If Hillary gets the nomination it WON'T be because most people like her....Think of the implications

[Armstead]

If it turns out that Obama has been mortally wounded by Rev. Wright, and the current media pile-on, Hillary Clinton will have won dirty.

Personally, I hope Obama is capable of rallying himself and getting more pro-active again.

But if not, Hillary will not have won on a positive basis, but by default.

I realize a lot of people do like and actively support her. But not enough.

She would have the highest unfavorability ratings of almost anyone running for president going in. She is not vewed as honest and trustworthy by many people. She has alienated and insulted at least half of the Democratic Party.

And this would be before the GOP Attack Machine warms up its engines.

In terms of swing voters, her claimed strengths against Obama -- fighter, hawk, "experience," etc. -- pale in comparison to McCain.

Not very promising.

[msongs]

1. wright is getting even with obama and cashing in - typical megachurch guy nt

[rucky]

14. not buying that narrative

sorry.

[KittyWampus]

17. I do think ego is a part of it for Wright, he's human. But mainly, he's not media savvy.

[ecstatic]

2. That is the same problem Kerry had in the beginning

Many of us fell in line to vote for him though. I don't even think too many liberals will bother to hold their nose and vote for Clinton.

[Texas Hill Country]

3. Wright is not her fault, Rezko is not her fault, Bitter is not her fault. Obama did it to himself.

[Armstead]

4. I dunno -- Maybe, maybe not....But that's beside the point

If Hillary were popular and capable of rallying voters, she would have locked up the nomination early on with all of the advantages she had.

But she couldn't. And that would be a big problem in the general election.

[paulk]

5. since when is "liking" politicians a criteria ?

seriously.

I only care about the kind of job I think they'll do. I find this whole notion that one has to like the people we vote for absurd.

[futureliveshere]

8. That might work for you. But a lot of people look to a politician they Like AND does a good job

Bill Clinton was forgiven a lot of shenanigans because people LIKED him. GWB was the guy you could have a BEER with. So likes and dislikes play a HUGE role in this, whether you "like" it or not.

:)

[Armstead]

19. Like, respect, trust, relate to....choose whatever words you want

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. In that case, judge her by her managerial expertise, which,

going by this campaign, SUCKS.

She can't handle the money. She can't handle her personnel. She can't keep from going negative. What, in all that we know about her, makes her a good prospect for the Chief Executive office?

[Pirate Smile]

6. I also think there is a lot of stuff that hasn't come up yet because Obama didn't

want to run that kind of campaign.

I posted a thread last night asking if the Clinton supporters actually believe she has been "vetted" re the 2000-now time frame. It looks like they actually don't think that is going to be a problem. I think almost every week may be similar to this week during the GE if Hillary becomes the nominee.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5727092&mesg_id=5727092

[barack the house]

7. Yep even if Obama loses the GE better that than losing loyal voter support. As in business take

care of your regular customers or business closes.

[mattclearing]

9. Quit the worrying. Obama is fine, Hillary is still finished. n/t

[Armstead]

18. I still hope my "IF" in the thread title holds true

I'm not saying it's over....But I don;t like the direction it's going.

And besides, worrying is my nature. :)

[Enrique]

10. Obama will have to help her

I agree with Howard Dean, the most important person for unifying the party is the runner-up.

[SeaLyons]

11. Over 14 million voters disagree with you n/t

[ourbluenation]

12. the superdelegates know this, thats why she doesn't have them all yet.

+

[Ravy]

13. Neither can win "clean" at this point.

The Obama camp turned the election around by calling the Clintons racist in South Carolina over the "fairy tale" and LBJ remarks. Obama's victory is severely tainted as well.

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. On the stump, in the primaries Hillary has won...

Most of her appeal has been based on populist tinged economic positions and policies designed to help the working and middle class. They HAVE been popular. That plus her promise to fight to defend the interests of average Americans. Plenty of people like her spunk. Lots of folks here at DU are cynical about Hillary Clinton, but she has plenty of real enthusiastic support out there in the nation.

Hillary Clinton has been under harsh attack from the left of the Democratic Party for a year now, but she still has the support of essentially half of Democratic voters. In fact she has won the most registered Democratic voters in the primaries this year no matter how you count it. If she becomes our nominee, attacks on her from the left will be greatly reduced, with no other left Democrat in the race. Attacks from Republicans will rally Democrats to Clinton at that point, and the platform she is running on is essentially the same as Obama's (though I like hers slightly better). The issues favor Democrats in 2008. Though Obama supporters don't like hearing this, Hillary is more credible to more swing voters on "experience" than Obama is, which will make it easier for voters to not be seduced into backing McCain as the only candidate qualified to be commander in chief.

[Armstead]

16. her sdtated positions this campaign have been popular -- But that's not about her

I did recognize in the OP that she has a lot of support. However, that is offset by a lot of strong visceral opposition, from various sides of the poilitcal spectrum.

The "left" that you say has been attacking her because -- at least for a large number -- there is a huge disconnect between her words and her history and the history of her husband that is contradictory to progressive populism.

I think that disconnect is one of the reasons she has a high unfavorable and untrustworthy rating.

I will not deny that Obama has opposition too. However, in a different framework, he has basically built something positive from scratch, while Hillary started with a huge advantage but couldn't keep.

As for Obama, I don;t think he has done anything terrible to have blown his popularity. A few mistakes, yes. But much of that has been due to the relentless chipping away at him by Hillary. Which gets back to my original point. If she does win the noimination, she will have won dirty. The lack of widespread enthusiasm for her beyond her core support does not bode well.