Clinton Finds Way to Play Along With Drudge

[Robbien]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 — As Senator Barack Obama prepared to give a major speech on Iraq one morning a few weeks ago, a flashing red-siren alert went up on the Drudge Report Web site. It read, “Queen of the Quarter: Hillary Crushes Obama in Surprise Fund-Raising Surge,” and, “$27 Million, Sources Tell Drudge Report.”

Within minutes, the Drudge site had injected Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fund-raising success into the day’s political news on the Internet and cable television. It did not halt coverage of Mr. Obama’s speech or his criticism of her vote to authorize the war in 2002, but along the front lines of the campaign — the hourly, intensely fought effort to capture the news cycle or deny ownership of it to the other side — it was a telling assault.

Mrs. Clinton’s aides declined to discuss how the Drudge Report got access to her latest fund-raising figures nearly 20 minutes before the official announcement went to supporters.

. . .

But, typical of a campaign with a reputation for exploiting every advantage and trying to neutralize every disadvantage, Mrs. Clinton’s communications team, led by Howard Wolfson, is not leaving Mr. Drudge to the Republicans. Five current and former Democratic officials said Mrs. Clinton has on her side the closest thing her party has ever had to Mr. Rhoades in Tracy Sefl, a former Democratic National Committee official, who has established a friendly working relationship with Mr. Drudge — and through whom Mrs. Clinton’s campaign often worked quietly to open a line of communication.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/us/politics/22drudge.html?ref=us

---

Telling right wingers insider information secretly way before anyone else is told while leaving lefties wandering around aimlessly trying to pick up the news from MSM. Harbinger for the future?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Drudge?

:puke:

Who's next for Hillary? Rush?

[luckyleftyme2]

2. can you imagine rush when hillary gets elected

he will have to watch his b.s. half truths and lies with her. the women of america will de-man him!

ha ha:after thought= but I didn't inhale
come back: honest judge I never swallowed those pills;I just put them on my tongue!

[madrchsod]

10. he`ll be laughing all the way to the bank

it`s eight more years of gold for him.....well any democrat will be gold for him.

[FREEWILL56]

13. Hillary?

Gee, aren't we rushing to conclusions here as we still have a pesky little thing like a primary vote to go through or don't we have a say in it anymore? I wish people would quit ramming hillary down our throats as we do have better democratic choices out there, thank you.
edit to add:
I view that as dirty tactics on the part of hillary and she continues to reafirm that I don't see her as a good candidate for our party as she speaks not for the people, but of special interests.

[NoodleyAppendage]

3. Murdock holds FUND RAISER for Hillary. Murdock is Drudge's "Master," so put 2 and 2 together.

It's clear that Murdock and Hillary have an agreement to keep her on top and he will do what it takes to keep the corporate fix going.

J

[MADem]

11. That 'fund raiser' was a lousy breakfast. And wasn't it for her Senate campaign?

He does the same thing for many New York politicians--see, he's a New Yorker and all politics is local. He isn't fussy about party, either.

It's not like he did the soup and fish dinner jacket and the fancy tablecloths in the jazzy venue. It was bagels and muffins.

[ClintonTyree]

14. Don't confuse the Hillary haters with facts.

They have their minds made up that she's evil incarnate and don't let little things like facts get in the way of their Hillary-hate.

She's not my first choice for the Democratic nomination either, but the level of Hillary-hate is, in my opinion, way over the top. She's still head an shoulders above any of the Republican neanderthals with their hats in the ring.

[MADem]

16. Well, I am still undecided, but I find the childishness about her really off-putting.

Any time I see an especially vicious remark it makes me wonder about the poster, first, and it inclines me towards her.

I feel the same way when they go after anyone in a nitpicky and clearly bullshit way.

It's always something stupid, like this business for Hillary, or the haircut for Edwards, or something else silly about Obama, or what have you, and they beat it to death. And when they do that, it makes me think they don't have any SUBSTANTIVE complaints, and they're just doing a bit of cheesy touting because they're partisans who aren't letting facts get in their way.

[NoodleyAppendage]

18. Semantics. When you lay w/ dogs don't whine about fleas.

Whatever you want to call it, I don't see Murdock holding functions for the other candidates. He was buying access and you know it. People paid attention and will not forget Clinton conspiring with the enemy.

[MADem]

19. Yeah, sure. Whatever. Get out the torches and pitchforks.

:eyes:

You haven't been paying ATTENTION. That's why you don't "see"--that wasn't a PRESIDENTIAL FUNDRAISER, capisce???

THAT's why he didn't hold fundraisers (Waaaaaah!!!! Waaaaaaaaah!!! :cry:) for "all the OTHER candidates." It was a SENATE fundraiser. Those other candidates weren't running for the Senate in NY, were they?

Murdoch is an American citizen and a NEW YORK resident. He often holds events for, and endorses, NY politicians he likes regardless of party (Koch, Spitzer, Cuomo, eg). And surprise, surprise, he sometimes supports liberal/left candidates and he's become a bit of an enviromentalist of late, consorting with the likes of Barbra Streisand and making his NEWS CORP carbon neutral.

