HILLARY, R.I.P.

Former Congressman John LeBoutillier
We are witnessing history: the end of the Clinton Brand as the dominant, ruling class of the Democratic

Party.

She will lose Texas next week - and probably Ohio, as well. That will be the end of her campaign - even if she doesn’t yet want to admit it.

Every day now another famous Super Delegate switches from Hillary to Obama. Drip...drip...drip. You can feel it slipping away.

Why has Hillary - the ‘inevitable’ frontrunner a year ago - collapsed and been trounced 11 primaries in a row - by almost a whopping 60-40% margin in each?

The following reasons:

• Her vote on Iraq has bedeviled her on the Left since 2002. She has never been able to escape it.

• That vote - and her entire demeanor - has reinforced an underlying weakness of her’s and her husband: you can’t trust them.

• Her ambiguous, murky, cloudy language on every issue has made people think she is trying to be on both sides of every issue.

• Her candidate skills are poor. Yes, she works hard. But it takes more than that. Her constantly-changing persona - one day nice, another day angry, another day sarcastic - does not work against an upbeat, smiling, genuinely nice guy.

• Her husband has become a huge negative - not just through his semi-racial statements, but his mere presence and what it would mean in the White House.

• The biggest reason Hillary is losing to Barack Obama is the crying desire for change. That translates to getting rid of both the Bushes and the Clintons as our two so-called ‘Royal Families’ of American politics - and all that means, including Iraq, a souring economy, bad trade deals, the sub-prime mortgage mess, rising health care costs and loss of jobs.

• Obama is simply a better candidate than Hillary. The more voters see him, the more they like him.

• And Obama is the Mirror Opposite candidate - from both the Clintons and the Bushes. He is diametrically opposite to these Establishment figures. This is why he has caught on - and is the most opposite of all the candidates.

Conclusion: Hillary is all done for the 2008 race. And the Clintons - both of them - are a greatly diminished brand in American politics. (They will do all they can to sabotage Obama from here on out - in hopes he loses and she can come back and try again in 2012 in a “I told you so” campaign.)

Obama is an entirely different entity for conservatives to run against. He does not inspire the enmity that Hillary does. That, plus McCain’s lukewarm support on the Right, makes the Fall race unpredictable.

More on that next time.

Former Congressman John LeBoutillier

You can e-mail John at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We Invite You To Visit John's Website

John LeBoutillier Bio and Archives