Some thought the coral jacket Hillary Clinton wore in the debate Monday night was really happening. It sure beat the sameness of the male wardrobes on stage, although John Edwards didn't care for it.
Memo to Edwards: Do not put down a woman's attire to her face. It's never a win-win situation, trust me.
Others found it clever when she answered the question about how Americans will accept 28 straight years of two families -- the Bush's and the Clinton's -- in the White House (assuming she wins in '08 and is re-elected.) Her sly, deadpanned response: "I think it is a problem that Bush was elected in 2000. I actually thought somebody else was elected...." Biggest laugh of the night. The question exposed a potential weakness in her campaign yet she turned it into a strength.
But the question that most revealed the key to her general election strategy, her Sister Souljah moment, was whether or not she'd call herself a "liberal." Her chief campaign strategist from Hope, Arkansas was surely proud.
Her short answer was no, but after giving a brief history of the word going back to the 19th Century (individual freedom, against unchecked power) she added that it had come to be identified with "big government" in the past "30-40 years."
She prefers the term "modern progressive." She said it had a more "American meaning, going back to the progressive era at the beginning of the 20th century." This was an apparent reference to the "Progressive Party" founded by Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 when he split from his own Republican Party.
Her message: "Liberal" is now un-American.
All in all a very devilish answer, and I mean that as a political compliment whether or not she wears Prada. Here's why:
It was in his 1996 State of the Union speech, 15 months after Republicans regained the House of Representatives for the first time in four decades, that Bill Clinton proclaimed "The era of big government is over."
It was smart of Bill to crib the Republican message back then (it got him re-elected), and Hillary signaled in the YouTube debate that she'll do the same in '08. She'll accuse Republicans of not following her husband's lead after W took the White House in 2000. Her argument will have more than a little validity, since Republicans became such big government types after inheriting a huge budget surplus, the biggest ever, and squandering it into a massive budget deficit, also the biggest ever.
Indeed, the main reason that many conservatives don't love Bush isn't because of Iraq, or even his take on immigration (although they hate that, too); it's the fact that he's governed as a big government Republican.
How big? According to a study by the conservative Cato Institute, non-defense and non-homeland security spending under Bush -- forget 9/11 and the Iraq War -- has grown at a rate exceeding Lyndon Johnson (4.1 percent) and slightly below Nixon (5.0 percent) who created new departments during his tenure.
Mind you, Bush wreaked this havoc with a compliant Congress controlled by his own political party. (And by the way, despite LBJ's "Great Society" programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the horrific Vietnam War, he left office in '69 with a balanced budget and a slight surplus, the last until Clinton's presidency. Republicans are loathe to admit this.)
By using the exact phrase "big government" in her YouTube debate answer about why she doesn't call herself a liberal, Hillary Clinton is inoculating herself against getting Swift Boated by the Republicans next year, as well as laying down a marker against them.
The "label game" is the core of the Republican arsenal (remember Newt Gingrich calling Bill and Hillary "counter-culture McGoverniks?") If she's the nominee, and they charge her with being a "big government liberal" (which they will), she'll throw the accusation back in their face.
And her Exhibit A? The past eight years of George W. Bush, of course.
Say what you will about her candidacy, her argument for the general election seems ready-to-wear, as they say in the rag business.
Somewhere Bill is beaming. It's still the economy, stupid.