Hillary & Bill leaving the White House...
Posted on 01/02/2008 10:31:10 AM PST by COUNTrecount
Was I witnessing the last throes of the 15-year-long Clinton political psychodrama in Ames, Iowa yesterday? Here’s my newspaper piece on Hillary’s final plea for support in tomorrow’s caucuses. The case she made was far from compelling – that she’s human (honest) and that she has unrivalled experience. Both propositions are debatable and she was much less compelling than Barack Obama and John Edwards have been in recent days. She seems to have had some kind of speech therapy to create a softy-soft voice that made me long for the grating shrillness of yore.
Hillary Clinton tried to present herself as softer and more human
The Obama campaign is supremely confident that victory is within its grasp. “So what?” I hear you ask. Iowa is a sparsely populated, unrepresentative state in which on the Democratic side only 124,000 people caucused in 2004. Surely it can’t matter that much? Don’t bet on it. If Hillary loses tomorrow, her presidential bid is likely to collapse like a house of cards.
For all the arguments against Iowa having such disproportionate influence – and Christopher Hitchens airs some good ones with characteristic aplomb here – it does mean that pre-packaged, calculating politicians like Hillary are scutinised and exposed (we’ll see if Mitt Romney is too).
All the money and establishment backing she had behind her couldn’t prevent her getting caught out by voters asking her about Iran and Iran, discovered planting softball questions and rumbled for having advisers forwarding smear emails about Obama. She tried to remain aloof and away from the voters but it didn’t work – if anything, the seeds of her demise (if that’s what it turns out to be) lay in that strategy.
When an incumbent-style campaign is built on a sense of inevitability, it comes under huge strain when hit by an early defeat. The bubble is burst – which is what will happen if Hillary loses Iowa to Obama in Iowa (if she loses to Edwards, the picture will be less clear).
Of course, if Hillary pulls through then it’s difficult to see how Obama and Edwards can beat her – this is absolutely their best shot. Adam Nagourney of the “New York Times” argues here that Iowa might mean nothing. That’s possible. But my hunch is that it will end up meaning everything.
Leona Helmsley Clinton can’t sell warm.
Pray for W and Our Troops
I think Reid can be removed by a majority of senior senate Democrats if they decide another senator can do better. I don’t think they would do anything until the current session ends in January 2009.
puleese, puleese, ...
What town?!?
The edges have been softened for the item’s appearance on a certain auction site. Search: Hillary Clinton miracle image
Hillary & Bill leaving the White House...
More like a third rate soap opera with really, really bad actors.
Nice job on the picture - she sure does look strange, way too strange for a political life.
We really need to do a DNA test on her.
Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the bastard is dead, the bitch that bore him is again in heat.
Who would of thought that they would still be on top of the political heap 10 years later? The Clintons aren’t going anywhere.
BING-FRIGGIN'-GO...
(Unfortunately!)
Flush three times!!!
Great news for New York. She'll be able to continue to dedicate her life to selflessly serving New Yorkers in the Senate. That is why she ran for that job in the first place, right?!
Hell, we're not even rid of Jimmy Carter.
Not as long as there are “Caption” threads!
See my post #34...
This is correct. The left will never allow her to be defeated in NY, and she will never give up the seat voluntarily, no matter what RFK jr. says. The Kennedys will rue the day she was first elected in NY. Perhaps they already do.
clintons CHEAT
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
