Much as I predicted in an earlier post, the race for the 2008 Democratic Nominee would tighten. With Hillary Clinton having a commanding lead the only course left for Barack Obama, John Edwards, and yes, the Republican Party was to mount an all out assault. The assault strategy would come straight from the GOP playbook. In a nutshell the strategy was to go negative, go negative, go negative. For reasons unknown to me, that strategy seems to work well in this country.
Edwards went negative. Obama with coaxing from Karl Rove and the Republican Party went negative. The Republicans amped up their negative attacks. When Hillary countered her attackers with a negative strategy of her own, it backfired on her primarily because it tended to validate the fabrications which were being used against her. So now we have a tighter contest. Let's explore how Hillary got into this predicament of losing ground to her opponents.
Hillary should not have voted for the War in Iraq, but she had plenty of company. She is also currently being portrayed as a typical First Lady and she was anything but. As a matter of fact, she was raked over the coals because she tried to push through a program that would make health insurance available to every American. How selfish can you be? Isn't the theme of this country, survival of the fittest? How could any politician be naive enough or have the compassion to think that people who could not afford health insurance shouldn't be left to fend for themselves? How could Hillary have the audacity to think that we, the American people, could rise above our own selfish little motives and be our brothers keepers?
Well it remains to be seem how things will turn out, but Hillary is still the best choice. The Republicans have had America on the wrong course for the last seven years. It's up to the Democrats to get this country back on the right track and Democrats need their strongest and most qualified candidate running in the general election. Hillary may not have the experience of a Joe Biden, Chris Dodd or Bill Richardson, but of the top-tier candidates, she is the most qualified and has the best chance of being elected president in November 2008.
Sidebar: Again my advice to Hillary is to stay the course and if the need arises for a response to negative attacks, do so in a straightforward and positive manner. And everyone knows that you must respond to attacks or you will surely become the prey of the Swift-Boaters.
Comments