Tears for Fears and Female Peers.
It was a real nail-biter in New Hampshire. The race was close and came down almost to a photo finish. Facing a flood of polls showing her losing badly going into the New Hampshire Primary, Hillary Clinton narrowly upset Barack Obama by two points, that is 39 percent to 37 percent. They each received 9 Delegate votes, while John Edwards received 4.
Women returned solidly to Hillary's side, helping her overcome Barack Obama's advantage among the large independent bloc in New Hampshire. In a gripping moment shown repeatedly on television on Monday night, 7 January, Hillary appeared momentarily overtaken by emotion, her voice quivered, and her eyes misted with tears when a questioner asked how she was enduring the strains of the campaign.
Many will point to Hillary's watery-eyed performance at the Portsmouth rally on Monday as a watershed moment. Down in the polls and facing imminent defeat, the erstwhile anti-Tammy Wynette turned on the spigot and played damsel in distress: "It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't want to see us fall backward, you know?"
The steely voice — infamous for uttering profanities at staffers, state troopers and her Secret Service detail, bellowing at the Bush administration and Rush Limbaugh, and imitating a fiery Southern drawl — turned drippy: "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political; it's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it." Insert heartfelt pauses and choke-ups as directed.
So long, feminist hero. Hello, weeping willow. Anyone who believes Hillary spontaneously teared up and got emotional on the campaign trail has been in a coma the last three decades.
Women in New Hampshire did what they did not do in Iowa: they rallied behind her. Women supported her by 47 percent to 34 percent, according to a survey of voters leaving the polls; women voters in Iowa had been evenly divided between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.
Obama was as strong in New Hampshire as in Iowa among the youngest voters, winning 60 percent of those age 18-24. He emphasizes the connections between people, the networks and the webs of influence. These sorts of links are invisible to some of his rivals, but Obama is a communitarian. He believes you can only make profound political changes if you first change the spirit of the community. In his speeches, he says that if one person stands up, then another will stand up and another and another and you’ll get a nation standing up.
The key word in any Obama speech is “you.” Other politicians talk about what they will do if elected. Obama talks about what you can do if you join together. Like a community organizer on a national scale, he is trying to move people beyond their cynicism, make them believe in themselves, mobilize their common energies.
The central issue in this election is the crisis of leadership. Voters are reacting against partisan gridlock. Obama offers ways to end this gridlock. He wants us to rise above it by rediscovering our commonalities.
New Hampshire's primary is the second high-profile battleground, following Iowa, in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush.
The race to replace Bush, whose popularity at home and abroad has plunged due to the war in Iraq, moves into a new stage heading up to February 5 when 22 states hold nominating contests that could decide who will face off in November.
Obama congratulated Clinton on her victory, but added, "I am still fired up and ready to go."
"This moment, in this election, there is something happening in America," Obama said.
Exit polls said Hillary won big among women and older voters, while the young voters who propelled Obama to victory in Iowa did not turn out in big numbers in New Hampshire.
Obama won Iowa last week, with Clinton third behind second-place finisher John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator. Edwards finished third in New Hampshire but promised to fight on.
"Two races down, 48 states to go," Edwards said.
For all the glee in her camp, Hillary still faces big challenges. In Obama, Hillary is facing an opponent who has been lifted on the wind of nationwide anti-Washington climate change. Emboldened by this victory, Hillary will certainly push Obama to see — in the phrase that Mrs. Clinton borrowed from Mario M. Cuomo — if he can match the poetry of his campaign with the prose of what it takes to govern.
Don't let the "Comeback Gal" spin fool you. Despite the unexpectedly close finish in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton's campaign remains in a tailspin. And the Clintons' pre-Granite State primary finger-pointing has left an indelible mark. It's the media's fault. It's sexism's fault. It's the vast right-wing conspiracy's fault.
