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Is this the end of the Clintons?
Telegraph.Co.UK ^ | Jan. 2, 2008 | Toby Harnden

Posted on 01/02/2008 10:31:10 AM PST by COUNTrecount

Was I witnessing the last throes of the 15-year-long Clinton political psychodrama in Ames, Iowa yesterday? Here’s my newspaper piece on Hillary’s final plea for support in tomorrow’s caucuses. The case she made was far from compelling – that she’s human (honest) and that she has unrivalled experience. Both propositions are debatable and she was much less compelling than Barack Obama and John Edwards have been in recent days. She seems to have had some kind of speech therapy to create a softy-soft voice that made me long for the grating shrillness of yore.

Hillary Clinton tried to present herself as softer and more human

The Obama campaign is supremely confident that victory is within its grasp. “So what?” I hear you ask. Iowa is a sparsely populated, unrepresentative state in which on the Democratic side only 124,000 people caucused in 2004. Surely it can’t matter that much? Don’t bet on it. If Hillary loses tomorrow, her presidential bid is likely to collapse like a house of cards.

For all the arguments against Iowa having such disproportionate influence – and Christopher Hitchens airs some good ones with characteristic aplomb here – it does mean that pre-packaged, calculating politicians like Hillary are scutinised and exposed (we’ll see if Mitt Romney is too).

All the money and establishment backing she had behind her couldn’t prevent her getting caught out by voters asking her about Iran and Iran, discovered planting softball questions and rumbled for having advisers forwarding smear emails about Obama. She tried to remain aloof and away from the voters but it didn’t work – if anything, the seeds of her demise (if that’s what it turns out to be) lay in that strategy.

When an incumbent-style campaign is built on a sense of inevitability, it comes under huge strain when hit by an early defeat. The bubble is burst – which is what will happen if Hillary loses Iowa to Obama in Iowa (if she loses to Edwards, the picture will be less clear).

Of course, if Hillary pulls through then it’s difficult to see how Obama and Edwards can beat her – this is absolutely their best shot. Adam Nagourney of the “New York Times” argues here that Iowa might mean nothing. That’s possible. But my hunch is that it will end up meaning everything.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: getoffthestage; hillary; ia2008; impeachedpresident; nothirdterm; oligarchy
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To: COUNTrecount

21 posted on 01/02/2008 10:46:52 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Ron Paul put the cuckoo in my Cocoa Puffs)
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To: COUNTrecount

Is there a new product out there that REALLY kills cockroaches?


22 posted on 01/02/2008 10:46:57 AM PST by tpanther
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To: COUNTrecount
If Hillary loses, she will grow fatter, older and increasingly entitled and belligerent in the Senate, Ted Kennedy style.

Plus, the media will absolutely attempt to pimp their daughter on us, in less than 10 years, like the various Kennedy spawn that have managed not to get caught raping or killing any chicks.


23 posted on 01/02/2008 10:48:17 AM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: COUNTrecount
Of course, if Hillary pulls through then it’s difficult to see how Obama and Edwards can beat her – this is absolutely their best shot. Adam Nagourney of the “New York Times” argues here that Iowa might mean nothing. That’s possible. But my hunch is that it will end up meaning everything.

Hillary's machine has enough money that they probably don't need to win Iowa, and they'll paint even a second-place finish as "excellent," but an Obama victory should be seen as a huge defeat for Clinton.

24 posted on 01/02/2008 10:50:10 AM PST by Lou L
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To: weegee

Plan B for Hillary is to become Senate majority leader.


25 posted on 01/02/2008 10:50:33 AM PST by Brad from Tennessee ("A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.")
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To: COUNTrecount
As a nonenrolled voter (i.e., an independent) I can vote in either primary next Tuesday.

I am seriously considering pulling a Democrat ballot and voting for Obama.

If he beats her here, he has a chance to drive a stake through the heart of the entire Clinton crime family.

26 posted on 01/02/2008 10:50:39 AM PST by Jim Noble (Trails of trouble, roads of battle, paths of victory we shall walk.)
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To: COUNTrecount; Mr Apple
We can only hope and pray that it's the end. Check this out, thanks to Mr. Apple:

google: Clinton National Security Scandal and Coverup

27 posted on 01/02/2008 10:51:29 AM PST by matthew fuller (Fred D. Thompson / John R. Bolton, 2008)
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To: dead

Caught the end of “The Jerk” this weekend - it looks like Chelsea may have been an unfortunate victim of “Optigrab”.


