Smile and wave inside the crush at Ag building. @HillaryClinton at State Fair pic.twitter.com/sk5ATJ3qLT
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) August 15, 2015
The hardcore haters will never quit, of course. But after months of whining about how they just couldn’t feeeel President Hillary Clinton, some of the media pack seems to be edging towards admitting that, for normal voters, HRC might be likeable enough. (At least in comparison to watching yet another Repub candidate step on his own… tongue.) Ruby Cramer, at Buzzfeed:
… At many of Clinton’s public events, causal interaction is overwhelmed, and often made altogether impossible, by a spectacle that neither she, nor her aides, can much control: the aggregate effect of, in varying degrees, the media attention she commands, celebrity status she assumes, and the Secret Service detail she has required, in public and private life, since the ’90s.
All three forces were at work in the extreme on Saturday as Clinton toured the various delights of the massive and sprawling Iowa State Fair, moving from the show cows near Gammon Barn, down by the Pavilion and the Fun Forest Stage, into the Agriculture Building, past the beet and onion tables and the life-size cow sculpted from butter — out the back door, up the main drag, and over to the front counter of the final destination: the Iowa Pork Producers’ Porkchop on a Stick tent…
Clinton and company tore through the fair. The C-SPAN footage is almost harrowing. Foot traffic came to a halt everywhere they went. At point, inside the hot and crowded Agriculture Building, the group was going too fast with no room to move: While a campaign aide warned a security agent to please watch Harkin more closely (He was getting “pushed and shoved!”), a security agent snapped at a campaign aide to please keep the entourage moving (“When you stop, it creates a bubble and we can’t move!”)…
Only April Stumpf, the mother from Riverside, pushed her way through for more, dropped the name of an ambassador friend, sidled up to Clinton and — upon telling the candidate her story — brought the whole operation to a stop for a few, rare minutes of relative quiet on late Saturday morning.
“I just wanted to introduce myself and say hi,” said Stumpf, face to face with Clinton. “And I also wanted to let you I am a mother of a severely disabled child. She’s on 14 different medications right now: methadone, morphine, and…”
Clinton grabbed her hand. “How old is she?”…
She told Clinton she’s been advocating for medical marijuana on a nationwide level, that Quinn’s medications are so hard on her 3-year-old body that they will kill her faster than her disability — and that the cause could use Clinton’s support, said Stumpf. “For a real medical purpose.”
“And to do the research,” Clinton said, nodding. “I will certainly support it. I have and I will continue to support it. And I want to get the research going.”
They talked some more about alternative medicine and about Quinn’s clinical trial. “She’s only 3. She’s gorgeous,” said her mom. “She deserves so much. So thank you so much. It was nice to meet you…” When Stumpf turned to leave, Clinton asked her to wait for an aide to collect some contact information first — to stay in touch.
Later, standing near the porkchop stand, after her two hours at the fair were almost up, Clinton said she was grateful for the exchange with Stumpf. Hearing stories like Quinn’s — “that’s what helps me think about what I can do to help them.”…
Only in Iowa. Man asks @HillaryClinton to get out of the way so he can get in line for pork chops on a stick. #IowaStateFair #iacaucus
— Brianne Pfannenstiel (@brianneDMR) August 15, 2015
Politico — not exactly a Dem-friendly outfit — says “Hillary Clinton sways the doubters at Wing Ding“:
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — The verdict from the jam-packed auditorium was nearly unanimous: Hillary Clinton crushed her speech at Iowa’s now-famous Democratic Wing Ding Friday night, winning standing ovations from the very Iowans who turned against her the last time she ran for the White House.
Clinton, who suffered a crushing blow when she came third in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, attacked her speech with a vigor Iowans — and even skeptical liberals — said they’d never seen from her before. Speaking with a booming voice, she opened with a full-throated defense of President Barack Obama’s Iran deal, before offering a stark warning of her own to Tehran: “We will never let you acquire a nuclear weapon. Not just in the terms of this agreement. Never.”
