Do Republicans Want Hillary to be the Nominee?

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by FAW, Mar 14, 2015.

  1. FAW

    FAW Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    As one that wants a Republican to win in 2016, I find myself torn as to whether I want Hillary to be the Democrat nominee. To be clear, I despise her and her politics, would hate for her to win the presidency, and in that sense I do not want her to run. I am approaching this more in the sense of whom is easiest to beat in a general election.

    A strong part of me believes that her political skills are way over rated. People seem to think that her and Bill were a package deal, and assume that both possess the same abilities. While we can never really know what goes on behind closed doors, my gut tells me that Hillary was the more legalistic, stonewall, parse every word advocate behind the scenes, and Bill was the man with the Midas touch and endless charisma that was able to pull off the entire charade. Ideology aside, Bill was probably the most charismatic, skilled politician in our lifetime. He had a likeability that could get him out of almost any jam. He could take the load of baggage that accompanies the Clinton's, and almost turn that into a strength, because his charismatic defense would successfully paint his opponents as being unfairly out to get him.

    Lets be clear, Hillary does NOT possess even a shred of Bill's charisma. In fact, she distinctly lacks that trait. The only thing charismatic about a potential Hillary run is that you will once again have Bill out on the campaign trail ( which does worry me), but I am not so sure that is enough to carry her to victory. If Bill Clinton never existed, Hillary doesn't really possess the typical traits that you would see in a presidential candidate. She is in the national eye solely because of her affiliation with the Clinton presidency, and NOT because of her individual political skill. If Hillary wins the nomination, she will be the one defending the Clinton baggage, and with her lack of charisma and typical traits you see in presidential candidates, that may very well be a losing formula. I believe that Bill may be able to help her deflect some of the heat, but at some point in the general election, she is going to have to stand on her own two feet, and I do not believe she has the political moxie and skill to be able to do that.

    People grossly overestimated her in 2008, and I believe they grossly overestimate her now. She has been essentially coronated as the nominee to be in two different elections, and in truth, in neither of those situations has she done anything to earn that designation, other than being a novelty in that she is the former first lady. When it is all said and done, I do not believe that is enough to carry her to victory, especially when she will have to defend all of the Clinton Baggage in the process.

    Upon further reflection, with all factors considered, my sincere hope is that Hillary wins the nomination. I am not saying she will lose in a landslide, because the truth is whomever is the nominee from both sides, the election is going to predictably be decided by a few percentage points. In the race for those few swing percentage points however, I do not believe Hillary possesses the skill to prevail. I know that on the surface leftists love all things Clinton, but for the reasons stated above, it is still very likely that she will lose in the primaries. As a rightist, that is not the outcome that I desire. My hope is that she marches through the Democrat primaries unvetted and unchallenged.
     
  2. Lee S

    Lee S Moderator Staff Member Past Donor

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    Interesting thought, FAW. I have mixed feelings about this, as well. The reason I wouldn't want her nominated is name recognition and she will appeal to the most uninformed Americans. For example, she may get credit for being the Secretary of State by the barely informed public without looking at how woeful her tenure was.

    The reasons I want her to run are:

    Corruption
    That whole congenital liar thing mentioned by William Safire
    Ineptitude
    "What does it matter"
    A scandal a day
    HillaryCare
    Whitewater
    Married to a rapist
    There have been polls that said 45% of all voters would never vote for her.
    Shrillary
    Possible felonious e-mail scandal


    As an opponent, what's not to like in her?
     
  3. logical1

    logical1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Now with all the lies, all the scandals, and now this illegal e-mail BS, most republicans would love to run against Hillary. She would be like shooting fish in a barrel!!!!!
     
  4. Karma Mechanic

    Karma Mechanic Well-Known Member

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    I am a politically active Democrat who cares less about what is going to happen in the Democratic primary than every Republican on this site. RELAX It will pan out.
     
  5. FAW

    FAW Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Are you trying to imply that the upcoming primaries should not be discussed on a political message board? Should we bar any discussion about Hillary, Jeb, Walker, Elizabeth Warren and the like? What exactly is your point?

    As far as your admonition to relax, as the person whom started this thread, I can ASSURE you, that I am rather relaxed, and just interested in having a discussion on a topical issue. There is absolutely not one shred of panic, stress etc. in my words. With that backdrop in mind, to chide that everyone needs to RELAX ( in capital letters), really doesn't make one iota of sense.
     
  6. Cautiously Conservative

    Cautiously Conservative New Member Past Donor

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    I think the GOP has a very good chance of beating Hillary, but should Martin O'Malley run - I think it'd be a tight race. Keep in mind that Hillary looked pretty good this time 8 years ago - then Obama crushed her. Hillary has the "biotch" problem. Her face, voice, demeanor all turn folks off when she gets angry. It makes her look petty and small.

    Add to that Hillary is in a world of hurt over not just the Sec of State scandals but also the scandals she was a part of when Bill was in office, and I think she is very beatable.

    One more thing - Obama isn't backing Hillary too much. There is a lot of bad blood between the two families and she can't expect a lot of support for him.
     
