US Diary: rightwing nutcase thinks Hillary may be unstoppable

Every now and then I like to present the other side. Here are two conservative nutcases talking about Hillary. I don't know what they're smoking, but it's pretty potent.

Interview with John Podhoretz, author of “Can She Be Stopped?”
By Jamie Glazov

Frontpage Interview: John Podhoretz, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Podhoretz: Thanks so much.

FP: What motivated you to write this book?

Podhoretz: I was finding myself in conversations with conservatives who seemed confident that Hillary Clinton could not possibly win the presidency -- that we would be delivered from her without having to do much to stop it from happening. They believed she was too polarizing, had negatives that were too high, and that she was not likable enough to make it to the White House. They thought the nation was still suffering from Clinton fatigue and that, in any case, she would probably be unelectable just because she was a woman. As I examined these presumptions, they began to seem very hollow to me -- and the notion that Hillary was unelectable began to seem like a delusion. The book was conceived as a wake-up call to the right.

FP: So you really think Hillary can win? Tell us how she can win.

Podhoretz: If she can get the votes John Kerry got -- 59 million -- she can certainly win. Republicans and conservatives should assume that she can get those votes. It will take a heroic effort to get more people to the polls. And right now, Republicans seem more intent on fighting with each other.

FP: How threatening is it to the nation if she wins?

Podhoretz: If you believe in a foreign policy that is not beholden to the U.N. or the Europeans, then you have nothing to worry about from Hillary. If you believe in higher taxes, you have nothing to worry about. If you believe in the slow but steady gutting of the Patriot Act and associated efforts to prosecute the war on terror aggressively, then you have nothing to worry about. If you like liberal judges legislating from the bench, you have nothing to worry about. But should all those prospects concern you, then you should feel very threatened by a Hillary presidency.

FP: In your book, you offer a "Ten Point Plan" to beat Hillary in 2008. Can you give us a preview of a few things concerned Americans can do to stop her from winning?

Podhoretz: Concerned Americans must smoke Hillary out -- put pressure on her to speak, speak, speak on every issue under the sun. The more she talks, the more likely it is that she will blunder. Blunders help destroy a candidate. In addition, Republicans need to look outside Washington for a candidate who can run, credibly, as a reformer.

FP: What damage do you think the Clintons did when they were in the White House?

Podhoretz: I don't think the first Clinton presidency will be an issue in 2008. It took place in another century both temporally and in terms of just how radically things have changed since 9/11. Hillary is a danger to the country not because of the Clinton presidency but because of her own record as a Senator -- a 96 percent liberal voting record.

FP: What do you think of Dickís Morris's Condi vs. Hillary? Do you think of his view that only Condi can be Hillary?

Podhoretz: The presidency is not an entry-level electoral job. In our time, only Dwight David Eisenhower has served as president without ever winning an office first. Condi Rice will not be a candidate, and if she did become a candidate she would not win because she hasn't been through the experience before. That's why Dick's contention, while eye-catching, is absurd.

FP: Candice Jackson's Their Lives reveals Hillary to be quite a ruthless person. Do you have a comment on her character?

Podhoretz: She projects a deep coldness, which is very off-putting -- but not for the first credible female candidate for president, who will have to seem like a very tough person because she will have to stand up to the world's worst men.

FP: The thought of Hillary Clinton leading America in the War on Terror is frightening. How do you envision this scenario?

Podhoretz: I think the danger is this: All the elements of the War on Terror will be chipped away, bit by bit. The Patriot Act will be revised in accordance with the ACLU's demands. The foreign policy of the United States will become extremely tentative because of Democratic concerns about America acting alone and requiring U.N. approval for every major action. The War on Terror will be prosecuted, but tentatively and with an eye toward pleasing the New York Times. And that will put America in great danger.

FP: Melrose Larry Green has written a book arguing that the Clintons belong in prison. Do you have any particular insights on Chinagate, the way the Clintons used the IRS to punish their enemies, etc?

Podhoretz: Listen, as much as I disliked the way Bill Clinton turned the White House into an ethical sewer, I don't think that will have any bearing on Hillary's campaign in 2008. She won't get a single vote from those whose minds were made up against her in the '90s. But for everyone else, those years are either remembered fondly or not remembered at all, and trying to tag her with misbehavior more than a decade old would be a political calamity for her opponents. She needs to be defeated by invoking her liberal voting record and challenging her on the more unpopular aspects of her philosophy -- how she opposes tax cuts, for example.

FP: John Podhoretz, thank you for joining us.

Podhoretz: Thank you so much.

PRETTY DAMN NUTTY, HEY? And they are representative of the people running our country. No wonder we're in such dire straits. I wouldn't put them in charge of something as simple as my masturbation schedule.

(Nuthead John Podhoretz is the New York Times bestselling author of Bush Country and Hell of a Ride. He is a columnist for the New York Post and a political commentator for the Fox News Channel. A cofounder of the Weekly Standard, he has worked at Time, U.S. News and World Report, and the Washington Times. Podhoretz served as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and as special assistant to Drug Czar William J. Bennett. He is the author of the new book, Can She Be Stopped?)