January 20, 2007

6:10 PM

Hillary Clinton Announces Bid For Presidency in 2008.Mefi predicted it earlier! If elected, Senator Clinton would be the first female president of the United States.
posted by rossination (36 comments total)

waiting to see what faux news says.

maybe some polls like "omg she's a woman we'll go to war once a month!!!" or some other nonsense.

i'd vote for her, except for her attacks against "violent" video games.

fuck this noise, i'm voting for doug stanhope.
posted by jcterminal at 6:11 PM on January 20, 2007

"If elected, Senator Clinton would be the first female president of the United States."

Thank you
posted by A189Nut at 6:14 PM on January 20, 2007

I'm not voting for someone who doesn't smoke.
posted by Kikkoman at 6:14 PM on January 20, 2007

So if the Obama threads were all spiked, this one has to be as well, right?

I mean, TheElectionIsNextFrikkinYearFilter.
posted by dw at 6:18 PM on January 20, 2007

I wouldn't mind seeing her as president, but I don't think she'll make it. Not enough charm, unless she's had a personality makeover in the last couple of years. Also, for left-wingers, her Senatorial voting record is staunchly in the middle, and veered to the right several times.

I wonder, though, if she's got more of a chance than Obama. I remember a guy called Dean who got everyone excited and then imploded. Hillary knows the system in Washington and might very well be able to rough the storm better than Obama.

She doesn't really do it for me, but if she does win, and the First Gentleman has as much influence as her First Lady did, we'll basically have Bill back for 4-8 more years. Hooray for that!
posted by zardoz at 6:21 PM on January 20, 2007

I don't get the prediction link, and by that I mean a) it is the same as the original, and b) by my reckoning it's not a real stretch of a prediction.
posted by nj_subgenius at 6:22 PM on January 20, 2007

This election shit never ends. Are we allowed to give up on democracy yet?
posted by synaesthetichaze at 6:22 PM on January 20, 2007

W has been so bad that people have forgotten just why so many left/progressive types stayed home or voted for Nader in 2000, giving W the white house (or making its theft possible if you prefer). During his presidency Bill Clinton basically screwed labor and the Greens. He allowed things to go through (NAFTA and GATT, anybody?) that no Republican president could have managed. So those people had no reason to think there would be any difference between the two candidates, both corporatists, and stayed home.

Those people will also be staying home in 2008 if Hillary is the candidate. I'd say she is unelectable in the general election, except that there is such a dearth of Republican potential candidates that it might be a fight to the bottom between two candidates either of whom would be unelectable in a normal cycle. I would say I'd vote for just about any Democrat in favor of Hillary. Not because she's female, but because AFAIK she shares her husband's fondness for triangulation and "business friendliness." And business has quite enough friends, TYVM. Right now we need a genuine populist to undo the damage of the W years.
posted by localroger at 6:23 PM on January 20, 2007

I would really like to see Bill as the first lady though - having further access to Whitehouse interns - to not have sexual relations with.

Now that is a leader of men.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 6:24 PM on January 20, 2007

waiting to see what faux news says.

Why wait, Rupert & Company already support her.
posted by b1tr0t at 6:26 PM on January 20, 2007

Let's get it over with. Hillary is John Kerry without the sincerity. Kerry at least stood for something in 1972. Hillary stands for nothing.

As far as I am able to discern, all that she has going for her is that she's the first woman with serious financial backing to throw her hat into the ring. Otherwise, she's got nothing to stand on, except perhaps her unequivocal support for the invasion of Iraq.
posted by psmealey at 6:29 PM on January 20, 2007

Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama?
posted by R. Mutt at 6:31 PM on January 20, 2007

Firefox can't find the server at www.inthenews.co.uk.

Even if the links work, this is a crap post.
posted by dhammond at 6:34 PM on January 20, 2007

"Rupert & Company already support her."

Reason enough not to vote for her.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:35 PM on January 20, 2007

MeTa
posted by Rhomboid at 6:37 PM on January 20, 2007

Oh, who cares. After eight years of Dubya, if the Democrats nominated a box of puke with snakes swimming around in the puke -- i'd vote for it.
posted by ELF Radio at 6:37 PM on January 20, 2007 [2 favorites]

Wait. Reread the last sentence of that article:

"Five Democrats have now declared their intention to stand in the 2008 presidential elections, with Mrs Clinton regarded as having an edge over closest rival Mr Obama."