Murdoch’s political maneuverings are closely monitored inside News Corp. Like an eighteenth-century French monarch, he is surrounded by courtiers, with numerous factions, both conservative and progressive, vying for his favor. The News Corp. conservatives include many senior figures at Fox News, the Post, and Murdoch’s British newspapers. They tend to downplay the significance of their boss’s flirtation with the Clintons, describing the Post’s sympathetic attitude to local Democrats, such as Hillary, as an inevitable reaction to the comatose state of the New York Republican Party under Governor George Pataki. In the recent Democratic primaries, the paper endorsed Eliot Spitzer for governor and Andrew Cuomo for state attorney general. Col Allan said, “Our coverage of the G.O.P. in New York shouldn’t be misunderstood as the paper twisting left in any way. We have been criticizing the New York G.O.P., and it is difficult to do that without criticizing the Governor. We’ve said he went to sleep at the wheel.”

Murdoch is scathing about Pataki. “I don’t know about George,” he said to me. “He was just lazy to start with. And then he started thinking about how to get reëlected. He was prepared to do a deal with his natural enemies, particularly the big state unions who overstaff many state functions.”

Still, some conservative News Corp. journalists think that Murdoch has gone mushy. “I don’t think Rupert is turning into a liberal—I just think he is becoming more of an establishmentarian as he gets older,” one News Corp. editor said to me. “He’s not the great rebel that he was in the eighties and nineties.”

The News Corp. progressives—they don’t like to be called liberals—are less visible in public, but they have greater access to Murdoch on a daily basis. They include his deputy Peter Chernin; the two co-chairs of Fox’s film division, Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos; and Gary Ginsberg, whom Murdoch refers to as his “ambassador to the Clinton Administration.” (Murdoch has told associates that it was Ginsberg who persuaded him to hold the fund-raiser for Hillary.)

See, it's all about MURDOCH. He's not a party loyalist. He wants what he wants, and he supports whosoever sees the world the way he (and more recently, his young wife) sees it.

And if he want to toss his money around, that's up to him. He does what he wants, and he has money to burn. I hope his wife keeps pushing him to the left, myself. It can't hurt.

You don't like the system, work to change it.

Here's some reading for you, from which the cite above was taken (read the whole thing): http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/16/061016fa_fact1?printable=true

[hedgehog]

20. And not a penny left over from her "Senate campaign"

has been carried over to her Presidential Campaign!

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. I think maybe it was for her presidental campaign

But it was BEFORE she declared I believe.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/09/politics/main1600694.shtml

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12762092/

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0509-09.htm

[mitchtv]

4. Sounds like a pretty deft manuver

That girl is playing for keeps.

[rodeodance]

9. Her campaign is actually using Drudge to their advantage. te he.

[Bitwit1234]

5. Same post different poster. Oh well an excuse to bash Hillary they all take turns.

[madrchsod]

6. are jim and matt dating?

there`s love in the air...

"enduring power of the Drudge Report,"

"The site is a potent combination of real scoops, gossip and innuendo aimed at Mr. Drudge’s targets of choice — some of it delivered with no apparent effort to determine its truth, as politicians of all stripes have discovered at times."

"Former Republican Party and Bush campaign officials said that in 2004 they considered Mr. Drudge’s site so central in their efforts to undermine Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign that they systemized their approach to him."

"At the same time, Democrats said they noticed an occasional Clinton-friendly tone from Mr. Drudge, whom New York magazine quoted as saying on his program: “I need Hillary Clinton. You don’t get it. I need to be part of her world. That’s my bank.”

i feel ill even typing this crap

[rodeodance]

7. see Dupe thread in Greatest:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3631213

[here_is_to_hope]

8. Im sure she showers afterwards...n/t

[Teaser]

12. Drudge is so late 90s.

He runs a "web site".

No one does "web sites" anymore. Wheres the web2.0 interactivity from the Clinton team?

Interactive media is where its at.

[OKNancy]

15. Smart move. This is how you win.

Haven't we read over and over here that Democrats need to be strong, be smart, and stop being lily-livered wimps? If Drudge can be "used", then use him.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

17. That's... actually really clever.

Using the Republicans' own well-oiled message machine against them.

[hedgehog]

21. Umm... right now she's using Drudge against fellow Democrats.

On edit - maybe Drudge is using her? We know the Republicans are dying for her to be the candidate. It saves them all the time and effort to research the other candidates to come up with new attack points.

[bigworld]

22. She's the best weapon the Republicans have

The Republicans are salivating at the thought of Hilary running and doing everything possible to help her. It's the best chance they have of assuring that their base comes out and votes the (R) lever next year.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

23. Six months ago I believed that.

Now I'm not so sure.

[rocktivity]

24. Of course they're helping her. The Repubs want Hillary to get the nomination

because they see her as being easiest to beat; and if she wins anyway, they see her as being the easiest to control. How the the info get out, anyway? Does she have a mole in her organization? Are the Rethugs listening to her phone calls? I just hope she isn't helping THEM help her.

:headbang:
rocknation

[cuke]

25. OBAMA PLAYS WITH DRUDGE ALSO

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3632812