Oh, and it's all your fault that you laugh out loud when she tries to steal the mantle of "change" from Barack Obama by surrounding herself on stage with moldy political fogies like Madeleine Albright, Wesley Clark and James Carville.
There were long lines at polling places in New Hampshire amid predictions of a record turnout during the most wide open U.S. presidential race in more than 50 years, with no sitting president or vice president seeking the nominations.
The presidential race now begins to branch out quickly to more states, with Michigan voting next Tuesday, 15 January,, Nevada and South Carolina Republicans on 19 January and South Carolina Democrats on 26 January.
South Carolina looms as a potential showdown state in both parties. For Democrats, Obama possibly holds an advantage in a state where more than half of Democratic primary voters are expected to be Black.
It was a real nail-biter in New Hampshire. The race was close and came down almost to a photo finish. Facing a flood of polls showing her losing badly going into the New Hampshire Primary, Hillary Clinton narrowly upset Barack Obama by two points, that is 39 percent to 37 percent. They each received 9 Delegate votes, while John Edwards received 4.
Women returned solidly to Hillary's side, helping her overcome Barack Obama's advantage among the large independent bloc in New Hampshire. In a gripping moment shown repeatedly on television on Monday night, 7 January, Hillary appeared momentarily overtaken by emotion, her voice quivered, and her eyes misted with tears when a questioner asked how she was enduring the strains of the campaign.
Many will point to Hillary's watery-eyed performance at the Portsmouth rally on Monday as a watershed moment. Down in the polls and facing imminent defeat, the erstwhile anti-Tammy Wynette turned on the spigot and played damsel in distress: "It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't want to see us fall backward, you know?"
The steely voice — infamous for uttering profanities at staffers, state troopers and her Secret Service detail, bellowing at the Bush administration and Rush Limbaugh, and imitating a fiery Southern drawl — turned drippy: "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political; it's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it." Insert heartfelt pauses and choke-ups as directed.
So long, feminist hero. Hello, weeping willow. Anyone who believes Hillary spontaneously teared up and got emotional on the campaign trail has been in a coma the last three decades.
Women in New Hampshire did what they did not do in Iowa: they rallied behind her. Women supported her by 47 percent to 34 percent, according to a survey of voters leaving the polls; women voters in Iowa had been evenly divided between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.
Obama was as strong in New Hampshire as in Iowa among the youngest voters, winning 60 percent of those age 18-24. He emphasizes the connections between people, the networks and the webs of influence. These sorts of links are invisible to some of his rivals, but Obama is a communitarian. He believes you can only make profound political changes if you first change the spirit of the community. In his speeches, he says that if one person stands up, then another will stand up and another and another and you’ll get a nation standing up.
The key word in any Obama speech is “you.” Other politicians talk about what they will do if elected. Obama talks about what you can do if you join together. Like a community organizer on a national scale, he is trying to move people beyond their cynicism, make them believe in themselves, mobilize their common energies.
The central issue in this election is the crisis of leadership. Voters are reacting against partisan gridlock. Obama offers ways to end this gridlock. He wants us to rise above it by rediscovering our commonalities.
New Hampshire's primary is the second high-profile battleground, following Iowa, in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush.
The race to replace Bush, whose popularity at home and abroad has plunged due to the war in Iraq, moves into a new stage heading up to February 5 when 22 states hold nominating contests that could decide who will face off in November.
Obama congratulated Clinton on her victory, but added, "I am still fired up and ready to go."
"This moment, in this election, there is something happening in America," Obama said.
Exit polls said Hillary won big among women and older voters, while the young voters who propelled Obama to victory in Iowa did not turn out in big numbers in New Hampshire.
Obama won Iowa last week, with Clinton third behind second-place finisher John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator. Edwards finished third in New Hampshire but promised to fight on.
"Two races down, 48 states to go," Edwards said.
