Posted on 07/15/2006 6:18:23 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
NEW YORK, NY Theres a contested U.S. Senate race in New York this year. But you wouldnt necessary know it by watching Hillary Clinton. In New York, Clintons been keeping strictly to policy and constituent service. Beyond the states boundaries every appearance causes wild speculation. WNYCs Andrea Bernstein has been on the road with the Senator.
REPORTER: If youve want to go hear see Senator and candidate - Hillary Clinton speak, be prepared to travel long distances.
CLINTON: It is a red letter day in the Adirondacks.
REPORTER: Where six years ago, you had to be in marathon-runner shape to keep up with her campaign schedule in New Yorks 62 counties, this time around shes ambling through the state, marshalling events like the Frog and Tree Parade at the opening of the Wild Center natural history museum in Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks.
CLINTON: Trees to the right, no trees to the left. Are the frogs boycotting us?
REPORTER: Joking aside, these kinds of events are deadly serious to the Senator. Promoting tourism in the sparsely populated north country, is big on the Senators agenda.
CLINTON: So one of our very first ideas was: how can we try to link up the North Country to the 21st Century economy? And there were two pieces to that and one was to promote broadband expansion.
REPORTER: Clinton set up the Adirondack Trading Company on eBay to link local craftspeople to global markets. She started a farm to fork initiative to get North Country produce to tables in New York City. Theres a line she likes to use in almost every one of her speeches:
CLINTON: And our goal has been not to tell anybody what we think but to ask people what they think.
REPORTER: Its an approach thats so appreciated that Jim McKenna of the Lake Placid Visitors Club was driven to marvel:
McKenna: I think weve probably seen you more in the North Country since youve become senator than just about anybody else.
REPORTER: I asked Clinton why shes spending so much time in these tiny counties that have so few voters they arent even on the map for many statewide officials.
CLINTON: Well, you know, one of my goals was to make it clear that we actually could get things done and we werent going to take anybody for granted and we were going to listen and then we were going to try to work together and that works if people feel youre not just blowing in and blowing out and doing a press conference and a photo op and then never seeing them again.
REPORTER: But these days if you live in New York City it IS hard to see her. To be sure, Clinton has been vocal on restoring homeland security aid and pushing health care initiatives for 9-11 rescue workers. Her press mill churns out maybe half a dozen news releases a day on everything from Darfur to the college cost crunch.
CLINTON: Thats why I introduced legislation to increase the minimum wage and link it to future increases to congressional pay raises.
REPORTER: And she regularly makes herself available for press conference calls to discuss legislation. Shes gotten enthusiastic responses at some big events in the city, like last months gay pride parade.
MAN: I love you! Ive been wanting to meet you for so long, you have no idea! CLINTON: Thank you so much!
REPORTER: But speaking before large and critical audiences in New York City? Hasnt happened in awhile. Theres a reason for that. New York City residents care passionately about Iraq. Unlike national Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards, Clinton has not renounced her initial vote to authorize the war.
CLINTON: Nor do I think its smart strategy to set a date certain. I do not agree that that is in the best interest of our troops or our country. REPORTER: When she spoke to the Take Back America conference in Washington, DC, a liberal crowd, she was booed. By carefully choosing her venues, Clinton has largely side-stepped confrontations with her constituents on Iraq. And she has avoided the fate of her Connecticut colleague Joe Lieberman, whose early support for the war has thrown him into a tough political primary.
Senator Clinton is far more comfortable showing off her credentials as a walking briefing book at forums like this one she organized in Woodbury to discuss health care reform and the high cost of care.
CLINTON: Here on Long Island that is adding insult to injury. You already face an extraordinarily high cost of living, housing being the single best example of that and in health care, individuals and families on Long Island pay 11 percent for individuals and six percent more per family.
REPORTER: To a largely approving audience of business and health care leaders, Clinton suggested a wide range of reforms, from easily sharable health records to saving money by cutting down on paper work and boutique medicines. That she has a history on this issue is something she never fails to remind people of.
CLINTON: I did a little work on this years and years ago and it took years to recover.
REPORTER: This is an old joke by now, but audiences love it anyway.
CLINTON: But seriously it is an issue that hasnt gone away.
REPORTER: Thats to Clintons benefit. Health care is certainly one of the issues that has reached crisis proportions just the kind of thing that can galvanize a national campaign.
CLINTON: Well I think it is urgent, thats clear to me as I talk to people this is now on the top of their minds, which it wasnt for a while.
REPORTER: Clintons Long Island health care forum was the third of three the others were in Buffalo and Rochester. But while shes traveling New York being a Senator and working across the state as her spokesman put it, shes campaigning across the nation. There was this stop last week San Francisco:
CLINTON: And were all here for the same reason. We think Phil Angelides would be a great Governor for California. Ive know Phil for 15 years, he was instrumental in the campaign that my husband ran here in California when he was chair of the Democratic Party.
REPORTER: In the last month alone, shes also been in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Idaho and Massachusetts. And Ohio again, where, sounding both animated and folksy, she threw out the partisan red meat like shes hardly done any time recently in New York.
CLINTON: And my good friend Stephanie Tubbs Jones held a hearing in Cleveland last year, and it would have broken your heart. People were lined up to tell us how they were lined up to vote and wait hours! Voice from audience: No machines! CLINTON: No Machines! You could drive down the road however and there were plenty of machines! Depended on who lived where and what their potential voting patterns.
REPORTER: Clinton was speaking before a largely African American crowd the kind that loves the Clintons the most. But she was sounding a theme that has roused Democrats since 2000, and inserting herself into one of this years most hotly contested gubernatorial races, where the Republican candidate, Kenneth Blackwell, is the Secretary of State, setting election rules.
CLINTON: And I hope everyone here in Ohio you watch this election like a hawk. Dont let them pull any wool over your eyes. One of the people running for office is watching the election that should not be permitted! That is a conflict of interest!
REPORTER: Its not too hard to connect the dots about what shes trying to say. Not long ago, two advisors, Jim Carville and Mark Penn, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post pushing back against the congealing conventional wisdom that she cant win the presidency. Snarky national discussions aside, they wrote, voters love her.
At the democratic state convention in Buffalo earlier this summer that was certainly in evidence.
Aides aver that sometime soon, the Senator will campaign for her re-election more actively. For now, while talk swirls around, Senator Clinton soldiers on, as cautious as she was in 2000, but far more confident. For WNYC, Im Andrea Bernstein
Hillary's ankles seem kind of...um....large. I am pretty sure they are thicker than her leg calves.
Just call the the whole assembly a 'canckle' for brevity's sake.
What a bunch of Hooey. Can not believe this woman would ever be the first woman President of the United States of America. I just can't believe the people of our country would vote for this nut and her husband.
Is she making fun of Algore and the French?
MAN? I don't think so!
Accompanied by mucho head bobbing.........
One, she's not that bright, you know, you know, you know? Two, Bill isn't going to languish in the White House with that old pissed off broad for years. No way! He's in to the younger tail and he won't be getting any if he's with Hillary in the White House. And three, neither of their egos can fit in the same place anymore. Bill can't be #2 and neither can Hillary.
The whole Hillary as president thing is a huge joke. Just like the Clinton marriage.
The MSM and the unions plus the money they have made, are going to that girl into the Presidency, I just can not stand it.
I've done everything I can to document Bill's Enabler here:
-Hillary Clinton- archives, comments, and opposition research --
But this says it all, too:
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