Posted on 04/16/2015 6:28:14 AM PDT by shortstop
Message: After nearly 25 years on the national political stage, she has discovered she cares deeply about the much-beleaguered American middle class.
Reaction: Better late than never.
To underscore her bourgeoisie bona fides, the Evita of Chappaqua embarked on a populist road trip from New York to Iowa, even stopping for some fast food at a Chipotle restaurant near Toledo to demonstrate she can rub great unwashed elbows with the best of ambitious politicians. Nothing says "Hail to the Chief" more than a burrito bowl.
Still, Clinton better be careful during this Nighthawks diner phase of the campaign. The patrician John Kerry tried the common man approach in 2004 and came off as the Thurston Howell III of the stump. While campaigning in Pennsylvania, he attempted to order a Philly cheese steak sandwich by asking if he could have it served with Swiss rather than the customary and beloved Cheese Whiz. People have been shot for lesser insults in the City of Brotherly Love.
This would be like a candidate visiting Tampa and ordering a Cuban sandwich on Wonder Bread.
So as Clinton noshed her way across the Midwest, we are confronted again with a campaign that could more closely resemble the cranky, know-it-all in-law moving into the house — for the next 18 months.
There were many justifiable knocks on Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, including her not too subtle message that she was entitled to the White House as a matter of Manifest Destiny. She also was ill-served by a hapless, bumbling, feuding campaign staff that made a Three Stooges pie fight look like Bolshoi ballet precision.
This time, instead of coming off as the Lady Macbeth of the Beltway, the strategy appears to be to recast Clinton 2.0 (or is it 8.0?) as a kinder, gentler soul who understands the struggles of average Americans drawn on lessons she's learned after years of collecting $200,000 speaking fees.
The task of transforming Clinton from the cunning Alexis Carrington of Pennsylvania Avenue into the June Cleaver of the nuclear codes has fallen to Kristina Schake, a former image consultant to first lady Michelle Obama.
It was Schake who came up with the idea of sending Obama on a shopping spree to Target and making self-effacing appearances on such shows as Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where the first lady Mom danced with the host.
Imagine Clinton doing the hokey pokey with David Letterman. On second thought, don't.
You can see the handiwork of Schake at play in Clinton channeling her inner Charles Kuralt by going on the road, engaging small groups of Iowans over coffee and avoiding her traveling press entourage as if they were process servers.
Still, for all the fuzzy-wuzzy optics, a Hillary Clinton is a Hillary Clinton is a Hillary Clinton. This is a woman who has been a ubiquitous presence on the American political scene for decades. And it will be no easy challenge to suddenly convince people Clinton has emerged as a sweetie pie Mary Lou Retton of the electoral college.
Clinton still has to address questions arising from the Benghazi terrorist attack, her Mary Celeste-esque missing emails and her rather uneventful but well-traveled time at the State Department. Then there is the … uh, ahem Bill problem. And don't we all know there will always be a Bill problem? After all, the Clinton DNA seems to stand for Doing Naughty Always.
Clinton, of course, will be vilified by the Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck/Sean Hannity/Fox News axis of stupid.
But that is not her biggest problem moving forward. Her biggest problem is Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live.
McKinnon has crafted a brutally telling caricature of Hillary Clinton lampooning all of the candidate's worst stereotypes as a bloodless, duplicitous, elitist, power-hungry narcissist.
The damning portrayal works so well because it resonates so well. It makes Tina Fey's memorable 2008 deconstruction of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin look like an air-kiss.
Political figures can deal with the harsh indictments of the punditocracy. Savvy candidates can fend for themselves in the hardball glare of a debate.
But surviving the problematic tag as a national punch line is far more vexing.
Perhaps the next time Clinton drops in at a Chipotle she should skip the burrito bowl and head straight to the margaritas.
A better link: http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/ruth-remaking-clinton-one-burrito-bowl-at-a-time/2225649
If Hillary’s fawning press were filled with awe at her ordering a burrito, wait till she evacuates it and they find out it doesn’t stink.
Talk about an accomplishment. She's CLEARLY qualified to be President-ette.
[Haven't heard who paid for the meal. Cash or credit card?]
==
At least her Scooby-mobile will keep the Media in shape as they run around chasing it.
[What a spectacle that was. Even other Media personnel were laughing at their colleagues foot-chasing the Scooby-mobile.]
