Will Hillary Hurt The Rest Of The Ticket?
Democrats Worry Sen. Clinton Is Too Polarizing For The Party's Success
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Photo
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., center, holds hands with Texas Sen. Mario Gallegos, left, and U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, right, as she campaigns in Houston on Saturday Aug. 11, 2007. (AP)
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Photo Essay
Hillary Rodham Clinton
The Democratic Senator from New York and former first lady sets her sights on the White House.
They say the former first lady may be too polarizing for much of the country. She could jeopardize the party's standing with independent voters and give Republicans who otherwise might stay home on Election Day a reason to vote, they worry.
In more than 40 interviews, Democratic candidates, consultants and party chairs from every region pointed to internal polls that give Clinton strikingly high unfavorable ratings in places with key congressional and state races.
"I'm not sure it would be fatal in Indiana, but she would be a drag" on many candidates, said Democratic state Rep. Dave Crooks of Washington, Ind.
Unlike Crooks, most Democratic leaders agreed to talk frankly about Clinton's political coattails only if they remained anonymous, fearing reprisals from the New York senator's campaign. They all expressed admiration for Clinton, and some said they would publicly support her fierce fight for the nomination — despite privately held fears.
The chairman of a Midwest state party called Clinton a nightmare for congressional and state legislative candidates.
A Democratic congressman from the West, locked in a close re-election fight, said Clinton is the Democratic candidate most likely to cost him his seat.
A strategist with close ties to leaders in Congress said Democratic Senate candidates in competitive races would be strongly urged to distance themselves from Clinton.
"The argument with Hillary right now in some of these red states is she's so damn unpopular," said Andy Arnold, chairman of the Greenville, S.C., Democratic Party. "I think Hillary is someone who could drive folks on the other side out to vote who otherwise wouldn't."
"Republicans are upset with their candidates," Arnold added, "but she will make up for that by essentially scaring folks to the polls."
In national surveys, Clinton's lead over chief rival Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has widened. Her advantage is much narrower where it counts most — in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire. In matchups against potential GOP presidential candidates, Clinton leads or is tied.
The Clinton campaign points to those figures to make a case for her electability in a constant stream of e-mails, letters and phone calls to jittery Democrats across the country. A key to their strategy is to give Clinton's candidacy a sense of inevitability despite her negative ratings, which aides insist will go down.
"All the negatives on her are out," said Clinton's pollster and strategist Mark Penn. "There is a phenomena with Hillary, because she is the front-runner and because she's been battling Republicans for so long, her unfavorability (rating) looks higher than what they will eventually be after the nomination and through the general election."
What the Clinton campaign doesn't say is that her edge over potential Republican candidates is much smaller than it should be, given the wide lead the Democratic Party holds over the GOP in generic polling.
The problem is her political baggage: A whopping 49 percent of the public says they have an unfavorable view of Clinton compared to 47 percent who say they hold her in high regard, according to a Gallup Poll survey Aug. 3-5.
Her negative ratings are higher than those of her husband, former President Clinton, former President George H.W. Bush and 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry at the end of their campaigns.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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See all 98 CommentsEven if you loved Bill, you won't be getting Bill you'll be getting Hill, and HOW.
Until she refused to address WHO will pay for the millions of poor entering this country. Her compassion only extends as far as the immigrants, not those who will be pushed OUT of the dream via the national cost. It is just pure STUPID for Americans to support legislation that will be the end of American Sovereignty and middle class citizens.
Voted YES on eliminating the "Y" nonimmigrant guestworker program.
Proponents recommend voting YES because:
Voted NO on declaring English as the
official language of the US government.
Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program.
Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security.
Voted YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship
Opposes illegal immigration, but doesn't vote to follow up
Frankly, I think Hillary is a product of a ******* up republican imagination. A republican karma.. they they deserve. For once I'd like to condemn them, instead of having them condemn me all the time..
So what do we do? The first thing is to let our voices be heard. We did not say enough in 2004 when Kerry was making mistake after mistake and the hand was writing on the wall in the summer of 2004. Edwards is the logical choice, but how do we promote him when all the money seems to be for the two front runners, both are losers?
xxxxxx
AND that is what is so rank about it.
