Bloggers and the Democratic Primary

It seems that bloggers feel that Hillary has a chance, that she can
win the Democratic primary. However, most people think that her
opinions are too republican, flip-flop back and forth, or just aren’t
strong enough. Bloggers think it’s ridiculous that she doesn’t want
to participate in all debates. The idea that Hillary will kowtow to
special interest groups and corporations came out a couple of times,
and most people thought her comment about a terrorist attack helping
the Republican campaign was very distasteful. One blog called her
“the darling of the right.” Many people write favorably about John
Edwards, in the context of Hillary Clinton. They think he is the most
progressive and liberal cadidate, however, a few people mentioned
that his image, especially his southern accent turns them off. For
some, it reminded them of the Republicans.

"I hate Hillary because her position shifts towards expediency, and
she has very little regard towards personal rights. She supports
censorship (of games, media and Internet traffic in general) when it
helps her get out the concerned-parent vote -- but the actual bills
she proposes are so watered-down as to try to be inoffensive to
anyone except through the outward positions they take. And yes, this
general wishy-washiness has been visible in her position vis-a-vis
Iraq -- but that's a symptom of the problem, rather than its core."
Quote taken from Slashdot.com - - “I guess I didn't realize she was
that slippery... Hmmm, that is a bit worrisome.” - Female, 35 Seattle


“the polls has the ordering (from most to least liberal) as bill
clinton, hillary clinton, al gore, barack obama, john edwards. i'm
not trying to be snide here--i genuinely would rank the exact
opposite: edwards as the most liberal, then obama, gore, hillary, and
finally bill as the most conservative.the republican ordering, by
contrast, strikes me as about right: their order (from most to least
conservative) is george w. bush, newt gingrich, mitt romney, john
mccain, rudy giuliani.why is the democratic field perceived in a
mirror-image to how i view them? i think a great deal of it is that
john edwards is a southern democrat, and thus is kind of assumed to
represent the more moderate wing of the party. i hear his accent, and
even i have difficulty imagining him as a lefty. but of all the
candidates, edwards is the one most likely to be found breathing some
progressive fire. “ Male, 21, Bethesda


The suggestion by Hillary Clinton that a terrorist attack against us
helps the Republican Party is insane. Combined with the post I gave
yesterday referencing Hillary's attack on Obama's sensible stance on
easing the embargo on Cuba, I think we have a clear sign that
Hillary's political instincts suck. She just doesn't get it. Dems
like Hillary really need to internalize how much people hate the
Republicans. This isn't 1994 and the only thing saving the
Republicans now are Dems like Hillary. Male, Austin – Accountant


“After talking briefly to someone who plans on voting for Hillary
Clinton (should she win the democratic nomination), I decided to
visit her official home page to see what she has to say. I will say
straight off that I have no plans to vote for her but I felt it was
important to hear her views and find out what she stands for. I was
immediately drawn to a headline on her home page entitled “Protecting
the American Dream” with the following caption: Learn about Hillary’s
plan to preserve the dream of homeownership by cutting lending abuse,
reducing foreclosures, and expanding affordable housing. These
sounded like reasonable goals, so I clicked on the link. The first
paragraph contained this: Senator Clinton’s plan will curb mortgage
abuses, assist families facing foreclosure, and expand affordable
housing to protect the American dream of home ownership. Assist
families facing foreclosure. This almost seems too obvious to blog
about, but here goes… If you bought a house that was over your head,
is it really the government’s responsibility to bail you out? Well
according to Hillary, it is. Hillary will establish a $1 billion
fund to support state programs that help at-risk borrowers avoid
foreclosure. Now we’re getting to something that really disturbs me.
Hillary plans on using my tax dollars to bail the people out who made
poor purchasing decisions. So if I go out and buy five sports cars on
credit and then can’t keep up with the payments, will Hillary help me
out too? Is that the job of government? I won’t go on. She won’t
get my vote.” Male

“Hillary Clinton: New Darling of the Right? First Rupert Murdoch, now
this. We're seeing another Joe Lieberman in the making and, lucky us,
we live in a generation when we get to witness this terrible beauty.”
– Male, 48, Massachusetts

