Hey...everybody, we really never took National Security seriously...heh..heh...Hey Monica, where are ya'????
Posted on 05/23/2006 6:20:45 PM PDT by blam
Dull Hillary stumbles and the memory of Bill lingers on
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 24/05/2006)
Hillary Clinton may be the Democratic front-runner for the presidency but she seems to have a lot to learn about campaigning for the White House.
In a weighty speech to journalists at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday, the senator squandered an opportunity to shine before a critically important audience - the journalists who will present her to the public if, as expected, she declares her candidacy for the 2008 nomination.
It began well enough. Resplendent in a lemon yellow two-piece and expensively bejewelled, her star power was plain the moment she entered the room. Everywhere, necks craned for a sight of the immaculately coiffured New York senator.
But then she lost it. The half-hour speech was achingly dull, a meandering lecture on energy policy which left the audience stifling yawns.
It was hard not to recall the charisma of her husband, Bill, the former president, and Mrs Clinton seemed to sense things had not gone well.
As she droned towards the finish, she looked out at a silent, glassy-eyed audience and acknowledged that her speech was a little unusual. "I know this is probably more wonkish than many of you had anticipated," she said, moments after offering her plans for something called geologic carbon sequestration. "But I feel very strongly about it."
There was a murmur of laughter but only minutes earlier some of those at the breakfast meeting appeared to have slumped into unconsciousness.
Others stifled yawns, held their chins in their hands or stared at the carpet or ceiling. By the time two women peace protesters made their predictable intervention on Iraq (and were predictably carried out by Mrs Clinton's burly secret servicemen) the assembled journalists had largely stopped listening.
The melee did at least open the way for questions. Mrs Clinton was asked: "You're here to talk about energy, but most people are here because they think you will run for president." She affected surprise before offering a cautious and well-rehearsed answer, claiming that she didn't think about such things.
However preposterous her response (she has raised more than £10 million for a senate re-election battle which will cost far less), there was a respectful silence. But everyone laughed when she was asked what she would like to be remembered for if her career ended now. "I don't want it to end now," she said.
That sort of ambiguity feeds America's fascination with Mrs Clinton.
Yesterday a 2,000-word examination of the Clinton marriage in the New York Times, produced no firm conclusion other than Mr Clinton remained by far the better public performer while she was "starchy". Her performance yesterday did nothing to overturn that notion.
Is that middle picture Vince Foster?
I dont think we will ever be rid of these grifters..
It would have been better if she had screeched at them in her most irritating rah-rah voice for 45 minutes? No, I'll take dull. Rather fall asleep than listen to fingernails on a blackboard.
I couldn't agree more. I think the DIMS will control the presidency and the house/senate before conservatives vote McPain in.
The pathetic truth is, if she were as glib a speaker as she is a vapid theorist she would be elected in a heartbeat... In America 2008.
She has nothing to worry about. Half the members of Free Republic are ready to vote for her just to "teach the GOP a lesson."
I know several words to describe Hillary but resplendent and fascinating aren't among them.
Keep on talking, Hillary! Can't wait for the debates. They should really be exciting (yawn).
There...fixed it.
You did good.
Me too and that's why McShame needs to be eliminated early on. I'm just so damn leary and suspicious of all the crooks in Washington that I'm not so sure that the fix isn't already in no matter what, if you know what I mean.
I think they've already decided it's Hillary's turn.
Is that megabuck$$ Belinda, eh ?
This is one of those weird myths that even his opponents seem to have swallowed. People say "Of course he was charismatic," but, as Peggy Noonan and others have pointed out, can anyone recall anything interesting or inspired he ever said? "I did not have sex with that woman" doesn't count.
Bill has the "charisma" of a carnival barker or TV preacher, I suppose, but I suspect the journalists who write so glowingly about him couldn't rattle off anything really interesting he ever had to say. What they mean is they admire his ability to BS with a smile. Hillary can't BS so well, and she does it with a scowl.
Hillary will stand a better chance if the MSM covers up her shortcomings, like her personality and appearance. I think many so called swing voters who are tuned out until right before the election will never know or even care about her left wing politics, but if they see her being boring and ugly in late October 2008, she will go down in flames.
Wrong?...how do you mean that, whats wrong with using sex to sell an idea?
Warner will win the White House if the Democrats blow it this year.
With man boobs, Clinton can fondle himself when there are no available females around.
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