Tag: Hillary Clinton

I guess it was inevitable, and I can kind of see the reader’s point:

It just takes some people a little longer to catch on. This reader hits it right on the nose with Hillary. Her appeal to me is that she is too smart a politician to do anything radical or (I pray) stupid. You don’t like that because it seems phony or pandering but I see it as pragmatic. I understand that there are times a leader needs to do something that is not popular, but I think those circumstances are, fortunately, rare. Aside from those moments, what is fundamentally wrong with an elected official pushing those policies that are popular, or working against those that are not? I don’t want anybody governing by poll numbers any more than you do but I do want my elected officials to have a modicum of responsiveness to what the people want.

Sure, Hillary made a mistake in the way she handled her health care "assignment" in ’93, but I think she has acknowledged that and I will be surprised if she is that ham-handed again. Conservatives hate her but the ironic thing i s she may be the most conservative (your sense) candidate out there – in either party.  By the way, I haven’t heard anyone comment on this, but  this record-length election "season" is the best thing that could have happened to Hillary, because what she needs most is lots of time and lots of exposure to overcome the negative image the right has painted of her and the MSM promotes every day by repeating it.  I am still waiting to hear someone give a coherent explanation of why they have such a visceral hatred toward her – beyond what could be summarized as a "gut" feel. Exposure can only fade those negatives away since there really isn’t any rationality behind them.

A reader writes:

Even though I hate to admit it, Hillary consistently wins these debates. My partner and I were watching it last night and I was trying very hard not like anything Hillary said. But finally, I told my partner, "is it just me or does she seem more…." My partner finished my sentence — "responsible" [in her answers]. Particularly with question about meeting with our enemies directly. Rather than take the knee-jerk, get-an-applause response by advocating face-to-face meetings with Syria and Iran, she gave a responsible disclaimer that she would make sure these meetings were vetted properly so as not to become a propaganda tool. To me, that says she gets it and she will not conduct policy in the opposite way Bush and Co. have for the sake of being anti-Bush. But rather, she would see situations as they are and deal with them accordingly.

And I loved her answer on nuclear power and tapping into the ingenuity of the American spirit to find new ways to create alternative energy while creating jobs — classic Bill Clinton. This is what America wants to hear. It’s what helped her husband win and it will help her too. Reluctantly, the more I listen to her, I am finding fewer reasons not to vote for her

And I am a registered Republican.

I see Steve Herbits just endorsed her. From Rummy to Hillary.

Her response to the dynastic question – a difficult one – was the first time she has ever brought a smile to my lips. She’s so much better a debater and performer than she used to be. You know how much I hate to say this: but she destroyed the opposition tonight: out-classing it, out-debating it, and avoiding the usual pitfalls. I wish it weren’t so, but it’s what I saw. If she keeps this up, it’s hers.

He endorses the machine candidate. Why am I not surprised?

A reader writes:

I am a Lesbian, but I am not for Hillary. If you can get your head around what I’m about to say – you may actually help women and lesbians distinguish between who Hillary is and what Hillary is.

Everything Maya Angelou said about Hillary as a woman is true. Everything. Women get that what she has accomplished takes courage and strength. Women get how hard and complicated it is for women to "do it all." She is brilliant. She is strong.  etc. etc. The problem is not with the content of Maya Angelou’s statements. It is the crass exploitation of all that women have and do suffer for one’s own political gain. That’s the part that can and should make men and women throw up.

A lesbian love-song. All the lesbians I know are either for her or on her staff (or at the Human Rights Campaign, which is the same thing). And she’s got such great skin. And, of course, the honesty of being a woman:

The senator from New York talks to her husband as imagined by MoDo:

"Of course, there was that awkward moment when I said Bush should not have commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence because he was elevating cronyism over the rule of law, and there you were, Mr. Elevate-Cronyism-Over-The-Rule-of-Law, sitting on a stool right behind me in that look-at-me Crayola yellow shirt, reminding everyone of that passel of pardons you sneaked in under the wire, including one for that fugitive tax-evader Marc Rich, whose ex-wife was your fund-raiser and whose lawyer was — can it get any worse? — Scooter Libby!"

A reader responds to this one:

Hillary did not sway or convince many Republicans or Independents to vote for her in 2000 in New York. The evidence: Gore got 60% of the vote to Bush’s 35%. Hillary got 55% to Lazio’s 43%. Thus, Hillary ran worse than Gore in New York meaning many voters picked Gore and Lazio on their ballots.  This type of statistic is often used by political consultants to determine whether a candidate has crossover appeal. She does not.

Hillary is no more favorable today than she was in 2000. In fact, she enjoyed her highest favorability around that time. As for her re-election campaign, Hillary did win impressively but she spent 40 million on her campaign and her opponent spend very little.

A reader writes:

Despite the poll numbers you link, I think your analysis of her viability in the general is all wrong.  My sense is her tougher race is actually in the primary (as an Obama fan, I hope so).  But if she makes it out of super-dooper Tuesday, she’ll be the 44th President of the United States.

Look at her first Senate race in New York.  Her negatives were fresh as can be, and she was labeled everything from a carpet-bagger to a carpet-muncher.  Yet she kicked @ss.  Why?  She worked her @ss off, knew her sh!t better than anyone else, and as a result, she eventually endeared herself to enough of the electorate to win handily.  The woman does her homework and surrounds herself with incredibly bright people.  One simply cannot discount her cunning and smarts, especially when today’s polling merely captures the masses’ knee-jerk reactions to her name.  It’ll be an entirely different story once it’s the right time and she has enough money to sprinkle more Clinton dust over everyone.

Finally, Hillary, more than any of the other Democratic contenders, can communicate what her administration would deliver versus what another Republican administration would impose.  She outclasses all of the Republican candidates by leaps and bounds.  Once the campaign truly gets underway and her operation is clicking on all cylinders, there will be no stopping her.

Mike Gravel joins the throng.