Herman

Cain

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November 19, 2007

Stop Measuring Those Drapes, Hillary

If you listen to the tone of the liberal media establishments and the die-hard Democrats, Sen. Hillary Clinton should order her drapes for the Oval Office. Not so fast! There are some compelling opportunities for Republicans to turn her dream into a nightmare.

First, as the Democratic pollsters and the media tout her commanding lead over her nearest Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, they conveniently fail to emphasize her consistently high negatives versus her positive perceptions. The margin of her consistently high negatives versus her positives is much greater than that of any other candidate. Translation: People really love her despite the shallowness many of us see, or they really, really hate the idea of her being president for a lot of reasons.

One of the big reasons for not favoring Hillary is her lack of real leadership experience. She often alludes to her experience as the wife of a previous president, Bill Clinton. That certainly is not the same as leading a state, a city, a business or any organization that has multi-disciplinary functions.

Hillary also likes to refer to her time and experience in the Senate. Senators are supposed to develop good national policy, and influence others to support passage of good national policy. Maybe it’s me, but I am drawing a blank on that front. And if one honestly considers the ideas she has proposed and then sometimes un-proposed or flip-flopped on since starting her presidential campaign, the serious voter is still asking “Where’s the beef?”

The consistently high negatives mean that it is unlikely Hillary will win those voters over, and that the conservative-thinking, middle-of-the-road voters will not join her merry band of blind followers.

Secondly, Hillary and her Democratic rivals are consistently socialist in their ideas and ideology. They say it differently, but it always comes down to bigger government and more government mandates on individuals and businesses – and always paying for those ideas with more taxes on the ever-elusive “rich”.

Thirdly, even though the previous Republican-controlled Congress fumbled the ball on spending, personal retirement accounts and immigration reform, the Democratic-controlled Congress has managed to achieve the lowest congressional approval rating in modern history. Maybe the Democrats have not figured out that their strategy of doom-and-gloom political posturing and “wrong direction” policy proclamations are not enough to fool enough of the people all of the time.

The good news for the Republicans is that more and more people are seeing through the Democratic veil of pandering, while offering no real solutions for the biggest problems we face. More and more people are connecting with the enduring advantages of a society with more liberties and more economic freedoms instead of a society controlled by a few power-inspired politicians.

The other good news for the Republicans is the consistency of the Republican presidential candidates on the major issues that matter the most. Namely, enhancing our national security by vigorously fighting Islamic fascism, allowing free-market principles to continue to drive our economic superiority in the world, sustaining a vibrant economy by not raising taxes and cutting government spending, and encouraging self-responsibility by giving people a helping hand instead of handouts.

The Republican presidential candidates may all say it differently, but it comes down to a better future for this country based on its founding principles.

But hope for the Republicans running for president or Congress in 2008 has to be cultivated with clear-targeted messages of what can be, instead of “this is how bad it is”. There is more opportunity for the Republicans than the pundits can measure or predict in 2008, but Republicans have to go out and get it with message-focused campaigns instead of party-focused campaigns.

There is still much hope that, come 2009, there will be red drapes rather than blue drapes in the Oval Office.

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