I know the article was written by a British source, but are you kidding me? Could this be really happening? A woman and a black man America's top candidates for the presidency? I'm excited (even though it's almost two years till votin' day). What does mefi think?
posted by folara at 6:38 PM on January 20, 2007

I would love to see Bill living at the White House again.... but this time with loads of free time on his hands! How while Bill pass the time?
posted by R. Mutt at 6:39 PM on January 20, 2007

I'm still waiting for the Obama announcement.
posted by The Deej at 6:44 PM on January 20, 2007

I think Bill has his eyes on running the UN
posted by PreteFunkEra at 6:46 PM on January 20, 2007

I think the photo in that second link was taken at Madame Tussaud's.
posted by The Deej at 6:49 PM on January 20, 2007

"If elected, Senator Clinton would be the first female president of the United States."
posted by bhnyc at 6:49 PM on January 20, 2007

Is this the liberal guilt I hear so much about? "Oh no, we won an election! Let's throw the next one to atone."
posted by IshmaelGraves at 6:50 PM on January 20, 2007

I'm still voting for Hodgeman and his Reptiloid masters.
posted by homunculus at 6:51 PM on January 20, 2007

It would surprise me very little if there were a backroom deal that resulted in Barack Obama being her running mate.
posted by pax digita at 6:53 PM on January 20, 2007

Breast expansion fetish, bhnyc?
posted by IronLizard at 6:53 PM on January 20, 2007

There is still room on the Dem side for a firebreathing, base-pandering, populist a la Howard Dean...
posted by empath at 6:55 PM on January 20, 2007

"If elected, Senator Clinton would be the first female president of the United States."

Thank you

Grrrr...

I would vote for a woman over a man even if she was Hillary Clinton. I would vote for a black over a white even if he was Colin Powell. Why? Simple. I am fucking sick and tired of hearing people say:

"So-and-so is the first X to be Y."

First black in outer space. First woman in outer space. First black woman in outer space. That is so fucking tired.

I want to see this NOT matter anymore. I want to see it become so casual and irrelevant as to be redundant and trite. I want people to stop seeing every new opportunity for diversity as a damn goalpost on some stupid fucking gridiron of society.

I want to see that meme go the way of All Your Base.

If we could get a female person or a black person in the White House, the next time some jackoff stuck his nose in the air and said "so and so will be the first blank to be Whatever" we could stuff a sock down his pencil neck and say "White House dude! It's been done! It was never anything more important than something to put in the Guiness book of records anyway - so shut the fuck up!"

Come to think of it. "OUTER SPACE dude! It's been done! Eat your sock you sorry piece a shit."

...Present company accepted of course. =) Don't mean to diss the original poster at all it's just ...dayam!

When does this get tired and old for everybody else, cuz for me it got old back when Kirk kissed Uhura, m'kay?

It really should stop being a big deal. WHEN does it stop being a big deal? If electing Hillary Clinton as president would make this tired meme less of a deal, I'm all for it.

She can't possibly do worse than W. Hell, an untrained blindfolded monkey with a lobotomy couldn't do worse than W. You know why? Cuz if our president were an untrained blindfolded monkey with a lobotomy, the media would take pictures of it and send them all over the world, and the world would go, "AWWWWWW! Look! It's an untrained blindfolded monkey with a lobotomy! How cute!" And they couldn't possibly HATE OUR LOUSY STINKING GUTS anymore! W turned the entire planet against us. What we need to vote into office is something so pathetic and adorable, the world will forgive our warmongering tendencies, and our ability to pollute the only rock in space that we got and not give a crap about it.

So if we can't get an untrained blindfolded monkey with a lobotomy, I'll settle for Hillary Clinton.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:59 PM on January 20, 2007

Yawn
posted by Burhanistan at 7:01 PM on January 20, 2007

I am a hippie raised, birkenstock wearing, democrat voting artist - Hilary has no chance. I dont mind her personally, but she is despised by 80% of the country. I mean DESPISED. Hate is a mild word for what I hear about her in even democratic circles.

