Defending Hillary August 31, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, feminism, gender, Hillary Clinton, media bias, sexism, Uncategorized.2 comments
Indiana Daily Student; by Indira Dammu; August 31, 2008
Before the start of the brutal Democratic primary earlier this year, I would hardly have called myself a Hillary Clinton supporter. Like many liberals, I found her political positions to be extremely self-serving, and her vote for the Iraqi invasion was unforgivable. So, it seems like a strange turn of events that I would offer a defense for the New York senator today.
I wasn’t the only one to watch Clinton’s excellent speech Tuesday night at the Democratic Convention in Denver. It was a testament to her strength that she delivered an unequivocal endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama even though she wasn’t even vetted for the vice presidency. Much of Clinton’s speech concerned party unity, and this was understandable.
The senator and her supporters have been blamed, unfairly, for dividing the Democratic Party. This harmful narrative that arose, largely due to the media, has simply not been borne out by the facts.
For instance, much of the analysis during the convention concerned an Aug. 15-18 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in which just 52 percent of Hillary Clinton’s supporters said they would vote for Obama. Few media outlets seemed to be interested, however, in an Aug. 19-22 Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 70 percent of Clinton supporters backed Obama.
Indeed, contrary to criticism, Clinton supporters have demonstrated their willingness to unite behind a strong Democratic agenda. While Clinton donors have given Obama more than $3 million in June and July, Obama’s backers have given Clinton less than $430,000 since he asked them to help pay off her campaign debt.
Even veteran U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, a longtime Clinton supporter, offered to speak at the convention to demonstrate reconciliation between Obama and Clinton’s African-American supporters. His request was denied by the Obama campaign.
Clinton’s speech was also meant to address a lingering question in the minds of many: What does she really want?
The question of what Hillary really wants is a symptom of how Democrats treated her. We ridiculed and mocked her during the primaries and when it was done, we scratched our heads and wondered what Hillary stood for. While I’m not affiliated with the Clinton campaign, one can assume that Clinton just wanted her supporters to be respected. You know, those 18 million individuals, many of whom were labeled as angry, uneducated racists.
But this campaign was also about respect for Hillary herself. Call me a bitter feminist – like I haven’t heard that before – but Clinton’s treatment by the media was simply appalling. Moreover – for many democrats, particularly males – it became easier to dismiss sexist commentary simply because, well, it was Hillary.
After Clinton’s prolonged presence in the primaries, her speech Tuesday night simply acknowledged her historic candidacy. And ultimately, this was the overarching message of her speech. Clinton didn’t devolve into a predictable lamentation about the state of women’s affairs Wednesday. Instead, she was hopeful and generous – a fitting end to a candidacy that has, indeed, helped shatter the highest glass ceiling of all.
A Brilliant Trap Makes Dems The Male Chauvinists August 31, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, feminism, gender, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Sarah Palin, sexism, Uncategorized, vice president, women's vote.4 comments
New York Post; by Kirsten Powers; August 30, 2008
SHE’S just a beauty queen.
She’s another Dan Quayle.
And ironically, the biggest criticism of Sarah Palin, John McCain‘s veep choice, is she has no experience. Funny, coming from the Barack Obama camp.
Following McCain’s announcement of Palin – the first female to be put on a GOP ticket for the White House, and only the second in US history – the Obama campaign skipped the niceties and blasted her as the “former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience.” She’s also a governor of Alaska (my home state), the first woman in that office and the youngest elected in state history. She has an 80-plus percent approval rating. She has turned the state upside down with her reformist zeal and has made enemies of the Republican establishment.
And she can talk energy policy, one of the biggest issues facing this country.
Is she a gamble? Definitely. But so is Barack Obama, who has himself dismissed experience as a prerequisite for leadership, despite his spot atop the Democratic ticket.
At this point, Palin is so unknown, there’s no way to make a clear judgment about her. But listening to Obama supporters take to the airwaves to shriek with indignation about her lack of experience is just a little too rich. Where were they when Obama, two years into the Senate, announced his candidacy for president?
One Obama supporter and political operative blogged, “In picking an unknown, untested half-a-term governor from Alaska . . . John McCain is following in a long line of reckless men who have rolled the dice for a beauty queen.”