She talked about helping college students drowning in their school debt, nodded to the “Black lives matter” movement, and blasted the right for their latest attempts to defund Planned Parenthood — all while taunting the GOP for their fixation on Benghazi and her email scandal…
Clinton won the crowd with a mix of tough talk and unforced humor that scored laughs. She compared trickledown economics with wearing shoulder pads (“One of the worst ideas of the 1980s.”), and she cracked jokes about GOP allegations that she deleted her State Department emails in an attempt to hide something.
“You may have seen I recently launched a Snapchat account,” she said in a hushed voice, quieting the crowd intently. “I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves …”
Iowans roared, later citing the pithy line as the best zinger of the evening…
If reporters didn't have a "scandal" to grill Hillary on what would they talk about? It would be like taking sports away from guys in a bar.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) August 19, 2015
Another snippet from the #BLM New Hampshire interview, via Boston Magazine:
… Clinton freely conceded that 1990s-era tough-on-crime policies hadn’t worked, [Daunasia] Yancey recalls. But when Jones pressed her further on her personal feelings, “her body language changed, her voice changed,” Yancey says. “Boom! It was powerful, energetically. You could feel that she got upset.”
Clinton’s argument, Yancey says, was for pragmatism and realpolitik.
“What she said was partially true, that we’re not going to change all hearts and minds about anti-blackness and white supremacy,” Yancey says. She remembers Clinton saying, “I have to be able to package it and be able to sell it in politics.”
“It was weird for me that she said that out loud,” Yancey adds. “It was almost like a white person being like, ‘Oh no, I get the f—kery, but I can’t tell America that they’re racist as f—k.’ I think we got a very different conversation than if media was there.”…
Even Chris “Mad Bitch” Cillizza, the Washington Post‘s professional horserace-politics jerkwad, grudgingly concedes HRClinton’s improved performance (before scouring ‘unnamed sources’ for grievances)…
Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged that her 2016 campaign would be better than her 2008 campaign. And it has been.
She has hired the best and brightest of Democratic staffers. She has purposely downplayed her celebrity and has tried to personally connect with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. She has focused on telling her personal story rather than trying to constantly answer the “is she tough enough to be commander in chief” question…
“She has always been awkward and uninspiring on the stump,” said one senior Democratic consultant granted anonymity to candidly assess Clinton’s candidacy. “Hillary has Bill’s baggage and now her own as secretary of state — without Bill’s personality, eloquence or warmth.”
That same consultant added that he expected Clinton to easily win the Democratic nomination despite her weaknesses. “None of her primary opponents this time are Obama,” the consultant said. “Each lacks the skills, message and charisma to derail this train unless she implodes.”…
“I think her problems are greatly overstated,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a longtime senior adviser to President Obama. “She isn’t as natural a politician as Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, but that’s like saying Scottie Pippen isn’t as talented as Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. She is as good or better than just about everyone in the current GOP field.”…
Woman in @HillaryClinton NV townhall stands up says she came to get a hug, and Hillary says she'll hug her after her Q&A.
— Doug Adams (@DougNBC) August 18, 2015
Possibly related: NYMag‘s ladyblog The Cut asks “Why Are Late-Night Shows a Total Sausage-Fest??”
… During the interview, host Michael O’Connell asked the group of actresses why they think the late-night talk-show scene is dominated by men. Though Schumer was offered a late-night gig replacing Jon Stewart at The Daily Show, she doesn’t predict the current sausage-fest will end anytime soon:
I think people hate women. I think people hear women talk too long and project their mom yelling at them … My experience has been sort of tricking people into listening and then you get in the door that way. But it’s, like, a dance you have to do … I’m not saying men hate women. People — there’s such an aggression toward women.
Well, plenty of highly-educated, well-meaning professional prognosticators also said we’d never see an African-American president elected in my lifetime. Things change, sometimes even for the better…
Right to Rise
None other than Bob Woodward says that the Clinton Emails are the 21st Century Nixon Tapes. Sanders is surging: the Gene McCarthy of 2016?
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush holds smooth and steady. Slow and stead wins the race…
gogol's wife
Jif smooth and creamy peanut butter. Mmmm!
