The Candidates
Hillary’s working hard to increase her margins in Pennsylvania. Not only did she continue to go on the offensive against Obama’s “Snobgate” comments, but even took some time out to knock back a few shots of whiskey along the way. Now that’s a great vote-getting strategy!
She also shamelessly panders to gun rights supporters. You gotta love it:
“I disagree with Sen. Obama’s assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration,” she began, referring to the Obama comments on small-town Americans that set off a political tumult on Friday.
She then introduced a fond memory from her youth.
“You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl,” she said.
Who would have ever thought that Hillary Clinton would become a working class hero. As John McCain likes to say regarding France having a pro-American President, “this just proves that if you live long enough, anything is possible.”
April 13th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
This is all so surreal. I saw a clip of Hillary on television this morning talking about how religious people are religious because that’s what they believe and they get something out of it - and not merely because they’re bitter. It was obviously a calculated political slap at Obama - but Hillary sounded like a Republican .
I think she’s finally getting it. Matt Miller and I were bantering a few weeks ago after Hillary made some kind of dig against McCain that she was going about it all wrong and that the way for her to win was to attack Obama from the right. She needs to keep this up.
I think three things are just remarkable about this year.
1) In such a Democrat-favored year, Hillary is going to get points for attacking the front-runner from the RIGHT.
2) Despite their obvious craving for power for eight years, the Democrats are on the verge of putting forth their most inexperienced and most risky candidate possible.
3) The Democrats know fully well that the Republicans are going to try to paint Obama as Dukakis 2.0. Not only is Obama doing the GOP’s job for them but the stupid Democrat superdelegates keep falling his way despite all of Obama’s bone-headed moves.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Wow.
Y’know, I almost hate to say it, but that video makes me like Hillary.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Adam,
Yup. I’m actually starting to worry about what will happen if Hil manages to steal the nomination from Obama. I’ve always thought the lengthened primary season carried a peculiar risk for Republicans; if Hillary somehow triumphed, she’d have done so on the narrative of being a hero of the working class. She’d have managed to create, out of thin air, a genuine and fervent base of support among blue collar voters. That’s dangerous. Democrats win when blue collar voters go overwhelmingly for them. They lose the rest of the time. With Hil speaking the language of the right on “values” to attack Obama, she’s probably endearing herself to some right-leaning small town folks who’d previously despised her. And McCain simply can’t get the same level of attention with his attacks on Obama’s comments, because he’s not Obama’s immediate opponent.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
But, I’ll tell you what, Hillary doesn’t come off as a credible whisky drinker to me. I have a drink about twice a month (for about the last 5 months), so I’m by no means an expert on this subject but…sipping whisky, from a shot-glass, with…two hands? I guess it’s better then bowling a 37, but…
April 13th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
“this just proves that if you live long enough, anything is possible.â€
That’s why, before resigning myself to eternal sleep, I’m going to live as long as modern technology will allow. I’m really hoping that at some point science will develop the means to regenerate cells, but otherwise, I’ll settle for replacement parts. This will come with the added benefit of me being able to sport a “More Machine Now Than Man” bumper sticker on my (probably flying) car.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
“With Hil speaking the language of the right on “values†to attack Obama, she’s probably endearing herself to some right-leaning small town folks who’d previously despised her”
No question. My family is all from Northeast PA and they’re historically conservative “Reagan Democrats” and Catholic. They’ve always hated Hillary but when you put her next to Obama she is a much better alternative. I know it’s anecdotal but I would be shocked if Obama did any better than being on the losing end of a 56-44 race next Tuesday. And with the fallout from BitterGate I think Hil has an outside shot at 60-40. Makes you wonder - what will the panting NBC News talking heads say when Obama only takes 38 percent of the white vote?
I still don’t think Hil has any more than a 1 in 3 shot at taking this nomination from Barry though so I’m not yet worried.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Adam,
You’re right. But a 60-40 Hillary win means that she will almost definitely win the popular vote, and we’re going to the convention floor, baby!!!
April 13th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Adam #1:
“2) Despite their obvious craving for power for eight years, the Democrats are on the verge of putting forth their most inexperienced and most risky candidate possible.”
It’s BECAUSE they’re so favored to win that they’re putting forward Obama. Obama is every liberal elitist’s wet dream come true. They think there’s no way they can lose after eight years of Bush, so this is what they come up with. And if we were putting up a traditional Republican against it, they’d be right.
Fortunately, that is not currently the case, but they don’t seem to realize that. Under normal circumstances, McCain would crush Hillary too, but she can pretend to me moderate enough so that with the inherent Democratic advantages this cycle, she could conceivably get to 270.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I had to chuckle when watching Hillary’s Scranton commercial though. She talks about spending her summers at Lake Winola but in order to try to convey that she came from modest means she talks about how there was no heat in her cabin.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nF0vdEQMuns
Now the meteorologist in me would like to point out that in August at Lake Winola the average high temperature is 81 and the average low is 60. I’m not sure that having no heat is all that much of a burden. It’s a small point - but again just goes to show how manufactured this all is.
Still - Hillary is my girl. I wouldn’t vote for her in a general election against a living, breathing Republican (I know, I know…McCain’s old - blah) but I’ve warmed up to her more this year than ever before. A center-left Democrat really doesn’t seem like the end of the world when put next to a radical.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I’m beginning to really like her too. I loved her comments on faith yesterday, and I have read in several sources that it is one thing she has consistently lived in the past.
Obama is an idiot. Unbelieveable that the Democrats might nominate him. But then again, that is the Dean, Brazile, Pelosi part of the party, helped along by the Obama network NBC.
I’ll take the more moderate Hillary anyday.
It’s Hillary or McCain for me, a Reagan Democrat.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Does anybody REALLY believe that Hillary’s grandfather taught her how to shoot “behind the cottage?”
Next time she tells the story, she will say she learned to shoot behind her grandfather’s cottage under sniper fire.