The Crouch

This article by Patrick Healy nicely demonstrates the political dynamics that make Hillary Clinton so unappealing to me. She has such a strong and not-especially-deserved reputation for liberalism, that her primary political task must always be trying to run away from progressive politics in order to broaden her appeal rather than using her personal qualities to broaden the appeal of progressive politics. It's also, however, an infuriating example of journalism that simply equates the concepts of support for the military, knowledge of military affairs, and right-wing positions about the use of force.

There's no indication, however, that the war clowns at the Victory Caucus have any actual knowledge whereof they speak. Nor is it "anti-military" to suggest it's not a good idea to stick the United States Army with the task of performing an impossible job in Iraq.

Comments

Only a hater of the British military could think it was a good idea to remove all those bases from the Middle East after 1956.

Posted by otto | March 27, 2007 9:02 AM

Hilary Clinton is first and foremost a politician. She will say whatever is required to get elected. In an age of "All Ana Nicole, all the time" her public utterances probably won't be examined in any depth until the debates.

Posted by danceswithgoats | March 27, 2007 9:50 AM

Again, the Warrior Princess rides. I will not vote for president, if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic candidate.

Posted by Jennifer | March 27, 2007 10:23 AM

Hillary Clinton acting like Dick Cheney, which is the way she obviously wants to act, would be a disastrous president.

Posted by Jennifer | March 27, 2007 10:30 AM

her primary political task must always be trying to run away from progressive politics in order to broaden her appeal rather than using her personal qualities to broaden the appeal of progressive politics. - Matt

Okay, I agree with that much. I don't agree that she is or isn't genuinely liberal, or is or isn't genuinely militarist, etc. She isn't genuinely anything. It's all calculation. The part that I think isn't talked about enough is all the calculations on how much she can get away with doing for crooked special interest lobbyists against the voters' general interests. I'll add that I think more or less the same of all the candidates. I just think the Clintons are the most dishonest, at least on the Dem side.

Posted by Gary Sugar | March 27, 2007 10:46 AM

This is a woman who would order the machine-gunning of War protestors if she thought it would help her image.

Posted by Trevor | March 27, 2007 2:12 PM

"This is a woman who would order the machine-gunning of War protestors if she thought it would help her image."

Exactly.

Posted by yoyo | March 27, 2007 7:02 PM