# Hillary Clinton's popularity ... explain it to me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 30, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050 "2003-11-30T12:22:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/61 "2003-12-02T04:23:45Z")
For anyone who’s interested, click the below link. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=226639](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=226639) ---
**Author:** ![Chicago\_Faucet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chicago_faucet/32/13910_2.png) [@Chicago\_Faucet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicago_Faucet)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/62 "2003-12-02T18:10:44Z")
Why is everyone ganging up on poor Lord Ashtar? Not that anyone asked, but I happen to agree with Lord, 100 percent. I believe that Lord has been factually correct in everything that they have said so far. I also think that Elvis’ argument holds no water whatsoever, and they are grasping for some minimal amount of face-saving exit. Splitting hairs: Redistribution Of Wealth vs. Lack Of Private Property. Meh. Same difference. One is the vehicle, and the other is the engine that powers the vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/63 "2003-12-02T18:25:31Z")
You don’t get it either. The question was the level of popular support for a universal health care program. LA tried to refute it with essentially namecalling instead of fact, and now you’re trying the same simple dismissal but with less namecalling. Neither is, unfortunately, an actual argument. ---
**Author:** ![OliverH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/278dde/32.png) [@OliverH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverH)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/64 "2003-12-02T19:25:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chicago Faucet \* > \*\*Why is everyone ganging up on poor Lord Ashtar? Not that anyone asked, but I happen to agree with Lord, 100 percent. I believe that Lord has been factually correct in everything that they have said so far. I also think that Elvis’ argument holds no water whatsoever, and they are grasping for some minimal amount of face-saving exit. > > Splitting hairs: Redistribution Of Wealth vs. Lack Of Private Property. Meh. Same difference. One is the vehicle, and the other is the engine that powers the vehicle. \*\* Yeah, right. So you DO think that the Roman Empire was socialist. Thanks for making that clear. ---
**Author:** ![OliverH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/278dde/32.png) [@OliverH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverH)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/65 "2003-12-02T19:27:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lord Ashtar \* > \*\ ***OliverH** , I want to thank you for squashing my ignorance as to what socialism really is. > > Since you seem to be a shoot-from-the-hip kind of guy, maybe you will answer a question which I posed to **ElvisL1vis** a several times, yet which he failed to answer. > > Do you believe Hillary Clinton to be a centrist? \*\* Well, let it be told to you from someone from a country half of which actually WAS socialist for practically half a century: If you think Hillary Clinton is a leftist, you haven’t seen “left” yet. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/66 "2003-12-02T19:57:37Z")
All this talk about whether or not Hillary Clinton is a centralist merely reaffirms my theory that the Clintons were a pair of moderates who got tarred by the Republican Smear Machine™ as radical lefties. **Chicago Faucet’s** latest post demonstrates that the bullshit sticks around even when the facts are evident. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/67 "2003-12-02T20:55:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OliverH \* > \*\*If you think Hillary Clinton is a leftist, you haven’t seen “left” yet. \*\* If that’s the case, then can you give me an example of someone who is a leftist and what it was that made them a leftist? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/68 "2003-12-02T21:59:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lord Ashtar \* > \*\*If that’s the case, then can you give me an example of someone who is a leftist and what it was that made them a leftist? \*\* Well, up until around 97, [Tony Blair](http://abcnews.go.com/reference/bios/blair.html) had some tendencies that you’d describe as “hard left.” > [@](#): > > He used his new position to strike a blow in 1995 to the sacred leftist Clause IV of the Labor constitution advocating “common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.” Sadly, he’s since turned into a poodle. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/69 "2003-12-02T23:08:49Z")
Her popularity? Well, to me it’s that cute little curvy shape of hers with those wide hips and little heart shaped face. I’m not all that fond of her politics, and she’s a few years older than I am, but I do want some of that. Yes I do! [Oh that lucky man!](http://www.hofburg.at/images/hillar.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyYen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnnyYen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyYen)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/70 "2003-12-03T12:27:59Z")
What Mr.Blair actually did in 1995 was to _remove_ the clause of Labour’s constitution calling for ownership of the means of production. Didn’t mean much in practical terms but was very symbolic for Labour members (I was one at the time). I find it immensely amusing when polls say “75% of Americans think Tony Blair would be a good President”. Yeah right! Pro gun-control, pro-nationalised Health Service, married to a Catholic yet still pro-choice - he’d go down great in the Midwest. He probably couldn’t get to be junior senator for Vermont for God’s sake. Oh, and redistribution of wealth does NOT equate with banning Private Property. Here in the UK - and in most other industrialised countries - we have both, and even the most radical lefties don’t want to remove the latter. You can own all the private property you want - a house, a car, a printworks, pretty much anything, either individually or through shares in companies - the redistribution comes in when you make money from these things, the government takes a percentage and gives it to poor people through benefits, infrastructure etc. Faucet, you’re confusing Social Democracy with Totalitarian Communism. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050/71 "2003-12-03T13:43:03Z")
> [@](#): > > What Mr.Blair actually did in 1995 was to remove the clause… I plead Brain Death. -Sorry about that, knew he was a bit of a lefty and misread the article. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-clintons-popularity-explain-it-to-me/216050.md?page=3)