What I Learned Watching All of Hillary’s 2008 Debates

[Uncle Joe]

First up, there’s her front-runner strategy. Then as now, Clinton commenced debate season as the leading candidate. It’s always better to be the front-runner, naturally, but it comes with a price. As front-runner, you’re the preferred target of the other candidates’ barbs and locked into the debate moderators’ crosshairs. But handle the pressure and you can make yourself look like the favored incumbent and your opponents the overeager upstarts.

Clinton attempted this strategy in the 2008 debates, but it didn’t really work. Her opponents tainted her incumbency by repeatedly citing her original support of the Iraq War, and the war become a nasty bit of beach tar she never succeeded in scraping off her candidacy. Obama dinged her for waffling on NAFTA, torture, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, Iraq, and generally accused her in the Oct. 30, 2007, debate of “changing positions whenever it’s [politically] convenient.”

(snip)

Clinton hyped her résumé in 2008 because she needed to prove that she was equally qualified for the job as either Edwards or Obama. This time out, having served as secretary of state for four years, she’ll feel the need to prove that her main opponent, Sanders, isn’t qualified enough. Clinton visited 112 countries while at State, something she’ll likely mention in her debates as proof that she towers over the competition. For somebody as devoted to ticket-punching as Clinton, she didn’t know what to say last month when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked her to name her No. 1 accomplishment as secretary of state. In a rambling non-answer, Clinton referred Blitzer to highlights from her book Hard Choices, and then lumped Blitzer’s question in with other “silly season” questions asked by the press.

(snip)

In 2008, Clinton attempted to brush off questions she didn’t like by calling them “hypothetical.” “Wolf, I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” she said in the June 3, 2007, debate. “Tim, I thought that’s one of those hypotheticals that … that is better not addressed at this time,” she said in the September 26, 2007, debate. “You know, Tim, you ask a lot of hypotheticals,” she said in the February 26, 2007, debate. Almost any question about the future can be categorized as hypothetical. And because candidates are vying for a term of office in the future, it seems fair to ask them how they would conduct themselves. The debate moderators and candidates might want to police Clinton should she attempt this verbal chicanery again. (If only Jeremy Paxman were moderating the debates!)

Although Clinton’s most recent job experience is as a diplomat, she still knows how to swing the political stick and should be expected to use it on anybody who gets in her way. In the February. 26, 2008, and April 16, 2008, debates, she pressed Obama to “reject” the support of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. “There’s a difference between denouncing and rejecting,” she pettifogged, gluing the two African-Americans together, as she wore him down to say that he both rejected and denounced Farrakhan. Two months later, Clinton used the debates to reinforce the Obama-Farrakhan association by bringing his name up again, tossing in Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers references for bonus points. “It is clear that, as leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to,” Clinton said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/hillary-clinton-debate-2008-213238#ixzz3oTYkHIPB

[phantom power]

1. "the war become a nasty bit of beach tar she never succeeded in scraping off her candidacy"

Also, still a true thing.

[daleanime]

2. Actually, I think she won't have to worry about drawing too much fire tonight....

I expect Bernie to get the lion's share of that.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Actually, that's my feeling as well, however

If Hillary feels threatened, I wouldn't be surprised if she brings up Cornell West.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. She's got PLENTY of surrogates --

to do her dirty work, many who now work as media advisers at the various news channels. I just saw CNN employees and Clinton supporters Hillary Rosen and Paul Begalia this morning talking about the debates. Only a fool would think for a second that those two will be anything but in the bag for her specifically and that their commentary will be skewed that way. Same for Donna Brazille, Barney Frank, Howard Dean, and the other Party Democrats who we are seeing in the media.

[Uncle Joe]

9. I agree, the key point would be paying attention to whether the questions actually covered

substantive issues or not.

I don't have high expectations from the corporate media.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Of course Hillary may not have to

she may just leave it up to whoever is running for Vice-President.

[daleanime]

10. Exactly.....

[snooper2]

11. depends if we get entitled Hillary or subdued Hillary or angry Hillary

May morph halfway into debate-


Either way! GO MARTIN TEAR IT UP!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Wow, that article reminded me --

of some of the things I hated most about her campaign. Her bullshit about Farrakhan, Wright, and Ayers stunk to high heaven.

As for this:

"It is clear that, as leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to,” Clinton said."

That's kind of rich coming from someone who now hangs out with Henry Kissinger.

[Doctor_J]

8. Henry Kissinger, Ben Bernanke, the Bush family

She has a lot of nerve.

[magical thyme]

12. don't forget her other particular favorite

[Enthusiast]

19. Hi, magical thyme.

I love the cute emoticons in your sig line.

But!

The second one from the left has disappeared for me and the first one has no movement. Are they alright from your perspective? I have meaning to say something but I didn't want to come off as a fuss budget.

[magical thyme]

20. they're all working fine for me...

they come and go. some days one or another doesn't want to work for a while, then returns. whoh knows?

[Enthusiast]

21. Thanks. I probably have some sort of glitch. No surprise there.

[jfern]

14. And yet people whine that Bernie criticized Obama

[hifiguy]

6. Her arrogant sense of entitlement to the office

that she has always evidenced turns my stomach. This is the second time she has run for an office she has never held as if she were the incumbent. It reminds me of no one so much as Richard M. Nixon, and that is as damning an indictment as there is in American politics. Also like Nixon, she has no compunction about steamrolling anyone she perceives to be an impediment to her overweening ambition, and by any means available.

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. Well, since the ME is still a bloody war zone and a huge quagmire

Hillary still has a nasty bit of beach tar on her campaign. She voted for that war knowing the warmongers, Cheney and his puppet, were lying. If millions of citizens here and around the world knew they were lying, you can be damn sure Hillary knew and chose to vote for it anyway for fear of the backlash.

Bernie knew Cheney and his idiot were lying and did the right thing and voted against the IWR - backlash be damned! That's the kind of President I want. Someone who makes good decisions for the right reasons.

[Maineman]

15. She makes me think of Margaret Thatcher. If Hillary becomes president, I predict she will make

strong, serious use of the military someplace within 3 months.

[hifiguy]

18. Six months at the most

before she gets into -probably starts - a boots-on-the-ground shooting war in the ME.

Her owners will accept nothing less. Far too many $$$$$ to be made.

[FlatBaroque]

16. unelectable nt

[AtomicKitten]

17. "Clinton’s image as an opportunistic shape-shifter has only expanded since 2008."

Dead-on (and hilariously) accurate.

Great article. Thanks for posting it.