Are The Wheels Coming Off the Hillary Express?

It's been a rough couple of days for Hillary Clinton since her drubbing in Iowa. Could the wheels be starting to come off the Hillary Express?

Possibly. However, one should never underestimate the Clinton Machine's capacity for dirty tricks, and willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve its ends.

(Check out the latest on the Gateway Pundit and TFC's comments regarding the same.) http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/01/hillary-booed-in-new-hampshire.html

One must be careful what one wishes for. With an electorate that seems to want change, and no clear front-runner on the Republican side, (Huckabee's showing in Iowa, notwithstanding, November is a long way away), the GOP may want to reconsider its opposition to the Hildabeast.

A Hillary nomination would solidify the base much more so than an Obamination.

An Obamination? Sorry. An Obama nomination. Where was TFC going with this? Oh yeah.

Obama could wind up capturing the Black vote, and all those single/divorced women who see Hillary as the female version of the Second Coming. Though TFC disagrees vehemently with his politics - if elected and manages to effect a wholesale pull-out of Iraq, for instance, the bloodbath that will ensue will be of Biblical proportions - Obama seems like a sincere, likeable fellow, albeit a naive one. If much of the Republican base stays home on election day, he might manage to attract enough independents to win the general election.

The Flying Curmudgeon was going to devote another post to this subject, but this seems as good a time as any delve into this.

Not since Ross Perot ran his aborted campaign in 1992, can TFC recall being so unsure of which candidate to support.

When Perot first entered the race that summer, the civil war in Bosnia was raging, and as TFC mentioned in an earlier post, he was flying missions in support of NATO operations there.

With his straight-forward manner, and "down-home" folksiness, Perot seemed like a man who could "get things done."

In addition to the famous 1979 mission Perot arranged to gain the release of two EDS (Perot's electronics company) employees from an Iranian jail, in 1969 he had attempted to have humanitarian aid delivered to U.S. POWs in Hanoi. http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/long.beach/perot/life.career.shtml

This willingness to take risks in order to do what he felt was right, and his "no-nonsense" manner was very appealing at the time. However, as soon as he "tossed his hat into the ring," the political heat began to rise, and Perot backed out.

Okay, fine. Not everyone can put up with the media scrutiny that comes with being a presidential candidate. But when he later re-entered the race, Perot just seemed wishy-washy.

TFC would vote for George Bush, the Elder.

As it happened, and would be the case four years later, Perot turned out to be a "spoiler," splitting the Republican ticket just enough to allow Bill Clinton a slight edge in the Electoral College.

Some have suggested Perot colluded with Clinton, in an effort to "get back" at the Bushes for a personal grudge he held against the elder George Bush. http://brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/306

The fact is, since Ronald Reagan passed the baton to Bush '41, there has not been a "true conservative" in the White House. Bush the Elder was beholden to the Eastern-establishment wing of the Republican party. Sadly, his son seems to be similarly beholden to less-than-conservative elements of the GOP.

Therein lies the problem with the party of Lincoln - it forgot who "brung it to the dance."

In 1994, when Newt and the Contract With America wrested control of the House away from the Democrats for the first time in a generation, the GOP had been given a mandate by the American people to stop the big government, big spending ways that had become de rigeur in Washington.

Unfortunately, Bill Clinton outsmarted Newt with the government shutdown of '95, and much of the momentum the Republicans had had to enact long-needed changes was gone. In '96, of course, we had scandal-after-scandal, culminating with Clinton's impeachment two years later.

The controversy surrounding the 2000 election need not be delineated here. Suffice it to say, in spite of winning the White House with the narrowest of margins, George W. Bush began his presidency acting as if he had won a clear mandate.

The Flying Curmudgeon admired him greatly for this.

When 9/11 happened, President Bush demonstrated the kind of resolve that only a few of our Presidents have possessed. This was the defining moment in his Presidency. Leadership is about doing what is right, not necessarily what is popular. In TFC 's opinion, in spite of a few missteps, (the early Iraq policy probably the best example of these), when it comes to foreign policy, George W. Bush has been right on the money.

When it comes to domestic issues, however, "43" has been a huge disappointment. Failing to wield the veto pen throughout the first six years of his Presidency, the Republican party received its just reward with the loss of the House and Senate in 2006.

Under the guidance of former Clinton War Room-operative, Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic National Committee shrewdly fielded candidates who ran as social conservatives, thereby capitalizing on the GOP rank-and-file's, (AKA Reagan Republicans), as well as the country's, growing frustration with the Adminstration and Congressional Republican fecklessness.

Two years have passed and we find ourselves in the beginning of the runup to Election Night 2008. In The Flying Curmudgeon's opinion, not a single Republican candidate stands out as "The One."

To one degree or another, every contender for the GOP nomination - Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Romney, Thompson - has something that disqualifies him from being called a "true conservative."

Needless to say, TFC will vote for whichever candidate winds up being the nominee.

However, until one of them (Thompson, perhaps?) starts appearing a little more Reaganesque, those of us in the Vast, Right-Wing Conspiracy might want to consider easing up on Hillary, at least long enough for her to gain the nomination.

TFC