Hilary ’08: Getting Ugly Early

Though it’s still early, nay, pre-rosy-fingers-of-dawn days for the ’08 elections, already La Hilary is looking less and less enticing as time goes by.

Her whole campaign, to my way of thinking, has always been more or less based on the “who else ya got?” factor. Though the number of people who are actually jazzed at the thought of a Hilary Clinton Presidency is miniscule… so miniscule that even I, who consort exclusively with hard-core Dems and godless Liberals have yet to engage in conversation with anyone that would fit that description.

Most of them, like me, have said something along the lines of “Yeah, there’s no doubt that she’d do a good job. Yeah, I guess if I had to choose between a Republican and Hilary, I would choose Hilary.”

I also add the caveat that I wouldn’t like it. And that I would be very uncomfortable, probably even physically nauseous, having to persuade someone else to vote for her too.

This, friends, is a problem for someone running for elected office. Let’s not kid ourselves that the process of picking office of President of the United States selects out the most qualified. The process is a popularity contest, along with other even less savory things.

And Hilary, despite her formidable intelligence and many gifts, simply is not popular.

There’s no shame in that. Being popular, as any junior high-schooler will tell you, just kind of happens to some people and doesn’t to others, and there’s little that any of us can do to force it. Kind of like being a great athlete. Hard work can take you far, but then when you reach the edges of your capacity, you get smoked by those who’ve worked just as hard and also have a natural edge on you.

That’s what we’re seeing now with the Obama infatuation. Obama is likable, and as such, he’s the biggest threat that Hilary faces. After all, her candidacy falls apart when people feel like they have another option.

So get ready to watch Team Hilary & Bill do everything they can to cut off Obama’s funding, disparage his readiness, and in general delegitimize his candidacy. Kind of like the shot they just sent across his bow with the David Geffen thing last weekend.

Also, keep your fingers crossed that they fail. And that the Clintons realize that the party, and the nation, would be better served if they put their awesome powers behind a candidate with the natural gifts to get elected.

Because if the Clinton Machine does manage to outmaneuver and starve and crush all the other Dem candidates, the end result will be a lot of surly and disappointed Democrats squaring off against a Republican base energized beyond belief for a fight against an unlikable, unpopular figure they’ve spent the last 16 years demonizing.

And that, my friends, will be really ugly.