Do we really have to do this again?
No sooner was Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the race, and a new woman is in the cross hairs.
On CNN, during a discussion about whether it was appropriate for Palin to accept this job when she has a baby, Dana Bash pointed out it’s unlikely anyone would ask this of a male candidate.
I can’t help wondering if this is a trap. The McCain camp watched and learned as Obama supporters offended Hillary supporters by their treatment of her. The McCainiacs had to know that this group is incapable of behaving, that Palin would bring out their worst instincts.
One top Republican said to me: “Just wait until she is debating Joe Biden and he starts attacking or condescending to her. Hillary voters are going to say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember this.’ “
The McCain camp has already made clear it stands at the ready to scoop up these voters. Yesterday, Palin proudly acknowledged her historic selection, the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the woman who paved the way for her, Geraldine Ferraro.
Ferraro told me she’s excited for another woman to be on a presidential ticket. She sees Palin as a risky choice – but also dismissed the idea that she’s unqualified.
And she rejected the idea that all the so-called “Hillary voters” would be repelled by Palin’s staunch anti-abortion views. These voters know the Senate will have a veto-proof Democratic majority, so that lessens the potency of that issue.
Howard Wolfson, Hillary’s top strategist, said “it won’t help with most Hillary voters, but it could help with some.”
“Some” of 18 million people is what the McCain camp is after.
The other potential trap is luring the Obama campaign onto the “experience” field. The early conventional wisdom says McCain’s pick was boneheaded because it takes the experience issue off the table. But it seems that it has done the opposite: The importance of experience is the topic of the day.
The more Democrats complain about this, the more Republicans can turn it on them and say, “If you are so concerned about the amount of experience of the vice president, what about the top of your ticket?”
Obama’s argument thus far has been that experience isn’t what counts; it’s judgment. By attacking the Republican woman relentlessly on this issue, Democrats are undermining their own man.
Bill Clinton rocks the house!!! August 28, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Bill Clinton was welcomed by a raucous crowd that he had to tell to stop cheering because they were going crazy over him. That was a well-deserved reception for the only two-term Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt. He was a great reminder of how times were so much better before the debacle called the Bush presidency. All the Clinton haters in the media kept saying how he might get booed and how he would give a tepid endorsement of Barack Obama. However, he gave a ringing endorsement of Barack Obama and gave his campaign a blueprint of how to defeat John McCain. He outlined the differences between the two parties and wasn’t afraid to attack McCain and the Republicans. This is in contrast to the Obama campaign which has been reticent to go on the offensive and has for the last month just been responding to the attacks of the McCain campaign. That is why this election is virtually tied, when Obama should be ahead by double digits. Bill Clinton has a proven track record of defeating Republicans and he did his part to help ensure a Democratic victory in November.
Hillary Clinton delegate pours our her heart after Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention August 27, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, feminism, gender, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, media bias, sexism, Uncategorized.9 comments
In my previous post, I talked about a Hillary Clinton delegate crying as she was interviewed after Hillary Clinton’s speech. This is the video of Anna Price-Miller, a Hillary Clinton delegate from the state of Washington, as she is interviewed on CNN. She is representative of many Hillary Clinton supporters who are still wounded and extremely reluctant to support Barack Obama. Barack Obama still has a long way to go to close the deal.
Hillary Clinton delivers in Denver August 27, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, feminism, gender, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John McCain, media bias, sexism, Uncategorized, women's vote.5 comments
Hillary Clinton Intro Video
Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention
Hillary Clinton gave the speech of her life tonight at the Democratic National Convention. She genuinely and forcefully endorsed Barack Obama. I hope this will shut up annoying Obama supporters and idiotic pro-Obama media pundits especially on CNN and MSNBC who kept putting the burden on HIllary Clinton to convince her supporters to come toward Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton has done her part and now it’s all on Barack Obama. At the end of the day, it is up to the actual candidate to convince voters to support him. So if Obama blows this election, he will not be able to blame Hillary Clinton.
