Anti-Climacus

WELL: So a number of people (including my fabulous Foreign Correspondent) have asked about the Hillary Clinton thing to the left in approximately the following form: "you're not actually going to vote for her ?"

And how.

First, I think it's a given that the Democrats are going to win in 2008. Call it a consequence of the Feiler Faster Thesis that the inherent tension within the conservative movement (or, really, pick any of the inherent tensions you like--I prefer the one between economic libertarians and those who think it's more important that Rs get reelected, whatever the costs) is going to boil over by then. There's lots of anecdotal evidence that demographic trends and positions on issues favor the Democrats in any time frame that's not between now and November.

So the real question is, who do you want winning in 2008? Make up a list of people with reasonable shots (if this campaign season has taught us anything, it's that the list of contenders you could've made 18 months ago would look very much like the people who ended up doing rather well), and name me a Democrat you'd rather have. She's emphatically not (as I understand it) a part of the really freaky left-wing portion of the party--she may be the last best hope of us Third Way Democrats (as John Edwards will be getting out of politics soon). And she could win. Sure, she has that shrew-like image in some parts of the political world, but if you want to get lots of those freaky left-wing-types riled up, there's no better way to do that than by making ad hominem attacks against a 'strong' woman (in scare quotes so you can make your own apt-ironic judgment on the term).