You Go, Hillary!

TIME magazine for Feb. 7, 2005, has as its cover story an article on what President Bush "owes" Christian evangelicals for helping re-elect him. A sidebar, "The Democrats: Trying Out a More Soulful Tone," accessible here, features coverage of Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York's address to abortion rights supporters on the occasion of the (what, 32nd?) anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

(Before going any further, oldstyleliberal would like to make clear that he thinks of Sen. Clinton as "Hillary," and he will refer to her that way not out of any disrespect, but to distinguish her from "Bill," also a noteworthy American political figure ... and in his case, of course, a former President. As oldstyleliberal is about to reveal, he favors Hillary for President in 2008 ... so let no one say that his use of her first name alone is meant to cheapen her or belittle her.)

Hillary noted in her address:

While affirming her view that women should continue to have the right to choose, Clinton urged Democrats to support measures to reduce the number of abortions—encourage abstinence among the young and force insurers to cover contraceptives—and surprised some by saying the goal was not just making abortions rare but eliminating them altogether. She even sought to get on the right of Bush on the issue by noting that abortions have risen in eight states under his presidency.

Her tone did not please many liberals. Ellen Goodman, op-ed columnist for The Boston Globe (link to her archives here), wrote in "Whose common ground?":

Hillary Clinton, in a speech that was widely described as a retreat, said, "There is an opportunity for people of good faith to find common ground in this debate -- we should be able to agree that we want every child born in this country to be wanted, cherished, and loved."

That, on top of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's (D-MA) recent

"Surely we can all agree that abortion should be rare and that we should do all we can to help women avoid the need to face that decision."

provoked Ms. Goodman to gripe:

Where exactly is it "possible" to find common cause with those who call themselves prolife? In the three states where women must legally be told the lie that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer? In Virginia, where a state legislator introduced a law that would have made women report "fetal deaths"? Among those who think that stem cell research is homicidal? Or want to overturn Roe v. Wade?

oldstyliberal disagrees wholeheartedly with Ms. Goodman's attitude. He thinks Hillary Clinton is onto something in her attempt to close the gap on abortion between liberals and conservatives.

For background on her political instinct to reconcile the differences between ideological extremes, see the transcript of her speech/interview at the Panetta Institute on June 28, 2004. Her lecture on "Women and Leadership in the 21st Century" was followed by a Q&A session led by former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta. Scroll about three-quarters of the way down to find a segment on the topic of "How does any President govern when this country is so split apart?"

In response, Hillary bemoans the loss of a spirit of compromise and bipartisan consensus in Congress today, an attitude that was typical in her younger days, when as a teenager from a Republican family background she even supported Goldwater for President:

That's not what we currently have in Washington. I think that's a great loss. It breaks the continuity of bipartisan consensus that really did move us through the last half of the 20th century.

You can disagree with the direction of the country, but the majority of people are a little beyond the center to the right or to the left, but basically within a kind of boundary where the disagreements took place.

But there was always a minority on both sides of the political spectrum who were not satisfied with that. They wanted to jerk the country to the left or jerk the country to the right.

Now, Hillary says, there is "increasing intolerance" among Republicans and they are jerking the country to the right. Gone are the days when "you had the Senate on a bipartisan vote passing a budget which included the old fashion concept of pay-as-you-go," with cooperation from the leadership of both parties needed to get the budget passed.

That spirit of cooperation and bipartisanship at the end of the politcal day, after all the back-and-forth rhetoric is done, is sorely needed now, oldstyliberal thinks. And if angling for such a center-seeking climate requires a Hillary Clinton to soften her erstwhile hard-line support for abortion rights by shifting the emphasis to unwanted pregnancy prevention and contraception, oldstyliberal believes Ellen Goodman and others ought to cut her some slack.

It's Hillary Rodham Clinton's wisdom in seeking common ground at (or at least near) the political center that makes oldstyliberal say, "Hillary in '08!"