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
If she can’t answer these ridiculous email questions better than she has, she needs to retire from politics.
SiubhanDuinne
Oh, well done!
NorthLeft12
@Right to Rise: Thanks for the laugh before I head off to bed.
schrodinger's cat
@Right to Rise: Hasn’t he slipped to the sixth place now?
JPL
@Right to Rise: Has Woodward offered to write a fluff piece for Jeb, like he did for his brother?
scav
@schrodinger’s cat: Easier to be that “smooth and steady” bouncing around in the low-end margin of error. It’s the cunning plot.
SiubhanDuinne
@Right to Rise:
No no no no no. It’s Mitch McConnell who’s the tortoise. Not ¡Jeb!
JPL
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: She wasn’t bad today. She does need to choose one person to sit down with and give them an hour to grill her about email questions. At the end of the hour, those still awake will say enough already. No more talk about emails ever.
Mike E
@gogol’s wife: Jif, Biff, Barf…is this the slate of GOP hopefuls, or Romney nicknames?
JPL
@Mike E: Since you mentioned Romney, do you think he wants the v.p. slot.
He does seem itching to move to Washington.
Amir Khalid
Hillary’s looking more and more like someone who can connect with regular people and talk knowledgeably with them about their real-life concerns. For all the media talk about her momentum stalling in the polls, she seems to keep growing stronger as a candidate.
geg6
Oh lord, I almost dread some sort of hypocritical honeymoon the Village may be deciding to have with Hillary more than I do the inevitable SOP of their portrayal of her as a scheming bitch shrew of a lesbo.
Oh and glad to see Jeb! is still paying HIS staff. Unlike some deadbeats on the campaign trail. Yes, I’m looking at you, Governor Goodhair. You know, the guy whose poll numbers Jeb!’s seem to be approaching.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
But I can’t imagine Ann settling for SLOTUS.
Mike in NC
@schrodinger’s cat: JEB! might as well have an anvil tied to one ankle and a cinderblock to the other. He is now officially Third Tier, ranking alongside Rand Paul and Piyush Jindal.
mai naem mobile
Bob Woodward can go fuck himself. They all luurvv themselves some Bushes but the Clintons are somehow dirty low class trailer trash hicks.
Amir Khalid
@Right to Rise:
Bob Woodward probably reckons he needs another set of “Nixon tapes” to revive his journalistic career. He hasn’t had a big story since the 1970s.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Chris Cilliazza was wagging his finger at Democrats the other day to admit that if a Republican SOS had done what HRC did, we’d all be…
If Chris Cillizza had done a smug little youtube “comedy” bit calling Jeb Bush an asshole, he wouldn’t be covering Bush’s campaign. He probably wouldn’t be working at the Washington Post.
Little Boots
sorry,
just sorry,
just, damn, god I can suck sometimes.
Chris
Oh my God, medical marijuana…
Compare and contrast this with how Mitt Romney handled it when a person in a wheelchair asked him about this.
You go, Hillary.
Mr. Twister
@Right to Rise: Go make some pancakes, here’s a recipe.
Basic Buttermilk Pancakes

(4 servings)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
How To Make Basic Buttermilk Pancakes
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a medium bowl, beat the egg until the whites and yolk are combined. Add the buttermilk and oil and stir to combine.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. (Try not to over-mix. 5 seconds should do the job. It’s okay if there are a few lumps.) For best results, let the batter rest 10 minutes before making pancakes.
Place a griddle or large frying pan over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray (you can also use a scant amount of butter).
Dollop the batter in 1/4 cup amounts per pancake. When the tops are covered with small bursting bubbles, flip the pancakes and cook the other sides to golden brown.
This recipe makes eight 5-inch pancakes.
Amir Khalid
I once heard, from a mutual acquaintance, a story that put Bob Woodward’s professional conduct at The Washington Post in rather a bad light. It involved a reporter who had to give back an award for a story that turned out to be fiction, and Woodward’s very close relationship with her.
As for his assessment of the Hillary emails, remember that he’s a conservative Republican and not always objective in his political reporting.
Little Boots
omnes, I know you hate me now, but you can’t hate me.
