ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Support for Hillary could backfire for Democrats

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/06B134B8DB0A3CA3862573170012CA04?OpenDocument

Support for Hillary could backfire for Democrats
By Bill McClellan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
07/13/2007

Mayor Francis Slay and former Congressman Richard Gephardt have endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton, but there is a theory making the rounds that a Clinton nomination could be disastrous for Missouri Dems.

After all, the big prize in '08 is going to be governor's mansion. At the moment, the Dems are feeling pretty good about Jay Nixon's chances of beating Gov. Matt Blunt. Everything seems to be in place. A couple of years ago, it looked like Nixon might have to face Claire McCaskill in a bruising primary. Then McCaskill agreed to run for the U.S. Senate instead. That she won was an unexpected bonus. The big news at the time was that Nixon would not have to worry about a primary. He could concentrate on Blunt.

And on that front, the tea leaves look promising. Blunt's numbers have improved in the past year but still are not good. What's more, his party has split over embryonic stem cell research. The anti-abortion faction is strong in its opposition to the research. The pro-business faction is just as strong in its support. Blunt has sided with the pro-business people. In so doing, he has alienated a lot of social conservatives.

Nixon might not excite the social conservatives, but he doesn't frighten them, either. He has cultivated the image of a middle-of-the-road, law-and-order guy. In some areas, he has been to the right of center. His efforts to stop school desegregation cost him the support of some prominent blacks in his failed effort to oust Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond in 1998. Blunt will surely try to portray Nixon as a pro-abortion liberal, but it will be a tough sell.

At the moment, none of the Republican presidential candidates has much appeal for the social conservatives. Rudy Giuliani supports abortion rights and has a messy personal history. Mitt Romney has a fine personal history but has flipflopped on the social issues. John McCain is still remembered, and not fondly, for some of his remarks in '04 about the Christian right. Besides, his position on illegal immigrants is not popular with the social conservatives.

Now it might well be that social conservatives would prefer any of the potential Republican nominees to any Democrat, but contemporary political science holds that you don't win elections by converting your opponents; you win elections by out-voting them. In other words, turnout is key. The most passionate party wins.

FULL story at link.

she might as well product labels sewn all over her suit like a nascar driver, she's so corporate.

who the hell didn't know this a year ago? :eyes:

.....Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of the theory. And if it's true, what should the Dems do? Should they select a candidate based on what the other side thinks?
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we have two real progressives in the bunch. The rest are DLC corporatists who do not care any more about us than the corporatist repukes.

For handing the White House to the pukers on a silver platter once again.

fingers crossed

Hillary will energize the base and since she doesn't rouse great excitement many dems won't go out of their way to vote. It is a scary senario.

and he is getting the brunt of the blame for the new property tax assessments that socked it to middle class families (not to mention that he dared bring Daylight Savings Time to Indiana. Oh, the horrors!).

We have an excellent chance to retake the governor's mansion and increase Democratic gains in our legislature. A Hillary nomination, while not a disaster as far as Indiana is concerned, will make it harder for our candidates to shine and get their message out while there is a media circus that will inevitably follow a Hillary nomination, and that will suck up all the oxygen.

So, surely the writer has a quote from a Democrat. Right? Nope. But the writer is Democratic "activist." And somehow he knows that a black man named Obama, with a middle name of Hussien, would do just fine.

I realize some of you are looking for red meat to sink your teeth into in regards to Clinton, but someone who appears already against Clinton, and who uses Falwell to make a point, has really only provided you with kibble.