Letters to the Editor
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You Nailed It Rebecca
Matthews was on today claiming citizens lied and that it is all latent racism. It's bullshit.
Here's what I wrote on the thing in my own column ....
January 9, 2008
Trail of Tears
The New Hampshire primary has come and gone and left many wondering what happened. Poll data has not been this far off the mark in recent memory. Chris Matthews has decided the issue happens to be racism. The respondents lied. It’s a little out there, but I am sure the tin foil helmet crowd will concoct some conspiracy theory that will make that opinion seem mainstream.
I’m attributing it to her crying jag and to some of the snotty remarks directed her way shortly thereafter. John Edwards had one of the dumbest, most sexist statements of the bunch when he couldn’t resist the easy cheap shot by suggesting the public wants a strong commander-in-chief. If all the boys ganged up on a girl in grade school and teased her until she cried, the others would rally round her and tell the boys to knock it off even if, deep down, they might have agreed with us.
All flippancy aside, this will go down as defining a moment as Ronald Reagan angrily grabbing the microphone in Nashua, New Hampshire and angrily snarling, “I paid for this microphone, Mr. Green [sic].” While then frontrunner George HW Bush sat next to him looking like a deer staring at a Peterbilt.
I was in the audience at that time as a low level staffer on that Bush campaign and later had a small hand in it being dispatched to the Concord, New Hampshire headquarters to field press calls and play dumb as to the top staff whereabouts while they tried to figure out how to spin it.
I find the parallels eerie. Bush beat Reagan in Iowa, causing the press to question whether or not Reagan was toast. Reagan, reportedly at Nancy’s urging, reorganized his top staff. And then came the debate, the angry snarl, and Reagan was back in business.
Why?
That brief moment of spontaneity put to rest a big reservation the electorate had with Reagan at that time. He was viewed as an affable dunce who was content to simply read off the cue cards written up for him by his handlers. People questioned whether he was that engaged or really cared about what was going on. By seizing the microphone, Reagan proved he was his own man and would not be pushed around. I distinctly remember the look on his face. It was a look not often seen on his face, but when it was there, watch out. I distinctly remember seeing that same look as he got into a limousine to storm away from the arms talks in Reykjavik.
Hillary had a different issue nagging with the electorate. Without offering commentary as to the accuracy of the claims, people have criticized her for being shrill and nasty. She’s viewed as power hungry feeling as though she is entitled to the presidency and allegedly being very annoyed at the upstart Obama for not “waiting his turn.”
By choking up she managed to show the public that she is, indeed, human. She showed the public that she actually does care about the American people and that buried beneath that chilly exterior is actually an ounce of compassion.
Reagan set the stage for his moment by setting Bush up by inviting the other candidates in the field to arrive on the stage for what was supposed to be a two man debate. Speculation has been running rampant as to whether or not Hillary fought back the tears or whether she had learned to cry on cue like her lip biting husband. It doesn’t matter. It worked.
The Nashua debate happened on the Saturday before the Tuesday primary, so there was sufficient time for polling information to catch wind of the shift in the public’s sentiment. Hillary got a case of the sniffles less than 24 hours before the polls closed such that it was not going to be picked up by the polling data. Exit polls show Hillary did far better with women in New Hampshire than in Iowa.
Whether by accident or by design, the old girl truly pulled off a miracle. She showed the nation that she was, indeed, human, and that she did care about solving problems. She wasn’t an establishment obstructionist, she was in there fighting in the trenches and working for change and getting something done while Obama just talks a good game.
So Hillaryites must be dancing in the streets. Others have a different outlook seeing this as a missed opportunity to put a wooden stake through her heart and close the chapter on Bush/Clinton mud tossing once and for all.
Regardless of how you view it, Hillary’s Trail of Tears was four star political theatre that snuck up on us like an indie film not backed by a major movie production company. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, the surprise on the mainstream media’s face is as delicious as the event itself.
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Yesterday on MSNBC
Chris Matthews told Joe and Mika (on Morning Joe) that should Hillary lose the N.H. primary " we will see a major repackaging of Senator Clinton" Heads would roll and a whole new campaign staff would be hired.Today on the same show he could barely keep the spittle off his lower lip as he explained that the voters basically lied to the pollsters. His words were "garbage in.. garbage out" That's why they were so wrong regarding her.It's the voters fault!
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This article is very unfair to Keith Olbermann...
There was more than enough material for an article on pathological-media Clinton-bashing without manufacturing false material...Olbermann has been a professional throughout...
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Does anyone care about resumes?
Here's a little reminder: the 2000 and 2004 elections left us with a complete disaster when the American population elected the "candidate you'd most like to have a beer with." Another 4 years pass and once again we're talking about the person, not the record. Through all the bru-ha-ha about Clinton and Obama, what everyone's asking is whether we're going with the steely, determined, intelligent (calculating?) woman or the inspirational, exciting, (inexperienced?) black man.
Please please please - let's remember that this is the person who will steer our country forward, away from the disaster that was the Bush administration and towards a new future that holds who-knows-what. That person has to be ready to hit the ground running, know how to enact change (not just talk about it), and, yes, cross the aisle to get things done. Personally, I'm going to vote for the one I think will do a good job.
I'll have a beer with Obama; I'll vote for Hillary.