I’d have to see videotape to know if this really happened as described but, regardless, it’s all part of a growing media narrative that is building.
Exhausted and facing the prospect of losing the second test of her primary campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton fought back tears as her voice broke at the close of a sedate event in a Portsmouth coffee shop.
She expressed the sheer difficulty of heading out to the trail each day — “It’s not easy,” she said — and suggested she faced “pretty difficult odds.”
And with audible frustration and disbelief, she drew the contrast between her experience and Sen. Barack Obama’s that suggests that her campaign’s current message — the question of who is ready — matches her profound sense that she alone is ready for the job.
“Some of us know what are going to do on day one, and some of us haven’t thought that through enough,” she said.
It actually makes me feel a little sorry for her. Meanwhile, Drudge is pushing the envelope.
Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?!
“She can’t take multiple double-digit losses in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada,” laments one top campaign insider to the DRUDGE REPORT. “If she gets too badly embarrassed, it will really harm her. She doesn’t want the Clinton brand to be damaged with back-to-back-to-back defeats.”
Meanwhile, Democrat hopeful John Edwards has confided to senior staff that he is staying in the race because Hillary “could soon be out.”
“Her money is going to dry up,” Edwards confided, a top source said Monday morning.
I doubt this story.
I doubt that last story. She has enough money to get her through Super Tuesday. She may have to focus her strategy only on the big states but I don’t see her dropping out before Super Tuesday is over.
I don’t know how much money she has, it depends on burn-rate..
She’s probably burned through a lot but she had 100 million in the bank. I think they are lowering expectations in SC partly because they aren’t going to spend much there or in Nevada. They’ll focus on Super Tuesday states and only on some of those.
It may be a gift to her that no one is supposed to spend money in Florida.
Don’t get me wrong – her decrease in fundraising will affect her. But it won’t drive her out of the race.
Being seen as a “quitter” would be far more harmful to the Clinton brand.
There’s a video of the incident at Huffpost.
Didn’t Ed Muskie shed tears in New Hampshire during the his run for president, that ended his campaign? Must be catching, the granite dust. Ask the guys who work the granite sheds (I’m in VT.)
How will she handle the demands of the presidency? Ready to go on day one.
Huffpost had a report HRC had taken over managing the campaign, hands on. No word of Mark Penn being penned.
Watch this other video: Bill Clinton given a larger role says he can’t make Hillary “Younger, Taller, Male”
surely this is meltdown.
Actually the video is pretty powerful. Because she comes across as completely sincere. Which is rare for Hillary. And the tearing up story seems overblown – it was just a moment of emotion, not sobbing or anything. But that’s to be expected. There is no crying in politics.
A lot of women start to tear up when they are frustrated and don’t feel they are allowed to lose their temper or act out their frustrations. That’s my take on Hillary. Losing her temper is always bad politically for Hillary. (A lot of men lose their tempers because they are emotional and don’t feel they are allowed to cry.) If by chance she were to win the election I doubt she’d cry much – she’d just lose her temper like a man would.
Did you notice that the Huffpo piece and the Politico piece are different? The question that she is responding to is reported as completely different in each piece. The video doesn’t help because it doesn’t show the question.
Completely agree.
And like the other ones, that video is now apparently gone as well. Bizarre.
If her campaign is having these pulled, it’s a mistake. It’s the most likeable I’ve ever seen her.
.
CBS News clip
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
just checked. video is at the link provided.
I heard the NPR clip on the 2:00 PM news – its true.
to the NBC talking bird, with video supplied. Hillary looked like she had been through the ringer, and about to burst into tears.
Yes, she was talking about the importance of this race to our children, and that it wasn’t a beauty contest.
But if this video gets traction all over Left- and Rightblogistans, it’s going to come out for her looking like Ed Muskie ‘crying’ in front of the Manchester (NH) Union Leader.
Regarding possible money woes, let me tell you this:
If Hillary ends up in third place again in NH and in SC, she’s done. Forget Super Tuesday.
(They’re rerunning ‘tearful Hill’ on MS-GOP again right now.)
The debate is now beyond the money woes
Greg Sargent, TPM
Some Hillary Advisers Worry About Staying In Past New Hampshire; Others Urge Her To Fight On
Can you say Panic! Imho, this is no way to run a campaign. Loose lips, sink ships.
