Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Hey all - expect low posting the next few days. They are refurbishing our cubicles, and as such I am like a pack-rat, moving from cubicle to cubicle, one step ahead of the law. Well maybe a few steps. The laws not actually looking for me so it's hard to measure the distance between me and the law.

Anyway I do want to post some thoughts on Hillary Clinton. I think she's probably an OK Senator, but I don't want her to get the Presidential Nomination. I can point to a few practical reasons - she botched the best chance we have of getting health care, her position on the war is awful, she hasn't shown the kind of leadership in the senate that I would like to see.

But my biggest reason for not being keen on her getting the nomination is largely selfish. Her run is going to bring out the worst in the Republican Party. They hate her. She makes them angry and crazed in a way that John Kerry or Al Gore didn't. And we all remember how vicious those campaigns were. Their response to her run will make what Kerry got look like a walk in the park.

Part of their hatred of her is connected to the fact that she's a strong woman who doesn't fit the mold of what a strong woman should be (i.e. secondary to her husband). They don't like her because of the type of woman she is.

That's awful. But the flip side is that I don't like how she has failed to fight for liberalism. She's a moderate at best, and on foreign policy there's not all that much different between her and President Bush. Domestically she'd be better, I'm sure.

So I find myself in a situation of wanting to defend Hillary Clinton against the slings and arrows of some truly despicable people, while being quite conscious of the fact that Hillary Clinton's not fighting for my values and will sell me and most of the left out for political advantage.

And that just annoys me - I wish she would choose not to run (although I recognize that she has every right to do so). Anyway those are my thoughts on this issue - and I expect I'll be writing variations of this article up until she gets the nomination.