She Who Laughs...

[question everything]

From TIME

Thursday, Oct. 04, 2007
She Who Laughs...

Washington Memo She Who Laughs ...

That sound you hear is the zeitgeist shifting on Hillary Clinton. It's not just the laugh--those loud and (at times) staged bursts of mirth that have become late-night fodder. It's the backlash against her inevitability, the desire for a real contest throwing itself against the mighty tide of her latest fund-raising and polling triumphs: $22 million to Barack Obama's $19 million in the third quarter, and a shocking 53%-to-20% lead among Democrats in a new ABC/Washington Post poll. You can feel it coming: a major media assault on her style. And whether you like it or not, style is an important question in presidential politics, as long as it doesn't exclude substance and lead to the sort of trivial henpecking that so many people rightfully hate. On Hillary, the question is what's legit and what's not.

Yes, the laugh can be awkward, and yes, her campaign is focus-grouped to death. But then, so are the campaigns of all the other candidates flush enough to hire political consultants. The style question would be far more serious if Clinton were appreciably more cautious in policy terms than her fellow candidates, but she isn't. Her health-care plan, while late, is considered by some to be the best submitted this year. Her position on Iraq is solid, responsible and not much different from most of her opponents'.

Clinton's caution is more noticeable because of the cool, bionic quality of her public persona. But perhaps her seriousness and practicality--the sense that she knows what she's doing--will work to her advantage and may even overcome the perennial TV-age desire for a warm or charming candidate. What works against her is the sense that she comes not only with Bill attached but also with a permanent carnival: all the screaming from the right and from those in the media obsessed with the Clinton-family follies. After 16 years, the public may be tired of an always embattled presidency.


* Find this article at:
* http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1668474,00.html

[NanceGreggs]

1. Hillary is not my first choice ...

... among the Democrats running for prez, but I will support her if she is the nominee.

As for her laugh, I find it delightful and totally infectious. I simply CANNOT hear it without laughing along with her, and it doesn't even matter if I know WHAT she's laughing at, or why.

Just one of those things, I guess ...

[golddigger]

2. Hillary's not my first or second...

Choice. But if she becomes the Democratic nominee, I will vote for her.

Oh, and I will take her laugh over Ghoulianni and "I will say anything to get elected" Romney.:puke:

[PDJane]

3. She who laughs, lasts.......

And Goddess on a cracker, the Republican field is depressing.

[Demeter]

5. Actually, the GOP Field Is Quite Amusing, If You Can Still Hold Onto

your sense of the ridiculous in these harrowing times....

[OneBlueSky]

4. the thing about Hillary is that I just don't trust her . . .

George Bush made "talking out of both sides of one's mouth" an art, and I fear that Hillary will continue to refine the skill if she's elected . . . she's an authoritarian corporatist in the Bush mold, and she's learned from the best . . .

[Labors of Hercules]

6. What is a Corporatist?

If I weigh the needs of whole corporations with the needs of individuals and seek to benefit both, does that make me a corporatist? When our entire global economy is driven by corporations, how can you be President and not be a "corporatist"?

[Maccagirl]

7. The last two sentences sum it up for me

Calling what surrounds both Clinton's a "carnival" is spot-on-and my tolerance level for the RW bullshit from the wingnuts and their media enablers is in the minus zone.

[HughMoran]

8. Interesting article

It had nothing to do with whether she is my first or second choice or any of the other inane complaints so far - just an interesting analysis of where she is and where she (we) may be headed.