“According to a poll taken by CBS News ,Hillary Clinton has a better
chance of becoming President , and most people feel that Senator
Clinton is most qualified to be president. Obama on the other hand
was seen as someone most likely to bring change. One interesting
reason that was given by 18% of those who don't like Obama was that
he is black , while 12% that don't like Clinton said that it was
because she was a woman. I just can't believe that there are still
people out there living in the dark ages.” Male, Los Angeles


“Okay, I can actually help Hillary Clinton and John Edwards out here.
They want to avoid 'trivializing debates' then the answer's really
clear: Stop participating. Just let America see that you allegedly
want to be president but aren't willing to debate your fellow
Democrats. That should really help you sky rocket on the polls. Or
maybe just crash and burn.” Female

“I read today that John McCain said Hillary Clinton “flip-flops on
Iraq”. Okay, it appears he didn’t actually use that term, as far as I
can tell. But he did use the argument. Doesn’t he know that
accusations of doing a Flip-Flop are so 2000 ??” Male, blogs about
being a dad


“i'm pretty cynical about politicians, but the more i see of obama,
the more i think he would make an amazing president. he has a
combination of intelligence, life experience and education that is
infused with a moral center that seems lacking in so many candidates.
oh, he has an ego and the amount of pride and ambition you expect to
see in a guy with presidential aspirations, but he has a wife who
makes it clear she will kick his skinny ass across the room if he
steps out of line, or forgets the public service part of being the
president. i really like the combo. this guy is as close to jed
bartlett as we are going to get in real life.it surprises and saddens
me a bit to realize that the more i see and hear of hillary clinton
the more i become convinced that i can't trust her. hey, i voted for
bill twice just because he was married to her. that's how much she
impressed me then, so i am more than a little saddened by my current
gut level sensation that she can't be trusted to put the people of
this country, the little people, before her own personal ambitions.
this scares me because as much as i like obama and edwards, i'm
afraid hillary is going to be the democratic candidate. i'd like to
feel better about her. i really would. actually i'd like not to have
a prejudice against edwards because of his southern accent. i'm
ashamed that i have that prejudice, but i need to be honest that i
cringe a bit every time i hear his voice. the accent aside, he says
the right things. i like his words. all the words are right, but
there is something about the way he presents himself that doesn't
work. at the afl-cio debate in chicago he came off as pandering,
desperately trying to ingratiate himself with the working class
people of this country. throughout the entire debate he seemed to be
pushing himself forward in a way that, frankly, made me feel
embarrassed for him. on the positive side, his two americas theme is
right on target. his comments about corporate interests, the effects
of the k street lobby crowd, and the revolving door between congress
and k street is right on target. he also has an amazing wife who will
be a tremendous asset to him.so really, of the top tier candidates,
my first choice is obama, second is edwards and hillary is coming in
last.” Male, California

“The Clinton's come out of the DLC, and like many DLCers view
business as a partner and not a competitor or adversary. Admittedly,
in some cases this is true, business can be a valuable ally. In
others however, business is an adversary, and many times the
interests of business are not analogous with the interests of the
American people. There is no indication that Hillary Clinton is not
pandering to corporate interests, and there is no evidence to suggest
that Hillary Clinton is nothing more than another inside the beltway,
corporate insider whose campaign is stacked with similar people.”
Male, 20, Virgina

“In a new low of political promoting, Senator Hillary Clinton says
that a new terror attack would help Republicans. The New York senator
is reported by the New York Post online edition as saying, - ‘It's a
horrible prospect to ask yourself, 'What if? What if?’ But if certain
things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect
to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an
advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no
matter how much more dangerous they have made the world,’ - This
brings up two points. Firstly, how low has political campaigning sunk
that any candidate for the Presidency would even consider saying
something like this as part of a campaign. Whether a terror attack
would or would not help a single political party should be
irrelevant- all Americans should be working together to prevent a
terror attack and to defeat our enemies. Unfortunately, that message
apparently hasn't reached most of the Democratic Party. Secondly,
how can any media outlet, especially one from a city that has
first-hand experience of being attacked by Islamic terror, treat this
statement as being a normal, straightforward campaign sound bite? The
Post should be ashamed of itself for not highlighting this statement
as the partisan and unpatriotic statement that it is. But the Post
can only bring itself to call the statement 'surprising'. This is
yet another indication that where Democrats and especially Hillary
are concerned, the national media has only one standard for their
comments- help them win at any cost.” Male, San Francisco