JPL
@Chris: That was such a nice story. Hopefully, there is some follow-up, since she gave Hillary’s aides more information.
Little Boots
nobody can love me?
SiubhanDuinne
I think I’m going to have to take a short break from Balloon Juice. Even lurking, I don’t think my blood pressure will tolerate many more of these incessant, annoying, whiny non-apology-apologies. Maybe I’ll come back to commenting in a week or so, after I’ve had my semi-annual cardiology workup and perhaps some new meds. In the meantime, y’all stay sane, hear?
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Night. Give me a call sometime and we’ll meet up for lunch.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@JPL: She’s been in the game almost 40 years and still flubs every question she gets. I think she’s arrogant and stupid and therefore, very dangerous.
Little Boots
I’ve been awful. I hate when I get like this,but damn, hate, hate, hate myself when I am awful.
JPL
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: lol You must just love the Donald.
Amir Khalid
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
If you saw the video of her meeting with #BLM, you know that’s not true.
JPL
@Little Boots: Your incessant apologies are not making it better. Hopefully, you will just learn to say it once and then say good night.
different-church-lady
Clearly Bernstein was the brains of that operation.
the Conster
@Chris:
Marijuana legalization is the biggest national issue out there on par with immigration, and Hillary would be really smart to run with it. Bernie is already there. It would create a yooooge Dem turnout.
ETA: as it turns out, the real gateway drug to opiod addiction is doctor prescribed pain killers, not marijuana.
different-church-lady
Oh, is this another Deflategate thread?
Little Boots
oh sugar pie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuxVfIu46AI
Another Holocene Human
Yeah, why is late night such a sausagefest? It’s by no means the oldest audience. (That’s probably Fox until the early bird special starts.) Must be the relentless drive to push women out of comedy, like there’s something wrong if women do it and do it well. Perhaps male comics’ male insecurities? Not a traditionally “tough guy” profession? Getting insulted by hecklers all night? Who knows?
If “people” hate funny women why does Wendy Williams have a successful show? Whoopie is on the teevee opining Monday through Friday. Ellen got her start in comedy. Judge fucking Judy built an empire being the insult comic master of family court judges. She’s not laughing, but you probably did watching at home.
different-church-lady
@the Conster:
[goes to vote for legalization]
[gets distracted by the way the light glints off the machine]
[forgets to pull lever]
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
This reporter?
Even at the time, there were rumors that Deep Throat was an RNC operative (since Nixon looked capable of taking down the whole party with him) who hand-picked Woodward & Bernstein as the two Post reporters most likely to take the bait and run with it, but not ask more probing questions about his “gift”.
Nothing that either of them has produced since 1974 has convinced me that this wasn’t the case, to be honest.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Confused? Bored?
Little Boots
maybe we should do this thing? for omnes, who hates me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuxVfIu46AI
Kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
He just has to wait for some of the other losers to drop off, though. There’s a whole bunch at 1- 3%. He could pick up 15 right there and rocket right to 2nd or 3rd purely on merit :)
I still think he’ll be the nominee but my hope is it’s horribly humiliating and drawn out, with people sighing and wondering how they ended up with him and where did that nice Dr. Ben Carson fellow go?
Another Holocene Human
@Mr. Twister: I like these:
2 INGREDIENT HEALTHY PANCAKES (GLUTEN, GRAIN + DIARY-FREE; NO ADDED SUGAR)
Print
2 ingredient Healthy Pancakes (gluten, grain and dairy free, no added sugar)
Basic Batter:
1 large banana, mashed (should be around 1/3 to 1/2 cup when mashed)
2 eggs
optional add ins:
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup blueberries/ raspberries/ chopped nuts
2 tbsp mini chocolate chips
Peel and mash the banana, stir in the egg.
Heat a non stick skillet and lightly spray with oil. Tun the heat down to medium-low.
Pour a circle of batter into the pan (I used about 1 or 2 tbsp of batter per pancake).
Cook until golden brown on the underside (around 1 minute) sprinkle on any chunky ingredients (e.g. chocolate chips, fruit, nuts, if using), then use a metal spatula to flip and cook until golden brown on the other side (30 seconds to 1 minute).
