Hillary - political calculation

Like keeping a car in a driving lane by continues minor left/right adjustments, every action/statement by Hillary is a political calculation. It is getting so obvious that the knee-jerk reaction is to ask, "Why is she doing that"? Look at two recent issues: border control and troop size. On the border control issue she gets on a soap box and lecture the Bush administration on not doing enough. No legislation introduced and no proposed answers - just criticism. On troop size, you heard very little speeches yet she co-sponsors a bill to raise troops by 30000.

If a legislator has core values, they would tend to handle issues the same: speak out on the issue to gain support and introduce legislation to resolve. Logical analysis may reveal why Hillary chose two different methods. If you look at them through the prism of her goals to weaken the Republicans and strengthen her candidacy, it makes sense.

High profile criticism of the border without actually doing anything about it, may fool some conservatives and centrists while not offending her politically correct base. A low profile introduction of troop size legislation may attract conservatives, but is quiet enough to not offend the base. Also, with campaign claims of a secret plan for a draft and difficulty meeting current recruitment targets - raising the target will provide an opportunity to stir up more talk about the draft and lack of desire to sign up.

The bottom line is that she is too politically motivated to justify changing to a favorable opinion of her based on any action between now and 2008. Every day she will wake up wondering how she can fool more people into thinking she is something that she is not.