GOP Views Clinton As Virtually Unbeatable

The Politico: Many Republican Politicians See N.Y. Senator's White House Win As Inevitable

(The Politico)  By The Politico's Carrie Sheffield and Jim VandeHei.

---

What many conservatives regard as the nightmare scenario — President Hillary Rodham Clinton — is increasingly seen by veteran Republican politicians and strategists as a virtual inevitability.

In GOP circles, the Democratic front-runner is seen as so strong, and the political climate for Republicans so hostile, that many influential voices — including current and former lawmakers, and veterans of President Bush's campaigns — have grown despairing. These partisans describe a political equivalent of the stages of grief, starting with denial, then resentment and ending with acceptance.

For now, these Republicans say the party needs good luck, including a change of fortune in Iraq, and a revival of organization and leadership in the conservative movement to avert another Clinton presidency.

"If the conservative movement and Republicans don't understand how massive the Clinton coalition is, she will be the next president," former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said in an interview last week after giving a private talk to GOP lawmakers. Clinton will win, he added, "if we don't use everything available to us and motivate our base, the people that believe in us."

In his closed-door comments to conservative House members, DeLay warned of the wealth and political potency of the Clinton fundraising network.

"We do have to get our act together, and I'd agree with Tom DeLay on that," said Rep. Steve King of Iowa. "At this point, short an inspirational Republican nominee, then I would agree that it's going to be very difficult to beat Hillary if she wins the nomination."

Those comments echoed those by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last month on Fox News. "I think you have to start with the idea that, if we don't get Baghdad solved, and if we continue to drift, that it will be very hard for a Republican to win next year, no matter what our values and what our beliefs," he said. "And, second, you have to believe that, at the present moment, she is the odds-on favorite to be the Democratic nominee."

Even some well-connected outside advisers to Bush said in interviews they essentially accept this analysis. These strategists are advising Republicans that it will be next to impossible to win the White House if Bush's popularity remains so low and public disgust with the war so high. Beyond the polls, some said there are gaps between the organizational prowess of the Clinton operation and any of the Republicans currently competing for the nomination.

Jack Oliver, former deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Clinton is a prodigious fundraiser who can be beaten only with a specific and optimistic vision. "The challenge for Republicans is to avoid the temptation of just being against her," Oliver said. "It's not enough to keep the White House."

The comments are striking at several levels. The flagging conservative morale about beating Clinton comes at the same time many Democrats regard the New York senator as newly vulnerable because of the competition she faces from Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and skepticism she faces from activists opposed to the Iraq war. On the Republican side, there is a disconnect between grass-roots, red-state Republicans and the mostly Washington-based operatives who surround Bush. While conservative publishers and organizers have made a fortune off the loathing for Clinton among workaday Republicans, people around the president have always expressed a grudging respect for her wiles and willpower and have long warned that she would be a formidable national candidate.

Several top Republicans said the fears that Clinton could be a prohibitive favorite have contributed to overall blahs that activists feel about the GOP field. One presidential adviser said that Clinton dread was actually helping Republican leaders stomach candidates who might otherwise be unacceptable. "People are willing to sacrifice some of their ideological principles to win," the adviser said.

The conservative movement, ascendant for much of the Bush presidency, is now divided and dispirited. GOP leaders report that it is harder than ever to organize Republicans around a common cause and that Democrats have made progress in recent years in rebuilding the infrastructure of their party. In this mood of malaise, the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency is one prod leaders use to shock conservative troops into action.

Some Republicans say a Clinton presidency might even be good for Republicans. "If Americans actually have to witness and live through a Hillary Clinton presidency, it will remind us why we are fundamentally traditional conservatives in America. We believe in hard work, strong families," said Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla.

Conservatives are slowly starting to organize against Clinton, but the effort lacks the vitality and vitriol of the attacks on the former first lady in the 1990s. Dick Morris, the former top adviser to President Bill Clinton, is raising money to help produce a documentary critical of Clinton. Morris has argued publicly that Clinton is poised to win in 2008.

The movie is being made with Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group run by longtime Clinton opponents David N. Bossie and Floyd G. Brown. "Hillary Movie Coming Soon!" says the group's Web site, which solicits credit-card donations to "help finance this movie." The site brags that the film "will expose the truth about her conflicts in the past and her liberal plot for the future."

Former House member John LeBoutillier of New York is heading up the Stop Hillary PAC, which has run an anti-Clinton ad in Iowa. The group has grabbed headlines but not a lot of money for its efforts.

Reflecting the views of many well-known Republicans, DeLay thinks a Clinton juggernaut may provide the flattening the party needs in order to be reborn in Reagan's mold. "Hillary Clinton as president may be the best thing that ever happened to the conservative movement and the Republican Party," says the man known as the Hammer. "I mean, Bill Clinton as president was the best thing that ever happened to the Republican Party. It was because he was president that we gained the majority in 1995." And he would know.

[newsjeff-2009]

I would like to add one comment that some might view as a plus for Hillary Clinton: I just read that the top 10 states for divorce rates just happen to be "Bush voting,red-republican,Bible Belt States". It is funny how Bush and Cheney and many other GOPers claim to be for "tradional marriage", when over half of the marriages in 10 of the southern bible belt republican states end in divorce anyway. If you want to know what I found out was the top 10 lowest divorce rate states, you are probably thinking I am going to say that some the 10 states are blue democrat voting states, guess what? That is correct!! Look up the divorce rates for New York,Massachucetts,and several other northeastern New England States. Maybe before next election year, voters should find out if Massachucetts and New York are as Bad and liberal as the GOP claims. Seems to me like Massachucetts just made a universal health insurance plan for all residents a year ago, lower divorce rate, heck I am tempted to move there and just spend the extra money required for warmer clothes.