For all the glee in her camp, Hillary still faces big challenges. In Obama, Hillary is facing an opponent who has been lifted on the wind of nationwide anti-Washington climate change. Emboldened by this victory, Hillary will certainly push Obama to see — in the phrase that Mrs. Clinton borrowed from Mario M. Cuomo — if he can match the poetry of his campaign with the prose of what it takes to govern.
Don't let the "Comeback Gal" spin fool you. Despite the unexpectedly close finish in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton's campaign remains in a tailspin. And the Clintons' pre-Granite State primary finger-pointing has left an indelible mark. It's the media's fault. It's sexism's fault. It's the vast right-wing conspiracy's fault.
Oh, and it's all your fault that you laugh out loud when she tries to steal the mantle of "change" from Barack Obama by surrounding herself on stage with moldy political fogies like Madeleine Albright, Wesley Clark and James Carville.
There were long lines at polling places in New Hampshire amid predictions of a record turnout during the most wide open U.S. presidential race in more than 50 years, with no sitting president or vice president seeking the nominations.
The presidential race now begins to branch out quickly to more states, with Michigan voting next Tuesday, 15 January,, Nevada and South Carolina Republicans on 19 January and South Carolina Democrats on 26 January.
South Carolina looms as a potential showdown state in both parties. For Democrats, Obama possibly holds an advantage in a state where more than half of Democratic primary voters are expected to be Black.
Labels: Black American Firsts
posted by ichbinalj at 11:08 PM
9 Comments:
This will go down in history as the Tale of the Tear. The Womens' Libber became a Weeping Willow in a staged and orchestrated performance worthy of an Academy Award. Hillary is not above resorting to the use of every female trick in the book. From the Iron Butterfly to the Damsel in Distress, she has tried them all. When she claims to be able to act as the Commander in Chief of the most powerful armed forces in the history of the world since Julius Ceaser, she is the Iron Butterfly. When the Debate Moderator tells her people say they do not like her and she smiles demurely and says "That hurts my feelings" in her best Scarlet O'Hara southern belle drawl, she is trying to portray the Damsel in Distress.
Which is the REAL Hillary Rodham Clinton? The answer is that neither in the real Hillary. Even Hillary does not know at this point which is the real Hillary. She is able at this point to assume any personality her calculating mind tells her is best suited to impress the audience of the moment.
It will be a sorry day for America if she and Bill get a chance to occupy the White House again and have their domestic squabbles play out in the news media to a national and an international audience.
History demonstrates that people usually get what they deserve. I hope and pray that the American people deserve better than Hillary with all of her excess baggage.
Next in line on the Democratic calendar, Nevada was vaulted overnight into the position of tie-breaker after the narrow victory of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. The campaigns of both Clinton and Barack Obama, who won the Iowa caucuses, seemed poised for a mighty struggle in the Jan. 19 caucus.
The Clinton and Obama camps rushed in volunteers and staff members from Iowa, furiously opened new field offices and saturated the airwaves with radio advertisements in Spanish and television spots touting their health care plans.
Obama won an endorsement on 9 January from the highly influential culinary workers union in Nevada. It was announced at a raucous news conference where over 100 members began chanting and yelling, making it seem like an Obama rally.
After praising the other Democrats for fighting for "the Las Vegas dream," D. Taylor, the secretary and treasurer of the union and its public face, gave the nod to Obama. "He is one of us. He was an organizer. We organize workers, he organized workers and families," he said, before announcing Obama's name to screams and foot stomps. "It's been a very difficult decision," Taylor said.
Taylor celebrated something that Nevada residents have enjoyed for months, candidates who actually show up in the state. "It's been exciting," he said. "For the first time I know of in Nevada, dishwashers, cooks, housekeepers, cocktail servers, bartenders from all different walks of life," had access to candidates, he said.
The union is extremely influential in the Democratic stronghold of Clark County and hopes to play a major role in the race, where Clinton has had the edge for months. Alluding to Nevada's racial diversity compared with the earlier states, Taylor joked, "We're not just white bread here, we got pumpernickel, we've got whole wheat and we've got rye."