Serve warm with whatever the heck you want
ThresherK (GPad)
@Chris: Was it anything like:
“No, no, don’t get up.”
–Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin, to a character in a wheelchair. I think the second Police Squad! movie.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
You’re going to have to carry on without me tonight — I’m seeing the LA Phil do live accompaniment of “2001: A Space Odyssey” in about 8 minutes. Try to keep it to a dull roar. KTHXBAI.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@JPL: Right?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Amir Khalid: You don’t know I didn’t see it, dbag. Fuck off.
Little Boots
oy
Peale
@Another Holocene Human: even in context, I don’t understand if you find late night shows exciting or horrible. I come from Wisconsin…a sausage fest sounds very enjoyable. You’re not one of them veegin types, no?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I haven’t followed their careers that closely, but it seems to me Woodward has spent the last few decades doing his insider-y, anonymously sourced books, in which the sources could be guessed at by how kindly the given personalities were treated in the book– I believe Colin Powell has been his go to guy for the last twenty odd years? It’s a business model that has been destroyed by the internet.
I think Bernstein mostly did long profiles for glossy mags?
Little Boots
omnes, stop hating me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw
BobS
@Amir Khalid: The only thing that would revive Woodward’s career is Carl Bernstein.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Live music to a movie? One of my favorite geek things. Have fun.
Belafon
@the Conster: The one thing I worry about is the Democratic platform getting real big, and then we have nothing but the White House and possibly the Senate (we’d have to have some serious over-turnout by Democrats to get the House). Can we build a platform with:
Fixing the major problems that blacks are having
Reduce the inequality between the rich and poor
Immigration reform
Medical Marijuana and the Drug War
And those are just the ones I can remember.
And what I mean by build a platform is this: We’re probably only going to get the White House and Senate. In two years, with nothing passed, what happens to voters? In four years? How many groups will settle for “We didn’t have the House”? Will “We did what we could with what we had” be enough?
Now, a lot of this changes if we can overcome the Republican rigging and retake the House.
I guess we’ll have to find out by doing.
Joel
@geg6: At least Rick Perry did something half-decent for a change, unlike his dipshit colleagues:
JPL
Roger Wilkins also won a pulitzer for the Watergate story, but is seldom mentioned. He went on to work at NYTimes and has been involved in civil rights.
Little Boots
you are seriously pissed at me, forever?
BobS
@Anne Laurie: The CIA & the Media
Anne Laurie
@different-church-lady:
Not according to his ex-wife.
He sees an opportunity and runs with it. Professionally, as well as personally, he doesn’t have the best record for asking “… and what happens next?” when he gets an offer.
Joel
@Another Holocene Human: I would have gone with Gilda Radner, Amy Schumer, Chelsea Peretti, Maria Bamford, but different strokes for different folks.
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
Yes, that reporter. As for Deep Throat, I remember that he turned out to be a G-man. FBI Assistant Director Mark Felt admitted many years later, when he was in his 90s and dying, that it was he who spoke to Woodward. Felt’s Wikipedia article says he first came to DC to work for a Democratic US Senator.
Little Boots
I’ve been so awful lately. I hate when I get like this. sorry.
Groucho48
And, maybe, possibly, just tossing it out there, that a lot of people like and support her?
Heliopause
Lots of juicy stuff about “the Jews” and “the Negroes,” I take it?
lol
@Amir Khalid:
Will Farrell’s incredibly petty Woodword rings truer and truer every day.
Little Boots
and omnes, you know I love you, and I am so awful sometimes. sorry, buddy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lol: SNL? I missed that
Mr. Twister
@efgoldman: I know, but I think it should be used everywhere.
Little Boots
@Mr. Twister:
good lord.
Bobby Thomson
@Anne Laurie: How do you explain Mark Felt?
Little Boots
kiss me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N-qO3sPMjc
Little Boots
and seriously, you hate me?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I gather this woman is supposed to be one of the faces of a rising generation of savvy, sane, libertarian-leaning conservatives? So… she’s a Laura Ingram for this century?
