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June 14, 2006
Hillary's Smarter than You Think
She's gotta be loving this moment:
A few CODEPINK women did manage to get inside the breakfast, however, as they were legitimate ticket holders. Once inside, the CODEPINK women soon realized that they had been deceived about the second part of the agreement: They would not be allowed to ask the first question, or any question, because Hillary Clinton would not be fielding questions from the audience. “We were really upset that we had been lied to by Take Back America, and that there would be no space at this ‘progressive conference’ to have a dialogue with Hillary Clinton about the most critical issue of our time—the war in Iraq,” said Katie Heald, DC coordinator for CODEPINK. “We got up on our chairs holding up our hands with the peace sign, and were pulled down from the chairs. We tried to take out our banner that said “Listen Hillary: Stop Supporting the War” and it was grabbed from us. And when Hillary started talking about her Iraq strategy, criticizing Bush but not posing a solution, we shouted ‘What are YOU going to do to get us out of Iraq,’ but she ignored us.”
I heard audio of the event, and Hillary stood up against those (like Jean Fraud Kerry) who are calling for a timetable for withdrawal, a position for which she was roundly booed by the "progressives".
And loving every minute of it.
Mahablog detects little interest in a Hillary candidacy:
The MSM has been telling us for years that Hillary is a “rock star” with party activists, but I’m not seeing that here. “She can’t win” seems to be conventional wisdom. Yes, she got an enthusiastic standing ovation at the beginning and ending of her speech, but so did Pelosi and Kerry. And, as I said, the crowd got a lot more fired up by Kerry’s speech than by Clinton’s.
That's of course because Kerry, unlike Clinton, needs the netkooks like Maha on his side if he's going to have any chance at getting the nomination.
MYDD's incredible 12-year-old pundit Matt Stoller sheds some crocodile tears:
That's a big deal. I sympathize deeply with Senator Clinton. She has not lived in the real world since 1993 out of necessity. The vicious smears by the right-wing forced her to build a phalanx of advisors who protect her from feedback. This was necessary, but it carries a severe cost. That cost is that she lives in a bubble. It's a different bubble than that of Bush, but not as different as you might imagine. It is a bubble built of big money donors, right-wing beltway pundits, campaign consultants, and constituency group leaders.
She doesn't get that a fundraiser with Rupert Murdoch, or chastizing young people, or pandering on abortion by pushing Bob Casey, or flag burning, or sticking with Iraq as the right thing to do, or any number of third way moves is not where the country is.
It's not really her fault. She lives in a bubble. Anyone in her position would have to do so, or risk going insane. But it is what it is, and it means that she has exceptionally bad judgment.
We'll see whose judgment is off here. I suspect strongly that it's Stoller's, who appears to still believe that the netkooks have incredible power to win elections; perhaps he has forgotten their support for Howard Dean in 2004?
Update: For a similar take, see Ankle-Biting Pundits.
Say what you will about Hillary Clinton (and Lord knows I have), I have to give her credit for not having the political tin-ear I thought she did when she ran for Senate. Yesterday she continued to show that she has the most sense of any of the 2008 Democrat Presidential wannabes - which is kind of like being the skinniest kid at Fat Camp.
Posted by pat at June 14, 2006 05:22 PM
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Comments
Both Rush and Laura Ingraham played these clips yesterday. I wanted to know why they would give her the free publicity.
Ultimately, it just made her look flimsy and "triangulating."
Posted by: Aaron at June 15, 2006 07:52 AM