Chapter One: In which I mouth off to Andrew Sullivan (Send More Japs!)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Mister Sullivan, who has never made a correct prediction on any topic to my knowledge, posted the following:

Have you noticed National Review's pledge drive theme? It would be useful when calculating Senator Clinton's fundraising achievements to include the amount of money she has helped raise for the GOP. Maybe someone could do the research and find how often she is included prominently on far right fund-raising materials. Lately, she's been driving traffic to Drudge and the New York Post.

It becomes increasingly clear to me that there is only one candidate who can unite the GOP and win the coming election for the Republicans. And she's ahead in the polls.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/10/shes-already-fu.html

Though I have no doubt Sully has my email address designated as spam by now, I felt obliged to reply:

Andrew,

In his memoir of his service in the Pacific War, William Manchester reserved
special contempt for the propaganda story about the marines wiring
headquarters, "Send more Japs." He said that no combat soldier in the
Pacific wanted "more Japs," and that it didn't boast morale to pretend
otherwise. But here we are... republicans have had such an easy time
defeating the Clinton machine time and again that they're just itching to
beat more Clinton ass. "Send Hillary!"

Do you really expect that an unprecedented torrent of ugly, republican
hatred will endear independents to the Republican nominee in 2008? Will
suburban moms warm to the republicans when they start calling Hillary a
loud-mouthed bitch? (And they will... you've seen how these folks operate.)
Will Americans believe Hillary will surrender to Osama Bin Laden (assuming
they still even care about that) while code pink ladies storm her rallies
with "war-monger" placards?

The standard republican cognitive-dissonance campaign won't work this time.
Everyone in America knows what it would mean to put a Clinton in the
Whitehouse. Calm, centrist rule, heavy on the double-talk. That's what
Americans always want.

I think Hillary is off-putting, but America does not think anything of the
sort. I know you read papers, so you must have read the Washington Post's
front pager today about Hillary being easily the most popular and among the
least polarizing figure in the field from either party. Do you know that
other than Gallup, every other national poll since July has her negatives
below 40%?

Yet you disregard that polling, and the mountains of confirming polling, in
favor of a combination of your gut feelings and what some knuckleheads at
the NRO think--the same knuckleheads who knew the Republicans would hold
congress in 2006 because everyone they talked to at the water-cooler at the
National frigging Review "knew" that the American people secretly loved the
Iraq War.

Running against Hillary will be another post-rational republican
"cake-walk."