...well, if polls were everything, at least.
The love/hate relationship Hillary Clinton shares with the Democratic base has often featured an intense debate about just how liberal she really is. Astoundingly, she has been accused of being both too crazy-hippie-leftist and too sneakily-right-wing, a phenomenon that leads some to believe that, much like the Heineken draught keg girl, there are multiple robotic Hillaries campaigning in various pantsuits across the country.
Now, in the latest round of this argument, a libertarian chimes in to say that he sees plenty of similarities between Clinton II and Bush II.
For seven years, the left has been up in arms about President Bush's aggressive foreign policy, his secrecy, his partisanship, and his expansive claims on executive power. It's odd, then, that they're prepared to nominate Hillary Clinton to carry the party into the 2008 elections.
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Then there is Hillary Clinton on the issues. Cato Institute President Ed Crane recently wrote a piece for the Financial Times pointing out that when you strip away the partisan coating, Mrs. Clinton's grandiose, big-government vision is really no different than that envisioned by the neoconservatives so loathed by the left. Clinton, remember, not only voted for the Iraq war, she still hasn't conceded she was wrong to do so, and has made no promise to end it any time soon.
In fact, the L.A. Times reported last week that Clinton has refused to commit even to pulling U.S. troops from Iraq by 2013, which, if elected, would be the end of her first term. TV journalist Ted Koppel recently told NPR that Clinton has admitted the U.S. would still have troops in Iraq at the end of her second term.
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And judging by her political career and recent voting record, they should also realize that even if they succeed in electing Hillary Clinton to the White House, it's likely that the only real resulting change in Washington will be that come 2009, we'll merely have a Democrat pursuing the same misguided policies.
What's this? Someone finally noticing that the biggest difference between the incumbent Republican and the favored Democrat is their party affiliation? Gosh, it's almost like there's more to politics than which letter is in parentheses next to a candidate's name!
These criticisms of Hillary are more valid than many on the left want to admit. But the article's author left out perhaps the most glaring Bush-Clinton similarity of all - just like Dubya, Hillary is a notoriously polarizing figure. If she is elected, the country will again be faced with a bitter 50/50 split for at least another four years, one that would be much stronger than any possible partisan fallout after the election of, say, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. Those of us who are sick of nothing but bickering Red-Blue politics for the past eight years will be on suicide watch if Clinton, The Sequel makes it all the way to the White House.
And just think, after Hillary's run is over, there's always the chance of the next step in divisive, dynastic Presidential campaigns... Jeb.
