● Not So Inevitable: Hillary has long been considered the inevitable nominee for the Democrats, but I pointed out back in May, the left has been pushing back against Hillary being “inevitable.” The result is that a nasty groundswell of opposition to her is arising on the left... an opposition she is not equipped to handle.
● Foot In Mouth Disease: Hillary has major foot in mouth disease. Last Friday, she was giving an interview in which she said that she’s “totally done” curbing her speech for political reasons and finds her new perspective “liberating.” Actually, she was more wishy-washy about it. She said, “Maybe I’m trying to model that, I don’t know, but that’s how it feels to me, and it feels a little bit liberating, to be honest.”
This is not a smart quote. First, it makes it sound like she hasn’t been telling the truth in the past for political reasons. In other words, if she’s only feeling free to speak her mind honestly now, and she has only stopped curbing her speech now, then clearly she’s been withholding anything that doesn’t play well politically. Should we trust her?
Further, she had really bad timing in saying this as the news of the last week is her getting snippy with reporters who tried to question her about her “evolving” views on gay marriage, i.e. she's still being squirrely for political reasons. Indeed, when she was being interviewed by NPR Radio, the host (Terry Gross) asked her why she changed her position on supporting gay marriage. Hillary tried to evade the question at first, but he asked again. For seven minutes, Hillary couldn't provide a clear answer. Finally, she threw a fit and accused Gross of trying to make her look bad. This exposed Hillary as (1) not someone who is capable of dealing with an unfriendly audience, (2) someone who is uncomfortable explaining her prior "wrong" views, and (3) a liar.
But this is hardly the first instance of foot in mouth disease of late. Just as bad, in her book, Hillary claims that she and Bill left the White House “dead broke” and that they “struggled” to gather enough money to afford a mortgage and to pay for Chelsea’s college. She said this to justify the obscene fees Bill was getting for speaking engagements and otherwise selling his influence. But this is obviously false and the MSM quickly called Hillary on it, attacking her for insulting people who really are broke or live paycheck to paycheck. Hillary immediately backtracked but sputtered in finding a decent escape. Not only did she look out of touch with the common man, but she looked like someone who wanted to present herself as a victim when it was obvious she was not.
All of this has coincided with her poll numbers crashing.
● Tainted Legacy: Now we have the Iraq issue. Iraq has always been a major problem for Hillary. To prove she had balls, she was all gung-ho for the war. When the left started whining about it, however, she claimed to have been an opponent, something that didn’t work for her. After Obama took over, Hillary took over as Secretary of State and became somewhat responsible for anything foreign policy related. That led to Benghazi, which continues to hang around her neck as far as wonks are concerned (the public doesn’t care). Now the entire Obama team looks bad for recommending a pull out of Iraq and chest thumping that something like what is going on could never happen. This includes Hillary.
Rather than avoid this debate, as she should have, Hillary chose Sunday to try to lay the blame for all of this on President Maliki, who may yet be needed as an ally if Obama chooses to do anything. In essence, she got out ahead of Obama’s foreign policy in an effort to shift the blame away from her decisions. I suspect this will blowback on her when Obama starts looking for others to blame. He is, after all, no friend of Hillary’s. Moreover, I’m already seeing articles suggesting that Joe Biden was the only one in the administration who grasped the danger. Again, that’s not good for Hillary.
● Rape Rape Ha ha ha!: Now there's a video someone has found of an interview Hillary gave in the 1970s in which she discusses defending a man accused of raping a 12 year old girl. That's bad enough, but it gets worse. During the interview, Hillary suggests that she knew the man was guilty, but she found a technical mistake in the prosecution's case and got the guy a great deal (one year... reduced to two months). Even worse, she laughs when she suggests that she knew he was guilty, but that she still had him pass a polygraph. This doesn't play well for someone claiming to be a champion of women and children and her laughing about this could be a campaign killing commercial.
● WTH? Finally, we have this. This is what Chelsea wore to a public event the other day:
Obviously, none of this is fatal and it will most likely only be seen by ideologues. The problem here really is what this suggests. It suggests a Hillary with a very poor track record she needs to run away from, but that she simultaneously lacks the skill to do any running. Instead, she gets pissy and complains about being ambushed by friendly journalists. It also suggests that the left is likely to put up a strong fight to stop her. None of that is good for her.
Thoughts?
I think Hickenlooper would have a better chance than Hilary at this point. Frankly, I would rather see someone like him president than Hilary as well.
ReplyDeleteGood analysis, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteHillary is a worse liar than Obama (if that's possible). Or maybe not, but her annoying and ill-timed cackling make it seem worse or more blatant, at any rate.