Is there some e-mail reference or something else I’m missing, or is it just “ha ha! she’s old! get it?”
the Conster
@Belafon:
Dems always need to turn out the vote. All of those issues you listed will need to be on the platform, and whichever Dem is nominated needs to message the hell out of those issues, because they’re grounded in reality, and those issues intersect with all of our lives. Hillary is way too fucking cautious. If she’s going to be the nominee, she needs to hammer the reality of those issues home, unapologetically and without triangulation. I have my doubts she has it in her.
Bobby Thomson
@Anne Laurie: Being a cad doesn’t make him a bad reporter. He’s had bigger professional missteps recently. Use those.
Chris T.
@schrodinger’s cat:
Slow and steady to sixth place
Jebby finds he now must face
The prospect he will lose the race.
Yet Riser claims—and with straight face!—
That somehow the so very base
Voters will a Bush embrace….
Little Boots
@efgoldman:
not trying. seriously, wish I could turn it around. but can’t.
Omnes Omnibus
HRC looks genuinely pleased to be in that crowd in the Ag building.
Bobby Thomson
@Chris T.:
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak November;
And each separate State spoke the Mormon’s death.once more
Eagerly he wished the morrow;—vainly he had sought to borrow
From talking points that only urged the listener to bore—
For the rare and radiant White Horse with the billion bucks galore—
Nameless here for evermore.
Little Boots
and seriously, not kidding around, wish I could be calmer, wish I could not be such a dick sometimes.
Little Boots
and miss omnes.
Chris T.
@Bobby Thomson: Win!
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
His shtick isn’t self-flagellation, it’s attention-seeking. And the best response is not to encourage him.
Little Boots
@Amir Khalid:
it really isn’t.
Little Boots
I know I can be difficult. but there is nobody I dislike here. and I wish I weren’t so difficult.
Full metal Wingnut
@Right to Rise: Bob Woodward is a dumbass. Hasn’t been worth listening to since 1974.
Little Boots
amir, you have hated me from the start. why?
Little Boots
and omnes, you have hated me for a reason. what is that?
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Wow! This sounds like big fun. And the weather has gotten cooler. Perfect night for it.
MBunge
Whatever else you want to say about them, Bill and Hillary Clinton give every indication that helping people is the main focus of their politics. When Hillary is swimming in that stream, she can be great.
Mike
Little Boots
@MBunge:
uh huh
Omnes Omnibus
@MBunge: I also think she is better in smaller groups than she is on stage. It is one of the reasons I think her current strategy of avoiding big rallies is a good one.
sigaba
Did a little double-take there. “Stumpf” is the login handle of one of the most obnoxious Republican trolls on Jonathan Chait’s blog.
Full metal Wingnut
@Little Boots: Jesus Christ do you get off on being pathetic like this? There’s gotta be a better way to shoot your goo.
Full metal Wingnut
@Little Boots: Are you 15? Because you act like it.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ha-ha, bringing the funneh. Never heard of her, thought it was Liz Phair at first. Does Liz Mair know the Dept of Energy develops our nukes? Would she like one delivered? She should check back Jan ’17.
Bobby Thomson
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: no, I think it’s straight up misogyny.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby Thomson: Yep, that is how I read it.
vhh
@Right to Rise: When it comes to email, actually I think the real successor to the Nixon tapes was the Bush WH deletion of 473 days worth of emails that magically coincided with major events like the outing of Valerie Plame. The total number of lost emails is estimated to be between 5 and 22 MILLION. Then there are the 88 Bush administration appointees who used the private RNC email servers to do their jobs. Needless to say, most of those also became “unrecoverable.” Then there was SoS Colin Powell, who used his gmail account for his official emails. Somehow, the presence of a few mails sent to Hillary that contained information not labeled as classified but that was 5 years later RETROACTIVELY determined to have been the sort of thing that ought to have been classified —but was not in fact classified when Hillary received it—seems like small beer. The more so as, unlike all those Bushies, she was able to provide copies of most if not all of the business mails. R to R—I suggest you spend more time thinking about what the rise of Donald Trump to the top of GOP heap means about the future of the party.