As I watched the speech, it reinforced how proud I was and am to support Hillary Clinton. She definitely connected with working people as a fighter for them in a way Obama has up to this point unable to do. The longer I heard her speak, the more it made me sort of sad. It reminded me again that she is definitely the best candidate for President. It also made me sad to know that I will forced to vote for someone who is the second best candidate on Election Day. Ironically, I think for most Hillary Clinton supporters like myself, the more she shined brightly as she spoke tonight, the more you wanted her to be President. You saw the many Clinton delegates crying as she delivered her magnificent speech. I think for many of her supporters, they have a heart connection to her that will not be broken through speeches about policy. I think even her speech will not be enough to convince many of them to vote for Obama.
After the speech, CNN interviewed an African American female Hillary Clinton delegate named Anne Price-Mills from the state of Washington who was shedding a lake of tears as she shared how sad she was to realize that HIllary Clinton would not be the nominee. As she continually choked up, she said that even though she wouldn’t vote for McCain, Obama has two months to show her why she should vote for him. She said if that doesn’t happen, this would be the first time in her life that she would not vote. That is probably a common sentiment among many Hillary Clinton supporters. It is now up to Obama to convince them to vote for him and that will not be an easy task, especially after he arrogantly snubbed her from the VP spot. Thank you Hillary Clinton for being an inspiration to so many!
The ‘Safe’ Convention August 27, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, feminism, gender, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, media bias, sexism, Uncategorized.add a comment
Denver Post; by David Harsanyi; August 26, 2008
DENVER — For those of you who believe that the Hillary Clinton Uprising is a fairy tale concocted by a press in search of convention controversy, think again.
Hillary Clinton’s seductive charms lie heavy on the Mile High City. Defiant supporters can be seen citywide sporting Hillary pins and T-shirts, in direct defiance of unity.
Nearly every event in Denver includes some unruly joker who injects her name into a perfectly pleasant discussion. Why didn’t Barack Obama pick Hillary as his running mate? Why hasn’t she campaigned harder for Obama? Will her supporters defect to John McCain?
So dreaded is the thought of disunity, it has been reported, that teams will be dispatched to quell any unauthorized outbreaks of irrational exuberance from Clinton supporters.
Apparently, Hillary loyalist and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell missed the memo when he accused the media of having irrational exuberance for Obama during the primaries. “Ladies and gentlemen, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing. It was embarrassing.”
One senior Obama supporter, according to Politico, claimed the Clinton associates act like “Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.” And every good Democrat knows that war is never the answer.
A new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds that only half of Clinton’s primary supporters say they “definitely” will vote for Obama. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll put the number at 52 percent. More alarmingly for Obama is the 30 percent of those polled who claim they will vote for McCain, someone else or just stay home.
Those are significant numbers. The McCain camp has picked up this theme, running a television ad featuring Hillary’s own primary attacks against Obama. Another ad introduces us to a cute and cheery former Hillary supporter who tells Democrats it’s OK to defect.
One of the first press releases of Monday morning alerted convention goers to the “Happy Hour for Hillary,” an event hosted by the Republican National Committee where GOPers, “independents” and “open-minded Democrats” can come together to cheer on “the most qualified candidate to lead our country as Commander in Chief.”
One wonders whether any of these distraught Happy Hour revelers could coherently point out the policy differences between the two. If not, it must be the experience, right? The personality?
Vice presidential nominee Joe Biden is imbued with both. He’s definitely got a personality, and he’s been plying his trade on the Senate floor forever.
Then again, wasn’t it Obama who claimed that judgment, rather than experience, is the key to astute leadership? What then does Biden bring to the ticket that Clinton doesn’t? Mickey Kaus of Slate magazine posited, Biden “doesn’t have gravitas. He has seniority.”
And there is a noteworthy difference between Biden and Clinton: The loquacious Biden entertained the press corps for a handful of primary debates before dropping out; Hillary persuaded 18 million primary voters to support her.
So then why not Clinton? If you erode your theme of “change” by choosing a longtime Washington insider, why not pick the one who can unite your party?
Perhaps a clue can be found in the words of Nancy Pelosi, who said Democrats need to “begin anew.” At a convention that will feature Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, John Kerry, Joe Biden and maybe Ted Kennedy (in order of most annoying), who can argue?
It’s true that Biden is the “safe” pick. And for those who’ve dug deeper into Obama’s political career, you already know the junior senator from Illinois always makes the safe pick.
