Eight years ago, the Republican voters of New Hampshire put their collective feet on George W. Bush’s throat. Assumed to be the party’s front runner, Bush was completely blown away by the excitement and promise of a candidate who actually reflected the integrity and honesty that the country was desperately looking for after 8 years of Bill Clinton. That candidate was John McCain and, despite winning New Hampshire handily, many of us knew that his odds of surviving the oncoming assault of the Bush attack machine were not good. McCain ended up losing a dog fight in South Carolina (his best chance to beat Bush and Bush’s firewall state) and by the time the primaries were in the Midwest he was done.
Boy, I bet Hillary wishes she could call up the Bush’s right now and borrow some of their dirty tricksters.
Unfortunately for Hillary, New Hampshire is her South Carolina. New Hampshire was supposed to be her firewall state where should could right the ship just in case those odd balls in Iowa ended up giving the caucus to god knows who. Instead, Barack Obama is drawing crowds that Bono would be jealous of and looking everyday more and more like the kind of U.S. President you see on t.v and wish we really had. You know, the kind that calm the country down just before Bruce Willis saves it from an asteroid.
Hillary is going to lose the New Hampshire Democratic Primary tomorrow and she is going to lose big and she should. She has yet to make a case to anyone that, for her, being president is about anything more than it just being the culmination of her career and the final uber-accomplishment of a brilliant over achiever. Say what you will about Obama and Edwards but when they talk it usually seems to be about the people that they want to help as president. When Hillary talks, it is usually just about Hillary or the Republicans who hate her.
Unfortunately, no one in the echo chamber that she surrounds herself with will probably say this to her but you can’t and won’t ever win the presidency by getting just the people who already like you to vote for you. You need to convince those people who don’t know you. Often you even need need to convince those people who don’t like you that you are the least-worst option. Hillary cannot do either of these things and even if she survives the NH primary, survives the next roll of pre-Feb 5th states (none of which she will legitimately win) and goes on to somehow win the nomination she will get destroyed in the general election (or worse she and the Republican nominee will each get 49% of the electorate and then spend the next 6 months suing the country into oblivion.)
And it’s not because she’s a woman and it’s not because she cried a little bit (for herself by the way.) It’s because in the end people are tired of the Bushes and the Clintons and the red state / blue state paradigm and they only thing that Hillary seems to offer is more of the same.
