Danny Taggart's Blogarama

A more-or-less daily dose of news, politics, techmology, and any random thoughts that pass through my head.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Hillary's new look

A number of people, including Tony Blankley, have recently commented on Hillary Clinton's divide-and-conquer strategy on immigration reform. To set herself up for a presidential run in 2008, she is talking tough on border security and illegal immigration in an effort to peel off disgruntled conservatives. While I'm all for her efforts, regardless of motivation, I question whether she would actually be willing or able to follow through on them. I also question whether she could win. Ayn Rand would probably question whether she should win.

I suppose the question of whether she can win boils down to whether or not she wins more votes from conservatives than she loses from liberals/Hispanics alienated by her policy. Pat Buchanan would probably vote for her, but he only polled at <1% last time he ran. Hillary has obviously done her math, but the answer is not superficially obvious. Is this just an election ploy to capitalize on conservative anger at Bush or does she expect to cause a real shift in constituencies, possibly fragmenting the Republican coalition?