Clinton Steals One Show, , While Obama Endures Another

rodeodance

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon May-05-08 02:39 PM
Original message

Clinton Steals One Show, , While Obama Endures Another

Edited on Mon May-05-08 03:38 PM by rodeodance

Clinton Steals One Show, While Obama Endures Another

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/us/politics/05watch.html

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: May 5, 2008

Senator Barack Obama sat hunched on Sunday across the desk from Tim Russert on �Meet The Press� on NBC and wearily endured question after question about his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stood up from her armchair on Sunday to tower over George Stephanopoulos on �This Week� on ABC and merrily took on all critics, even the king of the Clinton-bashers, the talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.

�He�s always had a crush on me,� Mrs. Clinton said with a sly smile.

Talk shows, even the more serious news programs, are never really about talk; they are about image and demeanor. Together, �Meet the Press� and its rival �This Week with George Stephanopoulos� provided an arresting tableau of the reversal of fortunes in the Democratic race. Mrs. Clinton was forceful, confident and at times even frisky as she easily deflected questions from Mr. Stephanopoulos and members of a town-hall-style meeting in Indianapolis.

Mr. Obama, usually the one to see the humor in politics, instead looked grave and dispirited.

The anchors, on the other hand, did not reverse roles: as usual, Mr. Russert came out ahead in that Sunday talk-show contest. Mrs. Clinton gave ABC a more vivid and dynamic show, but it came at Mr. Stephanopoulos�s expense. Mrs. Clinton seemed to relish the opportunity to undercut him, a former adviser to her husband, with needling jokes and alpha-candidate body blocks.

When Mr. Stephanopoulos asked her about an ABC survey suggesting that 6 of 10 people thought she was dishonest, she was on her feet and he was still seated, and she dismissed the notion while staring down the ABC anchor like a school principal quelling an impertinent eighth grader.

��
Of course, Mrs. Clinton had the edge right from the start: the first question was about her gas tax holiday, a proposal that her Democratic rival rejects as a gimmick. Mr. Stephanopoulos challenged Mrs. Clinton to name one serious economist in favor of the measure.

�We�ve got to get out of this mindset where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans,� Mrs. Clinton retorted crisply. Mrs. Clinton did not even flinch when a woman in the audience, an Obama supporter who said she made less than $25,000 a year, argued she, too, thought Mrs. Clinton was �pandering� for short-term political gain.
��

Mrs. Clinton ignored the sarcasm and rose eagerly to her feet to reply, a power move that put the ABC control room in a quandary: by standing, Mrs. Clinton cut the seated Mr. Stephanopoulos out of the shot. One camera pulled back to try to get the anchor back in the frame, but it was so far away that viewers could barely make out the figures on stage. The camera pulled in on Mrs. Clinton, then moved around to an angle that showed the twosome together, though from behind. Eventually, Mr. Stephanopoulos gave up and stood up next to her, his head several inches below Mrs. Clinton�s.

Mrs. Clinton kept at it. When Mr. Stephanopoulos tried to challenge her on trade policy, she challenged him. �Now, you remember this, because George did work in that �92 campaign, and George and I actually were against Nafta,� she said sweetly, addressing the audience. �I�m talking about him in his previous life, before he was an objective journalist and didn�t have opinions about such matters.�

When he tried to flummox her by asking whether the campaign would ever release the names of donors who had given money to her husband�s foundation, Mrs. Clinton shut him down with a one word answer: �No.�

Television interviews provide snapshots, not full portraits, but that does not make them any less telling. Mr. Obama revealed that he was not impervious to pressure, while Mrs. Clinton once again proved that it takes more than a village to make her sweat.
��.

The reviews are in:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0508/Hillary_vs_Stephanopolous.html

Hillary has done her best to keep the moderator on his heels in this ABC broadcast, standing from her armchair early, and not sitting down; Stephanopoulos, initially sitting awkwardly, finally stands up beside her. They're about the same height.

��..

Bill Clinton's Small-Town Success
Self-Described 'Rural Hit Man' Powers Support for Wife's Campaign
By RICK KLEIN and SARAH AMOS

May 5, 2008 �
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4789473
��
But after giving another classic 40-minute stemwinder at the town's historic train station, talking up his wife Hillary's candidacy with the verve and humor of a once-in-a-generation political performer, the former president lingered for a moment.
��

"Here's what I want you to remember: In little towns like this, all over America there are countless people like her. I just want you to think about that," he added. "If you had to hire somebody to make the best possible future for her, who would you hire? You think about that girl."

