October 3, 2007, Pandering pays
What else can you say about the sudden resurgence of the once anemic Hillary fundraising machine, which has caught up with solid debate performances and not-ready-for-primetime party opponents... giving Hillary a lead in quarterly fundraising and a 33% poll lead over Obama.
The Scaife-Wallace-Murdoch media machine (and, btw, Murdoch personally seems to like former Walmart board member Hillary Clinton) now has its knives out for Hillary (hence the perverse obsession with her clothing and cleavage). OTOH, it also looks like a lot of their steam is gone-- they might well be willing to concede 2008. Why else would they mau mau their best candidate as crazy and out of touch with their values (despite his voting record), and then, when their second best candidate emerges, insist that his veneer of Mormonism somehow disqualifies him, thus leaving it to an anemic good old boy TV DA and my fair city's deranged and sadistic former mayor?
And there we have it. My fellow 10-26'er Hillary looks like she's going to move back into the White House. My alleged college classmate Barack has not fared as well as hoped, fumbling a bit in the debates (making intelligent statements about meeting troublesome foreign leaders, for example) and now, missing key votes in the Senate, lest he be pigeonholed as standing for anything. And John Edwards just isn't catching on either; he's a relatively young man who would be well served seeking other office, such as governor or Congressman from North Carolina, if not recapturing his senate seat.
So Hillary it will likely be. Without McCain as a factor, she is no danger whatsoever of not getting my vote (even if I suspect she is somewhere to the right of Mitt Romney, the only Republican left with a real shot at beating her, and unlike her husband, for whom I did not vote before, and would not now). The rap on her is that a lot of people just don't like her; frankly, I actually kind of like her, myself, as a person. She is sincerely intelligent, and has something in mind for what she wants to get done. My thing is that I'm annoyed by her "centrist" and frankly sometimes downright right-wing policies, and her endless triangulating of positions, reminding one of her husband, the guy who IMHO should best be remembered as the man who cost us Congress. But there you have it. (Hey look: none of the other candidates spoke out against Gitmo or the treatment of Padilla now, did they?)
With John Kerry, it took me a little while to reach the point of holding my nose and saying I support him. Hillary is a tad easier to do that with. Obviously, she can implode and create an opening for someone, but that's not how you bet, right now. Until further notice, she appears to be the heir apparent.
And for good measure, every little girl in American can now grow up dreaming that they could marry be elected the President of the United States.
And that alone is a pretty big thing.