What Clinton SHOULD have said: (from an Obama supporter)

[MercutioATC]

"While I wouldn't have phrased it quite that way, the message is relevant. There are a lot of small-town Americans...and urban Americans...who have seen their jobs go overseas, their pensions evaporate, their communities crumble....and they're angry. Rightfully angry. Angry because the people they elect to work for them have ignored them.

I'm not ignoring them. I'm listening. I've worked to help the economically disenfranchised as a Senator, and I'm going to continue to work for them as President."



A statement like this would have allowed her to acknowledge the issue and offer solutions. She didn't do that, however...she denied that people were "bitter"...and, in doing so, made it impossible for her to address the anger that people feel over these issues. She limited herself.

Yes, I'm an Obama supporter, but I think this should Political Strategy 101 stuff...never dismiss an issue, even part of an issue, when it effects a large number of voters.

[Mz Pip]

1. I saw her response

and was baffled by it. With the economy and the war and the health care crisis how could she possible dismiss the reality that people are bitter and angry.

It made her look like a political opportunist instead of a candidate who understands the frustration that so many Americans feel right now.

[Mags]

2. Gee, when did the Obama crowd think enought of Hillary to give her talking points?

I'm sure she will take it.

[americanstranger]

The talking points offered were a hell of a lot smarter

than her own response.

It's really sad when people on a message board are more capable of offering good advice than the consultants that are getting paid millions of dollars but can't come up with a good rhetorical point.

- as

[Mags]

6. don't see how you get that. This is really going to stick with the

rural people. They see him as arrogant, elitist. Think what you want. That's ok.

[LaurenG]

7. I disagree, I think he'll come out of this better then the other two

making loud negative noises about it.

[americanstranger]

10. This is all pretty funny to watch.

Clinton and her supporters have long ago given up on presenting Hillary as the superior candidate. All you've got is the hope that something will happen to taint him or take him down.

Funny to watch - but it's also pretty tawdry and disgusting.

But you go on hoping for an Obama meltdown. I realize it's all you've got left. That's ok.

- as

[Mags]

12. thought you folks were the hope party, nothing but hope will get you there.

[americanstranger]

14. Hey, I'm doing fine.

I'm confident that my candidate can get it done against the GOP in November.

You and yours, on the other hand, sit waiting for something bad to happen to someone so you can capitalize on it.

That's pretty sad, but again, I realize that's all you got left.

- as

[Mags]

16. I don't think you are facing reality! There is a ways to go before this is over, and

every little degrading comment makes a difference.

[americanstranger]

19. 'No. I'm in touch.'

The reality is that Clinton hired a team of hacks who give her nothing but bad advice.

And now the one-time frontrunner is reduced to ginning up outrage by twisting her opponent's words beyond recognition.

You'd think that after having the Right Wing do that to her for years, she'd be a little more sensitive to it.

But no. She and Bill and Penn and Wolfson and Ickes don't turn away from Right Wing tactics. They embrace them.

That's why she's losing. And that she's losing is, in your words, 'facing reality.' You should give it a try instead of waiting for Obama to make a 'fatal mistake' like you and Clinton supporters have been doing since Super Tuesday.

- as

[Mags]

22. Hey, face it, it ain't over til it is over. Let every vote count and then it will be legit.

[americanstranger]

27. I never said anything about it being over. Did I?

I said she is losing.

And she is.

I said that her supporters are glomming onto anything that can be spun into some horrible negative to work against Obama.

And they are.

I said that's pretty much all you've got left.

And it is.

- as

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

23. She Lost, Mags. It is over.

The Math is a fact that can not be spun.
It's called Reality, in the real world.
The Obama World.

[Mags]

30. I'm not hopping he will have a melt down, I just know he will

You seem to forget that all the voters have not spoken yet. That to me is when it gets into the unknown areas. You want her to give up and not got to the finish. What are you scared about? Why can't all the voters express their thoughts?

[americanstranger]

31. You keep saying that I want her to 'give up.'

I've got at six posts on this thread now. Please re-read them, slowly if necessary.

Nowhere in this thread have I said - not even once - that she should 'give up.'

I said that you Clinton supporters are sitting waiting for something really really bad to be revealed about Obama, because trying to present Hillary as the superior candidate has not done jack shit so far.

It's you that keeps bringing up the shit about her quitting. I have not said that.

I think you keep trying to shift the argument to things that I haven't said, because you can't effectively refute the things I have said.

- as

[Mags]

33. sorry, I have everyone is a group, I apologize, I should not have grouped you in with the others.

[americanstranger]

34. Just as there are different opinions in the Clinton camp,

there are in the Obama camp.

I have not, will not, call for her to leave the campaign. I'll go with Obama's statement that she has the perfect right to stay in.

- as

[JBoy]

3. Agreed, she could have leveraged this to her advantage

The second part she could have said "And that's why I've been doing XYZ for 35 years, and my plan is to do blahblahblah." She could have even used Obama's (arguably) poor choice of words to poke at the experience issue.