Gives some truth to money woes, panicking donors. Going into NH – she should have at least $50 million in the bank. Campaigns normally go double dip the donors. I’ve read many are at their legal limit.
I’m no Hillary fan but do send her kind words, Chin Up…you didn’t succumb to Jennifer Flowers or Paula Jones.
Her campaign staff need to STFU.
.
(Washington Times) – That prompted Clinton to thank the out-of-staters for “spreading the word.” She started to say she was impressed by “the numbers of people who have come on their own from New York” and was interrupted by wild cheers. No way to be sure if the applause came from New Hampshire voters or New Yorkers. Clinton added that yesterday she saw a bunch of people from Arkansas.
UPDATE, 4:20 P.M. — When the event ended I talked to some of the out-of-staters, including Julia Fuchs, 65 and a recent graduate student. Fuchs also told me that one questioner who asked about student loans during the event was one of the volunteers from New York. She was about to board one of the buses back to New York after spending two days in the Granite State for Clinton.
“We are crazy about her. We came here to stump for her, they told me where to go. The campaign paid for everything.”
Clinton Rally at Nashua High School North
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
“Some of us know what are going to do on day one, and some of us haven’t thought that through enough,” she said.
Days 2 through 1460 are another story.
Politico/Drudge are such scumbags.
yup.
The video is up at CNN, and of course, this is overblown. But she’s clearly moved, and good for her. It’s nice to see this side of her. It rings true, and is probably closer to who she is than some of the stuff we see.
I just don’t agree that her plans to save America will do so. But she sure seems more sincere here than I’ve seen before.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Wow – it looks like they just took the video down! I wonder if her campaign complained? I just watched it, and it’s gone!
Wow – it’s really gone. Honestly, I thought it made her look more sympathetic, not worse. Oh, big mistake if her campaign had that pulled!!!
it pulls the heartstrings, but it also feeds into the narrative that she’s a loser. It’s more devastation to any sense of momentum or enthusiasm.
Well, she IS a loser – I mean that only in the actual sense of having lost Iowa.
I like Hillary as a person. I’ve been impressed with her in the debates. I think she’s too far to the center in terms of my own politics, but there was a time I actively disliked her, but I’ve grown to like her a bit.
I wanted to give her a hug, and tell her it would be okay. I wish sometimes we had a president that wasn’t afraid to care, to show some emotion.
But I see your point. I think, however, she was finished before this video. But now, her supporters will blame the media for killing her campaign.
Go quick:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4097786&page=1
(Click video link from that page)
ACK! And it’s gone there too! They’ve substituted her speech after Iowa where the link on her ‘teary’ segment is supposed to be.
Wild.
I just watched it at the Huffingtom Post link in an above comment. I noticed that it was ABC News footage. Maybe ABC had CNN remove it from their site.
I think if you’re going to get emotional and cry, it should be about something other than the sad state of your political ambitions. Would she have done this up 10 points in NH? No. Cry about something else.
Lead story at 4:00 on CNN with Wolf. “Serious emotion”….blah blah blah. She can’t win; she’s either an icy bitch or an emotional ball of estrogen.
Well if she would have just stayed in the kitchen in the first place we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
<SNARK!! SNARK!! 1000 TIMES SNARK!!!>
OK, you. Off to the timeout corner!
:<)
Awwww. Do I haaave to?
<kicks dirt, looks sullen>
And none of my freshly-baked cookies either.
well at the risk of being considered mean..can’t she just take it like a man.
I dare any man to carry our hormones and take this any better than she has.
Does that excuse the Bush administration’s foreign policy by account of collective micro-penis?
Well honestly Sen. Clinton has let it being known she’s just as tough as any man on defense. And now she’s tearing up in public and wants us to feel sorry for her if she loses..go figure.
I haven’t been able to watch the video and judge for myself, as I’m at work and such things are blocked. But I highly, highly doubt the veracity of your second statement.
Uh, I guess you haven’t seen the picture?
http://wonkette.com/politics/white-house/big-dick-cheney-oh-yes-very-big-025650.php
You know something? This a steaming bunch of tripe. To me, she’s frustrated because she feels she is ENTITLED to this.