The one thing that is certain, though, is that picking Biden over Clinton helps one candidate. And that candidate is not here in Denver.
Stalwarts for Clinton, in Search of Cartharsis August 26, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, feminism, gender, Hillary Clinton, media bias, sexism, Uncategorized.add a comment
The New York Times
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: August 25, 2008
DENVER — Susie Tompkins Buell of San Francisco, a prominent Democratic donor, almost skipped the party’s presidential convention this week, but then flew here as it was about to open on Monday.
“I’m going to the convention because I want to see Hillary,” Ms. Buell said in an interview. “I want to be inspired by her, encouraged by her to do what’s going to be the best thing for all of our futures. She’s trying to help us all get through this.”
“This,” of course, is the formal nomination of Senator Barack Obama as the party’s standard-bearer instead of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who remains the first choice of Ms. Buell and many other Democratic women nearly three months after the marathon nomination race ended. These stalwarts are looking to Mrs. Clinton, of New York, for “the catharsis” that she has said the convention could bring.
For many of the women who are delegates and party activists here, and others watching nationwide, the convention’s high point will be Mrs. Clinton’s valedictory Tuesday night, not Mr. Obama’s acceptance speech Thursday. What she says then to promote her onetime rival will tell a lot about Democrats’ ability to unite for victory in November against Senator John McCain, who will officially be nominated at the Republican convention next week in St. Paul.
One thing is certain: It is going to be an emotional ride both for Mrs. Clinton, the two-term senator and former first lady who sought to become the first woman to be elected president, and for the women who so passionately supported her and would be the base of any future run.
Mrs. Clinton’s carefully mapped itinerary here started on Monday with a sometimes-tearful breakfast with fellow politicians from New York. It will also include an event saluting her work promoting microloans for poor women around the world, visits with supporters in numerous state delegations, and a tribute from Emily’s List, the political action committee for liberal women candidates that had helped finance her campaign.
The climax will be Mrs. Clinton’s speech Tuesday, and later the placing of her name in nomination. By Wednesday, advisers say, she will have released her delegates to vote for Mr. Obama. But many will stick with her as a symbolic statement.
“I don’t think that Senator Obama understands how deep this commitment goes to Hillary, and where this passion comes from,” said Ms. Buell, co-founder of the clothing company Esprit. She stopped short of saying she would vote for Mr. Obama in November, but added: “I’m also a very, very devoted Democrat, so this is a very hard situation. John McCain is unacceptable.”
Democrats say they are fortunate that it is party members’ passion for their respective candidates that divides Clinton and Obama supporters, and not ideological differences over the party’s direction. Those differences are harder to bridge, as Democrats found in 1980, when, divided between President Jimmy Carter and the more liberal Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, they lost the White House.
Mrs. Clinton’s supporters say she will give a full-throated endorsement of Mr. Obama, and they note that their differences are minor compared with those between Democrats and Republicans. The aim, said Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who campaigned for Mrs. Clinton, is that “Hillary supporters should take their cues from her, and follow her lead” in supporting Mr. Obama.
Still, there are plans for a march on Tuesday sponsored by 18 Million Voices, a pro-Clinton group named for her vote total in the nomination race. And Republicans here are ready to exploit the divide, with Carleton S. Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive and one of Mr. McCain’s economic advisers, seeking to meet with Clinton delegates. Joining the Republicans is a former Clinton delegate, Debra Bartoshevich of Wisconsin, who was stripped of her party role when she publicly vowed to vote for Mr. McCain.
While some Clinton supporters arrived angry, asserting that Mr. Obama had not seriously considered Mrs. Clinton as a running mate, Ms. Wasserman Schultz said that his selection of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware “provided a release valve.” If Mrs. Clinton’s supporters could not have her as the vice-presidential nominee, Ms. Wasserman Schultz said, Mr. Biden has been “a leader on the issues important to them,” like abortion rights, domestic violence and jobs.
Another Clinton supporter, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, said Mrs. Clinton “really likes Joe Biden,” and “will probably throw in a reference to him in her speech” that notes their shared devotion to women’s and working-class issues.
