Hillary May Have Bet Wrong

Dick Morris, former political advisor to Bill Clinton and the guy who coined the term "triangulation", thinks his former client Hillary Clinton may have chosen the wrong time to triangulate, thereby opening the door to a hard left challenger like Al Gore:

Hillary Clinton made a fundamental decision in 2002 to support the invasion of Iraq. In doing so, she sought the center of American politics, reacting to issues much as her husband had throughout his ascent to the presidency.

But times have changed, and the center is not what it used to be. In the highly partisan and charged environment of politics in 2006, what has become of the centrist doctrines that reelected Bill Clinton and brought George W. Bush, the compassionate conservative, to the White House? Is the center still the place to aim in getting votes?

[...]

Hillary Clinton bet on consensus and centrism in backing the war and an aggressive policy on terrorism — and may have bet wrong.

There are no rewards for those who push consensus when we want polarized debate. Ask the George H.W. Bush of 1992, the Jimmy Carter of 1980 and Gerald Ford. Fate is equally unkind to polarizers when we want consensus. Ask John Kerry, Bob Dole, Mike Dukakis and Walter Mondale.

Hillary may have misjudged the left. She may have opened herself up to a challenge from the left over Iraq and the war on terror. She may have chosen the wrong time and the wrong issue on which to cross party lines.

Fortunately for her, John Kerry and John Edwards were equally complicit in backing the war at its inception. And Howard Dean was always too far off the deep end in opposing it. But Al Gore, who has no stain of support for the war to overcome and is the custom-designed candidate for the issues of energy and climate change, could mount a serious challenge to Hillary Clinton.

Mrs. Clinton is trying to move to the left on anything and everything but the war. Her comparison of illegal aliens she once said she “abhorred” to Jesus and her charge that Bush is one of our history’s worst presidents reflect her concern that she may have left the left behind in her move to the center.

Now she is in a fix. If she retreats and retracts her support for the war, she will become the ultimate weather vane, shifting with the political wind. If she adopts a pro-peace posture, she undoes all of her work to position herself as a hawkish female, able to overcome the stereotypes that hamper women who wish to be commanders in chief.

But if she stays in the center as the Democratic Party falls off to the left, she could find herself with a deadly primary challenge from her husband’s former running mate.

There are already plenty of examples of lefties, both political and Hollywood types, who are less than enthused about Hillary, and with Al Gore and Russ Feingold trying to one-up each other catering to the wacky left, there will be plenty of room to Hillary's left for another candidate.