Clinton to Take On Palin?

In Friday’s New York Times article about whether Hillary Clinton will go to the mat against Sarah Palin, a woman delegate at the GOP convention says, “I just bet Hillary was watching Sarah’s speech on TV Wednesday night and cheering, ‘You go, girl!’ ” Really?

Wouldn’t Clinton’s hypothetical reaction be more along the lines of “Oh no you don’t!” — especially considering the many years of hard labor Clinton put into her struggle to make those famed cracks in the glass ceiling, only to have newbie Palin swoop in with her guns, Bibles and mooseburgers, claiming the fruits of a movement whose main tenets the governor doesn’t support?

The New York Times:

Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska and Mr. McCain’s running mate, gave the best speech of her party’s convention on Wednesday night, drawing 37 million television viewers. And she made it clear that she aimed to win over undecided women voters with her own version of the history-making, “I’m one of you” message that Mrs. Clinton employed to great effect in her fight for the Democratic nomination.

Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, has a legacy to protect: She has no intention of turning over her “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling,” as she called her supporters, to Ms. Palin, a social conservative whose policy positions are poison in Hillaryland. What is more, Mrs. Clinton wants to be the one to make history as the first woman to win at the top of a presidential ticket, be it in 2012 or 2016.

The question is, will Mrs. Clinton fight Ms. Palin to help her former rival, Mr. Obama? Clinton advisers say that Mrs. Clinton wants to do everything she can to elect Mr. Obama, so that she cannot be blamed if he loses — yet she also does not want to be too closely associated with him if he does lose, nor to tarnish her own image by taking on a rookie national politician like Ms. Palin and possibly coming up short.

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