The crowd of nearly 1,000 -- many dressed in their Sunday best to see the only president of the United States they'd ever seen in person -- loved every moment of it.

Thirteen-year-old McLain Rose got another round of applause. And Clinton dove into the crowd for 30 more minutes of handshakes and photographs, before hitting the road for the next town on his checklist.

��
But it's this role -- what Clinton has alternately described as the "designated rural hit man" and "ambassador & to small-town America" -- that showcases the former president at his most effective.

Away from the major media markets -- and far from the circus atmosphere that envelops a modern presidential campaign -- Clinton is visiting small towns that seldom see national political candidates, much less presidents. With his unique, energetic style, he's recalling fond memories of his presidency, with the goal of ginning up votes for his wife.

"All the people that aren't for Hillary, who think that, you know, we're a little too connected to folks like you, they have made merciless, unmerciful fun of me about this -- 'Bill Clinton's out there in the country, exiled to the country,'" Clinton said Sunday in Lenoir, N.C. "I grew up in the country. I know where I am, and I wanna be right here."

He's using more than words to make that clear: In typical Clinton fashion, his days typically start around dawn and stretch past 11 p.m. He crams events -- and, often, local meals -- into his days; today, for instance, his public schedule includes nine campaign events in North Carolina, where voters go to the polls Tuesday.

According to tallies maintained by the Clinton campaign, Clinton has become the first U.S. president ever to visit 20 different counties in North Carolina and Indiana alone. That doesn't count places like, Lebanon, Ind., which hadn't seen a president since Abraham Lincoln; in Sanford, N.C., a local official joked of the town's "loooooong dry spell" -- going back to Harry Truman -- between presidential visits.

��..
"I am a big fan of his and he did a lot of good things to help the country, so I personally think that he has helped," said Emily Markey of Winston-Salem, who came to see Clinton speak this weekend. "It is important to go to small towns and make people feel like we are important too."

"He seems to be doing what he does best, which is going out and meeting people," said Marcia McCall, who also saw Clinton speak in Winston-Salem on Sunday. "I think that is the perfect role for him."
��..
"The smaller the media market he is in, the bigger the deal he is," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist who is supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House.

"For her campaign, the balance has always been using him in a way that gets them positive local coverage and grass-roots support, versus getting him in the national media, where you don't want him to overshadow her," Elmendorf said.

Clinton had a 70 percent favorable rating among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, released last month.

The rural outreach has been a critical part of building the senator's voting coalition. White, working-class voters have supported her in most of the big states to hold primaries this year; Obama's failure to win those voters over stands as perhaps her most compelling argument to the superdelegates she'll need to capture the nomination.

As Clinton himself delights in pointing out, his wife racked up huge margins in rural counties in states including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas; exit polls suggest that he carried the rural and small-town vote by nearly 2-1 in each of those states.

��.
When one man in the audience shouted that he, too, was from Arkansas, the locals started interjecting their observations even as Clinton spoke. He spent 45 minutes after the speech was through making sure that he shook every outstretched hand.
��..
One favorite rhetorical flourish involves mocking Washington pundits. "Hillary has been buried by the pundits more times than a zombie," he said last week in Elkin, N.C.
��.

"I love coming to places that don't normally see presidents, don't normally see presidential campaigns," he said at a recent stop in Boonville, Ind. "The backbone and the heartbeat of America -- places like Boonville. In my home state of Arkansas there's a Booneville, but it's not nearly as big as this. This is a downright metropolis compared to Booneville, Ark. But I'm honored to be here."

��

?x=400&y=266&sig=t0hdDkoH8zjSS.3X8ce85Q--

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080505/pl_nm/usa_politics_dc_15;_ylt=Asq53rQCFLhMvOwuJDAvEDrmWMcF

GREENVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) ��

Clinton renewed her criticism of Obama for opposing her proposal to lift the federal gasoline tax for the summer, which Obama and many economists have rejected as political pandering. Clinton has used the issue to emphasize her support for workers struggling with record gas prices in a faltering economy.

"Senator Obama doesn't want to do anything," Clinton, a New York senator, told a rally at a community college in Greenville, North Carolina. "You don't hire a president to make speeches. You hire a president to solve problems."

?x=207&y=345&sig=97gx7UC4mHw36yx_Vx2CCQ--

Clinton Steals One Show, , While Obama Endures Another

Illuminating, inspiring: Clinton leadership has stood the test