Over my dead ballot.

Well, she will certainly campaign like a hawk, political triangulation & all. After that?

You ever bought a used car? Remember all the things the salesman told you, and just what all those protestations were worth after you actually drove off the lot?

I ain't enough of a sucker to believe that Hill wouldn't immediately swing over to slightly left of Joe Galloway immediately after the inauguration. I would hope no one else would be either, but am prepared to be sorely disappointed, if she can even sucker you in.

"I'm so mad at her," said Nancy Kricorian, Codepink's New York City coordinator. "We will dog her wherever she goes."

those anti-war types are SUCH nice people...

She might even believe it herself. But when the going gets tough (like now) would she stay the course? For example, remember the supposedly centerist Bill Clinton's lack of resolve in response to Al Queda and in Somolia.

Talk is indeed cheap. Following through to do the right thing is tough. I cannot be convinced that she, or any Democrat has the right stuff.

Hillary will run by the polls, be elected by the polls and govern by the polls. When she gets her second term she will still use the polls to focus on her legacy. She will never ever let us see the pent up rage, honest compassion, or insect like intellectual carving of her opponents. She will always be hidden by what her poll numbers say we want. She saw success and wants to emulate it...

Here's a fun question for everyone to kick around: we all know how powerful the Sister Souldjah moment was for Bill Clinton--nearly 14 years later, we're still talking about, and anticipating Hillary employing it.

So why didn't Kerry?

I know the immediate answer is that Kerry wasn't that good a campaigner personally, and it was his first run at the White House, but he was surrounded by veteran DNC pros. They surely all must remember this strategy; how come it didn't materialize last year? Lord knows he had loads of opportunities.

(This isn't a set-up--I honestly don't know why Kerry never used the tactic.)

Ed,

All I can offer is a guess, and a mean-spirited one at that.

Taking a stand like that would have required Kerry to... take a stand. And take one against a part of his base, no matter how small.

The first part isn't very Kerry, and the second part simply is done in Massachusetts.

Stephen, you hit the core, but never overestimate Kerry's intelligence. The man really is an idiot.

The theory de jour this year was that it's all about turnout. There are no moderates; the party that does a better job of getting its base to the polls win.

If Kerry had done the Sister Souljah thing, he would have alienated the antiwar left but wouldn't have picked any moderates, the thinking goes.

I am not sure that I believe this, but Karen Hughes said so in a speech that I attended, so there must be something to it. Her statement was echoed by the low- and mid-level GOP and Democratic pros that I know personally. Kerry probably ran the numbers and decided that a Sister Souljah moment would cost him votes.

Also, as others have said, it just wasn't in him. The man has spent his whole life playing both sides of the fence. It is too late for him to learn how to take a principled, decisive stand.

OK, I can't resist:
"If Hillary is faking it, I don't care - not so long as she'd govern like a hawk"
It wouldn't be the first time she faked it.
A hawkish President Hillary (Lieberman as VP?) with a Republican controlled Congress -- no Hillary care, and a return to fiscal responsibility brought on by a Congress at loggerheads with the Pres. It could be worse, with a Pres. Kerry.

OH, and Howard Dean needs to resign.

Hillary would no more commit troops to anything than Bill did. Bodies cost you points in the polls and, in Clintonworld, poll standings are all that matter.

This is a tough prediction: Hillary will happily bomb or Tomahawk anything, anywhere, anytime.

Remember; you heard it hear first.

:-)

Stephen,

I about choked on my coffee when I reat this, " If Hillary is faking it, I don't care - not so long as she'd govern like a hawk."

You have to be joking. Blond ambition? This woman is nothing but ambition and calculation. Her goal is to be the first woman elected president. Beyond that nothing. How can you believe anything for even a second that comes out of her mouth?

As stated above, she is a totally poll driven animal and her only convictions are leftist.
She wrote her thesis on Saul Alinsky(sp?), she defended the black panthhers who tortured Alex Rackley when she was at Yale, she was surprised to find the Rose Law Firm files in her closet after two years, need I go on?

I know you're no Hillary fan, but don't even entertain the fantasy that she'd govern like a hawk. Once in office, she'll show her true colors and they are all of one shade, red.

Code Pink and Hillary Red just clash... I thought women knew about these things...lollipop colors are so 80's!

Hillary needs to go back and examine this tactic very carefully. She's talking out of both sides of her mouth. One instance she's screeching that Bush lied. The next she's screeching like a hawk about staying the course. She needs to make up her mind and accept that she's alienated everyone, and only the truly ignorant (those with no short term memory) will reject her wholesale.
It's what happens when you let the rabble rule. Bad decisions and failures in leadership. The Clinton "Trailer-park-a-lot" (their camelot) left this country in really bad shape, and if people are stupid enough to vote for her, believing that she isn't her husband, then we're in HUGE trouble.

I left out an important word...
"She needs to make up her mind and accept that she's alienated everyone, and only the truly ignorant (those with no short term memory) will reject her wholesale."

There should be a NOT in there. Only the truly ignorant (those with no short term memory) will NOT reject her wholesale.

That's to say that the ignorant will vote for her.

If Hillary is faking it, I don't care - not so long as she'd govern like a hawk.

She'd govern like her husband, who would be her #1 political advisor.

Four more years of that we don't need.

As I've said before: my problem with Hillary isn't what she'll say to get elected- the problem is that I can't trust her to follow through.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I think she's too smart to run, given the vast piles of dirt she's got in her closet just waiting to be dragged into the spotlight, and the fact that everyone to the right of Howard Dean would as soon vote for a damp mop in a pail.