aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Conservatives like Hillary as “Warrior Queen”

I probably don’t pay close enough attention, but I’m not seeing liberal bloggers take the position I hold: I was for the war because I bought into the media hype brought on by conventional wisdom and manipulated intelligence. Looking back, it was a mistake.

Still, I oppose pulling out and leaving the country at the mercy of insurgents, rival factions and chaos. It occurs to me that had we waited, we might still have invaded, but possibly years later with a Clintonesque coalition that would have conducted the war differently, won and stayed to help build democracy and peace.

So had I been in the audience at the Take Back America conference I would not have booed Hillary. And today I note that on The Chris Matthews Show Joe Klein says that we should “give her credit for taking a position that she might actually believe in rather than doing this as a matter of political calculation.” I do.

Klein also said that “the period of Hillary as the inevitable candidate has ended.” But the best Hillary quote of the morning was this from Andrew Sullivan:

I think Hillary as the warrior queen is a fantastic iconography for the country. I mean, warrior queens always do well - Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth I - there is a very deep mythology in the back of our heads… that warms to that figure. Now if Hillary can pull it off, it’s the one way I think she could win the hearts of the people that are currently polarized against her.

Sounds like conservative appeal. The Harrisburger (is that the same ultra-conservative Harrisburg, PA I was raised in?) says:

I’d like to see her lose and would never vote for her, but let me say that I don’t fear a Hillary presidency as much as I did a Kerry presidency. Her opinions on Iraq and Iran—minus the sometimes unduly harsh criticisms of Bush (which are, in any event, to be expected; she’s a Democrat, after all)—do not distress me too much. Plus, she has always come across to me as cold and ruthless—ideal qualities for taking on our enemies. So count me unpersuaded by anyone who might argue that Hillary could not adequately prosecute the war.

It looks like Hillary’s on the right track to me.