[wayfedup]

UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE, I MEANT.

[wayfedup]

Edwards cant win because a majority of people dont want the universal healthcare program forced upon us. (what happened to having our own choices)
And he will try to accomplish this by raising the taxes on the rich which will not help him get any electoral votes from the rich.....


anopinion1... SPEAKING from completely FIRSTHAND past personal experience; WE ALREADY HAVE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. If YOU have insurance, and someone less fortunate does not; when the less fortunate person has a catastrophic health crisis, the HOSPITAL/DOCTOR will PAD YOUR BILL with his. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. My wife was in a horrific auto accident in 1996 in which she suffered massive closed-head injuries, and had to be life-flighted to the hospital. (I HAVE INSURANCE, by the way)
When I asked for an itemized bill, I recieved it a few days later; I noticed that MY INSURANCE was billed for not ONE LIFE-FLIGHT, but THREE!!!
My insurance company negotiated with the hospital, and PAID FOR TWO OF THEM! Healthcare in this country is ALIVE AND WELL!

[hayden202]

Here's a thought: Maybe these carefully timed comments about Hillary's juggernaut status are actually part of a larger Republican campaign strategy to scare people into voting their way. By all means, let's wave the threat of President Hillary in people's faces! It is a time-tested strategy that this administration has resorted to time and again; it is this strategy that started the war in Iraq. The comments made by leading Republicans about the Unstoppable Hillary are not actual worry. They are aimed instead at moderates on both sides of the fence. It is an attempt to scare back all the votes they lost in the 2006 election, and maybe to gain a few along the way. It may be more subtle than usual, but it's still scare tactics.

[wayfedup]

Remember most republicans unlike most democrats don't go around blowing their horns all day, adorning their cars with political bs bumperstickers, etc...until it counts, ie until voting day.
Posted by badaxmofo at 01:14 PM : Feb 07, 2007


Come on, now, badax... I see ten to ONE, MORE BUSH/CHENEY, and "W" bumper stickers than I HAVE EVER seen democratic stickers.
You and I had a good , decent, and CIVIL discussion just LAST evening, and here you are, at it once more!

[wayfedup]

If nothing else, it would expose her as the lying monster that she is.

Posted by mike71067 at 01:31 PM : Feb 07, 2007


Note to mike71067... she's about the same as comparing the GEICO gekko to GODZILLA(BUSH) in terms of who's the biggest LIAR, BUD!

[wayfedup]

Who would have thought that the republicans would double the size of the government and spend us into bankruptcy.
Posted by timetrips1 at 02:32 PM : Feb 07, 2007


Answer: ME

[wayfedup]

For now, these Republicans say the party needs good luck, including a change of fortune in Iraq, and a revival of organization and leadership in the conservative movement to avert another Clinton presidency.


How the HE11 could that POSSIBLY compare to two Bush Presidents?

[frankbowers]

you know what the idiot said, Bring her on I will whup her, just bring her on. i remember the landing on the AC Carier in 03. The RNC will die if she get the nomination.
The best of good byes Frank A. Bowers a reg. republican in Austin, TX

[hobbs5718]

Hillary? Inevitable? Just in time for Valentine's.

[gunownerdan]

Whoever is the best wh0re for big money will be the next president.

[gunownerdan]

Whoever is the best *** for big money will be the next president.

[kyle9051]

Bush Jr. really screwed up in office for the past 8 years, but I still don't advocate voting for Democrats based on party alone. Even though I lean much more on the liberal side, Clinton is way too polarizing, and I just fear that she's going to separate Dems and Reps even more than the heated rivalries going on right now. Too extreme in my opinion, and I just think that too much extremism in the opposite direction from what we got now will be counterproductive. For now, I'd lean my support towards Barack Obama with Rudy Guliani as a somewhat distant second.

[frankly6]

We'll always be voting for the lesser of two evils until the corrupting influence of big money is taken out of the political proccess. The only way to do that is to publicly fund campaigns. It would be far less expensive than funding the pork that Congressmen use to pay back their contributors.

[frankly6]

GunOwnerDan

You may be right to some degree about the similarity between Dems and the GOP. But I don't know that I buy the idea that the Clintons and Bush Jr. are friends.

[gunownerdan]

The democrat and republican duopoly has successfully and completely hijacked the American government. The Bushes and Clintons are close family friends. OPEN YOUR EYES BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

[themartyred]

Here's the link for TOP 2008 Contenders Stickers for your car -- cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[themartyred]

Frankly my dear, I don't care WHO'S running, but I won't vote for a fake Republican every again. They've lied repeatedly in the Senate and the White House about the reasons for this ungodly WAR and continued it to the tune of BILLIONS in profit for their good good friends at Halliburton and other defense contractors!

And don't get me started on their BOTCHED KATRINA response, and allow that Florida predator to remain in charge of the lost children committee when they knew he was bonking 15 yr old pages!

ANY DEMOCRAT IN 08 IS GREAT!

ps - did I mention the gigantic deficit and the difference between the rich & poor is growing?

[bluestardad]

What a bunch of Saps the Democrats are! The GOP thinks Clinton cannot win the General Election and wants her as the Democratic Candidate as this gives them the best chance for Victory with their Rovian operatives tactics! Wake Up!

[huskerarmy]

"Some of you people..."

Please dispense with the "you people" carp. We don't much appreciate that GOPer broad brush around these parts. So if you would please identify which poster you are patronizing, it would be much appreciated. Thank you.