

> Fuck the right-wing blowhards you just repeated all their lame ass talking points.

She'd better come up with something more effective in the way of rebuttal to these very influential blowhards than "fuck" and "lame ass", though.

Kerry just didn't have the charisma to pull it off - plus he was running against an war prez after 911.

But Hillary would be met with stale shit that people have already heard. They'd be 'Clinton-haters'. They would go insane.

I honestly think that all the Bush bashing books and movies actually helped him in the end. He fed off it. His candidacy was fueled by it.

The same would apply to Hillary.

Yeah Clinton lost seats in 94 - but he was winning them back election by election. And he would have won in 2000 - he retired with high approval ratings.

> Kerry just didn't have the charisma to pull it off

But you think Hillary does? John Kerry motivated me ten times more than Hillary ever did. He was about as good a candidate as we have in the Northeast.

> he was running against an war prez after 911

The "war prez" was polling about 45% approval prior to the election, last I heard.

> Hillary would be met with stale shit that people have already heard.

It's stale shit to us, but to the rightwing it's fresh meat. People had heard all the stale shitty Kerry smears from the Swift Boat Liars before, too, but they ate it up all over again. John O'Neil has been vending this crap since 1971. It's never too old.

> all the Bush bashing books and movies actually helped him in the end

The Dan Rather memos certainly didn't help us, but the movies and books probably produced a net gain.

> His candidacy was fueled by it.

Oh feh. His candidacy was fueled by attacks on John Kerry, not defense against the issues raised in the movies and books. Whenever the movies or books would come out, bush would basically ignore it and launch a new series of attack ads and terror alerts.

> The same would apply to Hillary.

I think Hillary would get mad. I think she'd become visibly pissed off, the more the rightwingers attacked her with this crazy shit.

> Yeah Clinton lost seats in 94 - but he was winning them back election by election

At the rate Clinton was winning them back, we could be back to where we started in... oh, let's say, 2010.

> he retired with high approval ratings.

I do think some of those approval ratings were because he was retiring. People were tired of the scandals, but basically did okay with him in charge. IIRC, he polled higher than Hillary did at that time.

I doubt Hillary can provide the "strong on defense" perception that Democrats need to present to even have a chance in the national elections.

I agree you with you on HRC...

She would be a disaster .....

As to our losses smarter folks than I say they were the results of powerful historical trends...

That's for another thread...

To think of what Clinton could have accomplished with a cooperative congress... Oh well. Let's start planning for 2006, and hope some of the moderates like Chaffee and Snowe pull a "Nighthorse" on bush.

Didn't ya know we won the election on Tuesday...we wuz just robbed, that's all.

Hillary is the GOOP fundraisers greatest tool, hate radio's wettest dream and broadens our appeals to no one. Yep, she's a great choice right now when this party is facing becoming a marginal regional party.

First Edwards and now Clinton/

Fuck no to both, I want to win!

George W. Bush is the most controversial figure in politics to date. And yet he outmobilized his enemies and won a majority of the popular vote. Hillary could be a dangerous nominee, but let's not write her off because of controversy yet.

Our negative image of Hillary has obviously been formed solely by the Republican party. That is just wrong. May I remind all of you that the when the Republican party picks their nominees they don't give a hoot about what the other side thinks of him or her. They make NO effort whatsover, if they did then we wouldn't be so divided.

I'm not a big fan of John Edwards but he has the name id to possibly stop her....

My support goes to him...

The left here hates her because she's politically expedient...

The mods don't think she can win.....

She will get little sympathy on this board....

this board doesn't pick our nominee or we would have gotten Kucinich lose in a 50 state electoral landslide

Zero

like so many have in the past.

Who in 1988 would have thought Bill Clinton, the laughingstock of the 1988 Democratic convention would win the primaries and general election four years later?

Hillary will run and win. The Clintons know what they are doing. They'll find a way to win.

And when it happens, you'll be shocked and amazed.

and a daughter...

If the retarded son of a former president can win back to back elections, then the brilliant wife of another former president should have a pretty damn good chance herself.

we're looking at another reprise of the Gore electoral map, ceding the South and Plains, and hoping like hell to win Ohio or Florida. Missouri and WV would likley be off the table entirely. We've gone down this road twice before. Why would anyone want to try it yet again?

to take our minds off this train wreck...

However, I don't think she stands a chance in hell of winning. Particulary since our election system is prone to mischief and fraud.

