Monday, February 04, 2008

It's Getting to Hillary

Anyone who has been through a campaign knows that at some point in it, your emotions crack. The pressure gets to you. It may be for a split second, but it happens. CNN is just reporting that Hillary has had another tearful moment on the campaign trail today. She's clearly exhausted and as I said below, her voice is going. While it may be good for her to be able to show she's human, Americans will be nervous about her not being able to stand up to the pressure.

12 comments:

Paddy Briggs said...

It’s arguable that Hillary won New Hampshire because she suddenly seemed vulnerable and more human after her surprise defeat in Iowa. My gut feel is that the Democrat electors probably prefer Obama as a person and will vote for him where there is no FINAL commitment. But where to vote for Obama could drive Hillary out of the race then sufficient will pull back and vote for her despite themselves. If I’m right then Hillary will win on Super Tuesday – and the sudden vulnerability you see will not hurt her and could help (as it did in New Hampshire). I remain hopeful that we’ll see Clinton/Obama as the ticket and, if they win, we shall see America reborn after the utter ghastliness of Dubya and the even worse Cheney. I certainly hope so!

Administrator said...

As with most things in the Hillary campaign, any tearful moment will have been thought through, as the similar incident in New Hampshire must have been. The Clinton camp will be hoping for a similar result tomorrow as in NH - and for the latest polls to be failing to discount the Bill Bradley effect.

With regard to your earlier post on the US elections today: What is surely a bit worrying for most conservatives is the manner in which even normally reliably commentators, such as yourself Iain and, for example, the lead feature in the Spectator this week are being carried along by the media's enthusiasm for the latest thing, being in this case Obama. You only have to listen to an Obama speech to hear a compendium of vacuity only matched, say, by some of Gore's more ridiculous pronouncements on climate change. We've had eight years of a naive and inexperienced President. Let's not have another.

Craig Ranapia said...

Oh, goos grief... Sorry if this sounds unkind, but nobody on the campaign trail today is exactly a electoral virgin, or was forced to stand at gunpoint.

Yes, I'm sure everyone in exhausted. But freaking toughen up -- and before Verity swoops in and calls me a misogynistic swine, I'd be saying the same thing if this was her favourite Islamofascist Manchurian Candidate or the Fake Conservative on the other side. (After all, I'm pretty sure McCain is going to get jumped on if he loses his formidable temper on the campaign trail. And pleading exhaustion is going to get zero sympathy.)

You chose this life, Hills. Suck it up.

4x4 the people said...

it would make just as much sense to have then go 10 rounds in a cagefight with each other or do 6 marathons in 6 days. Sure a bit of commitment and stamina in a presidential wannabe is a good thing but this has led to no discernible improvement in the performance of the recent winners (of course there is an implied counterfactual there as we don't know if the waysidely fallen would have done any better. Apart from Gore of course.).

I imagine Tony Blair's own presidential campaign will involve a more leisurely progress across our fair continent by millionaire's yacht, royal train and hedge fund manager's chopper.

Jaz said...

Iain, will you stop "media spinning". You're a blogger, and your views on Hillary Clinton seem more media driven than an honest blogger.

I have to be frank, and people like Krugman are support Hillary Clinton, and her economic plans are far superiors to any candidate Republican and Democrat and that's a basic conservative standpoint.

Unsworth said...

Frankly I hope that Mrs Clinton implodes. The more one learns of her the more appalling she appears. Why people continue to be taken in by her increasingly fragmented superficiality I really do not understand. Worse, she and her husband have repeatedly shown themselves to be entirely unprincipled.

Anonymous said...

Young people, 30 and under, are behind Obama and they see Hillary as an old fashioned granny type figure.

The youth vote could swing it for Obama.

but who can tell what will happen with this amazing election...

I'm really hoping Obama can do it - but good luck to Hillary if she wins.

Yak40 said...

Maybe someone sent her this to read.

Craig Ranapia said...

jaz:

I really don't understand when Paul Krugman became the economic equivalent of the Ten Commandments fresh from Mount Sinai. If you want to talk about utter vacuity, I'd have the New York Times' op-ed columnists hanging from the gallows before tomorrow tea-time.

What in her economic platform is supposed to excite fiscal conservatives -- because I'm just seeing the same-old tax and spend, borrow and hope, inflate the federal government like a fat man on steroids and pray same-old from both sides of the aisle.

And clickrefresh wrote:
We've had eight years of a naive and inexperienced President. Let's not have another.

Exactly why I believe Clinton shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the White House. Sorry, but what 'experience' has Clinton had that doesn't involve riding her husband's coat-tails? One and one-third terms in the Senate?

Anonymous said...

is "monkey spunk" a banned phrase Iain? Perhaps it's your own dirty mind. "Monkey glands" was less alliterative and I am really not sure how one would inject them?

Anonymous said...

As has been pointed out, it is a well thought out strategy to make this cold and shallow women look more 'human'.

Honestly, she sits there nodding along with approval as some plant does nothing but praise her for 5 minutes before introducing her.

The ONLY sympathy I have with her, is that she is married to the disgrace that is BJ Clinton. On second thought, any self respecting women would have ditched that disgrace many many years, and affairs ago.

She, like him is power hungry. This campaign has really demonstrated the danger and dirty tricks of the Clinton machine. I don't like Obama, but he's stood up well to it.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Great then, if Ms Clinton becomes President and then gets all weepy and menopausal when she has to deal with WWIII.

The Woman is terrible. It makes you realise what a giant Thatcher was.