She is NOT entitled to this nomination, and I don’t care how frustrated that makes her. It is not my fault that she and Clintonism is tired. It is not my fault she has been out-worked and out-classed.
How completely patronizing and insulting that she would say that Obama hasn’t “thought this through”? The only reason she THINKS she has a clue is because she was married to someone who, on his first day, didn’t have a clue.
So should we institute a right of first refusal rule for former first families before competing for presidential nominations?
No one who steps into office is truly “ready from day one.” That is complete garbage. You can be prepared, but never “ready” for this is on presidential training program for the job.
And if this somehow proves how “ready” she is to handle repubs, then she might as well step aside right now.
She can’t stop a juggernaut with insulting hearsay about whether Obama is really Muslim or may have been a drug dealer. Her handlers are from the Stone Age, or really, from 1992. That’s what the Clintonistas think, that they are replaying 1992.
If her numbers are really low tomorrow, the panic is going to turn into a rush out the doors for some of her dithering supporters, especially those with deep pockets.
And right now, my impatience with her is turning into contempt real fast. Did you read below about her saying that while Dr. King had a dream, it took LBJ to make it reality?
Oh my God…just how DARE she?
I want to see Andy Young explain this.
I never watch Faux, but this may cause an exception. If she did go there, she deserves all the invective pointed at her. The word that comes to mind is ‘vile’
She can’t stop a juggernaut with insulting hearsay about whether Obama is really Muslim or may have been a drug dealer. Her handlers are from the Stone Age, or really, from 1992. That’s what the Clintonistas think, that they are replaying 1992.
If her numbers are really low tomorrow, the panic is going to turn into a rush out the doors for some of her dithering supporters, especially those with deep pockets.
Blech. I’m going to break a promise to myself here and link to Politico:
Normally I would roll my eyes and move on, but there’s a reference to a video being released later today.
in. total. meltdown.
What an insult! King just talked, he didn’t march, got arrested, fire bombed and paid the ultimate price.
That statement with the Charlie Rose interview of Bill Clinton should go over very well in the Afro-American community. Thought the Clintons were counting on their support.
February 5th is super-duper primaries in 20 states. February also happens to be Black History month. There’s an awakening.
Hillary, take the advise of those campaign staffers urging you to exit.
I think it’ll be important to see the video and/or exact transcript to determine the fallout, but if the gist of what she said is in what Politico reported…adding the fact that it was with Faux, it will be a huge mistake.
Thank you for saying this.
Sure, Dr. King just talked. And was stabbed. Arrested. Jailed. Threatened. Spied upon. House firebombed.
Assassinated.
But unlike many of us–yes, self included–he decided he’d fight for civil rights than be the comfortable, middle class preacher he was initially groomed to be. He was from a middle class family, after all. He and Coretta could have just stayed in Boston and never look back.
Oh my God, what an insult. How DARE she? Hillary should just Go. Sit. Down.
If that’s what she said, she deserves to lose, and by a HUGE margin!!
Well, I watched it here and I don’t think it’s as bad as people are making out.
Watch. It’s at about 4:00 minutes.
I disagree, maryb. Do you think LBJ would’ve pushed through the civil rights act if there wasn’t a movement of people screaming for it, literally, in the streets? He was dragged into that, from all that I’ve read. She just sort of glossed over the MLK legacy, which is Not. Cool. considering the fact that he was murdered for his beliefs and, most certainly, would’ve continued his campaign of justice and equality had he not been assassinated.
That being said, Major Garrett of Faux was the one that introduced MLK, Jr. into the discussion by bringing up Obama’s reference to him in the “false hope” response. Maybe she’s tired, they all certainly look it, but that answer will have huge ramifications, imo.
You are absolutely right that LBJ wouldn’t have pushed the civil rights act if there wasn’t a movement of people screaming for it in the streets.
I also believe that all the screaming in the streets doesn’t do a thing if there isn’t a president who was willing to listen, is not convinced to make the change and does not have the wherewithal (like LBJ did) to push that bill through Congress (in LBJ’s case using the people’s grief over JFK as leverage). If you disagree I ask you to evaluate the success of the anti-war protests and the immigration protests .. so far. Change comes slowly and you need the people in the streets AND you need the political process.
