Politico: Hillary Booed Again at Take Back America Conference

[flpoljunkie]

June 20, 2007

Another rough reception for Hillary

Hillary Clinton faced another chorus of boos this year at the Take Back America conference; they seemed aimed this time specifically at her line -- reflecting basically the mainstream of both parties -- that the current mess in Iraq is the fault of the Iraqis.

"The Iraqi government that has failed to make the tough decisions," Clinton said, to boos and, then, loud, forced applause from a room packed with young Clinton supporters, who had been given free tickets.

"I love coming here every year," she said ruefully.

Despite the packed ballroom, Clinton's speech was met by only occasional applause, and long passages of silence. It was one of what Mike Tomasky calls her "Laundry Lady" performances, consisting largely of a laundry list of issues, most of them domestic, ranging from stem cells to voting rights to education to corporate welfare to executive compsensation -- and that's just a start.

The contemporaneous forum on Take Back America's website -- and it's worth keeping in mind that this is hardly Hillary's crowd -- was particularly hard on her.

"HIllary doesn't really understand how nutty the American public has been made by this administration," wrote a commenter under the name of Jane Kleba. "This is not rousing... this is like a wet noodle."

posted by Ben Smith 08:57 AM