Liberal Burblings

Archive for the ‘Hillary Clinton’ Category

It’s all beautifully summed up here by Kelly McParland:

Barack Obama can’t possibly be bright enough to capture the Democratic presidential nomination and dumb enough to immediately undermine it by offering second spot on the ticket to Hillary Clinton.

Hat-tip to Justin Webb, who puts it nicely:

…it’s not just the perceived gracelessness of her demeanour in recent hours: it’s the simple fact that Barack Obama does not want That Man down the corridor. He wants Bill for his ambassador to Vanuatu. It’s the Bill, stupid.

As a Washington Post/ABC News poll shows Obama seven points ahead of McCain nationally, Hillary’s thank you video (below) at last signals that she has realised the game is up:

A video sent by Hillary Clinton as a thank you to her supporters has fuelled speculation that she is on the verge of dropping out of the White House race, with its strikingly valedictory tone.

The senator was also heard inadvertently referring to the next president as “he” as attention turned to how she could make a graceful exit from a gruelling, 17-month contest.

From ABC News:

(Hillary) Clinton further displayed tough talk in an interview airing on “Good Morning America” Tuesday. ABC News’ Chris Cuomo asked Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.

“I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” Clinton said. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”

And this is the nuanced, subtle, informed and conscientious view of what we are told is an ‘experienced foreign affairs hand’.

It’s taking Bill Clinton’s maxim (“When people are insecure, they’d rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who’s weak and right,”) to a remarkable extreme.

What I hate about Hillary’s statement is….oh well hang on…there’s so many things I hate about it.

1. “Obliterate them” – who is “them”? Millions of innocent Iranians struggling to lead their lives while President “I’m a Dinner Jam” cowers safely in a bunker ?

2. Isn’t Israel a nuclear power anyway ? They refuse to confirm or deny this, but one wonders whether (a) Iran would attack them knowing they probably have their own nuclear weapons and (b) the US needs to rush to the defence of another nuclear power.

3. It is disgusting that Clinton is using such phrases. It is patronizing to the American people to cynically assume these sorts of statements will bring her extra votes.

Whatever happened to the subtlety of Theodore Roosevelt and his quotation of the West African proverb “Speak softly and carry a big stick” ?

Did JFK use such language during the Cuban Missile crisis ? Of course not.

Hillary Clinton has shown that she is the last person who ought to answer that legendary 3am red phone. If she is going to play to the gallery and go round throwing her weight about, this is not what anybody needs. Where’s the intellectual rigour of her approach ? She’s got all the sublety of Davros and the Daleks: “OBLITERATE”

The Politico reports that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is delaying paying bills:

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles. A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter. Their cautionary tales, combined with published reports about similar difficulties faced by a New Hampshire landlord, an Iowa office cleaner and a New York caterer, highlight a less-obvious impact of Clinton’s inability to keep up with the staggering fundraising pace set by her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Michael Sneed in the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

….major money problems in the Clinton camp may soon become a coroner knocking on her campaign door.
• To wit: Word is the cash feeding into Hillary Clinton’s campaign coffers has not only slowed down in a big way, undisclosed campaign debts that have yet to be made public could signal the end and have insiders biting their nails.
Translation: “It won’t necessarily be politics which may force her out of the race,” said a top Dem source. “There is no hanky panky going on, but Hillary needs to raise money to stay alive . . . and word is she may not be able to climb out of the money hole.”
• The buckshot: “I think it’s safe to say Hillary’s not going to dip into her pocket again,” the source added. “And if her employees start taking pay cuts while chasing the dream . . . it’s usually the beginning of the body becoming totally cold.”