You knew this was coming, sooner or later. Could it be that Hillary Clinton’s political advisors are that stupid, cynical, smart, or arrogant (or any and all of the above, take your pick) as to allow their candidate, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, to get all bent out of shape and whine and complain that her Democratic competition is now being ganged up on? I mean, for God’s sake, is THAT the image that you want your party’s standard-bearer to have going into a presidential election year? That she’s just a poor victimized female being set upon by her male challengers?

Me, I knew this was coming, and (at least from a purely political point of view), I guess it makes some sense: make it virtually impossible for your opposition to lay their hands on you (no pun intended). Show your strength, and you make it near-impossible to be criticized. Get criticized? Play the victim card so it’s difficult for any charges to stick. That’s just Politics 101.

The problem is, John Kerry already tried that strategy and it failed miserably. Except in his case, it wasn’t the fact that he was woman, it was that he was a Vietnam vet. When Kerry ran in 2004, he figured that the veteran tag would make him immune to charges that: a) he wasn’t tough enough to be President in a post-9/11 world, and b) as a Vietnam vet, he couldn’t be viewed as “soft” in the War on Terror. Of course, we all know what happened: the Swift Boat Veterans charges stuck, and various ill-advised photo ops showed Kerry anything but the tough guy the nation needed in a time of war.

Given the dynamics following the Democrats debate the other night, it’s obvious that Hillary’s handlers (and I use this term in the same way a circus bear has it’s own set of handlers, because she obviously doesn’t have a position on anything that hasn’t been thoroughly audience-tested first) haven’t been paying attention to history. Those who support Hillary – female or not – respect her because, for some reason, she’s always been viewed as the strong, independent woman. Whether you agree with that image or not, Hillary’s strength has always been that she can handle the heat, and therefore ain’t afraid of no kitchen. By putting out this ‘oh, woe is me, I’m a woman and all these mean guys are ganging up on me’ act, she reveals herself to be nothing but a weak, paranoid, and power-hungry empty-suit politician who can’t stand up for herself. The obvious argument – from Democratic and Republican challenger alike – is obvious: if she can’t handle the rough-and-tumble of a Presidential campaign, how on earth will she be able to handle the Oval Office – the toughest job on earth?

I’ve always felt Hillary was the biggest fraud in the world, but these past few days have revealed some significant chinks in her so-called “inevitable” armor, and Democrats would be well advised to take another look at their current standard-bearer for President. Republicans must be licking their chops from a distance watching this. After all, you can play the victim card if you’re running for the Senate in an overwhelmingly-Democratic “blue state”, but when it comes to the Presidency, you better have a tough skin and your game-face on at all times or you’ll get destroyed out there.

Hillary is a disaster waiting to happen. And the sooner Democrats realize this, the better off they will be come 2008.