Unless Hillary has a major meltdown I still expect the media to reluctantly support her, unless someone better comes along. Or that looks better in the eyes of the liberal media.
ReplyDeleteHeck, even Biden looks better and is a safer bet. But the left really wants to back a woman so who else do they have?
Pelosi, Boxer, Feinstein, Or Fauxcohontas?
I think if someone was going to take the Democratic nomination from Clinton they would be on our radar by now. She's terrible, but probably the best of a bad lot this time around.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Hillary lie is her story about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia :).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZHO1vo762c
Its worth keeping in mind that Hillary being the Dem nominee is half the battle but like I've said before, female and minority candidates encourage the other side to show their ass, so I'm not sure that the Republicans won't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Also, I hope Republicans stay far, far, far away from Chelsea. Attacking people's families never benefits the attacker unless the family member has injected themselves into politics and even then its kind of a risky strategy.
Anthony - re: attacking Chelsea...she is now fair game. She is making noise about running for office too. And the questions that. LINK
ReplyDeleteThough attacking her fashion sense probably isn't the best way to go. BTW she was given three thumbs up for that outfit in the NY style pages...
Andrew - Just to show how very out of touch Hillary is, she actually said, she was trying to garner sympathy with their struggle to buy "houses" as in more than one multi-million dollar house.
ReplyDelete"We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education. You know, it was not easy."
One can tell from the sale of her latest book that she is losing steam really fast. And if she can't take the friendly fire of probing questions from Terry Gross or the overly sympathetic best friend Diane Sawyer, imagine what happens during the campaign. I know she thinks that her election strategy is going to be playing the "sexism" card against the "vast-right wing conspiracy" backdrop, but it's not going to work if she's getting defensive about fair questions from FEMALE journalists.
Eh, more fluff cover stories in People magazine, chock-full of "breaking the glass ceiling" BS like the one from a couple weeks ago, and Hillary's none the worse for wear in the eyes of the low-information, American Idolized voting camps. So sad.
ReplyDelete>> Attacking people's families never benefits the attacker unless the family member has injected themselves into politics and even then its kind of a risky strategy. >>
ReplyDeleteTrig Palin's mommy and daddy might say otherwise,
Koshcat, I'm not sure Hickelooper is far left enough to make it through their primary, but he would make a much better president than Hillary because he does seem to be a competent manager.
ReplyDeleteEric,
ReplyDeleteBoth Palin and Fluke are prized by their side in no small part because they are high profile victims who tend to draw stupid attacks.
Of course, being a victim alone doesn't help an individual much if he or she lacks the political acumen to make the most of the moment (which is why in 2014 Palin is a famous media personality and Fluke is a Trivia Pursuit question) but stupid attacks do cause people to shy away from the attackers.
Ben, "Fauxcohontas" LOL! Nice! :D
ReplyDeleteI think the MSM favors Hillary because so many of them are Clinton people. But the more leftist media really doesn't like her and they want someone further left. So who knows how that will play out?
What I'm starting to wonder though is if Hillary might not just stumble into a heap at the starting line and implode before she can win the primary?
>>stupid attacks do cause people to shy away from the attackers>>
ReplyDeleteMore so from our side, but agree to disagree when it comes to the left. They eat that attack-dog stuff up, even if it involves driving it into the ground long past any respective expiration dates. SNL's still peddling McCain and Bachmann jokes fercryinoutloud, and even though Fluke failed to get on the fall ballot out here in LA-LA Land, something tells me she'll be back somewhere else at some point.
Anthony, The Bosnia lie was pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Chelsea, agreed that it's dangerous, but she has been prepping for her own political career for some time now and she's definitely planning to play the role of "prop" in her mother's campaign. But in any event... leather pants? WTF?
On other candidates, I think there are others who haven't announced yet (like Cuomo) who are viable, but we'll have to wait to see how things go. I think they are waiting to see if/when Hillary stumbles. At some point, I expect the left to draft someone. Not sure who, but someone.
Bev, Her fashion sense in this instance was shockingly bad... needed comment. As for the NYT giving her the thumbs up, they always do that with liberals. If an up and coming liberal wears a garbage bag, the leftist press will gush over it.
ReplyDeleteOn Hillary, I agree on both points. First, she's shockingly out of touch to claim that she struggled to buy their mansions and afford the most expensive private schools in the country. Secondly, if she's struggling with friendly questions from her fellow travelers, then she's going to positively implode once the hostilities start.
Eric, The problem for Hillary is that she needs to get through the wall of wonks and the primaries first, and that's controlled by the general public. And if she's doing this poorly already on a friendly field, then imagine how badly things will go if a candidate arises on the left to challenge her.
ReplyDeleteAs for Palin, keep in mind that those attacks gave Palin a cult following. Without those attacks, she's just Dan Quayle II.
