scary things I have read this morning:

[ursako]

1.) McCain / Huckabee '08
2.) McCain / Lieberman '08
3.) McCain / Gingrich '08

Seriously, can anyone explain to me why they hate Hillary so thoroughly that they would consider voting for McCain instead? Give me detailed policy reasons, not 'she's not for hope and change!' or 'her husband got a blow job in the Oval Office!'

Comments

[jonsonite]

Without going into policy details (available on demand), McCain will be president opposite a united, entrenched opposition Congress. He doesn't get along with most Republicans and will hopefully have a hard time doing anything egregious of the conservative stripe. I think he's already done all of his damage on campaign finance, so his biggest policy downside is his vast, vast hawkishness. That's the part that Congress will have the least brake on, but it's better than:

Hillary, who will have a united friendly Congress. She's good at breaking heads and will be an extremely effective president, so if there's anything about her platform that you don't like, you can be sure that it'll go through

[ursako]

Thank you for that thoughtful response; that actually makes a lot of sense, although I think you give the Congressional Democrats too much credit. I honestly don't think that they could be cowed into obedience so easily. The dynastic issue bothers me too; I think it just doesn't scare me so much that I'd reject a candidate who, on the face of it, has positions similar to my own on lots of human rights and economic issues.
And, to be fair, I do have reasons for fearing those dudes. I guess Gingrich is, objectively, the least scary, if the most hackish. Huckabee would be (mostly) powerless to mess things up as veep, but if he managed to turn it into a presidency he could really wreak havoc with policy initiatives. I don't for a moment foresee that he would succeed at amending the Constitution as his pastor sees fit, but the fact that he thinks it's appropriate worries me to no end. As for Lieberman, I worry about having an Israel hawk as veep to a general Middle-East hawk; I don't know what good he brings to the table, aside from the

[jonsonite]

I agree that if you're liberal, Hillary is the easy choice over McCain...moderates and independents are concerned that she'll be too effective at being liberal.

Obama as Vice President for McCain or Hillary? If Obama were VP for McCain, I'd be pretty happy with it.

Obama as VP wouldn't change my mind about Hillary...though I guess it would be fun to watch. After the acrimony during South Carolina, I don't think that would be a happy Whitehouse.

Do you think it's unlikely for Obama to win the nomination? From what I'm hearing it's anyone's game. And Obama has a much better chance against McCain than Hillary does.

[wendolen]

I agree that if you're liberal, Hillary is the easy choice over McCain...moderates and independents are concerned that she'll be too effective at being liberal.

Huh. Some people disagree strongly with that last statement.

As for Obama vs Clinton, everyone I know planning to caucus on Saturday who's announced their candidate is planning to stand up for Obama. (Including me.) I think it's a bit early to call this contest.

[wootsauce]

Personally, my idea of the republican candidates is "bad" and "worse," but one of my friends is of the opinion that Clinton is more conservative than McCain, and doesn't really like her as a person. I'm not really on board with that.

[wendolen]

Tell your friend that they agree with Ann Coulter. That should set them straight. ;)

[wootsauce]

I forgot to mention, said friend also thinks the reason Clinton is doing so well is due to republican conspiracy.

[rakugo_report]

Yeah, what is that about?!?!?! (Yes, that is worth 3 interrobangs.) I actually had a conversation with an acquaintance last night about it because I had heard other people say the same thing. She really couldn't give me a straight answer, other than "I just don't like her." She did say that Clinton was too liberal for her, but when I mentioned that Obama has more liberal views than Clinton, and she voted for Obama, then why would that matter? She couldn't say. I think it's a load of crap, myself. I am not a big Hillary supporter but I am rather shocked by the amount of people who are anti-Hillary and would be willing to vote in yet another conservative president just because they "don't like her."

[str1]

Hating Hillary wouldn't be enough to make me vote for McCain. I'd sooner eat a shotgun sandwich than vote for either of them

[chumpjuice]

I dont think the people reading your blog are the same people who will vote for McCain.

But if I were channeling a republican, Id say something like: "McCain will cut taxes, make government less invasive, and be a stronger military leader. Hell also balance the budget."

You know, the things republicans talk about when they arent busy eating orphan children for snacks.

[ursako]

HAH.

But seriously. We have a wide ideological spectrum here at law school, and I meet a fuckton of people who just Can't Stand Hillary Clinton. And most of them, all they can say is, they just hate her.

I'm lucky that my commentariat is a little more well-reasoned.

I hope it isn't redundant to mention this:

[agent_grey]

Conservatives despise Hilary Clinton with a passion, this is known. The Pundits who are saying they'll support her over McCain are not in any way being serious, they are merely using her as a lens to express their supposed hatred of McCain. It's sort of like saying "I'll support Hitler over another term of GW Bush."

I'm not comparing Hilary to Hitler of course, but let us not forget that to those extremists on the insane side of the spectrum, she has long been known as Hitlary. That's how rediculous they are.