"For 15 years, I have stood up against the
Right Wing machine, and I’ve come out stronger, so if you want a winner
who knows how to take them on, I’m your girl." Hillary Clinton
That statement by Mrs. Clinton a few months ago is what clinched it for me. Not only is it the truth of the matter, but also the reason Republicans hate her so much their teeth bleed, she has their number. I want cold and calculating when it comes to the reactionary nitwits who have run this country into the ground for a generation.
November 17, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Hillary Fries the Waffle
By GAIL COLLINS
It’s remotely possible that some of you missed the very important and very lengthy Democratic debate this week. Perhaps you started watching it but had to switch off during the section on trade relations when you discovered your children had grown up and wanted to say goodbye before they left for college.
We feel your pain. For your convenience, a Democratic debate cheat sheet:
MOST IMPORTANT MOMENT “My health care policy is bigger than your health care policy.”
Right out of the box, Wafflegate reared its ugly head. Prompted by moderator Wolf Blitzer, Barack Obama complained that Hillary Clinton refuses to give “straight answers to tough questions” and listed her now-infamous wishy-washy positions on Iran, immigration and Social Security.
What was Hillary going to say in response? Provide a new explanation for the Iran vote? A paean to the virtues of political nuance? No, she whipped around and told Obama that his health care plan “would leave 15 million Americans out. That’s about the population of Nevada, Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire.”
Didn’t see that one coming, did you?
Now, kudos to Hillary for finding a new way to remind us that nothing
makes any difference in this campaign unless it can be directly linked
to the states that vote first. And although her response was totally
unrelated to the issue at hand, it worked really well. Obama was put on
the defensive and instead of talking about Clinton’s aversion to
specificity, the two of them launched into a spirited and utterly
incomprehensible discussion of whose health care plan is better.
You see, it turned out that we didn’t really want Hillary to
unwaffle. We just wanted her to look tough! If she had said: “Yeah, and
your tie has funny stripes,” it might have worked out just as well.
THE ISSUES There is a good reason we don’t talk more about them.
The bottom line on that health care argument, which required
some outside reading to comprehend, is that the Obama plan does not
force people who aren’t covered by their employer or the government to
buy health insurance on their own. The Clinton plan does require that
they do so. This is an extremely important distinction, and Hillary
will let you know how it is actually going to be accomplished right
after the election.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS An amazing number of people seem to have had
recent conversations with a leader in Pakistan. “I have made it clear
to Musharraf personally, when he called me, and I’ve spoken personally
to Bhutto … " said Joe Biden. This triggered an avalanche of
name-dropping by candidates who said that they had recently met
with/talked with/sternly lectured somebody very, very important. Wolf
Blitzer shared the news that he had been chatting up Benazir Bhutto
“earlier this week.”
Clearly, some people in Pakistan have too much time on their
hands. Perhaps it was a hint about events to come that nobody said:
“When I was on the phone with a little-known and hot-tempered general
… ”
LESSONS LEARNED The waffle is stale.
Having taken down Obama, Clinton eviscerated John Edwards by
accusing him of “throwing mud,” a tactic that works particularly well
before a very noisy audience that is packed with your supporters.
Everything else was more or less anticlimactic, and you could draw
three possible conclusions from the entire evening:
A) Hillary proved that she is the one with the strongest positions and the best answers.
B) All Hillary proved was that she’s best at changing the
subject and stacking the audience with her supporters.
Barack/John/JoeChrisBillDennis had the best answers.
C) All these people believe pretty much the same thing, and
when it’s time to take on the Republicans, I would prefer the candidate
who knows how to change the subject and stack the deck.
AN AGENDA FOR THE FUTURE Shorter debates.
Just because an audience is composed exclusively of citizens so
responsible that they are engrossed in the presidential race a year
before the election, it doesn’t mean there’s no limit to the abuse
they’ll take. CNN’s event ran over two hours — more than twice as long
as the first Kennedy-Nixon debate, which occurred in 1960 when we had
much more robust attention spans.
True, the Lincoln-Douglas debates ran for three hours each.
But Abraham Lincoln did not have to wedge his points in between Dennis
Kucinich and Chris Dodd. Taking into consideration modern American
sensibilities, we should really try to keep these things down to 45
minutes, unless they include a car chase.