Anthony, Agreed. The attacks on both turned them into heroes on their sides, but both lacked the acumen to turn that into successful political careers.
ReplyDeleteEric, The left is nastier.
ReplyDeletegood post, Andrew. Real Clear Politics has come to similar conclusions. For my own part, I am not now, nor ever will be "ready for Hillary Rodham (Bill's wife). If the libs must push a "historic" female candidate, let it be Lizzy Warren and her axe. She is an authentic native American, (well 1/3 as much as my wife, but let's not let facts get in the way). Plus, she coined the phrase "you didn't build that" ... not B. Hussein Obama. As for that Chelsea pic., oh how I wish Dennis Miller or Adam Carolla could run with that "don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like mine!"
ReplyDeleteAndrew, good points. i wouldn't be surprised to see Hillary crash n' burn before she gets past the primary.
ReplyDeleteAnd, although it is old, the way Hillary responded irt defending that rapist will be enough to turn away most moderates. Disgusting and atrocious even for her.
Jed, LOL! An ironically appropriate song reference.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen that from Real Clear Politics, but that is interesting. I can't quite put my finger on it, but everything about Hillary screams "IMPLOSION!!" to me. It's very strange watching her. Everything she does is working against her suddenly.
Ben, The rapist thing is interesting. Put that in a political ad, and she's sunk with most of the public. The public does not like lawyers to begin with, hates defense lawyers, and despises defense lawyers who game the system. Add a child rapist as the beneficiary, and that is one ugly stain on a political career.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, I'm kind of expecting her to implode. It's not something I can fully explain yet, but something about her tells me that she's going to fail, possibly before the primary, and that she will honestly be fine with it -- it will be a relief to her. I guess we'll see.
As an aside, she reminds me of Fred Thompson back in 2008. He just didn't care. He was running because other people (his wife) told him to run and he did it half-assed and half-heartedly. And he was relieved when it was all over. I get a similar vibe here actually.
Andrew - I think her ego (and Bill's) won't allow her to not run and yet, she doesn't want to risk her "reputation" either. I think she thinks she will be protected from the heat of the MSM as long as holds off declaring that she will definitely run...or not...maybe. But what she is really doing is outstaying her welcome...hence the poor sales of her latest book. She is actually creating an ever-spreading case of "Clinton fatigue".
ReplyDeleteBev, Very well diagnosed and I agree! :D
ReplyDeleteI think she's trapped between feeling like she needs to run to prove herself, but not really wanting to run personally. The result is a candidate who appears to be going through the motions without any joy or determination.
And I definitely agree about the Clinton fatigue. She doesn't seem to have any interest factor anymore. She's become tiring to the public, and the more she gets put before us, the more we kind of want her to go away.
All in all, she's in an odd sort of trap where she doesn't want to be there, we don't want her there, but there's no way for her to withdraw with honor.
I'm mainly interested in how SNL will respond. Back in 08, they were about the only media entity in the Hillary camp. (And since then, their political humor has been surprisingly inside-baseball.) ButTina Fey and the blonde one have left and I'm not sure if there are any more feminists in the writers' room. We'll see.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, We'll see. My guess is that they will find a way to turn any attack on Clinton into an attack on Romney or some other long-forgotten Republican.
ReplyDeleteYikes, Chelsea. I don't know anything about fashion, so when an outfit makes me raise my eyebrows, you know it must be pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to all the goodies in your post, someone elsewhere pointed out that Hillary claimed she had a completely ordinary, apolitical life before she and Bill got hitched. "Ordinary," apparently, meaning "served on the Watergate interrogation team," for the purposes of this political cycle.
FYI, Hillary's books sales are kind of lousy. She sold only 60,000 hardcover copies and 24,000 e-books in its first week. A sign of fatigue? Perhaps.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, That was my thinking too. Normally, fashion is fashion and not worthy of mention at a political site, but wow did this stand out as just wrong.
ReplyDeleteThat's a laugh that Hillary was ever apolitical. Her entire history is political.
Here is the thing. Chelsea is young enough to wear hip fashions. I don't know what the event was, but I see some guy in a tux. So it may not have been very appropriate for the function. Bev pointed out she got high marks for her choice. The real issue is her legs are just too damn big to wear those skin tight pants. She pretty much loses a "who wore it best?"contest to anybody (except maybe her mom). I mean really, those are some heavy weight thunder thighs by any definition. #just because you CAN do something doesn't mean yould SHOULD
ReplyDeleteJed, Just because you can do a thing does not mean you should do a thing is absolutely right!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, the leather pants are the real disaster. Coke addicted rock stars can barely wear those.No normal person should wear them.