Liberal Burblings

Archive for the ‘Hillary Clinton’ Category

I’ve blogged before about my annoyance at Hillary Clinton’s insistence that she is some sort of Super-Stateswoman with a history of solving the world’s conflicts from Bosnia to Ireland.

So, it was with an element of schadenfreude and vindication that I witnessed Hillary’s Bosnia discomfort. She said she visited Bosnia in 1996 under a hail of bullets, running “with our heads down into the vehicles”. A diligent TV researcher visited the bowels of the archives and unearthed footage showing that her arrival, in fact, was something akin to a walk in the park.

This gaffe is a very welcome emblem. Through the campaign, Clinton has constantly tried to portray Obama as inexperienced while stating that she has great experience on the world stage. (Northern Ireland ? Of course, ol’ Hillary melted the heart of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams and had them signing up to the Good Friday agreement in no time)

The 3am red phone call ad was typical.

But, until the Bosnia gaffe (which, unbelievably, was unforced – Clinton herself freely bragged about her visit) there was nothing which illustrated the lie behind the 3am phone call ad.

That lie is that Hillary has been a statesperson. She hasn’t. She has been a Senator for a bit longer than Obama (who by the way has experience in many other areas). She was First Lady of the US and Arkansas.

That doesn’t make her Henry Kissinger.

I don’t wish to diminish the role of the partner to the US President, or indeed partner of the Governor of Arkansas. However, the Clinton campaign has built it up so much, that I am delighted that the Bosnia gaffe has burst the bubble.

Carl Bernstein on CNN describes the Bosnia gaffe as a “watershed” in a very interesting article on Hillary Clinton’s relationship with the truth.

I’ve blogged before about my annoyance at Hillary Clinton’s insistence that she is some sort of Super-Stateswoman with a history of solving the world’s conflicts from Bosnia to Ireland.

So, it was with an element of schadenfreude and vindication that I witnessed Hillary’s Bosnia discomfort. She said she visited Bosnia in 1996 under a hail of bullets, running “with our heads down into the vehicles”. A diligent TV researcher visited the bowels of the archives and unearthed footage showing that her arrival, in fact, was something akin to a walk in the park.

This gaffe is a very welcome emblem. Through the campaign, Clinton has constantly tried to portray Obama as inexperienced while stating that she has great experience on the world stage. (Northern Ireland ? Of course, ol’ Hillary melted the heart of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams and had them signing up to the Good Friday agreement in no time)

The 3am red phone call ad was typical.

But, until the Bosnia gaffe (which, unbelievably, was unforced – Clinton herself freely bragged about her visit) there was nothing which illustrated the lie behind the 3am phone call ad.

That lie is that Hillary has been a statesperson. She hasn’t. She has been a Senator for a bit longer than Obama (who by the way has experience in many other areas). She was First Lady of the US and Arkansas.

That doesn’t make her Henry Kissinger.

I don’t wish to diminish the role of the partner to the US President, or indeed partner of the Governor of Arkansas. However, the Clinton campaign has built it up so much, that I am delighted that the Bosnia gaffe has burst the bubble.

Carl Bernstein on CNN describes the Bosnia gaffe as a “watershed” in a very interesting article on Hillary Clinton’s relationship with the truth.

Call me a Numpty if you will, but I am staggered that Obama has won in Maine.

Maine!

“Murder she wrote” was set there! It’s cosy coast country where the Bushes have their retreat.

59 (Obama) to 41 (Hilary) !

In October 2007, Clinton was beating Obama in Maine by 47 to 10!

There is something serious going on!

Matthew Yglesias comments beautifully:

My understanding, though, is that this doesn’t really count because it’s a small state, much as Utah doesn’t count because there aren’t many Democrats there, DC doesn’t count because there are too many black people, Washington doesn’t count because it’s a caucus, Illinois doesn’t count because Obama represents it in the Senate even though Hillary was born there, Hawaii won’t count because Obama was born there. I’m not sure why Delaware and Connecticut don’t count, but they definitely don’t.

And Obama is now ahead on delegates.

If I was in Clinton’s campaign I’d be wearing brown trousers to work now. Her campaign chief has quit or been pushed. But Hilary is of course able to take all these blows and carry on regardless. And of course, she’ll take Texas and Ohio big and be home and dry. Of course. Yeah. Yeah.

While I am at it, this business about the Republicans looking forward to Obama and Clinton ripping themselves apart while McCain establishes himself as the front-runner has an element of BS (Bovine Scatology) to it. The Democrats will get great publicity from the ongoing race and there’s already been record audiences for debates and record turn-outs at primaries and caucases. As long as Clinton and Obama keep roughly to their peace pipe routine, as established at the last debate, they should be able to keep the public interested and positive about the Democrats. After all, they (Clinton and Obama) only have a couple of substantial policy differences. And the personalities come down to “change” versus “experience”. Not really a whirlpool of vitriol.

And by the way, McCain is getting all manner of cack thrown at him by the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. And Huckabee is clearly sponging up most of the southern states, making McCain look very vulnerable in the nether regions. So it’s not all beer and skittles for the Republicans.

The Democratic Presidential candidates have had an interesting first televisual outing. Obama and Clinton did well as the expense of Edwards, the reports say.

Christopher Dodd has an interesting graphic on his web site, which shows who talked for how long during the debate. He calls it the Talk Clock. Obama was ahead in the talk stakes at 16 minutes, closely followed by Clinton on 14 minutes and 26 seconds.

Barack Obama has written an inspirational piece in the Foreign Affairs magazine, printed today in the Guardian, entitled: “The best chance for Iraq is to bring American troops home”.

The Politico reports that Hillary Clinton is getting her frostiest reception from left-wing bloggers:

As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, her biggest opposition may not come from primary rivals or Republican challengers, but rather from the leftist blog community that often views her as a political punching bag.

Instead of being embraced by liberal blogs as the first serious woman presidential contender, Clinton has been labeled an ‘opportunist,’ the candidate more interested in getting elected than in standing on principle.