"Coming to Terms with Hillary" -Tom Watson...

[SaveElmer]

Nice piece of work...

There were two ancient, wizened lions of television punditry slapping down their over-caffeinated bobblehead junior on MSNBC the other evening. Pat Buchanan and Bill Press, whose talking head bonafides stretch to the frontiers of the daguerreotype 1980s when they actually rolled magnetic tape, faced off with thick-haired and slab-skulled Tucker Carlson over the political future of an American politician who has rankled the cable talkies almost as long as there have been cable talkies.

Tucker's quarry was Hillary Clinton, Senator from New York and rising tide candidate for the Presidency.

And Tucker was in full prepster super-freak, bouncing wildly in his chair (the lavs actually picked up the thump-thump of his bony young Republican knees against the particle-board desk) apparently in moderate cardiac arrest over the notion that Senator Clinton is actually on to something with her moderately-stated suggestion that fairness in economics was a real talking point that can help her run. Hilariously, Carlson actually thought he had it all tee'd up against Clinton with this intro:

CARLSON: Now back to Hillary, Bill, she explained in broad strokes her economic policy, which sounds, frankly, a little bit Soviet. Here he is, in the most general way, what she believes about economics. Here is Hillary Clinton.

VIDEO - SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: "It‘s time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few, time to reject the idea of an on your own society, and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity. I prefer a we are all in it together society.

"Now, there‘s no greater force for economic growth than free markets, but markets work best with rules that promote our values."

CARLSON: Huh, so the idea is if you don‘t have enough gum for the entire class, you don‘t get to chew it. What does that mean, we‘re an all together society and do you believe that capitalism works best when it‘s managed?

A little bit Soviet - right, fellas? Share the chewing gum - get what I'm saying, boys? Actually, no Tucker. They didn't. Press, the liberal, didn't rise to the bait. And Buchanan, the conservative, swatted it away with obvious contempt.

BUCHANAN: Let me dissent from you. I think she is really touching on a theme here. And the theme is a lot of Americans think it‘s utter total individualism, let me get mine and get all I can. And she is talking about being more of a community, more of a country, working together. I think that‘s going to touch an awful lot of people.

An awful lot of feel, you know, you have your CEOs making 500 times what their workers are making, that we all ought to be in this together. And I think that‘s touching on a communitarian theme that is very strong with an awful lot of Americans.

Catch that? That was a nasty little episode in the death throes of the Hillary Clinton as commie radical hippie leftist caricature that has plagued her public persona since 1992. It's a persona that's been dead in New York for quite some time, but the Beltway yackers are a dim crowd in general - they never met a leading edge that they didn't prefer to be miles away from; witness Maureen Dowd's embarrassing and shrill Mommy-Daddy Party manifesto.

What's also becoming a slim little klatch that'd have trouble filling out a decent-sized coffeehouse is the crowd on the left that insists on using the lame "electability" talking points against Clinton - the very points dreamed up by the Limbaugh loons, turned ever-so-slightly into an excuse to oppose her candidacy. You'll find this tiny group gathering daily over at Kos, where they actually use the term "Shrillary," the anti-feminist slur that first made its glorious appearance on FreeRepublic.

...

And it's a revelation that's coming slowly to lots of people: Hillary Clinton is a very talented, dogged politician who is running a (so far) picture-perfect campaign for President. Anyone who followed her ground game in New York knows what's coming in the next nine months - three or four yards, a cloud of dust, and a series of first downs.

http://tomwatson.typepad.com/tom_watson/2007/06/coming_to_terms.html

[patricia92243]

1. K&R

[papau]

2. A very nice summary of how well Hillary is doing and how she is doing it - things

change as they say in the old country - and by fall we may be seeing others in the polling lead - but Hillary is doing the hard work these days that is required to keep her lead.

[musiclawyer]

3. Sorry dude, it's not just at Kos, it's here......

and at Huffington, and at a lot of places that are frequented. Many dems don't like Hillary, not becuase she is without talent, but because she is bereft of leadership and authenticity. Google Hillary and each of those terms. The perception that she can't win a general election might be false, but it's based on the aformentioned, which is a fact.

[doggyboy]

6. IOW, a bunch of liberal websites

Let me guess - they're "the base"

[Colobo]

4. Hillary is my second choice now. Edwards went down a spot.

[MasonJar]

5. Hill is reasonably liberal. A lot of DUers do not realize this because

the Clinton-haters have been drumming the subtle and not-so-subtle anti-Clinton premise for too many years now. So what happens sometimes is that unbeknownst to us this venom becomes subconsciously integrated into our thinking. (Not in a radical manner like the GOPers, but in more of a general malaise.) Well, that's my two-cents worth for what it is worth...I know a hapenny!

[MGKrebs]

7. Is "Hitlery" passe now?

I can't keep up.