How Quickly We Forget
This article (reposted with permission of Newsmax) shows how difficult it will be to accurately define Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential campaign:
Though she barely escaped prosecution just a few years ago for making false statements to federal investigators, New Yorkers now believe that Sen. Hillary Clinton is a truthful person. Nearly two-thirds of Empire Staters - 64% - told a Quinnipiac University survey last week that the former first lady was "honest and trustworthy." Thirty percent disagreed.
Even among Republicans, 38% gave Hillary high marks for honesty. Among Democrats, the figure was a sky-high 85%.
Quinnipaic's polling director Maurice Carroll said Hillary's new honesty numbers were a big improvement from the old days.
"When Clinton took office four years ago, her husband had just pardoned Marc Rich and the Clintons were accused of looting White House furniture," he noted. Sounding somewhat bewildered, Carroll mused: "Now? Two-thirds of New Yorkers say she's a good - and honest - Senator."
This ought to tell us at least a couple of things:
1) Now we know why Mrs. Clinton wanted a senate seat. Not just to build a political resume in her own right, but also a veritable mountain range separating herself and her public image from the disastrous one she earned during her husband's misbegotten reign.
2) Any notion of using Mrs. Clinton's past scandals and corruptions and crimes and malfeasances against her three years from now will go exactly nowhere. The Bush-Cheney campaign got a tremendous gift in the bumbling, stumbling, waffling, flip-flopping, "can't keep eighty-five different versions of the same story straight" John Kerry. The Clinton machine, as we of all people should well and bitterly remember, doesn't make mistakes.
Even more recent deceptions won't matter:
Another person sure to be shocked by Hillary's new reputation for honesty is media mogul Steven Brill, who accused her of falsely claiming she helped 9/11 victim families while he was writing his 2003 book, After.
Brill told WABC Radio that the senator's staff had provided him with "an elaborate story, with an elaborate subtext of memos and phone calls - a long, long story" detailing Hillary's meetings with 9/11 relatives.
But after checking with the families themselves, Brill said, "None of it turned out to be true. ... They gave me documents and phone calls and things like that which just plain never happened."
Republicans will have a tough enough time coming up with a nominee who can simply come close to Mrs. Clinton's star power, much less overcome her propaganda apparatus. They'd be well advised to stick to beating her on the issues, where there's at least a scant chance that she'll be vulnerable.
Can you say, "Remember HillaryCare"?
Though she barely escaped prosecution just a few years ago for making false statements to federal investigators, New Yorkers now believe that Sen. Hillary Clinton is a truthful person. Nearly two-thirds of Empire Staters - 64% - told a Quinnipiac University survey last week that the former first lady was "honest and trustworthy." Thirty percent disagreed.
Even among Republicans, 38% gave Hillary high marks for honesty. Among Democrats, the figure was a sky-high 85%.
Quinnipaic's polling director Maurice Carroll said Hillary's new honesty numbers were a big improvement from the old days.
"When Clinton took office four years ago, her husband had just pardoned Marc Rich and the Clintons were accused of looting White House furniture," he noted. Sounding somewhat bewildered, Carroll mused: "Now? Two-thirds of New Yorkers say she's a good - and honest - Senator."
This ought to tell us at least a couple of things:
1) Now we know why Mrs. Clinton wanted a senate seat. Not just to build a political resume in her own right, but also a veritable mountain range separating herself and her public image from the disastrous one she earned during her husband's misbegotten reign.
2) Any notion of using Mrs. Clinton's past scandals and corruptions and crimes and malfeasances against her three years from now will go exactly nowhere. The Bush-Cheney campaign got a tremendous gift in the bumbling, stumbling, waffling, flip-flopping, "can't keep eighty-five different versions of the same story straight" John Kerry. The Clinton machine, as we of all people should well and bitterly remember, doesn't make mistakes.
Even more recent deceptions won't matter:
Another person sure to be shocked by Hillary's new reputation for honesty is media mogul Steven Brill, who accused her of falsely claiming she helped 9/11 victim families while he was writing his 2003 book, After.
Brill told WABC Radio that the senator's staff had provided him with "an elaborate story, with an elaborate subtext of memos and phone calls - a long, long story" detailing Hillary's meetings with 9/11 relatives.
But after checking with the families themselves, Brill said, "None of it turned out to be true. ... They gave me documents and phone calls and things like that which just plain never happened."
Republicans will have a tough enough time coming up with a nominee who can simply come close to Mrs. Clinton's star power, much less overcome her propaganda apparatus. They'd be well advised to stick to beating her on the issues, where there's at least a scant chance that she'll be vulnerable.
Can you say, "Remember HillaryCare"?
posted by JASmius at 3:50 PM
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