Hillary: The Republicans’ Only Chance

Taking the White House back from the Republicans should be like taking candy from a baby after the Bush presidency. In fact, I believe that Hillary Clinton is the ONLY Democratic candidate who could possibly lose to the eventual Republican nominee.

The right-wing is weakened and dispirited after the horrors of Bush. The energy and enthusiasm that made them the most powerful force on the American political landscape has vanished. In fact, if John McCain is the Republican nominee, I suspect that many conservatives will stay home on election day. That is, unless Hillary is his opponent. There is literally nothing, other than the second coming of Jesus Christ, that could galvanize the Right like a Hillary candidacy.

Barack Obama is a solid, intelligent, well-spoken candidate who Republicans have no reason to especially loathe. Given the dissatisfaction of the Republican base, I suspect that in an Obama/McCain match-up, many Republican voters would vote for Obama as a protest-vote against the leadership of their party. In addition, there are many voters on the Left who will never vote for Hillary due to her enthusiastic support of the Iraq invasion. Obama has no such problem. Any anti-war voter, regardless of party affiliation, can whole-heartedly support Obama. In a Hillary/McCain contest, single-issue anti-war voters have no candidate.

Hillary Clinton will lose large numbers of voters on both the far-right and the far-left, and all of those voters could potentially support an Obama candidacy. So, if you're a Democratic voter getting ready for Super Tuesday, I suggest that you think very carefully before voting for Hillary. If there is a Republican sitting in the White House in '09, it will be because Hillary put him there.