Gay Conservative

I guess this post is timely given previous discussions.  I am here today to endorse New York Senator, Hillary Clinton, as the Democrat nominee for President of the United States in 2008.  She has all of the qualities that a conservative like myself is looking for in a Democrat – high negative numbers, a robotic (and yet sometimes shrill) demeanor and the ability to sink fellow Democrats further down the ticket in state and Congressional races.  She’s perfect!

We’ve all known about this for sometime, but this article from the AP that includes anonymous interviews with Democrat leaders andcandidates around the nation, really punctuates the arguments for the GOP.

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.”

That’s all I needed to hear.  And it basically confirms what all of us on the right have known since the days that the monster first reared her head in the debate over health care early on in the Clinton administration.  As a candidate for office in the state of New York, Hillary is a relative moderate who fits in perfectly.  On the national stage she is a polarizing figure (and she earned it folks) who has little chance of being elected.

I’m not ever going to say never.  The GOP candidate might suffer something unforseeable.  But given a strong candidate, the GOP would have the inside track to retaining the White House – from where I and countless analysts sit.

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.

A candidate’s unfavorability scores almost always climb during campaigns. If the pattern holds, Clinton has a historically high hurdle to overcome.

“For Hillary, who has been on the scene for so long and has had perception of her so ground in … there’s no question it will be really hard for her to change perceptions,” said Democratic pollster David Eichenbaum, who represents moderate Democrats in GOP-leaning states.

So, I say “Go Hillary.”  I’m rooting for ya!