BOOK WARNS: HILLARY WILL BE PRESIDENT IF GOP DOESN'T WISE UP TO CHALLENGE
Thu May 04 2006 11:05:37 ET
To face down the most dangerous and evil men in the world, as presidents must, the first female president of the United States will have to be a bitch. And Hillary is a bitch.
So says John Podhoretz in a chapter of his explosive new book, CAN SHE BE STOPPED.
Republicans and conservatives are deluding themselves if they think she cant win it all. Shes going to, Podhoretz says, unless they rise to the challenge and take her on in the right ways.
The shocking conclusion of the conservative NEW YORK POST columnist:
* The qualities that made Hillary Clinton such a problematic presidential spouse may also make her just the kind of woman people feel they can trust with the presidency. Namely, she has created an image of herself as unfeminine, an image that connects her to the successful female chief executives in other countries like Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher.
*Shes right for the job because the first female president must not seem overemotional, or flighty, or guided by intuition rather than reason. She must not seem demure or delicate, nor can she seem brassy and sassy. She must not appear to be in a girlish quest of a strong man to help make things right. Above all, she must not seek to excuse any flaws in her conduct by suggesting that they are due to her being a womanfrom the natural excuse, like a hormone rush jangling her emotions, to a political excuse, like an unjust society that wont give the XX chromosome an even break. Just for vulgaritys sake, let me put it this way: Shes got to be a bitch. And Hillary is a bitch. Her challenge will be to play up her antifeminine qualities without being completely without charm and appeal.
*Being widely disliked, even by many Democrats, will actually help Hillary. She gains from displaying her hard edge, her cold quality, to neutralize whatever negatives there might be as a result of her gender .The word youll hear most often from Hillary defenders and sycophants will be steely.
*Weakened by Iraq and corruption scandals, Republicans have a chance to get their mojo back by focusing on the Hillary challenge. If they act now and in concert, they can expose the way she feints to the middle but votes reliably to the Left and how she goes silent whenever there are controversial issues to be discussed. Podhoretzs Smoke Her Out strategy involves using Senate rules to force her to vote on controversial sense-of-the-Senate resolutions. She will either have to vote to satisfy the Left and turn off the middle, or vote in ways that anger the Left and lose the support of the Democratic base.
Can She Be Stopped? will be released on May 9.
). The GOP is more or less static for this one methinks.