I think that’s what Hillary was saying. Hillary is all about process. She said it in-artfully. Maybe you’re right that she glossed over his legacy but that wasn’t the point she was trying to make. I don’t think her intent was to diminish MLK but to say that without the next step (LBJ) it may not have happened (at least not when it did).
I think her comment was very telling of her top-down approach to politics. Instead of putting the emphasis on the need for coalition building and grassroots action, she would rather put the focus on a figurehead.
That’s not a bad conclusion to draw.
And really, at this point in the campaign, what she meant substantively isn’t really the point. Politically it was a bad moment for her.
Although if it did matter substantively I would dispute that a president who could get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through congress is a figurehead. He was a necessary part of the process of making this country better.
But I’m done here.
Her comments dovetail perfectly with her previous comments about “empty dreams” – she absolutely intended to diminish MLK, and Obama by comparison. The problem is that we are now seeing the true Hillary – character is not forged under pressure, it is revealed, and I see her quite clearly now…
She also completely missed the point of Obama’s comment.
As someone said she viewed it as process and the president as part of the process. Better president = better process.
But Obama’s point was about hope and the importance necessary role hope has in creating change. He was talking about the need to give people hope, just as MLK did for blacks and sympathetic whites who for hundreds of years had none in believing in civil rights for blacks.
She probably wouldn’t deny this, and she is sure tired and anxious, but this was pretty tonedeaf and an example of the difference between her and Obama that people are responding to.
The moment also showed what her natural tendencies are. She may call it passion, but I see blind ambition to be in power and entitlement and fright at the thought that it might not actually happen
This is a good comment.
I think this interchange between them (via the reporter as conduit) points up the principal difference between Obama and Clinton and how they view the job of the president and is a very valid way to make a choice on who to vote for.
All of her speeches have been about working hard and getting the job done. It is what she values. And there is nothing wrong with that but it’s an entirely different view of the job of the President than Obama’s view that says a President should give people hope, which will empower them to make change.
I said above that that we’re beyond the substantive phase of the campaign and we’re into the instinctual phase. It is substantively clear how each see the job of the President differently. Now it’s up to the voters to make a decision and that decision won’t just be made on a rational basis but will be partly instinctive. You say:
A voter who values getting things done still has to ask themselves how they feel about the particular candidate. What do they see? Passion? Or blind ambition? Each voter has to make that decision relying in part on what they know and what they believe.
I won’t be voting for Hillary in my primary. I actually hate to be in a position to even defend Hillary. But I do try to be fair which is why I tried to look at what she said in light of the message I thought she was trying to convey — which is that the job of the President is to get things done and she would be better at getting things done because she’s a doer and not a talker. She didn’t do a very good job at it. And that’s part of what people take into account too.
Video here. The MLK segment is at 3:40. She went there!!!!
and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I got that link via Geekesque’s orange diary
She stepped in it. I can’t believe her.
It would have been one thing if she had contrasted JFK and LBJ for effectiveness, asked who got it done.
But. She went from talking about JFK to saying that to saying it was LBJ that got MLK’s dream realized, which is a misreading of history…oh, and utter bullshit.
Getting LBJ to do the work required was action. She is a dimwit and just showed a paternalistic streak that is VERY telling.
Just go away, Hillary. Go away. You are not presidential material.
“Oh. Hell. No.” – that was my exact reaction. Even in context the comment was reprehensible, imo. Politically, it was incredible stupid because she was basically equating Obama to MLK, Jr. If she thinks that’s a winning strategy, then the wheels are definitely coming off her campaign.
I really hate super-obvious I-told-you-so‘s, but I suppose it’s now time to say it – fuck Hillary Clinton. I don’t think that I can adequately put into words how bad her words are, but implying that Blacks are, and always will be, dependent upon Whites earns her an eternal single-digit salute. We can and will implement our dreams as embodied in the candidacy of Barack Obama.
Fortunately, Hillary won’t be the Democratic nominee so I don’t have to worry about going with Plan Hucka-B, but I can assure you that I will oppose anything that Hillary ever tries to do going forward.
Fuck Hillary Clinton.
Edwards giving a scoop to Drudge?
Give me a break.
What an invention from whole cloth Drudge does. (As usual)