The tensions flowed both ways in the vice-presidential drama. Some Obama supporters, including women, who backed Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas for the No. 2 spot, privately groused that her chances were doomed after Clinton backers served notice that if Mr. Obama picked a woman, it had better be Mrs. Clinton.
“It’s unfortunate as we circle together if we shoot ourselves,” said Ms. Sebelius, an early supporter of Mr. Obama. “We absolutely cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us by.”
Mr. Obama’s advisers say there are two kinds of Clinton supporters that he must win over. The first are those, like Ms. Buell, who are more affluent and educated, devoted to causes like abortion rights and universal health care. As liberal Democrats, they may be easiest to reach when the alternative is a Republican who opposes abortion rights, would probably name more justices to the Supreme Court who feel the same and supports the war in Iraq.
The other, larger group includes older, less-educated, working-class women — and some men — who embraced the populist economic message that Mrs. Clinton hit hard in the final months of her campaign. They are a tougher audience, Mr. Obama’s advisers say.
Jane Quinn, a 50-year-old teacher and Oregon delegate for Mrs. Clinton, said: “It’s not really Hillary’s job to bring the party together. It’s Obama’s job.”
Certainly, the Obama campaign is trying, as are party leaders. Tom Daschle, a former Senate majority leader and a top adviser to Mr. Obama, said that the convention not only featured Mrs. Clinton prominently, but also had more events and speakers geared toward women “than any Democratic convention in recent times.”
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, who zips between news media appearances and visits with delegates, said in an interview: “Women have the most to gain with the election of Barack Obama and the most to lose with the election of John McCain. This is the conversation I’m having with women.”
Ms. Pelosi acknowledged that some women friends were “still unhappy,” among them a neighbor in San Francisco, Ms. Buell.
Obama Signaled Early That He Was Unlikely To Choose Ex-Rival August 26, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, Uncategorized, vice president.add a comment
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 26, 2008; Page A01
MOLINE, Ill., Aug. 25 — In a private meeting with Sen. Barack Obama after she conceded the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made a request: that he consider her for his vice presidential running mate, but not put her through the charade of being vetted if he was not serious.
Obama told Clinton then it was unlikely he would choose her, people familiar with the conversation said. Obama did not want to lead her on and, after campaigning against her for more than a year, already had a sense that their pairing would not be the right fit.
As Clinton prepares for her address to the Democratic convention Tuesday night, Obama’s decision to pass her over remains central to the ongoing story of their strained relationship. It has also contributed to what associates say has been a difficult emotional period for the former first lady in the two months since ending her bid. One adviser described her as outright “depressed” in July, while another said she was “moving forward” and a third said she has simply been trying to get through November before making decisions about where next to take her life.
Clinton has done second-guessing from time to time, they said, reexamining how certain elements of her primary campaign turned out so badly. She has returned to senatorial tasks such as attending the New York State Fair and digging into Congressional Budget Office reports. Twice this summer, she disappeared on vacation in New York — once to the Hamptons and earlier this month to the Hudson Valley. Both trips went largely unreported, the media crush that followed her for more than a year having been allowed to fade away.
“It’s back to business, just not as usual,” Clinton told her staff members when she got back to work, using a phrase that has become something of a mantra for the vastly reduced team.
The question of how seriously Obama considered tapping Clinton for the ticket has become a source of unhappiness for both sides of late. Clinton was never asked for the official vetting paperwork when other potential running mates were. Obama never invited her to have a real conversation about potentially joining forces, although the two spent time together at several events.
Those revelations, coming as the two camps converged on Denver and Obama chose Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. to join him on the ticket, angered many Clinton supporters who felt she had at least earned the right to greater consideration after winning 18 million primary votes.
The arguments against Obama choosing Clinton were evident from the start: Her campaign, rife with internal struggles, bore no resemblance to his tightly run operation; the two had little personal chemistry; and hard feelings lingered after what had been a bruising primary.
Obama advisers said they did not want to raise expectations for Clinton knowing they would probably be dashed, especially after she asked not to be put through an artificial process.
They also said they had far more information about her than they did the other contenders after doing so much research during the campaign. “We spent an enormous amount of money and time and a full-time unit of people looking under every stone. It wasn’t like we did not know anything about her,” said one senior Obama adviser involved in the process. “And we thought her position on this was pretty reasonable.”
