GW Dances With Hillary

Let’s start with two things we know for sure about Hillary.  First, she wants to be President.  Second, she will do anything to be so.  There is no lie she won’t tell, no friend she won’t destroy, no pledge she won’t break, no slander she won’t spread, no political dirty trick she won’t employ in order to reside in the White House again, this time as the POTUS.

Now let’s look at one thing you should know about George W. Bush.  He’s smarter than Hillary.

Just like Ronald Reagan, it is part of GW’s political strategy to be underestimated.  This is a guy with a Harvard MBA, a guy who as a political novice took on Ann Richards, the powerful sitting governor of Texas, and ate her lunch.  Hillary’s gargantuan ego won’t allow her to be underestimated.  She insists on being overestimated, which is why her lunch will also end up in GW’s digestive tract.

Can you imagine the laugh GW and Karl Rove are having right now, witnessing in wonderment the entire media herd moo about how bad things are going for the Bush Presidency?  Let me tell you:  what Bush and Rove are doing is paying out the rope, making very sure the Dems have a fully ample supply with which to hang themselves in November 2004.

Notice there isn’t any criticism of the Ten Dwarves coming out of the White House?  The Chappaquidick Kid calls the President of the United States a “fraud” and GW dismisses the outrage as “uncivil.”  The Democratic Party is drowning in a witch’s’ brew of bitterness, an outpouring of unhinged venom catalogued by the New Republic magazine’s current (Sept. 22) cover story, “Bush Hatred.” 

GW merely shakes his head in amusement.  “Need some more rope, fellahs?” he seems to be asking.  “Here, take some more.  Please don’t forget to get all excited about how my poll numbers are down, and about your delusions on how badly things are going in Iraq and our economy.”

What George and Karl find knee-slappingly funniest of all is how they are playing Hillary, who thinks she is so impossibly clever with machinations like conning Clark to run, for a sucker.

Everyone from Dick Morris and Bill Safire on down is convinced the Clintons got Wesley Clark to run as part of their plan to cause “confusion, chaos and consternation,” in Morris’s words, “as their preferred strategy for Democrats in 2004.”  This is because Hillary thinks Bush will be very hard to beat, so her best shot is to run in 2008 against a non-incumbent.  For a Democrat to win next year would be a disaster for her, as then she must wait until 2012 and the electorate tired of 8 years of Democrat rule.

But what if Hillary thought Bush was getting weak?  As GW trolls the bait of low polls past her shark nose, Hillary could bite.  As long as she might, the Ten Dwarves can’t raise real money — for the smart Dem donors know whatever they give any of them will be down the drain the instant Hillary says she’s in.

It would be a nasty race, but in the end GW would take Hillary down just like he did Richards.  Summertime 2003 troubles in Iraq and the economy will be distant memories a year from now — for both are vastly better right now than the media portrays them and will be blindingly better then.  That shrill angry shrew-voice of Hillary’s will drive voters nuts.  GW will win perhaps not in a walk, but no more than a jog.

It’s fascinating to watch GW dance with Hillary.  She’s cunning and wicked clever, but GW will still dance circles around her.