Hillary's Baggage

In the Nation yesterday, William Greider ponders Hillary's plight in a story titled Senator Inevitable:

Considering the formidable advantages Hillary Clinton has assembled for 2008, why should anyone feel sorry for her? Because the Senator is in a trap, and many of her assets have swiftly turned into liabilities. This predicament is largely of her own making but also of changed circumstances she did not foresee. Front-runners have often fared poorly in Democratic nominating contests during the last thirty years, especially when establishment insiders promoted an aura of inevitability for them. Hillary is a candidate for the same fate.

And the Obama factor...

Clinton's great vulnerability was captured brilliantly by Barack Obama in a single sentence, without a mention of her name. "It's time to turn the page..." People are looking forward, not back, he declares. People long for a promising new generation in politics. Let's not turn back to old fights, the acrimony of decades past.

Obama, recently got a boost from the Selma anniversary according to Townhall. Critics slammed Hillary.

Will March 4, 2007, the 42nd anniversary of the Selma, Ala., march for voting rights, propel Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential candidacy with the same force that Sept. 11, 2004 energized George W. Bush’s pursuit of a second term? The day clearly belonged to Obama, despite the efforts of both Hillary and Bill to turn it into Clinton Day. Obama’s speech was inspirational, challenging African-Americans to assume responsibility and participate in the political process.

By contrast, Hillary’s speech, replete with a phony Southern drawl — the same one she used to effect in Arkansas — smacked of pandering. But Hillary’s attempt to paint the events in Selma as seminal in her ability to run for president seemed forced, artificial, and contrived. She appeared to have confused the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with those of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and to have mixed up the 15th and 19th amendments to the Constitution. But Obama’s speech seared right through to the root of the American conscience. The spectacle of an African-American running for president and speaking on the site of a 42-year-old battlefield where the very right of blacks to vote was at issue could not but inspire everyone who watched it. The effect on the polls may be significant.

But as Greider writes in the Nation... that Bill...

When she cites the family accomplishments--his and hers--or reminds audiences that "Bill and I" stood up to the vicious right-wing assaults, it sounds almost as though she is offering a co-presidency. If anyone misses the connection, the former President seems to be everywhere, touting his own thoughts on how to govern the country (presumably cleared with her, but who knows?).

And it's still about Bill

The Senator has one more problem, and his name is Bill. She and the Clintonistas probably regard the former President as their greatest asset, but he has the personal potential to become a fatal liability. I do not refer to the scandalous behavior that over the years has occasionally humiliated his wife (though that risk provides constant grist for insider gossip). I mean the threat that Bill Clinton simply won't get off the stage. He loves to talk and collect popular adulation, and people love to hear him. Last fall, he held a glamorous sixtieth birthday party in New York that lasted three days. He has the capacity--unconsciously or otherwise--to steal his wife's show just by being himself.

One thing we know from the past is that Bill can't help himself. Self-control has never been his strong point. But, as we also know from experience, Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff can't control him either. His egotism poses a real and present danger to her ambitions.

And as Hillary's star seems to be faltering a bit, Giuliani gains support, Reuters reports.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Voters are lining up behind Rudolph Giuliani, who became "America's mayor" on Sept 11, 2001. But many New Yorkers remember the mayor before that day with less affection.

New Yorkers may have enjoyed Giuliani's success at taming the untamed city but are quick to recall the combative mayor who insulted constituents, bullied opponents and made crossing the street in the middle of the block a punishable offense.

That's not to mention his multiple marriages, a divorce so acrimonious a judge ordered Giuliani's mistress out of the mayor's mansion and a son so estranged he plans to play golf instead of campaign for his father.

Nevertheless, as he builds on the reputation earned guiding New York after the World Trade Center attack, polls show the moderate Republican leading in the race for the party's nomination for the U.S. presidential election in 2008.

Hillary was even the butt of Jon Stewart's jokes on the Daily Show last night.

But at least there was some good news for Hillary today as Clinton foe Gingrich admits impeachment-era affair. I wrote back in December that the country probably isn't very keen on a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton succession. As political dynasties go in this country, even the American public has a threshold. I am sticking to this view. Should Hillary win the Democratic nomination, I don't see her being able to survive an assault by any of the likely front-runners (Giuliani, Romney) who will undoubtedly assail her as a Washington insider.