Because they continue to look for the truth about Benghazi and what was hidden in those 32,000 deleted emails, they become the axis of stupid? I guess the "smart" people believe that Benghazi was the result of a spontaneous riot caused by a video nobody had seen, and, even if that weren't the case, what difference, at this point, does it make. And the deleted emails? Hey, Hillary told you she just didn't want to carry two devices, even though she does carry two devices, and, by the way, putting two email accounts on one device is child's play. Oh, and she wanted to be able to communicate with Bill, who never emails. And all those yoga instructions and wedding plans were personal, don'cha know. Yeah, you have to be really smart to understand those nuances, not dumb like Limbaugh, Hannity, et al.
HURL! What a load of sanctimonious lying horsesh!t
The reason she has "discovered" this is because she's never ever been part of it to start with. If she had been, the idiots who have been tasked with this asinine message would have said "rediscovered" implying she had once had some semblance of sympathy for the plight of (who are we talking about now? what's the bullet point on this lie? Oh! 'middle class'...okay, now we're cooking) middle class.
If I could take actual printed versions of this tripe and plant them in my garden I think I could grow some kick ass tomatoes this year.
I had an argument with another person about how Hillary is a champion of Women’s Rights and she is arguing on Women’s behalf. I asked this person, a female, what rights is Hillary arguing for? She said equal pay, reproductive rights and job promotions. I told her these are already in place and have been for 40+ years. She said the republicans are trying to take them away. I asked her what bill being passed through the House is doing that? She got mad at me and called me a name. This is the mentality of the left. Fear, conspiracies, hatred, anger, bitterness over things that aren’t happening. I tried to explain to her today in the almost any business, a female will get promoted over a male, and that pay is equal across the board and in executive jobs it’s a bargained for (you decide) what it will be. I also said reproductive rights were established at the SC level. Nothing short of the end of the world will change that. I explained to her my experiences with at&t and that women are promoted over more qualified men regularly because the company is afraid of being sued. She didn’t like that. But it’s a fact.
So the message the Left is using today, Hillary is saving women’s rights (None are in trouble) and that Hillary will cause all women to be paid more (Not up to Hillary, it’s up to the individual and the employer) and that Hillary will cause all women to be promoted ahead of more qualified peers (Again, another weird idea that getting something for nothing is something better). Like Hope and Change. Another line of BS
Nothing about foreign money buying Hillary and her aid Huma problem with the mooooooslem brotherhood.
Guess those things are not close and dear to regular Americans’ hearts.
It takes a whole lot of “atta-boys” to overcome just one “aw $h!+” and hillary’s had a lot of them.
Does she really think that all these photo-opp shenanigans will vault her to the White House?
There is nothing, NOTHING she could ever SAY. To dilute all of the crap she’s done, period.
“came off as the Thurston Howell III of the stump.”
I like the reference, Hillary definitely comes across as Mrs. Howell.
Won’t somebody ask, why is it such big news that Hillary ate a burrito? Why were there no campaign stops on the way from NY to IA? If no campaign stops, why take a van?
If Hillary’s fawning press were filled with awe at her ordering a burrito, wait till she evacuates it and they find out it doesn’t stink.
Well, LOL, there’s a visual we can do without, as to the end results of eating that Mexican food..............
As if Washington wasn’t corrupt enough now they want to put another Clinton in the Presidency. Just how much corruption can we put up with?
Wait, what? She ATE the burrito? Wow. What a trooper. Is there video evidence of this? Has the aftermath been donated to the Clinton Library yet?
Won’t somebody ask, why is it such big news that Hillary ate a burrito? Why were there no campaign stops on the way from NY to IA? If no campaign stops, why take a van?
I don’t think we mere mortals are supposed to think about this or ask such questions. We dare not question the imperial “Hillary”.
... and the Bolshevik Ballet continues to slither on into the Heartland....
“Message: After nearly 25 years on the national political stage, she has discovered she cares deeply about the much-beleaguered American middle class”
“HURL! What a load of sanctimonious lying horsesh!t”
Umm, I believe that the author used a literary device called “irony,” defined as using one or more words to mean the opposite of what they normally mean. In this case, it is clear that he was being ironic when he used the words “discovered” and “cares deeply” (and perhaps “much-beleaguered” as well, but I’m not certain of that. The sentence’s introduction, “[a]fter nearly 25 years on the national political stage,” should have served as a sufficient “Sarcasm Warning.”
Similarly, when Rush Limbaugh says “Boy! That John F. Kerry sure is a genius!” after Kerry speaks out on Iran or something, Rush is not proclaiming Kerry to be in the top 2% of Americans in intelligence, but implying that he’s a moron that recently did something stupid once again.
Democrats must have a ringer ready to jump on stage and ‘save the day’...
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