Most people would not list being pitiful as an important ingredient of “Presidential leadership”. But Hillary’s go-to play throughout her career has been the appeal to pity, whether due to Bill’s philandering, or her mama’s hard times. This ad is actually honest and consistent: her whole life is about fixing the lives of people she pities for being incompetent. Government must step in and live for them.
I sometimes wonder if she is running for President so she can lose, so “everyone” will feel sorry for her. Hillary is one strange woman.
RE: Most people would not list being pitiful as an important ingredient of “Presidential leadership”.
We should not underestimate the element of “sympathy” in an election. You will be surprised at how powerful it was in the past.
John Ashcroft ( former US Senator and Attorney General ) was leading in his campaign to be re-elected senator of Missouri in 2000. He faced a challenge from Governor Mel Carnahan.
In the midst of a tight race, Carnahan died in an airplane crash two weeks prior to the election. Ashcroft suspended all campaigning after the plane crash.
Because of Missouri state election laws and the short time to election, Carnahan’s name remained on the ballot. Lieutenant Governor Roger Wilson became governor upon Carnahan’s death. Wilson said that should Carnahan be elected, he wanted to appoint his widow, Jean Carnahan, to serve in her husband’s place; Mrs. Carnahan announced that, in accordance with her late husband’s goal, she would serve in the Senate if voters elected his name. Following these developments, Ashcroft resumed campaigning.
Carnahan won the election 51% to 49%. No one had ever posthumously won election to the Senate, though voters had on at least three occasions chosen deceased candidates for the House of Representatives.
Many claimed that Jean Carnahan won BECAUSE of sympathy.
Carnahan posthumously received the most votes and his widow, Jean Carnahan was appointed to the Senate in 2001. Under Missouri law, she would serve only until a special election could be held.
The defeated Senator Ashcroft was nominated by Republican President-elect George W. Bush to be US attorney general, and because cabinet appointments are subject to Senate approval, Jean Carnahan found herself in the unusual position of casting a vote against the nomination of her former opponent.
In 2002, the special election was held for the remainder of the six-year term. Jean Carnahan ran, but was defeated by Republican James Talent.
This time, there were no “deaths” to sympathize with.