Saturday, April 07, 2007

A Simple Question

Yes, Sen. Clinton has supporters. That's not in question. The question, which I'm not seeing an answer to on Eschaton, is why?

Matt's right that some Clinton supporters might be dissuaded if they knew some of her policy positions. So, yes, in some sense some of Clinton's support, as with the rest of the candidates, might be based on voter ignorance.But the point I'm trying to make is that there are a lot of people who really like Clinton. Maybe they don't agree with her on every issue, and maybe they would disagree with her more on issues if they actually knew more. But lots of people really respect Clinton. They admire her. They believe she would be a good president. They'd be more than happy to trust her with the job. It's that basic fact - plenty of people really like and respect Hillary Clinton - which I see left out of a lot of the online chatter about her campaign.
First, and I'm sorry Atrios, but this is pretty goddamned milquetoast. "You have to respect her supporters because they actually like her?" Well, yes, of course she has supporters. So did Alan Keyes, but that doesn't stop people from (justifiably) making fun of him.

Online Dems, those who aren't trying to win influence with the Clinton crew, are very, very concerned about her foreign policy, and I gotta say that as someone who's a fan of interactive media I'm not the biggest fan of some of her domestic policy either.

(Someone trying to score points with soccer moms by attacking media is going to lose the male vote under the age of 40 droves. Absolute droves. Hollywood ain't necessarily going to like it much either.)

Say it isn't the policy. Say it isn't the mile-wide-but-puddle-deep appeal of name recognition. Say it isn't nostalgia for Bill. Say it isn't just ignorance. Say it isn't the ol' double-X chromosomes. Say it isn't whatever you want, Duncan, that's fine. Just say what it actually is afterwards, because I for one would like to know, and I think everybody who isn't on the Clinton Train would like to know too.

No comments:

Post a Comment