Early Handicapping

Here’s Cindy “Who?” Sheehan on Hillary Clinton:

I thought Mrs. Clinton listened, but apparently she didn’t because immediately afterwards she said the following to Sarah Ferguson of the Village Voice:

“My bottom line is that I don’t want their sons to die in vain… I don’t believe it’s smart to set a date for withdrawal… I don’t think it’s the right time to withdraw.”

That quote sounds exactly like what the few Republicans I talked to that week said. Making sure that our children did not die in “vain” sounds exactly like something George Bush says. A “date” for withdrawal? That sounds like Rush Limbaugh to me. That doesn’t sound like an opposition party leader speaking to me. What Sen. Clinton said after our meeting sounds exactly like the Republican Party talking points I heard from Senators Dole and McCain.

Sheehan’s rant gives us an early test for how the Democratic presidential nominee will do in 2008. If this rant gets media play outside the blogosphere, will rank & file Democrats coalesce around Clinton or around Sheehan? Will they move to protect one of their strongest potential candidates, or around the brainwashed hater of Western Civilization?

But that a pretty big “if.” Just like it did last summer, the MSM is likely to ignore Sheehan’s wilder takes on current events.