If she gets (somehow) wins he primary and the democratic endorsement the republicans will win. Hands down.

I hate to say that but it's true. It's that she's left, it's that she's a Clinton, it's that she's a carpet bagger, it's many things, peopel just don't like a thing about her.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 7:02 PM on January 20, 2007

If money was all it took to win the election it would be hers. Terry McAuliffe, her putative 08 campaign manager raised a ton of dough for the party, yet totally screwed the pooch in 2004 as DNC chair in strategy terms. And, my friends across the ocean, the Times of London quotes Mr McAuliffe thus in a comparison of Hilary to Margaret Thatcher:
“Their policies are totally different but they are both perceived as very tough...[s]he is strong on foreign policy. People have got to know you are going to keep them safe.”
Uh huh. Thatcher. Nice model.
And, on the impending campaign battles:
“They are going to play mean, nasty and dirty on the other side. You don’t walk into a knife fight without adequate gloves.”
WTFfilter. Adequate gloves to a knife fight. This is a fucker my dog could carjack.
posted by nj_subgenius at 7:03 PM on January 20, 2007

Look, if she wins the democratic nomination I would vote for her and I wouldn't even have to think about it. But she is a weak candidate for president, I live in washington dc and am 25 my peers actually have mixed feelings about her. That shouldn't be the case, suckers like us should lap her shit up, but we don't maybe she is basically unlikable, maybe it is a hidden misogyny but the people that should like her don't. I know people who work for her and they all say she is a fucking peach and I know people that work for pretty much every senator and that opinion is a huge aberration, and it isn't even like moderates think that she is a moderate. Plus the GOP fucking hates her. So very much, and so powerfully and for no good reason. Plus despite being a pretty good public servant she isn't a good politician like Obama or even Edwards, she is in first because of her last name, plain and simple.

Look when she wins the primaries which I think is likely then I will be right on board with rooting for her, but I have to think and paraphrase Dr. Suess while I do it the Democratic party can and must do better than this.
posted by I Foody at 7:06 PM on January 20, 2007

It's cool to hate immigrants again. And the whole Fucking Small Children Fiasco put a big ol' target on the Catholics. We could get rich starting up the Know Nothings. Who's with me? Let's make the next Millard Fillmore.
posted by Doublewhiskeycokenoice at 7:07 PM on January 20, 2007

What's the definition of "charm"? Affable, down-home, folksy, guy you'd want to have a beer with? Fuck that, give me someone with a good intellect, someone who can string a sentence together in a press conference and command some respect.
posted by snoktruix at 7:10 PM on January 20, 2007

Addendum one... She's going to lose anyway. Far too much water under that particular bridge. Still, I'll probably vote for her if she gets it. Sure as hell won't vote for Nader again. That guy's kinda whacko. Has anyone else noticed that?

Addendum two... This might also fix another "So-and-so is the first X to be Y" if Hillary comes out of the closet. I'd recommend she do that after the election though, just in case she actually thinks she has a chance in hell of getting any of the southern states... besides southern California.

Addendum three... I don't give our "democratic republic" much longer anyway. More and more people are beginning to come around and see that it is in fact what I've been screaming at walls for years. America is a corporate oligarchy parading about as if it were a democratic republic - it's a crossdresser folks. This country wraps itself in the flag as if it were a party dress. The rest of the world is not fooled. Why are we? So it really doesn't matter who we vote for anyway. If Hillary wins, it's cuz the corporate Ozzes behind the curtain we're not supposed to notice actually want her to win for some strange reason - probably having something to do with her agreeing to sell her soul to the Devil or something - and certainly not because one of you decided to vote for her over John McCain.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:11 PM on January 20, 2007

There is still room on the Dem side for a firebreathing, base-pandering, populist a la Howard Dean...

You mean like Dennis Kucinich, whose candidacy last time was usually only mentioned in passing, usually to describe it as hopeless?

Poor guy, he just doesn't have the face for fire-breathing.
posted by dilettante at 7:14 PM on January 20, 2007