FRANK RICH: Hillary Clinton’s Mission Unaccomplished

[Veronica.Franco]

Hillary Clinton’s Mission Unaccomplished

By FRANK RICH

HILLARY CLINTON has an answer to those who suspect that her “I’m in to win” Webcast last weekend was forced by Barack Obama’s Webcast of just four days earlier. “I wanted to do it before the president’s State of the Union,” she explained to Brian Williams on NBC, “because I wanted to draw the contrast between what we’ve seen over the last six years, and the kind of leadership and experience that I would bring to the office.”

She couldn’t have set the bar any lower. President Bush’s speech was less compelling than the Monty Python sketch playing out behind it: the unacknowledged race between Nancy Pelosi and Dick Cheney to be the first to stand up for each bipartisan ovation. (Winner: Pelosi.)

As we’ve been much reminded, the most recent presidents to face Congress in such low estate were Harry Truman in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1974, both in the last ebbs of their administrations, both mired in unpopular wars that their successors would soon end, and both eager to change the subject just as Mr. Bush did. In his ’52 State of the Union address, Truman vowed “to bring the cost of modern medical care within the reach of all the people” while Nixon, 22 years later, promised “a new system that makes high-quality health care available to every American.” Not to be outdone, Mr. Bush offered a dead-on-arrival proposal that “all our citizens have affordable and available health care.” The empty promise of a free intravenous lunch, it seems, is the last refuge of desperate war presidents.

Few Americans know more than Senator Clinton about health care, as it happens, and if 27 Americans hadn’t been killed in Iraq last weekend, voters might be in the mood to listen to her about it. But polls continue to show Iraq dwarfing every other issue as the nation’s No. 1 concern. The Democrats’ pre-eminent presidential candidate can’t escape the war any more than the president can. And so she was blindsided Tuesday night, just as Mr. Bush was, by an unexpected gate crasher, the rookie senator from Virginia, Jim Webb. Though he’s not a candidate for national office, Mr. Webb’s nine-minute Democratic response not only upstaged the president but also, in an unintended political drive-by shooting, gave Mrs. Clinton a more pointed State of the Union “contrast” than she had bargained for.

http://wealthyfrenchman.blogspot.com/2007/01/hillary-clintons-mission-unaccomplished.html

[rodeodance]

1. I think I have seen 4 threads this morning with this article. Just an observation

[rocktivity]

2. DING DING DING! Frank Rich, you're our grand prize winner!

Thanks for the intervention, Frank! He's been as good a friend to the Dems as anyone, and even he isn't buying it! (more)

:headbang:
rocknation

[herbbrown]

3. Right On Frank Rich

Written like a true Democrat. Republican Lite is what got us into this mess in the first place. Not only did the Clinton's rob Al Gore of a decisive win, but if we go Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton this isn't a Democracy it's a Monarchy!