The fact that she didn't do that, and instead invented phony outrage, smacks of real desperation. She needs the wheels to come off the Obama machine, so she climbs underneath at any opportunity to smack the axle with a monkey wrench. She should be driving her own machine.

[jillan]

4. Hillary should have said that Obama was right and she agrees with everything he said.

:rofl:

Hello? This is politics.
Hillary is running for President, not Homecoming Queen.

[MercutioATC]

13. No, but I think it would have been strategially better to publicly recognize the anger.

She's going to have to address the elephant in the room at some point. Denying the elephant's existence makes that kind of difficult.

I'm not suggesting that she agree with everything Obama says. I'm stating that denying that there's anger...going so far as to say that she hasn't seen it in her travels, just resilience and people rolling up their sleeves...makes it logically impossible to give recognition to the emotions of a large number of American voters. It limits her...and that's strategically unsound.

[jillan]

15. Hillary was the one that was promising hope.

[MercutioATC]

17. What does that have to do with denying the anger that a lot of people feel?

Let's keep it on-topic, please...

[Bonobo]

5. Just like she was forced into attacking "Hope", she is forced to be on the wrong side again.

Imagine a woman who people KNOW earned over 100 million in the last few years.

Imagine someone who's husband accepts fees amounting to $800,000 for speaking enagements (5 of them!) pushing the Colombia Trade Deal. A deal all Dems are against.

Imagine this woman telling a crowd of people, who will barely earn $800,000 in their whole lives, that a Black man who no one heard of 1 year ago, is an "elitist".

It is absured. It will hurt her. She got trapped.

Hillary, the "Anti-Hope" candidate.

[Catherina]

8. Hillary's not in touch enough to get it. Your advice will fall on deaf ears

Eventually though, she'll take up your line but it will be too late.

[grantcart]

9. she could have done something similar on the Wright issue but the Clintons

have lost the ability to see the home run pitch and continue to bunt with no one on base

[Berry Cool]

11. Very good response!

The OP should be Hillary's campaign manager. Would do a damn better job than her current bunch. :rofl:

[StevieM]

18. Right, because Barack never pounced on Hillary and took her words out of context.

Please, he got where he is by smearing her.

This is the same garbage we saw with the 60 minutes non-attack, attack. Obama supporters will always fault her for not bowing down to the chosen one.

Steve

[MercutioATC]

20. Again, I'm speaking about her actively denying that people feel anger about these issues.

This isn't a tit-for-tat session, it's a suggestion that by denying the anger that a lot of people feel, she's limited herself.

[JayFredMuggs]

21. Hillary smears herself quite well...but please

Point out all the places where you claim Obama "smeared her"!

I doubt you can find one.

[StevieM]

25. He says she'll say or do anything to win, he has said that she want to use race

to divide and scare us, he has said that she has skeletons in her closet. He trashes her (often through a surrogate) on a near-daily basis.

Steve

[JBoy]

35. Please provide a link to what you think is the best example of this.

I can't think of anything he's said himself that fits the things you mention.

[LaurenG]

26. Truthfully I never saw him attack her

and if he did he isn't doing it anymore is he?

[Tom Rinaldo]

24. Obama erred by using the word bitter rather than angry

Bitter has a really sour after taste to it, whereas anger often is framed as righteous. Bitter people are very rarely hopeful, though angry people sometimes are hopeful that their anger will make a positive difference. Bitterness is associated with resignation and a victim stance, soured on life and all of that. Given how long and how hard Obama pounded away at Clinton over her seemingly not understanding the wonderful healing power of hope, it doesn't surprise me to see her play the hope card back at Obama now.

[FrenchieCat]

28. She's been passing up so many opportunities to shine instead of slime...

[graycem]

29. That would be good advice..

And what's funny to me is that she spent a long time in the beginning attempting to paint Senator Obama as naive. This just shows she is being willfully naive if she believes what she says. Wonder if we could find anyone that lives in the real world that isn't bitter and frustrated at the last 7 1/2 years of the Bush nightmare, especially what his policies on the war have done to our economy. Find anyone in the real world that doesn't know how jobs have been given to foreign nations under these b.s. free trade agreements. I'm one of the lucky ones to have not been directly affected by all of the bad economic policy so far, but even I can see how it's only going to continue to spread and finish off our once "super power" status if we keep doing the same things. More importantly, it does matter to me that so many ARE truly suffering because of bad politics, even if they are not my grandmother, or brother, etc. But then I was plagued with a bleeding heart, probably some birth defect. :P

All along she accused Senator Obama of giving "false hope" to people, and in her statement, that is exactly what she is doing. Just hope that she will fix everything for you. Keep ignoring your own economic interests, and vote on these wedge issues the Republicans somehow manage to capitalize on and propagate, be outraged over the term "bitter"... playing to emotion rather than logic. Amazing. :)

And that is why Senator Obama is going to be President Obama. Most people have an innate ability to spot someone who is genuine. Someone who is telling them the truth. Someone who is "in touch" with how people really feel.

[Imagevision]

32. Bill Clinton's price per speech has dropped ever since Obama even kicked his ass also... (2 for 1?)