She has true american leadership to her...
She just doesn't want to have an "America"....
Exclusive "world power" attendees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bilderberg_attendees
What "bilderberg" represents.... *** scary.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/bilderberg_2007.html
There is obviously a vast right wing conspiracy. Iraq proves it. Executive privilege proves it. The head of the CIA, and Valary Plame proves it. So its obvious that Hillary doesn't not represent a legacy, per se. But the opposite thinking. The anti-legacy. Because, with her husbands experience, and her own signature on all the bills, they're going to get to the bottom of the GOP debacle. Whether the GOP likes it or not.
So all you news hungry news reporters out there? Vote Hillary. All you anti-war moveon.org conspiracy theorists out there? Vote Hillary. Because she is going to go after the 3 inch peckkkker responsible for this whole thing.. with a curling iron in her hand.
!
I know one independent who could NEVER vote for her - ME!
Posted by pepperp1 at 05:08 PM : Aug 12, 2007
Hillary is as self-absorbed and adept at speaking out of both sides of her mouth as Bush is.
I see no improvement in supplanting one version for another.
This two family dynasty that has controlled politics in this country for the last 20 years has to end.
uh ... duh .. they have both served 1 term in the US senate ... duh ... but Obama served before that in a state legislature ... while Hillary had what prior experience, let's see, she spread her legs for a former president in his youth ... uh ... she had phyisical relations with a former president even married him ... she sat with a former president in the White House as did every member of his staff ...
Gee, I'm a Democrat, I'm Dumb! hooray!
Your logic would have you vote for George Stephanopolis, perhaps you would, gee ain't you jes a Democratic poster child of sheer stupidity.
Posted by SharnCedar at 06:29 PM : Aug 12, 2007
I would submit that such might be subject to debate. She appears as butch as Kucinick does wuss.....
She's a politician and probably as close to being a match for any of the good ol' boys as will ever be found to run. She's just as sneaky and two-faced as any of them, but in all fairness, let's not single her out based on gender. As politicians go, she's six of one and half dozen of the other. None of them running have an ounce of honesty in them and couldn't care less about the 'issues' outside of what kind of votes they can generate depending on what 'stand' they take tomorrow. We really are scraping the bottom of the barrel and Rudy and Hillary are at the bottom of the heap.
--- This GOP Administration is rapidly losing in 2 theaters of war & the entire War on Terror,, They have hurt our military, our children, our elderly and National Security
Posted by donnie900 at 01:28 PM : Aug 12, 2007
Yah, but you got some ******* up ******* notion on Israel, j.
Posted by donnie900 at 07:54 PM : Aug 12, 2007
+
the only peanut sized item on your posts is obviously what is lacking with you-a brain.Clean up your mouth and act or spew your filthy lanquage in your back yard outhouse
Posted
Posted by donnie900 at 08:49 PM : Aug 12, 2007
Well most of the rest of us still like you donnie....even if we disagree with you sometimes......so post all you like!
Who invests money into (India) a country.
That allows men to : - Burn - women alive.
Because - of some minor infraction.
Comrade Hillary's Gift :
To the women of the world.
Comrade Hillary:
Who gives Visas, to people from India.
To come to the United States.
In order : To train for American jobs.
Comrade Hillary's - Patriotic - gift to :
The American Work force.
Comrade Hillary :
The hopes - continuing dreams and aspirations of :
Criminal Corporate America.
Comrade Hillary - Citizen Bill
The favorite friends and allies of :
The Bush Administration and The Republican Party
Hitler and Musalinni could - Not - have better allies than :
Comrade Hillary - Citizen Bill and the Bush Administration.
Same Mentality - Same Ideology
They have demonstrated this :
By their own actions and behavior.
Their own actions - Tell a lot more - About them
Than what they have to say! ! !
Lastdance
The very idea that she could be the representation of what a woman ought to aspire to in the political arena today, speaks poorly for all American women. She is nobody's champion. Her interests are purely selfish.