Obama's appeal is based on his promise to voters that it's all about them: You can join this movement, take control of the country and save the world, he tells crowds. You can be a superhero.
The high-flown rhetoric is matched by organizational ingenuity.
Hillary has surrounded herself with an army of strategists, donors and elected officials from the White House days of her husband, Bill Clinton - including the ex-President himself - and offered little more than a promise to snatch power from the Bush administration and the Republicans.
That would have been a grand enough vision in 2000 or 2004, but not today. The Democrats already have control of Congress, and Team Bush has already broken camp, with top loyalists and strategists like Karl Rove resigning. The Republican Party has already paid a price at the polls for major pieces of unfinished business, from immigration reform to the Iraq quagmire.
So the rationale for another Clinton administration has evaporated, just as Obama's movement has caught fire. Perhaps, somebody should tell her to keep being herself -be the life of the party, laugh and cry, maybe the voters outside of New Hampshire will also follow the "tracks of her tears."
In a recent news conference, Deanna Favre announced she will be the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers football team from now on. Deanna asserts that she is qualified to be starting QB because she has spent the past 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Packers.
During this period of time she became familiar with the definition of a corner blitz and is now completely comfortable with other terminology of the Packers' offense. A survey of Packers' fans shows that 50% of those polled supported the move.
Does this sounds goofy and unbelievable to you? Well, Hillary Clinton makes the same claims as to why she is qualified to be president and 50% of Democrats polled agreed. She has never run a city, county, or state.
When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has 8 years in the White House, Dick Morris stated, "So has the pastry chef."
Senator John Kerry embraced the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama here on 10 January, saying Mr. Obama “had the greatest potential to lead a transformation, not just a transition.”
He believes Mr. Obama is a better candidate than John Edwards, Mr. Kerry’s former running mate.
Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who was the party’s presidential nominee in 2004, said he was endorsing Mr. Obama’s candidacy because he believed he was uniquely situated to inspire “millions of Americans to join together and come together in a movement” to demand real change in Washington.
in 2004 when Mr. Kerry selected Mr. Obama — then a state senator, vying for a United States Senate seat — to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. The speech elevated the stature of Mr. Obama almost overnight, launched the reprinting of his book, “Dreams From My Father,” and set his political career in overdrive.
In addition to Senator John Kerry's endorsement on Thursday, 10 January, Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota announced his endorsement for Mr. Obama.
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill plans to endorse Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for President of the United States on Sunday, 12 January 2008.
The endorsement is expected to be a major boost for Obama in Missouri, historically a bellwether in presidential contests and one of nearly two dozen states holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5.
Support from McCaskill could also help Obama woo female voters in his race against New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination.
McCaskill has praised Obama often and was widely believed to favor the Illinois senator over Hillary.
She said that she identifies with the desire for change often voiced by Obama supporters.
Her backing caps a slew of endorsements for Obama over the past week, including former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.
McCaskill, 54, was narrowly elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006.
Obama also has the backing of two St. Louis congressmen, William Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan, along with St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.
In Washington, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who endorsed Obama last week, castigated, Bill Clinton, the former president for what he called his "glib cheap shots" at Obama, saying both sides should settle down but placing the blame predominantly on Clinton.
"That's beneath the dignity of a former president," Leahy told reporters, adding: "He is not helping anyone, and certainly not helping the Democratic Party."
That concern was also voiced by some neutral Democrats, who said that the former president's aggressive role, along with the couple's harsh approach recently, threatens to divide the party in the general election.
A few prominent Democrats, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), have spoken to the former president about the force of his Obama critiques. There is some fear within the party that if Obama becomes the nominee, he could emerge personally battered and politically compromised. And there is concern that a Clinton victory could come at a cost -- particularly a loss of black voters, who could blame her for Obama's defeat and stay home in November.
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