Lessee, what do we have?
- Her overall political views.
How different are they from Dick Gephardt’s, or from other politicians who have some bona fides as being from the Democratic wing of the Democrats? But it’s Hillary who gets the continual flak.
- Socialized medicine, specifically.
Ditto.
- Lack of self-doubt.
Are the Hillary-haters also bothered by the current occupant of the White House, who seems to have equally little doubt as he institutes sweeping changes with pretty obvious risks? (Anyone recall Reagan’s self-doubts, for that matter? Didn’t think so.)
Besides, what’s the evidence of Hillary’s lack of self-doubt - as opposed to merely healthy self-confidence? Our Prez has faced situations - be it slashing government revenues repeatedly, or taking on new nation-building projects while old ones were already in trouble - wehre self-doubt ought to have kicked in, yet he shows no traces of it. Where’s the situation in Hillary’s life where she should have had less than religious certainty in her actions, but didn’t?
- Her willingness to take advantage of her celebrity status.
Ditto. George W. Bush went, in six years, from being the front man for the owners of a baseball team, to President of the United States. Whatever you might think of his job as President, the story of how he got there is overwhelmingly a story of adroit use of his family name.
- Ruthlessness.
Sorry, folks, but she’s small potatoes here. Again, look at the current Administration. Going all-out after even their closest Democratic allies in the Senate, when election time rolled around. Putting the heat on lobbyist firms to only hire Republicans. A willingness to smear anyone who disagrees with them with the ‘soft on terrorism’ brush. These guys play hardball. (Travel office firings? Anyone care to explain how anyone, let alone the GOP, justifies this as an issue?! Sheesh.)
- ‘Will to power’.
Again, see George W. Bush.
- The pic with “religion is immoral” on the poster.
So? It was bad cropping. She’s a Methodist, fercryinoutloud.
- No sense of humor.
Lots of big-name politicians seem to fall flat here, on both sides of the divide. Does either Dick Gephardt or Dick Cheney have much of a sense of humor? Lord knows I’d hate to see what passes for John Ashcroft’s sense of humor, but the problem with him is more the lack of self-doubt.
The reason I bring up Dubya and friends, besides the aptness of the comparisons, is that the Hillary-haters are (with rare exceptions) manifestly not Dubya-haters. And the fact that her views aren’t that out of line with those of other leading Democrats suggests that it’s more than just “I like my bastard; I hate yours”.
It just seems to me that the reason Hillary’s become such a lightning rod is in fact that she’s a powerful, skilled, and attractive woman who happens to be of the other party from those who have a media hate machine perpetually cranked up and ready to go. If John Kerry believed exactly the same things as she does (and chances are they agree on upwards of 95% of everything important), this wouldn’t be happening to him.
There’s just something wondrously right-PC about bashing Hillary. You go to the Pizza Parlor or lots of other conservative MBs, and you don’t need to explain why you’re dumping on Hillary; a backhand slam at her while you’re discussing something barely related to her is just par for the course: we all hate Hillary here; we don’t even have to think of why we hate her; it’s just culturally ingrained, like not smoking marijuana in Muskogee. It’s part of the political correctness of that side of the culture.
But yeah, I think it has to do with being a woman. Sheesh, you can even see it in recent conservative upset with Sandra O’Connor: it would be a very different reaction, IMHO, if a man were in that swing position on the court, and voting their way about three times out of every four.
