Hillary illustrates that perfect is the enemy of good

The polished, every-hair-in-place, populist, political machine that is Hillary The Presidential Candidate sputtered Tuesday night when asked directly whether or not she supported New York governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to give New York drivers' licenses to illegal aliens.

If you've seen the film "The Manchurian Candidate," you will be familiar with a monologue by Angela Lansbury that describes a speech written by Communist operatives -- the product of 40 years of work, designed to be the greatest and most perfect patriotic speech ever delivered. (The plot of the movie involves the planning of a political assassination that will trigger the delivery of this speech.)

In a similar fashion, Hillary has assembled an "A-team" of political consultants whose task is to craft the most perfect combination of populist rhetoric and winning policy proposals, as well as build the perfect campaign management machine.

Except that when you try to do that, inevitably you will miss something. Obviously Hillary's handlers neglected to craft a perfectly nuanced response to the Spitzer illegal alien driver's license proposal, which is a legitimate issue since it applies to her "home" state. They also missed some major scandal material involving Norman Hsu, as well as other fund raising irregularities.

It is instructive to note that without a prefab response, Hillary will not answer a controversial question.  This is the glaring difference between Hillary and Bill.  Bill was a master at extemporaneously deflecting difficult questions with responses like "no attack ever fed a hungry child."  He could manipulate the emotions of his audience; he could resonate pain, fear, sentimentality, and hope in a way that far eclipsed the typical rah-rah-rah frenzy of political rallies.  He always came across as an independent thinker who freely expressed what was on his mind.

Hillary has long been criticized for being a bitter, calculating, ambitious public policy maker who will purposefully trample others for her own gain.  She can be shrill and patronizing when explaining her policy views.  She knows this, and I think it scares the living daylights out of her.  Therefore, she will not allow herself to say anything that hasn't been carefully crafted by her handlers.  Unfortunately such caution means that Hillary has all but lost any chance to be seen as a spontaneous, independent thinker.

True to form, her operatives are already engaged in serious damage control, but none of their tricks will change Hillary the person.  She has a lot of intensity, but what she really needs is charisma.  The difference between these two is simply good old fashioned charm.  Bill was charming.  Hillary is not.

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You might also enjoy Zombie's Really Truly Hillary photo gallery.