And speaking of 2008, for those of us who greatly admire Hillary Clinton but don’t want her to run for president, it’s troublesome to hear her joke about it, even a little.
Hillary Clinton didn’t exactly announce her candidacy for president last night in a speech at Tufts University. But just a hint of her ambitions in 2008 sparked applause and laughter from a crowd of 5,000, when Clinton praised the Afghan woman who recently ran for president.
“A remarkable feat considering the history,” Clinton said of Massouda Jalal, 41, as the crowd erupted. “One that put Afghanistan’s women ahead of America’s women.”
Innocent comment or coy clue? Hard to say, but she was probably encouraged by her audience’s response. What’s important to note about that response, however, was that it came at Tufts at a Bluer-than-Blue crowd.
To be sure, Clinton’s enthusiastic audience had stretched a city block and waited in icy air to hear her speak. But this isn’t a sign of national political support.
Kevin Drum posed the question to his readers the other day, asking whether Clinton should run and whether she could win. After skimming over 300+ responses, I think I could count on one hand those who thought her presidential aspirations were a good idea. And this is a decidedly liberal, Dem audience. Josh Marshall isn’t excited by the prospects either.
All of this got me thinking about why I don’t want her to run in ’08, despite my sincere respect and admiration for her.
First and foremost, I keep looking at the 2004 map, looking for states Hillary could win four years from now that Kerry lost last week. I can’t find any.
But, her fans might say, she’d rally the Dem base better than Kerry did. I don’t believe that at all. The left was incredibly, almost unusually, united this year, and Dem turnout in all the key areas exceeded the Kerry campaign’s projections. Could we count on Clinton to do even better? I don’t see how.
If anything, I suspect the inverse would be true. Rove’s approach to the election was successful in driving conservative turnout to heretofore unheard-of levels, but I have a hunch a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign could boost it even further. It’s an example of the 2004 dynamic with the parties switching hats — the right hates Hillary more than they love anyone.
With this in mind, I see her presidential campaign, if there is one, as a disaster in the making. It would drive GOP fundraising through the roof, embolden right-wing activists, and generate the kind of party unity the Republicans can usually only dream of.
You’ll notice, by the way, that the only people who were really driving the Hillary in ’04 talk were conservatives. There was a good reason for that.