Bush or Clinton dynasty a problem?

By Carol Gee

The words "Clinton dynasty" seem to be on the lips of many people these days. A search on those words at my Bloglines feed aggregator turned up 1740 posts on the subject. Not to mention a few from the "Matching News" list:

-- Liberals Slam Hillary Over Dodge Tactics from the Republican National Committee
-- The Clinton Coronation, by -- guess who? -- William Kristol
-- The Clintons and the Bushes, from Newsvine
-- Of presidents and dynasties from the L.A. Times

You know what? It will not be a problem for me. The opinions of the likes of Bill Kristol and the RNC will not swing any votes away from Hillary Clinton anyway. So they can just sputter as much as they like.

China also worries about America's trend towards dynastic rule. And that does bother me in one way. Because the Bush dynasty second incarnation has been devastating to the United States. The dynasty angle was not the problem; George W. Bush himself was the problem. The story comes from China Daily (9/29/07). It carries a great headline: "Bush, Clinton, Bush ... Clinton?" To quote:

Forty percent of Americans have never lived when there wasn't a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. Anyone got a problem with that?

The Clintons and Bushes, he [David Gergen] said, have built up strong "brand" recognition for their names -- just as the Kennedys did in an age of promise cut short by assassination -- making it harder for newcomers to compete.

But sometimes, people just want to try something new.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken over the summer found that fully one-quarter of all Americans said that the prospect of having at least 24 straight years of a President Clinton or Bush would be a consideration in their vote for president in 2008.

The dynasty question that must be settled by Democrats is whether to worry about the possibility that one-quarter of all Americans might not vote for another Clinton. What if she were to run as Hillary Rodham? How would that work?

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)