Hillary Cannot Be the Democratic Nominee

It’s just that simple. She’s not going to win. A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll pitting Clinton against Condi Rice found that more registered voters might consider voting for Rice (38%) than might consider voting for Clinton (32%). Rice polls stronger among Democrats than Clinton does among Republicans, as well.


Independents appear to favor Clinton, but I suspect if Rice were replaced with John McCain, that brown column would be a lot shorter.

Here’s the problem with Hillary: She’s a compulsive triangulator, and for every vote she picks up by co-sponsoring flag-burning legislation or rambling nonsense about “protecting the children” from video games or reiterating her hawkishness, she loses 2 votes from progressives and independents with a libertarian streak. Part of the reason she depends so heavily on triangulation is that she doesn’t have a governorship or any other leadership credentials to point to, so all the caveats that apply to Senators running for President apply to her, too. She’s also not a great speaker. She’s certainly not a terrible speaker, but she’s not particularly inspiring. She’s no John Kennedy; in fact, she’s not even John Edwards.

And the truth, fair or not, is that a lot of people just don’t like her. They didn’t like her when she was the First Lady, and they don’t like her now. And I don’t think there’s anything she could do to change most of those minds.

Hillary’s a stupendous fund-raiser and has enviable name recognition. But she can’t win—and considering her willingness to scuttle rightward whenever it’s convenient, I’m not sure why liberals would even want her to.