  7. Gatewood

    Gatewood Well-Known Member

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    Well . . . I supported her during the 2008 primaries and then I left the Dem Party after Obama's behind the scenes political operatives and the corrupt DNC and equally corrupt Mainstream Media essentially colluded to force her out and hand the nomination over to a first term U.S. senator with zero meaningful national level experience. Then I held my nose and reluctantly voted for McCain in 2008 and just as reluctantly voted for Romney in 2012. All of which means that today I am neither pro-Democratic Party nor pro-Republican Party. I am anti-Obama. But for 2016 only I am also anti-Dem Party for the office of president, period.

    Why? I firmly believe that after eight straight years of one party holding the Executive Branch in its anti-ethical clutches that the other party needs to take over at least for four years in order to begin re-balancing the inevitable effects and side-effects ideologically based domestic and foreign policy decision making and implementations. So for the sake of ideological balance alone I figure that at the end of 2016 it will be good for this nation (for a given value of 'good') for the GOP to take over the Executive Branch . . . otherwise I would again be voting for Hillary -- well probably I would so be doing, that is.

    But can she win as she is today? No . . . I don't think that she can, and I believe that based mostly on your assessment of her -- of which I am in general agreement. She has never been the sort of charismatic person that Bill has always been and she has never been able to fake being what she's not in a manner similar to how Barack Obama faked being a man of ethical or practical abilities substance when in reality he was actually all IMAGE and no real substance. Alas, Hillary is pretty much what she appears to be; someone always struggling to be a bit more effective and competent than she was born to be.

    Where we disagree is in regards to timing. I believe that had it not been for the artificial 'rise' of Barack Obama -- who was inserted into the 2008 primaries process by a very powerful and influential political faction cabal -- then it would have been Hillary instead who would have been carried on the shoulders of a generally worshipful and LOYAL Mainstream Media to victory over John McCain in 2008. I think that had she won six years ago then indeed (as she was an experienced U.S. senator and as she was Bill Clinton trained to be an effective president from day one and as she did KNOW what Bill did and did not do as president that turned out to be either effective or not) she would have been a competent president from day one and be competent to the extent that as likely as not today the Right would actually be genuinely worried that 2016 would witness her vice president (a promising fellow by name of Barack Obama) becoming president in his turn after seasoning for eight years in national level politics.

    But now, today? I think that the Media shine that the MSM placed on her during her stint as Secretary of State has already faded away and that she is too damn spiritually and emotionally tired or disgusted with politics to pretend to give a damn if citizens perceive her as an uplifting candidate or as a semi-bitter and soured senior citizen type who's become angry at the world in general . . . and that demeanor is self-defeating. So today I believe that she no longer has what it takes to pull off a personality scam for long enough to both win the Dem Party primaries and then continue the scam long enough to win the presidential contest itself. But by her pretending to be intending to run for the office -- and indeed despite MY assessment of today's Hillary she might actually intend to run after all -- she is effectively preventing any other Dem hopeful contestant from getting enough meaningful support (politically or financially) to gear up for a run.

    So the best thing for the GOP that Hillary could do would be to continue the sham of intending to run for the office to the very last minute and then announce that 'due to health reasons' she's decided not to run after all. That would leave the Dem Party's field of contestants and the DNC in political and fiscal shambles.

    I don't know about you but I am enjoying watching the approaching Dem Party political disaster gradually unfold before the nation's eyes. So for that reason if no other, "Yay Hillary! You go girl!"
     
  8. TomFitz

    TomFitz Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely not!

    They have no bench, and they know it.

    People took to Obama in 2008 because they were war weary, and worried about the economy (by election time, their fears were justfied!), and they didn't want to sit through the tiresome cycle of everlasting "gotcha" politics that the GOP and right wing media were going to feed them. Most of the public knew that there was little or nothing to the so called scandals of the Clinton era, and they just didn't want to hear it.

    They still don't want to hear it.

    Which is why the noise machine is working hard to come up with new material.

    There is nothing to this e-mail thing.

    And I doubt that there will be much to anything else the GOP manufactures in the coming months.

    There are some critical differences between the largely trumped up scandals that partisan media constantly threw at the Clintons, and the scandals that plagued the Bush adminstration

    For one, most of the Bush scandals were quite real. The Bush adminstration was one of the most corrupt administrations in US history, from top to bottom.

    More Bush appointees resigned under threat of investigation, subpoena, indictment and conviction than any other Adminstration in US history, save for the second Grant Adminstration. Nearly 100% of these were related to conduct while in office.

    There were a lot of forced resignations during the Clinton years, as well. But practically none of them had anything to do with their conduct in office.

    The other difference is the way the two adminstration handled themselves.

    When Dick Cheney and the Bush White House were caught deleting year's worth of e-mails while in the midst of ongoing investigations, they simply ignored it.

    The Clintons have generally not done that.

    Of course, the exception is the impeachment, which Clinton completely ignored once the trail started.

    The GOP had already lost politically, having lost seats in the previous fall's mid term elections over it, and Gingrich was about to be exposed for his hypocricy and forced out. The outcome of the trial was not in doubt either.
     
  9. Casper

    Casper Banned at Members Request Past Donor

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    They Want her to be the one they have to run against, sure they do. That is why there is an open campaign to attack her is each and every way possible so that she will drop out or be hated by the time of the election. The Cons are scared to death of her, their own actions prove it daily.
    View attachment 34214
     

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