via memeorandum
Lisa Schiffren at the Corner:
Mark is right. It is clear that Obama can't win the Reagan Democrats — for reasons that are cultural rather than specifically racial. The consensus on cable is that there will be massive defections of Hillary voters to McCain in November if Obama is the nominee.What is astonishing is that Hillary Clinton can win them.
Schiffren argues further that part of Sen. Clinton's new wider appeal comes from her ability to smooth out her rough edges and attributes it to learning from the campaign.
On a more specific point, co-blogger Daled Amos questions a response of hers on an answer she gave about defending Israel. While his objections to the response are well made, commenter Joshuapundit observes, that Sen. Clinton has changed regarding Israel and her support is more than mere pandering.
I know that as First Lady, Sen. Clinton stood by and listened as Suha Arafat slandered Israel. Whether it was out of agreement or simply not wanting to offend her hosts isn't clear. But when it comes to Israel she's done more than just cast the right votes on a number of symbolic issues. For example last year she stood introduced Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch when he presented his report on Palestinian textbooks. Is this transformation dictated by political necessity? Maybe. But she has clearly changed.
And she doesn't demand to eat her waffles in peace.
Posted by SoccerDad at April 23, 2008 6:06 AM | TrackBackThe first thing I did last night was send Hillary a donation, hope you supporters did too so she can compete in the upcoming elections. You can't do much without funds.
Posted by: Hugh at April 23, 2008 8:50 AMAs I mentioned in a comment to the version of the post on Soccer Dad, while Hillary is very gung-ho now about how she as President will attack Iran if they use nuclear arms against Israel, keep in mind that last year we heard the following from Hillary about Iran:
"Clinton then reiterated her position that the president does not have authority to launch an attack on Iran and said she was working on legislation with Democratic Virginia Sen. Jim Webb to put that into law."
I'm just not convinced that her support for Israel is authentic.
In any case, Caroline Glick explains that Clinton's deterrence model is no more effective than Obama's plan for dialog:
"The second reason that basing US policy towards Iran on a deterrence model will likely fail is because Iran's leadership has made clear that is not necessarily concerned about the survivability of Iran. From Ayatollah Khomeini to Ayatollah Khamenei to Ali Rafsanjani to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's leadership has made clear that they are not Iranian patriots but global Islamic revolutionaries. Given their millenarian, apocalyptic view of their country's purpose in world affairs, there is good reason to believe that a strategy based on some form of mutually assured destruction would have only marginal impact on Iran's decision-makers."
Clinton's idea sounds good, but it is canned and does not take into account the context of the country and culture she is talking about.
Posted by: Daled Amos at April 23, 2008 12:09 PMThe most important thing to remember is not to believe anything that Hillary says. This is where she has all of her supporters. If you go back to the Clinton years in the White House ( and even before that) and then follow through her time in the Senate, and now through this campaign, you will see how fervently she lies, misspeaks, what ever you want to call it.
It will truly be a sad day in our future when we will once again be explaining to the children of this country the immorality of the Clintons.
I did credit your response to Hillary's Iran comments, "While his objections to the response are well made ..."
I don't disagree with your criticism in this specific case. I just thought it right to point out that her support for Israel has been more than just voting right on a number of bills - she's actually gone beyond symbolic votes. She has done some things pro-Israel.
I wouldn't suggest that she does these things altruistically. But she does do them. Many senators are content to just voting the right way and pick of AIPAC's certification. She's gone beyond that.
Posted by: soccer dad at April 23, 2008 9:41 PM