Hillary's pathetic run: from denouncing hope to pouncing on bitter

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Mon Apr-14-08 01:33 PM
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Hillary's pathetic run: from denouncing hope to pouncing on bitter

When Hillary was confident she would win she claimed: "It's not a very long run. It'll be over by Feb. 5.".

When it became obvious she couldn't win by conventional methods, she began harping on the "false hope that MI and FL woudl secure her victory."

Well, that was after her charge that Obama was raising "false hope" failed to gain traction:

"So, you know, I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change. And we don't need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered. The best way to know what change I will produce is to look at the changes that I've already made." -- Hillary Clinton

Imagine, Hillary telling Americans not to hope.

It's obvious the primary hasn't worked out as Hillary had hoped so she had to dig deep for a plan to try to sway the superdelegates.

This weekend, Hillary revealed her master plan: convince Americans that Obama is an elitist.

Primary math is not on her side, but Hillary's hope is that smearing Obama will magically help to end her downward spiral:

Hillary is full spin mode.

There's a slight problem, Americans have been in Bush hell for seven long year, and only 17% of us approve of the way things are going:

Robert Reich (h/t):

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Obama, Bitterness, Meet the Press, and the Old Politics

I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 61 years ago. My father sold $1.98 cotton blouses to blue-collar women and women whose husbands worked in factories. Years later, I was secretary of labor of the United States, and I tried the best I could – which wasn’t nearly good enough – to help reverse one of the most troublesome trends America has faced: The stagnation of middle-class wages and the expansion of povety. Male hourly wages began to drop in the early 1970s, adjusted for inflation. The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago. Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top.

Are Americans who have been left behind frustrated? Of course. And their frustrations, their anger and, yes, sometimes their bitterness, have been used since then -- by demagogues, by nationalists and xenophobes, by radical conservatives, by political nuts and fanatical fruitcakes – to blame immigrants and foreign traders, to blame blacks and the poor, to blame "liberal elites," to blame anyone and anything.

Rather than counter all this, the American media have wallowed in it. Some, like Fox News and talk radio, have given the haters and blamers their very own megaphones. The rest have merely "reported on" it. Instead of focusing on how to get Americans good jobs again; instead of admitting too many of our schools are failing and our kids are falling behind their contemporaries in Europe, Japan, and even China; instead of showing why we need a more progressive tax system to finance better schools and access to health care, and green technologies that might create new manufacturing jobs, our national discussion has been mired in the old politics.

Listen to this morning’s “Meet the Press” if you want an example. Tim Russert, one of the smartest guys on television, interviewed four political consultants – Carville and Matalin, Bob Schrum, and Michael Murphy. Political consultants are paid huge sums to help politicians spin words and avoid real talk. They’re part of the problem. And what do Russert and these four consultants talk about? The potential damage to Barack Obama from saying that lots of people in Pennsylvania are bitter that the economy has left them behind; about HRC’s spin on Obama’s words (he’s an “elitist,” she said); and John McCain’s similarly puerile attack.

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We’re heading into the worst economic crisis in a half century or more. Many of the Americans who have been getting nowhere for decades are in even deeper trouble. Large numbers of people in Pennsylvania and across the nation are losing their homes and losing their jobs, and the situation is likely to grow worse. Consumers are at the end of their ropes, fuel and food costs are skyrocketing, they can’t go deeper into debt, they can’t pay their bills. They aren’t buying, which means every business from the auto industry to housing to even giant GE is hurting. Which means they’ll begin laying off more people, and as they do, we will experience an even more dangerous downward spiral.

more

Hillary is in the process of shooting herself in the foot again, much in the same way she did with her 3 a.m ad and NAFTA "Shame on you" moment. She is risking the ounce of credibility she has left in the hope that a smear will take down Obama. That's pathetic, and it's only a matter of time before more people realize just how desperate her grand plan is.

Clinton keeps spotlight on Obama

Posted: Monday, April 14, 2008 12:04 PM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC/NJ’s Athena Jones
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Hillary Clinton spent a fourth day hitting Obama for comments about small town America that she characterized as elitist, out of touch and problematic for the Democratic Party, but this time some in the crowd could be heard taking issue with what she was saying.

The New York senator brought up the issue near the top of a speech sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, to quite a few murmurs in the crowd.

VIDEO: Sen. Hillary Clinton responds to Obama's attack earlier in the morning.

"I understand my opponent came this morning and he spent a lot of his time attacking me," she said, before being interrupted with several seconds of murmurs and groans from the crowd. "Well, you know, I know that many of you, like me were disappointed by recent remarks that he made.”

More groans and at least one “No" from the crowd.

“And I think it's important that, you know, we give people the chance to really compare and contrast us,” Clinton continued. “You know, I am well aware that at a fundraiser in San Francisco, he said some things that many people in Pennsylvania and beyond Pennsylvania have found offensive.”

A few more “No”s.

“He was explaining to a small group of his donors what people who live in small towns right here in Pennsylvania are like and why some of you aren't voting for him,” she said. “But instead of looking at himself, he blamed them. He said that they cling to religion and guns and dislike people who are different from them. Well, I don't believe that. I believe that people don't cling to religion; they value their faith. You don't cling to guns, you enjoy hunting or collecting or sport shooting. I don't think he really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you and not looks down on you."

more

Despite Hillary's attempt (ongoing) and the media's fixation on the bitter-gate brouhaha, Obama received three major PA endorsements:

What a smear looks like backfiring: Hillary's "patronizing elitism"

Hillary's pathetic run: from denouncing hope to pouncing on bitter

Obama, Bitterness, Meet the Press, and the Old Politics

Clinton keeps spotlight on Obama

Endorsement for Obama