At the same time, aides said, Obama did, in fact, consider whether he should revisit the idea of an Obama-Clinton ticket as he went through the selection process.
But in effect, he did not really consider Clinton for the No. 2 spot. Even toward the end of his decision-making process, as he was weighing alternatives and leaning toward Biden, Obama raised the idea of Clinton once more with the close circle of associates helping him make the decision — but ultimately concluded that it was not the correct course. The campaign has declined repeatedly to delve into specifics about exactly what it was that Obama did not feel comfortable with.
People who spoke to both candidates offered slightly conflicting accounts of how their early closed-door conversations went — and some acknowledged that the talks, held in private, may have been interpreted differently by two people who did not see eye-to-eye. Some Clinton allies said she was not as much actively seeking the No. 2 slot as conveying that she was open to it. And people on both sides said it was not clear how forcefully Obama let her know in private that she was not a front-runner, although in public, his reluctance was clear.
On Monday, Obama sought to minimize the issue. “I’ve tried not to have long discussions about short lists, long lists, but I’ve said publicly before and I will repeat again that, you know, Senator Clinton would have been on anybody’s shortlist. And so I took her very seriously,” Obama said in response to a question on the airport tarmac here, during his first question-and-answer session in weeks.
Asked whether Clinton had been specifically on his shortlist, Obama replied: “I think you can draw that conclusion.”
But if Obama thought about reconsidering Clinton, he did not share that with her, and some of her associates said she never had a chance to make the case for how she could help him win. Obama expressed “no interest,” had “no meetings, no conversations, no requests for information, no real consideration whatsoever,” said a Clinton loyalist who talked with her throughout the process.
And so Clinton, aware that she was essentially out of the running, did not dwell on pursuing the vice presidency. She turned to helping Obama campaign where she could, making public appearances on his behalf and raising money for him — before arriving in Denver, where she turned to the mammoth task of persuading her most intransigent supporters to back her former rival.
Obama advisers privately said what the presumptive nominee said aloud: that they were satisfied with her efforts and grateful that she was helping push back against Sen. John McCain, is running an advertisement, titled “Passed Over,” criticizing Obama for not picking Clinton. On Monday, she countered with: “I’m Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message.”
Clinton aides said she is genuine in her desire to see Obama elected, and not simply because she is a committed partisan. She has looked for opportunities to help Obama “both because she wants a Democrat in the White House and because she does not want to be blamed if we don’t have one,” one confidante said. “She wants to go above and beyond to ensure that if it doesn’t happen, nobody points the finger at her.”
Clinton is also managing her return to the public eye carefully: She has not done any in-depth interviews and has barely discussed the primaries. That is a stark contrast to her husband, who had angry words about the primaries as recently as July, when he conducted interviews during an annual trip to Africa. Some in Sen. Clinton’s circle said they learned that the former president had begun speaking about politics publicly again only by reading about it in the newspaper, suggesting that the two Clinton operations have drifted apart, back to the state they were in before her presidential bid.
Obama predicted on Monday that Sen. Clinton will deliver “a rousing speech” on Tuesday night. The address has been crafted by a trio of her speechwriters and is expected to “echo the themes of the campaign,” primarily the economic hardships of average Americans. It is not only a coda to her presidential campaign but also a preview of what may lie ahead, as Clinton, in the words of one ally, “finds her niche.”
Clinton has begun thinking about how to harness the support she earned this year and is weighing how to be not only a leader of women but also a populist voice, advisers said. She is likely to write another book. She will stay in the Senate, where she won reelection in 2006, unless another, better opportunity should arise. But there are no signs thus far that she is thinking about the jobs others have mentioned Obama might consider her for, such as a Supreme Court justice.
“She’s emerged from this campaign as an even more powerful force, and she’s going to map out a strategy where she can make a difference in people’s lives,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), a staunch Clinton advocate during the primaries. McGovern, who traveled with Clinton in the final days of the race, said he had spoken with Clinton on a couple of occasions since then and marveled at her resilience.
“In the aftermath of the election, she has been incredible. I’m not sure I’d have the ability to just pick up all the pieces and go on,” he said. “But I think in a way this campaign has been an education for her. She’s come to appreciate that for a lot of people in this country life is tough and they’re looking for a champion, looking for a voice. And people are counting on her and expecting big things from her even if she’s not going to be the nominee.”