Who will be the person that will enable her base to make a contest out of it...as well as playing devastatingly dirty pool to mar other opponents?

BTW, no surprise...once Kerry lost, I knew that Hillary would start gunning for 2008, or at least the hype would lead that way.

Bill fucking Clinton will run her campaign!!!! And campagin for her all over the country.

So who will be Bill & Hillary Clinton's agents for undermining the opponents with dirty stuff?

The old Clinton gang will be back....

Especially if Ahnold is some how able to run for the rupubs in '08.

I say Oprah should be able to effectively counter that.

why not a Ben Affleck-Chris Rock ticket...

They are both Dems....


How about Eminem-Dr.Dre

Are you on crack?

Hillary will never, ever win. I know many staunch Democrats who hate her as much as the right wing does and will never vote for her. Many of the people who voted for Kerry will not vote for her simply because she's a woman. This country is moving backwards not forwards and a woman has zero shot of winning. That's the harsh reality. We should give Wes Clark another shot, particularly if war continues. If not him than Warner or another Southern Democratic governor.


Edit: spelling.

left to sling at her. They realize she's dangerous. Do any of you think why the RW hate her and fear her? She's a Dem with starpower and doesn't need any time to "define" herself. In a fair election, she'd win.

So much hate and vitriol for her. Imagine the right hating our nominee like we hate Bush. She'd probably go over less well in the south then Kerry.

Then in your spare time, buy a dictionary or learn to use a spell-check.

I google some words before I type them here....


but it would have picked up prep(a)ration...

Why are we always afraid of what the Republicans will do to our candidates? Forget about them and do what you have to do to win. If Hillary becomes the nominee in 2008, we need to fight like hell, don't worry about what the media thinks of us, blast whoever the repug nominee will be, totally destroy the repug nominee like they did John Kerry.

We'll need a better message and STAY ON MESSAGE no matter what if we're going to win in 2008. We need to create an image of Hillary and pound that image in the media.

It doesn't matter who the nominee will be, the same answer applies.

we get all the hate and stereotypes of running an east coast liberal devil, but in reality she's a moderate who won't bother fighting back against attacks on liberalism. If you learned nothing from this election then vote Hillary in 08.

Same crap that is being said here was said about her then. The right mobilized against her. They tried their tar-and-feathers routine by calling her a carpet bagger. She didn't get saddled with it (like a Kerry would have) because she honestly said something like, "It's true, I haven't lived in NY for a long time. But I am going to listen to you folks and hear what you need, and then I'm going to go fight for you." She embarked on a "Listening Tour", going all over rural (read: religous and conservative) areas of New York and listened to people.

The Repubs constantly called her "Mrs. Clinton" and sneered at her. They hurled abuse and called her names. She ended up looking very sympathetic - like these big mean asshole men were beating up on a nice lady. They cannot fight and smear her the way they would a man. It doesn't work the same way.

She won against them here and they did everything they could to kill her off. She's smart, the smears against her are old news, and I think that the repubs supposedly "drooling" over her running is a smokescreen. She really could win, if given the chance.

She won in New York. Much different for Hill to win in New York than in Oklahoma and the 31 other states (or whatever it was) Bush got.

We have plenty of nasty republican types and she managed to win enough of them over to win.

We'll see how her 2006 Senate campaign goes. No doubt that the Repubs will try everything to kill her off then, before she can become a problem and to win her seat. They already started raising money against her a year ago (three years before her race). If nothing else, it will be a preview of what they would do to her nationally. It might even prove to naysayers like you that this woman has what it takes to withstand their invective.

All I ask is that you keep an eye on her during that election. I think she'll impress you.

Even he says she would be a disaster...


He mentions the fact that she has impressed the rural folks upstate....


Then he said if she had fifty years she could do the same thing for rural folks in the rest of the country...


The Democratic party doesn't have fifty years...


If the trend continues it will be extinct by then... Gone the way of the Whigs....

You know what opinions are like :)

I'd vote for her in the proverbial New York minute but the woman doesn't play in Dixie....

OK...Who can we run in 2012. What a polarizing figure she is. I like her, but aren't we talking about winning at least one red state.

My wife, who does NOT VOTE, said she WILL vote of HRC is on the ticket...and she will vote against her.

Does your wife have a rational reason for disliking her?

Fuck all of them. We need a new Wellstone, somebody with vision.