All this about the tip and who was supposed to leave it or how it was left has completely obscured the real story here.
Hillary!(tm) used Esterday's work story in her next speech. In Esterday's first interview she told the reporter that what info Hillary! (tm) had used in the speech was taken entirely out of context.
The woman had told Hillary! (tm) she worked two or three jobs. Hillary! (tm) had used that to show how bad the economy was. Esterday later said that that wasn't the case. After working two, three jobs to raise her kids and educate them, she still worked them because she wanted to, not that she had to.
That's the story. That should be where we need to hit Hillary! (tm).
From the NPR article
...Clinton recalled the meeting for an audience up the road in Boone. "The woman waiting on us — it was her first day," she said, adding, "She was a little nervous. Single mom, raised two boys, works at a nursing home and always has a second job."
If she's elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better.
The way Clinton eased the waitress into her rhetoric is something repeated day after day, by all the campaigns. But in the process, people like the waitress don't always have their stories told.
'Nobody Got Left a Tip'
"I wished I would have been asked first," the waitress, Anita Esterday, said of Clinton's decision to insert her in a speech. "I wish she would have asked if she could talk about me later. I didn't like it when someone called me up and said Hillary Clinton is talking about you. It's like, what'd I do now? What's she saying?"
When I returned to the Maid-Rite a few weeks later, Esterday said the senator had caught her off guard. But once they got talking, she was honest with Clinton about her need to work two to three jobs.
"I've been doing it all my life. Why should it change now that I'm old," Esterday said.
Esterday does not think Clinton got it. "I don't think she understood at all what I was saying," Esterday said. "I mean, nobody got left a tip that day."
Clinton may have decided not to tip. She was also never given a bill — her meal was on the house. Still, Esterday said Clinton might have left her something: "Maybe they don't carry money. I don't know."
The visit hurt Esterday in another way. The local paper ran photos of her with Clinton. She said her supervisor at the nursing home isn't a big Hillary Clinton fan and she thinks that may be related to why her hours were almost totally cut.
Now, Esterday is looking for a different second job. However, she said she's not upset that Clinton visited the restaurant.
"I got my 15 minutes of fame out of the world," Esterday said. "There you go. I got her autograph. That's something I'll treasure forever."
But as far as the attention she's received? "It hasn't helped me. It's made things worse."
Still, Esterday doesn't blame Clinton; she says she may even vote for the former first lady. She's also considering voting for Barack Obama.
When Real Lives Get Swept Into Campaign Rhetoric