It's all about character, people. This woman has NONE! Like John Kerry, she will say anything to get elected. Just one real solution to the myriad of problems our government is facing would be a start.
HILLARY IS NOT THE SOLUTION!
"Izzz no ways tireddddd.......I comes too farrrrrr"
Want a war? Hilary is for it. Don't want a war? Hilary is still for it, but would have fought it differently. Need to win the Democratic nomination among a group who by and large are against the invsion under any circumstances? Then Hilary begins to regret the war.
When I hear Hilary speak, my stomach curls. Both she, and most Democrats are counting on the angst and dislike of the Republicans and our wish to avoid another Bush moment----to out trump our angst and dislike of Hilary.
There is something very ruthless and ugly about having only the conviction of winning. Winning, forget about scruples or true stands on issues--just win. By trying to be all things to all people and placing her personal agenda of winning above the party and the country---Hilary has shown her true colors. A more decent person, just as polarizing would not have placed personal ambition above the need for the country to heal and move away from the right. But Hilary comes first and by doing so--she may represent the greatest loss of an election ever.
please Al Gore, reconsider running for the sake of your party and the country.
Posted by firebirdguns at 11:36 PM : Aug 12, 2007
Puhleeeese. I am no fan of Hilary Clinton's but she can certsinly do no worse than Bush. That man took this country to lower than zero. Now...no matter what, any move away from Bush and the neo con agenda will see the US go no where--but UP.
Hillary will be most polarizing to her own hard-core Democratic rank-and-file because she is a conservative (not "centrist") candidate trying to head the ticket of the country's liberal party, and it rankles. She may still be defeated in the primaries despite her high polling if she can't drop her militarist attitudes anytime she talks about post-Iraq foreign policy...
Those negatives are not going to improve which means Hillary has to carry every single vote of people who do not oppose her. Which is not going to happen.
Hillary is more divisive than George Bush. If she was elected (which she won't be), we would hear the same "I hate her/I love her" for the next four years we have heard for the past 16 years.
We desperately need a candidate who will unite the nation. We do not need another polarizing figure in the White House.
Hillary is the worst candidate available.
I would vote for George Bush before I would vote for Hillary.
It has nothing to do with race or gender.
Hillary's reputation is well known. And, it is one of corruption, lying, and catering to her own little cabal of special interests, which are dominated by homosexuals and feminists.
I am an independent, consider Bush to be the worst and most corrupt president in US history. But he is superior to Hillary Clinton.
Posted by firebirdguns at 11:36 PM : Aug 12, 2007
That was a scandal-wannabe - nothing came of that multi-million dollar investigation by republicans.
Tucker, you are about as independent as Harriet Meier.
Posted by oleander8 at 09:52 AM : Aug 13, 2007
Probably cause Clinton FIRED the US Attorneys working on the investigation. But you're tooooo busy whining about Gonzales and Bush's 8 to worry about trivial things like that.
Which shoveled one billion (reduced to $800 million by Congress) US taxpayer dollars to her feminist friends so they could finance their "we hate men" campaign.
Hillary Clinton shovels money to her homosexual and feminist friends the same way Bush shovels money to his evangelical and Catholic friends.
Posted by tuckerndfw at 09:51 AM : Aug 13, 2007
I agree 100%! She is a train wreck waiting to happen. When the REAL election gets going and the republicans pull out the campaign ads pointing out her lies, it's going to be GLORIOUS!! :)
Posted by infidel_us at 09:58 AM : Aug 13, 2007
We agree.
Repubs would love for Dems to nominate Hillary.
That's their best hope for retaining the White House and regaining Congress. I suspect Repubs are shoveling as much money at her campaign as they are at their own candidates.
I don't know how she plays anywhere else, but in my neighborhood she's viewed with less favor than OBL.
Posted by oleander8 at 09:55 AM : Aug 13, 2007
Thank you for demonstrating my point about her divisive nature.
Can't suppport your candidate, attack her opponents.
That sounds very familiar, seems I've heard that somewhere else before.
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