Monday, February 28, 2005
Preemptive Strategy: Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton is a political opportunist whose only concern in the positions she takes on various issues is first and foremost calculated to promote her own political viability.
Either by accident or design, Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell and William Safire are all out and about trying to convey this notion.
Meet the Press: Februay 27, 2005
MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. Maureen Dowd, Hillary Clinton was on this program last week, and she said, "No matter what you may have thought about the war in Iraq, the fact is now we have to stay, and we have to win," in effect, and that to look back is the wrong way to go, and that to have a timetable for troop withdrawal would be a green light to the terrorists. There was not any room between her view and that of John McCain. What's going on with Senator Clinton?
MR. RUSSERT: But what's going on with Senator Clinton?
MR. SAFIRE: Hillary the hawk and...
MS. DOWD: Well...
MR. SAFIRE: ...it's the way to go. It separates her from Howard Dean and the Democratic left, which she's gotten in her pocket anyway, and she's running for the middle, which is what, frankly, Bill Clinton did. I think she's being advised secretly by Bill Clinton.
MS. DOWD: Well, she voted for the authorization of the war, you know.
MR. SAFIRE: Right.
MS. DOWD: She got on the Armed Services Committee. She...
MR. SAFIRE: Yeah. So...
MR. FRIEDMAN: But this is the biggest liberal project in the world going today, building democracy in the Middle East. And if you have a Democratic Party that is indifferent to it--this is a really important project that any party that doesn't think it's important--I'm not saying it's going to succeed, but it doesn't think it's important, that party is not going to be important in American foreign policy terms. I think Hillary understands that. I think Joe Biden understood it from the very beginning. And I think Hillary, as Bill and Maureen have suggested--she's got a pretty good political adviser who understood it from the very beginning, too.
MR. RUSSERT: So no matter what people may have thought about the war and the lead-up to the war or the management of the war or the absence of weapons of mass destruction, now that we're there, there's so much at stake that it's a political risk to oppose it?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7041426/
See Also: Andrea Gets The Memo: Forgets to be Subtle
Either by accident or design, Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell and William Safire are all out and about trying to convey this notion.
Meet the Press: Februay 27, 2005
MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. Maureen Dowd, Hillary Clinton was on this program last week, and she said, "No matter what you may have thought about the war in Iraq, the fact is now we have to stay, and we have to win," in effect, and that to look back is the wrong way to go, and that to have a timetable for troop withdrawal would be a green light to the terrorists. There was not any room between her view and that of John McCain. What's going on with Senator Clinton?
MR. RUSSERT: But what's going on with Senator Clinton?
MR. SAFIRE: Hillary the hawk and...
MS. DOWD: Well...
MR. SAFIRE: ...it's the way to go. It separates her from Howard Dean and the Democratic left, which she's gotten in her pocket anyway, and she's running for the middle, which is what, frankly, Bill Clinton did. I think she's being advised secretly by Bill Clinton.
MS. DOWD: Well, she voted for the authorization of the war, you know.
MR. SAFIRE: Right.
MS. DOWD: She got on the Armed Services Committee. She...
MR. SAFIRE: Yeah. So...
MR. FRIEDMAN: But this is the biggest liberal project in the world going today, building democracy in the Middle East. And if you have a Democratic Party that is indifferent to it--this is a really important project that any party that doesn't think it's important--I'm not saying it's going to succeed, but it doesn't think it's important, that party is not going to be important in American foreign policy terms. I think Hillary understands that. I think Joe Biden understood it from the very beginning. And I think Hillary, as Bill and Maureen have suggested--she's got a pretty good political adviser who understood it from the very beginning, too.
MR. RUSSERT: So no matter what people may have thought about the war and the lead-up to the war or the management of the war or the absence of weapons of mass destruction, now that we're there, there's so much at stake that it's a political risk to oppose it?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7041426/
See Also: Andrea Gets The Memo: Forgets to be Subtle
