Hillary Clinton: politics and the plan for '08
By George L. Anesi
Oxbloger David Adesnik has an interesting post up about Hillary Clinton's politics. His main finding, which I have a certain level of agreement with, is that Senator Clinton has a few issues for which she is outspoken and devoted, and then a lot of issues on which she maintains a fairly ambiguous stance. Issues falling in the former category include most clearly female empowerment in the developing world. With regard to a good amount of domestic politics and foreign policy, she has managed to remain a political heavy-weight without espousing many strong opinions (she has yet to renounce her initial support for the war in Iraq; something most Democrats--including fellow presidential contenders Kerry and Edwards--have done in some form or another at this point).Adesnik's theory is that she has identified a lowest-risk path to the '08 election (learning from John Kerry's mistakes), and is sticking to it. That may be true, but somewhere along the line she is going to have to show us her plan for this country, at home and abroad. I'm not sure there will be much political benefit in really waiting it out, because John McCain will have no problem putting his plans out on the table in clear view. If Hillary is trying to woo centrists by keeping quiet and avoiding a liberal stamp on her forehead, she may lose out when McCain comes in and sweeps them all up anyway.