28 posted on 01/02/2008 10:55:03 AM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: joebuck

There are many on FR counting their chickens before they hatch when it comes to the Clintons. These people will do anything, anywhere, anytime, to anybody, to win. They (Bill & Hill)will be the Democrat’s candidate in the general. So get use to it.


29 posted on 01/02/2008 10:58:17 AM PST by kempo (I)
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To: COUNTrecount

For the sake of this country and it’s future generations...I hope this is the end of this simpleton couple. They offer NOTHING...


30 posted on 01/02/2008 11:00:17 AM PST by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done more for this country than any of us will ever fully realize.)
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To: doug from upland
I love it!

FWIW, these have been turning up all over town. Bartenders
love them because nobody misses pee pots any more.


31 posted on 01/02/2008 11:02:13 AM PST by Zakeet (Be thankful we don't get all the government we pay for)
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To: COUNTrecount
Hillary Clinton tried to present herself as softer and more human

Kinda like Gore imitating the Gipper and his pompadour in the last election!

32 posted on 01/02/2008 11:15:36 AM PST by danmar (Tomorrow's life is too late. Live today!)
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To: COUNTrecount
Was I witnessing the last throes of the 15-year-long Clinton political psychodrama in Ames, Iowa yesterday?

Not by a long shot. The Klinton's will never give up. Their money (and data base and dirty tricks) wil never run out. They (and all their goons) will go down swinging...which will suit me just fine.

In fact, it should be fun to watch. If she loses in Iowa they'll just redouble their efforts. That softness (sounded like she was over-medicated) will give way to the shrill Hill we all know and love. And then Billy-boy will feel empowered to come to the rescue and the real show will begin as he moves to commandeer (if not hijack) the campaign.

It will be pure agony. But I'll love the pain. I liken my feelings about this election to my utter disdain of the Yankees. In recent years I've taken to rooting for them to win the pennant, or at least make it into the playoffs. Then I'm caught in a quandry. Do I want to see them lose early in the playoffs? Or late? Or, God forbid, should I hope they actually make it to the World Series? If the latter, do they go down in 4 straight, absolutely humiliated? Or string out the agony only to lose in the last inning of the seventh game?

No the Klinton's are in it till the bitter end. Let the show begin. This competition will go to the World Series. Can't wait to be counting hanging chads in a Florida recount.

33 posted on 01/02/2008 11:16:02 AM PST by O6ret
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To: COUNTrecount
READY TO RUN



January 2, 2008 -- ROBERT Kennedy Jr. has reportedly become an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin on cleaning up the environment. Kennedy, now in Aspen with his family, is said to have offered Putin his expertise in cleaning up the terrible pollution in Russia during a trip to Moscow last year. The founder of Riverkeeper also told restaurateur Nello Balan he's interested in running for Sen. Hillary Clinton's seat when it becomes vacant. Kennedy is convinced that if Clinton doesn't win the presidency, she'll quit the Senate when her term expires and join the private sector.
34 posted on 01/02/2008 11:20:06 AM PST by Miss Didi ("Good heavens, woman, this is a war not a garden party!" Dr. Meade, Gone with the Wind)
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To: Miss Didi

Maybe RFK Jr. should advise Putin on how to shoot heroin.


35 posted on 01/02/2008 11:25:17 AM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten

**Is this the end of the Clintons?**

Hopefully!


36 posted on 01/02/2008 11:28:02 AM PST by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
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To: COUNTrecount


Satan! Thanks so much for coming!
37 posted on 01/02/2008 11:33:24 AM PST by steel_resolve (If you can't stand behind our troops, then please stand in front...)
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To: COUNTrecount

“The case she made was far from compelling – that she’s human (honest) and that she has unrivalled experience. Both propositions are debatable and she was much less compelling than Barack Obama and John Edwards have been in recent days. “

Substitute the word “preposterous” for “debatable” and the statement is more accurate.


38 posted on 01/02/2008 11:33:46 AM PST by Hacklehead (Crush the liberals, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the hippies.)
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To: COUNTrecount

What? No more RoboCackle (c)?


39 posted on 01/02/2008 11:35:55 AM PST by pabianice
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To: COUNTrecount

"Mother of God, it this the end of Rico?"


40 posted on 01/02/2008 11:37:19 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Being an idealist excuses nothing. Hitler was an idealist.)
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