Here is this morning's Austin [un]American [mis]Statesman:
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, December 6, 2003
America has been duped by a president whose bait-and-switch campaign masked a right-wing agenda in the moderate moniker of compassionate conservatism, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Friday in making a case for why President Bush should be ousted.
Clinton, in an interview prior to a book-signing session at Book People, said Bush misled voters to get her husband's old job.
"We've made a hard right turn to pursue an extremist agenda that was certainly not advertised by the campaign President Bush ran," she said.
"There's very little compassion," Clinton added. "There's even very little conservatism because a true conservative would not have put us into a half-trillion-dollar current account deficit."
Bush, she said, "has not only been radical and extreme in terms of Democratic presidents but in terms of Republican presidents, one his own father."
Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush re-election effort, rejected the notion of a president who did something other than what was promised.
"He campaigned for tax cuts. He did what he said. He campaigned for education reform. He did it," Dowd said. "He campaigned for Medicare reform, and he did that. He campaigned to improve the morale of the military. He did that.
"I think Hillary and other Democrats are just not familiar with politicians who follow through on campaign promises," Dowd said.
At Book People, Clinton found an early arriving crowd eager for an autographed copy of her "Living History." The line for the 10 a.m. signing, stretching nearly around the block, began forming at 6:15 a.m.
At a large table, the former first lady signed books and chatted with people, who got to spend about five seconds apiece with her.
Simon & Schuster paid Clinton $8 million for the book, a memoir of her years in the White House that was released in June and topped best-seller lists for most of the summer. More than 1.4 million copies have been printed in the United States.
"I hope she can be elected president," said Jun Zhuge. "Bill did a wonderful job, and Hillary can do the same thing."
Not everyone showed up to show support. Protesters carried signs saying "Hillary Rodham Marx" and "Hillary is a Liar."
"I'm still angry about the lies the Clintons got away with," Don Zimmerman said. "If any stiff on the street did what Bill did, they'd be in jail."
Hillary Clinton's hard-edged rhetoric about Bush came as she denied interest in making an 11th-hour entry into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination race.
It's a notion that was on the minds of some Clinton friends at a Thursday evening fund-raising reception at the home of Austin advertising executive Roy Spence, according to a source who was at the private event, which collected about $100,000 for Clinton's Senate campaign war chest.
"It is flattering for people to be encouraging," Clinton said, "but I think we are going to have a nominee by March who will run a very competitive race against the president."
Clinton has not endorsed a presidential candidate, but many people who were active in Bill Clinton's campaigns are siding with fellow Arkansan Wesley Clark. On Friday, Clark picked Bill Buck, who worked in the Clinton campaigns and administration, as his national press secretary.
Although still awaiting the messenger, Hillary Clinton said the Democrats have plenty of message to run on against Bush.
That message, according to Clinton, will be that Bush "is making America less fair, free, strong, smart than it deserves to be in a dangerous world and that we have to change directions before irreparable harm is done."
"I don't know if it surprised all of you down here," Clinton said of Bush's policies, "but it surprised me."
"It became clear they wanted to undo everything the Clinton administration had done, and I took that kind of personally," she said, adding: "Just on every front it became clear to me they wanted to undo the New Deal. It wasn't just the Clinton administration."
Hillary Clinton, who recently visited Afghanistan and Iraq, said it is distressing to watch Bush's "inability to lead friends and allies effectively in the war against terrorism."
"We had enough troops to win the battle militarily on the ground, but not to dominate the country after we succeeded," she said. "And for the life of me, I don't understand why we didn't have that plan in place, because it was clear we were going to be successful on the battlefield."
kherman@statesman.com; 445-1718
Updated 12/05/03 - 8:45 pm Video AvailableSo "Blustery weather and long snaking lines couldn't keep thousands of Austinites from camping out for Hillary clinton's visit to Austin on Friday" to meet the Hidabeast,,,
Hillary Clinton Makes Book Signing StopBlustery weather and long snaking lines couldn't keep thousands of Austinites from camping out for Hillary clinton's visit to Austin on Friday.
"We're getting a head start," Austinite Zita Wright said.
They woke before dawn and crowded the streets all around BookPeople for a look at and a book from Hillary Clinton.
While politics drew a lot of this crowd, one little Austinite and her mom got up before dawn for more personal reasons.
"It's pretty hard to get a kid up and in line to come for the book signing but she's pretty excited about it," mother April Angele said.
After all this little six-year-old has something in common with author, First Lady and Senator Clinton.
"Because I got named after her," Hillary Angele said.
"So I really hoped she'd have the chance to meet the person that inspired us to name her and it's a little sooner than I expected," April said.
Now little Hillary has her own copy of "Living History" her mom hopes she'll be inspired to go out and make some history of her own.
"I don't know if she'll be in politics or not it's up to her, but whatever she does I hopes she sees she can be anything she wants to be just like Hillary Clinton," April said.
A couple protestors did show up at the signing Friday but weren't there for long. Senator Clinton headed back to New York shortly after her signing Friday.
News 36 Video Here is the story:
• Hillary Clinton
...but only a "couple protestors did show up at the signing Friday but weren't there for long."I see.
That sounds "fair and balanced" to ME. :o)