My most important piece of advice for Hillary is this -- forget everything she was ever told about "appearing moderate"/"winning the Center"/being an "aggressive woman", etc. Her biggest risk right now is in NOT winning the nomination, not the GE.
At this point, the Republican Party and its frontrunners are imploding. Yes, Iraq is the reason why. And Yes, I told you so. Since 2003, I told you so. And Hillary, indeed ALL Dems need to understand the new reality. The Media has been behind the trend every single step of the way. It has been the misfortune of the Democrats that their consultants can not see farther than the length of their nose. I hope for Hillary's sake she has better consultants now than she did in 2002, 2003 , 2004, 2005, 2006 . . .
Consider the evidence of the stupidity of the Media and the pundits on
Nancy Pelosi, as chronicled by Glenn Greenwald and linked to be kos.
Kos writes:
In all seriousness, the best thing to happen to Democrats the past year is their increased willingness to ignore the mad ramblings of the Beltway Gasbags. Remember, those are the same morons who told us that challenging Lieberman would cost us in November and lose us Jewish votes. They told us that bloggers were "pulling the party to the far left", making it unelectable. They told us that calling for withdrawal from Iraq would make Democrats look "weak on national defense". They told us that the way to win in "conservative" districts was to reject the likes of now-Reps. John Yarmuth and Jerry McNerney in Democratic primaries for more "moderate" Democrats. Heck, we weren't supposed to win the House with the prospects of a "San Francisco liberal" taking over. That was supposedly scaaaaary!
Still my favorite: they told us that electing Howard Dean as chair of the DNC would spell electoral doom. Funny how that worked out.
And now people finally seem to be realizing that those morons don't know a damn thing about what they're talking about. They are worthy of every bit of scorn due their way.
The bolded part is what I argue is at the heart of the Netroots ideology. I put it this way:
We felt, and feel, that the Democratic Party was not fighting for core Democratic values. We felt, and feel, that the Media had accepted the Republican narrative of politics and that Democrats had simply accepted it. We felt, and feel, that organizations like Ed's DLC were undermining the Democratic Party by emphasizing the need to be more like Republicans, or the need to neutralize "values" issues. We felt, and feel, they were simply wrong on the politics.
Hillary has been captive of this DC Establishment Consultant Gasbag Wing of the Democratic Party, and it has hurt her severely on Iraq. Unlike Edwards, who pivoted relatively early on Iraq in 2005, Hillary has been stubbornly stupid on the issue. In August 2005, I wrote:
Finalize the Blame Now: The Politics and Policy on Iraq
by Armando
Fri Aug 26, 2005 at 12:36:56 AM EST
I think this is a critical issue so I wanted to provide an update on the very interestiing discussion going on on this issue. If you read any part of this post, read my excerpt from Digby in extended, priceless. I think I started the blogosphere discussion with this post, which crystallized a lot of my thoughts:
I have a certain pragmatic sympathy for the views of some Democrats reluctant to turn up the volume on the Iraq Debacle, to the decibel of calling for withdrawal. However, I strongly disagree with that view. But I have no sympathy for the view that Bush should not be criticized on Iraq.
My point was that to think about political postures on Iraq (as despicable as that is) in 2002 based on polling in 2002, when the election is in 2004, was/is incredibly stupid. But we saw it again in 2005, on Iraq. Dems woke up in 2006. But Hillary did not.
I predict right now that if Hillary does not wake up on this, she will lose the nomination. Will she? It remains to be seen. But she is getting a second act. She needs to make the most of it.