Clinton’s Thankless Job August 26, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, feminism, gender, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, media bias, sexism, Uncategorized.add a comment
Indianapolis Star; by Marie Cocco; August 26, 2008
WASHINGTON — If there is a political job more fraught with peril than running to become the next commander in chief, surely it is being cast as cheerleader in chief.
Hillary Clinton will be damned if she looks too methodically perfect, too much the purveyor of practiced routine and not enough the cheery personification of enthusiasm. She’ll also be damned if she’s too exuberant, too obviously raising her voice in unbridled exhortation for the team. She will either be deemed too cool or all-too-cagily warm.
Clinton can’t win Tuesday evening. But then, she knows that.
She is set to address the Democratic National Convention in Denver to give the valedictory address of her 2008 campaign — a race in which she went further than any woman in American history toward the elusive goal of electing a woman to the White House. But this is a speech that is also meant to soothe her bruised supporters and get them to support Barack Obama, a man who — for not a few of them — has brazenly overtaken the more-qualified woman to grab the prize and in so doing has writ large the story of their own lives.
Clinton is a woman who knows how to lose — to lose any shred of privacy, to lose face, to lose any expectation of being treated with a modicum of respect by the talking heads in the media and now, to lose a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination that she expected to win. As if to heap insult upon injury, the Obama campaign let it be known that it did not for a minute seriously consider Clinton as a running mate, notwithstanding the 18 million votes she earned during the primaries and her demonstrated ability to win over white, working-class voters who remain cool to Obama and are necessary for victory in the fall. Those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling that the Obama forces conceded could gain a reference in the party’s platform are, apparently, just words.
In her 2003 memoir “Living History,” this is how Clinton described her reaction to her earliest political loss, during her senior year in high school: “I ran for student government president against several boys and lost, which did not surprise me but still hurt, especially because one of my opponents told me I was ‘really stupid if I thought a girl could be elected president.’ As soon as the election was over, the winner asked me to head the Organizations Committee which, as far as I could tell was expected to do most of the work. I agreed.”
The work of the next phase of Clinton’s career has been going on doggedly, and often with little notice, since she suspended her campaign on June 7. She’s been a campaign emissary for Obama to the Sheet Metal Workers union, to Hispanics and others in New Mexico and Nevada; to older women in South Florida who still haven’t quite accepted the loss of what may be for some of them their last chance to see a woman elected president. The June speech Clinton made in departing from the race was, among Democratic activists, “probably the most seen, talked about, buzzed about speech of the campaign,” says Mike Lux, a consultant for Democratic interest groups and an Obama supporter. It went over well, even among Obama loyalists.
That tends to be how Clinton does things. The public Clinton doesn’t usually show hints of the private pain that burns inside.
The same cannot be said of some of her supporters, who can be expected to stage at least a few demonstrations of their fury at the outcome of the race, and at what they perceive as repeated displays of disrespect Obama has shown their hero. It is not lost on them that in selecting Joe Biden to be the vice presidential nominee, Obama has chosen a Washington insider who voted in favor of the Iraq War — two of the sustained attacks on Clinton that Obama used to devastating effect during the primaries.
The television cameras will linger on angry and tearful Clinton delegates in the convention crowd. The commentators will no doubt take this as a demonstration of disunity — and not a few will, of course, blame Clinton.
But it is usually the job of the party nominee to build unity once a vanquished rival has conceded and made the right gestures. Unless the loser happens to be a woman. Then it’s just like high school, and she must do the work.
McCain campaign continues to reach out to disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters August 25, 2008
Posted by koreanpower999 in Uncategorized.add a comment
Here’s another ad the McCain campaign put out to reach out to disaffected and disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters. It features Debra Bartoshevich, a former Clinton delegate from Wisconsin, who was stripped of her position by the Democratic Party because she publicly stated that she would vote for John McCain. A new CNN poll shows that a whopping 27% of Clinton supporters will vote for John McCain. The poll also shows that a large reason that the race is tied is because of the support McCain is getting from Hillary Clinton voters. The Democratic Party is definitely not united as of now.
