"It is time to get real -- get real about how we actually win this election," Hillary Clinton told an audience in New York this week. "it is time to get real about the challenges facing America."
"Get real," is her new mantra.
The unspoken subtext is "don't get your hopes up, don't let charisma carry you away, don't fall prey to that inspirational elixir Obama is selling."
"Get real." How lame is that as a rallying cry for a struggling campaign? It is such a downbeat, eat-your peas message. Which of her highly-paid advisers came up with that? It reinforces her negative image as an admonishing, lecturing, know-it-all.
Hillary Clinton may still pull off victories in Texas or Ohio on March 4. It is always a mistake to count out a Clinton in a campaign before the votes are in. And the reporters who are writing her political obituaries are getting dangerously ahead of the story.
But this much is already true about Clinton-for-president in '08: it was her bad luck to have to compete against a candidate whose story is even more remarkable than hers.
She stood out against the Bidens and Dodds and Richardsons -- all credible, conventional candidates -- as the first woman frontrunner in a presidential race. But Barak Obama stands out even more, as a symbol of the nation's deepest division and as individual who can help bridge that gap.
Obama is more than that, of course. He is enormously articulate and blessed with a dignified composure and inner calm that has carried him through 19 debates without a serious stumble. He also has a sense of humor, which helps.
He seems to have a near-perfect pitch when it comes to gauging the public mood. He senses, for example, that voters are sick and tired of the politics of character assassination. When Clinton attacks, striking out in last night's debate with a crack about "change you can Xerox," he shakes his head and turns the other cheek. Smart politics. She looks tough; he looks presidential.
It is Hillary's fate that when she finally gets her chance at the brass ring, a truly different candidate is there to take it -- and her specialness -- away from her.
Terence Smith is a former media correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. His website is terencefsmith.com.
Obama '08!
Her current rhetoric doesn't match her earlier rhetoric or her voting record... what's real there?
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/178377.php
Peace,
Kelly
We don't need another.
She was the spouse of a governor and a president. She was gifted a Senate seat in a state she never lived in - all the Democrats stayed out of the race to give it to her, and her real opponent Guiliani backed out leaving her with no real challenger.
The first time she's had to use her "experience" and demonstrate leadership is her current run for President. Through her husband's reputation and connections she started with a $50 million dollar lead, the support of the existing party machine in every state and the automatic blessing of 260 superdelegates - and she's behind a guy no one heard of 4 years ago.
Her campaign is an unabashed disaster by every measure.
She has no "experience" for this position.
It takes a village. Don't destroy the village in order to save it. Bow out now.
- 'The Hillary I Know'
- 'Experience vs. Change'
- 'Change You Can Count On'
- 'Ready on Day One'
- 'Action vs Rhetoric'
- 'The America I See'
- 'Solutions'
Those worked wonders - Real Home Runs!
~HK
Because today she's telling the _Texas Monthly_ that the Florida and Michigan delegates should be seated. Take that, Nice Hillary! The cameras are away, the lights are off, and now it's cutthroat time.
Meanwhile, Obama is ripping off lines from the book _The Audacity of Hope_-- lifting whole sentences, xeroxing paragraphs, from that Grammy-winning author.
It's almost as if Obama has had the same message for years and isn't original enough to have a heart-warming message one night on CNN and a gut-punching message the next day. When there aren't any cameras, and the lights are off him, he's revisiting these thoughts on reclaiming the American dream (Three Rivers Press, c2006).