Ann Coulter on John Edwards et. al.

I have followed Ann Coulter's recent flap with Elizabeth Edwards with interest and, frankly, glee.

Ann is right..this alone should sink Edwards' candidacy. What is he thinking, sending his wife to do his work for him?

Is this how he will handle Al Qaeda, as Coulter wondered aloud? Send his wife to bargain with them, or complain about how mean they are, killing all those people?

I guess after the Clintons, Edwards figures he needn't wait til he's in office to have his wife work for him as his Secretary of State.


I recall, in my youth, that Ed Muskie sank his campaign in tears, while railing at the Manchester Union. Nowadays, crying like that would probably seal his election.


On a related note, I think Coulter was totally on target to parallel Bill Mahre's outrageous suggestion that assassinating Vice President Cheney would 'save lives in Iraq.' She waggishly told her interviewer, after the sandbagged call from Elizabeth Edwards, that next time she comments about Edwards, she, too, will suggest a terrorist assassination of the candidate.

Honestly, the entire Edwards-Coulter episode is now stranger than fiction. To see John Edwards on Chris Matthews' show, alleging that Coulter appeals only to extremists, is also surreal. This living Ken-doll spouting media sound bites and incredible disconnected views on what he and his wife did, left me wondering who could possibly believe him?

I think Coulter's response was spot-on, portraying Edwards' weakness and cowardice. It is difficult for me to believe Edwards now has any chance at all in the race for the Presidency. Which is how it should be.

Hillary's Dilemma

Peggy Noonan wrote a wonderful piece in her Weekend Wall Street Journal column about how Hillary Clinton's challenge is to prove she's a woman. Without belaboring the point, I wholeheartedly agree.

I even know women, liberal women, who will not vote for Hillary because she doesn't cry, show emotion, or behave as many women feel a woman should. Politician or not.

In fact, a friend and I opined that Hillary really should consider simply taking the feminine high road, and behave like a woman. This way, she probably would sew up all the woman voters, who comprise a plurality of the registered base.

On the other flank, the Journal ran a piece citing the Nation's article concerning attacks by feminists on Hillary. In her move to the relative center of various political positions, Hillary had to abandon some of the more blatant 'just for women' stands, including her vote to invade Iraq.

So, Hillary has some difficulties ahead. She is too centrist and compromising for the hard-core feminine left. And she's not woman enough for many women who want a woman candidate for President to actually be different than a man. Which Hillary is trying mightily not to be.

It is by no means a slam dunk that the Democratic nominee for President will be elected, nor that that nominee will be Hillary.

America, The Plutocracy

As I discussed handicapping the very early Presidential race with my conservative friend, Merritt, the other day, he identified an astonishing pattern.

I have to admit, for someone who believes I am pretty observant, this shocked me.

Merritt noted that, if Hillary is elected in 2008, the US will have been governed by Presidents from just two immediate families for a total of 24 years.

How could I have missed this?

Between three Bush terms, and what would be at least three, and possibly four, Clinton terms, you have plutocracy which outstrips even FDR.

Which is why I think this bodes very poorly for Hillary. I can't see many red state Americans, including many who voted Democratic in those states, and many in red states, prolonging the rule of the Clintons.

Never mind the two party system. We're talking "two family" system now.

Because if Hillary wins, you know Jeb Bush will become an immediate candidate for 2012.

Honestly, I just don't think a lot of Americans are ready to commit America to nearly three decades of rule by just two small families.

America, in my opinion, is ready for a black or female President. Just not 'this' female, Hillary, or 'that' black, Obama.

She's too shrill and calculating, he's too immature and inexperienced.

And now, add to that, she's going to perpetuate incestuous leadership of the country in a manner heretofore never seen.

You can take all the polls you want, and argue about how much money each candidate has. But, sometimes, it's the emotional issues, not the quantifiable ones, that make the difference.

On this one, I think most Americans will recoil in horror as they learn, and they surely will sometime in the next 17 months, that Hillary's election would result in such a long, unbroken string of Presidents emanating from just two immediate, non-extended families.