Ann Richards and the 2008 primary

[babylonsister]

http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5173

Ann Richards and the 2008 primary
by: Glenn Smith
Wed Feb 27, 2008 at 11:33 AM CST


A mini-tempest is brewing about a video produced for Hillary Clinton asserting that the late Ann Richards would be campaigning for Clinton were she alive today.

I worked for Ann. I support Barack Obama. But I will not presume to intrude upon her children's lives and their disagreements about where their mother would have been in this race. And I would ask that those of us who still honor Ann simply stay out of it. In other words, I'm writing this hoping we don't translate our highly emotional opinions in this primary into an intrusion into Ann's family.

I don't know who she would be supporting. I do know Ann would be fiercely protecting her children (as politically experienced, tough and smart as they all are) at all costs. I want to honor that. Let's leave the issue with them.

Here's what the AP reports, in part:

The two sons of Ann Richards, the late former Texas governor, are objecting to an Internet video published by Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign that suggests their mother would have supported Clinton.

Clinton's campaign had permission from Richards' youngest daughter, Ellen, who said in a statement provided by the campaign that her mother was an "ardent feminist" who would be thrilled by her friend Hillary Clinton's candidacy.

"I believe that if my mom were alive today that she would be stumping across Texas and around the country supporting Hillary for president," her statement said.

Richards was governor from 1991-1995. She died in September 2006 at age 73. The two-minute video on Clinton's campaign Web site comes a week before the Texas primary and targets women voters in the state.

"So many women around Texas and America are saying, `Wish Ann was here, for us and for Hillary,'" a female voiceover says on the video.

"Today Ann would be asking all of us to make a statement. She would be traveling to every small town and big city in Texas, urging us all to take a stand, be counted, to make a difference, to make history," it says while a picture of Richards and Clinton appears on the screen. "This one's for Texas. This one's for our country. This one's for Ann."

But sons Dan and Clark Richards, partners at an Austin law firm, say nobody can know who the outspoken and opinionated former governor would have supported in the race between Clinton and Barack Obama.

"As her children, we never presumed to know her mind when alive and we are not prepared to make a claim as to who she would endorse or what she would do if she were still with us," they wrote in an e-mail last week. "We are not granting permission for her name to be used in advertisements on behalf of either candidate."

Let's allow the family to speak their minds, to differ politically, without presuming that whatever political beliefs we hold should be imposed upon them in this matter.

more...

http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5173

[jgraz]

1. I wish she was running this year

The primaries WOULD HAVE been over by Feb 5.

[babylonsister]

2. Yes, she was quite a lady. nt

[tyne]

3. Ann would have been incensed

that Hillary was playing the victim strategy, imo.

[LisaM]

4. Wait...Clinton quoted Richards' daughter as saying she believes Ann would have been for Hillary

And people object to that?

Of course, no one seemed to have this same problem when Caroline Kennedy spoke on behalf of her father's legacy (not to mention that Ann Richards actually knew Hillary).

This is completely fair use. It's Ellen Richards' quote. I didn't LIKE Caroline Kenneday and Ted Kennedy using JFK's legacy to support Obama, but I fully supported their right to do so.

[babylonsister]

5. Richards' sons objected to it. nt

[LisaM]

6. So? Let them make their own ad then.

If Ann Richards' daughter thinks Richards would have supported Hillary, and is willing to go on record with it, then so what?

It's my opinion that both Ann Richards and Molly Ivins would have been cheered by a viable woman candidate, even if in Ivins' case, she was to the left of Hillary (I'd put Ann Richards a little to the right). There are Kennedys making endorsements on both sides.

[babylonsister]

7. Molly had a different take; maybe Gov. Richards did, too:

living relatives have a right to voice their displeasure. Caroline got no argument from any of her relatives AFAIK.

I will not support Hillary Clinton for president
January 20, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, "Look, the emperor isn't wearing any clothes." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

more...

http://freepress.org/columns/display/1/2006/1304

[MoJoWorkin]

8. I think the difference is Caroline said SHE was supporting Obama

not that her father would be saying he did. There is a difference. One is putting words in a dead person's mouth, the other is a comparison.
If Ann's daughter wants to say Hillary and her mother were alike, and that she (daughter)supports Hillary, I have no problem with that.
It is the statement, "Ann would be asking us to..." that I don't much care for, especially in light of the fact that Ann's other two children object.

[LisaM]

9. Well, in the first place, Ann Richards actually knew Hillary Clinton

and JFK obviously did not know Barack Obama. So to say "my father would have supported Obama" is ridiculous on its face, because it couldn't have happened.

But I think this is a case of splitting hairs. Teddy and Caroline Kennedy have repeated invoked the spirit of JFK in their endorsements. Was I happy they did it? No, because I supported Edwards, and now I support Hillary. Do I feel they have the right to go on the stump doing it? Yes, of course. And I think Ann Richards' daughter can say anything she wants, too. I kind of feel as if it's sour grapes because you don't get EVERY endorsement. Geesh.

[MoJoWorkin]

10. DId you read what I said? I think Ann's daughter has every right to

endorse Hillary and to say she thinks she and Hillary were alike and that they were friends. Just don't say this is what Ann would have said.
Especially since it is bothering the other children. I think it may be what they object to---just a guess.

[LisaM]

11. I did read what you said, but I think Caroline and Teddy

certainly try to connect the dots. I just don't see much difference in what they've done.