David Koch
Thinks are looking up for Hillary. Yesterday Kristol said she wouldn’t win the nomination, which now makes her a lock to win.
Congratulations, Madam Secretary.
jacel
Why, why, why is Pork Chop On A Stick a big thing at the Iowa State Fair?
One of the many appeals of pork chops is that they come with their own stick built in. Why add to that?
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Right to Rise: Hey! Right to Rise! What happened to that Bomb Jeb! was going to drop the night of the debates?
Or did you mean his debate performance was going to bomb?
RK
“for normal voters”
Really?
Omnes Omnibus
@jacel:
Why isn’t it everywhere else? Meat on a stick!
notoriousJRT
@Right to Rise:
Bob Woodward is a fucking blind squirrel still living off the nut he found 40 years ago.
Matt McIrvin
@scav: I don’t know, that Jim Gilmore is holding smoother and steadier. I think he’s gonna go all the way!
Matt McIrvin
@Mike in NC: Jeb hasn’t actually plummeted as much as some of the early post-debate polls indicated; in the HuffPo aggregate he’s still in second place, though it’s a distant second place, and his numbers are bad enough and the field is fragmented enough that he looks much worse in some polls.
The allegedly major figure whose numbers have really plummeted is Scott Walker. Ben Carson is in third.
Frankensteinbeck
@the Conster:
I haven’t been following her speeches SUPER closely, but isn’t this exactly what she’s been doing? Calling out how women and blacks are getting shafted, and saying America desperately needs more safety net, to fix student loan debt, and to spend in stuff like research and education? Oh, and calling out the Drug War. It seems like she learned big time working for Obama.
Sherparick
@Another Holocene Human: I guess it is the audience that controls the remote or has their eyes on the TV at a particular time of day. Daytime TV talk has been pretty distaffed from 8:00 to 4:00 with “The View,” Ellen, Oprah, Today Show and Good Morning America crew. Fox may be an exception, but I think Steve Doocy would look great in a dress myself.
Amy Schumer may have a point. I expect the late night TV audience is in the 20s and early 30s demographic (I know I am “Z” land by then), and both men and women at stage of their lives still in escape mode from “Mom.” Also, never forget that the suits making the decisions are 95% white males, so their default position is more “white males.”
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@vhh: The 22M Bush e-mails were found.
Some highlights are at the National Security Archive.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Applejinx
@the Conster: I hear that. I’m the first to say ‘triangulate’ but it cuts both ways and that gives me just a smidge of hope, actually…
I like this, unexpectedly much. Hillary is basically taking a page from Trump, but more cautiously. That’s as good as saying ‘I’m going to triangulate stuff and package it and turn it into politics and then into the law of the land’. It is TRUE, that’s what she has to do as a pol. Normally they’re not allowed to say that, but with Trump saying what he does… it moves the window a lot.
I prefer Bernie. He’s more stubborn and less ‘professional pol’ except he has some sense of how things will play. His opinions aren’t for sale, Hillary’s are. But hear me out on that ‘cos it’s important…
You buy pol opinions with votes, not money. Votes trump (no pun intended) money, just as Trump is going to trump the Republican money trying to buy a nominee. There’s a court of last resort for politicians and it’s the electorate and now in 2015 they get to SEE it, unlike say the court of the Sun King where they had literally no idea what the world was like anymore.
We do already have Bernie overflowing stadiums with his (non-varying) message. We have Trump blowing up the Republicans by saying outrageous and literally true things such as, he buys politicians and they do what they want (and he’s given to Hillary).
Triangulating cuts both ways. In the 80s and 90s, getting money was dear to the hearts of the electorate and if you triangulated, you began taking bank money and all that stuff, and selling out what few voters had a clue, because you were representing something: the voice of the people, be it wise or stupid.
The voice of the people is smartening up and it’s getting very clear, otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing what we’re seeing. Even with the maximium effort by the media to cover it up, reality is becoming popular, trendy.
Hillary can triangulate in favor of all the things we like, if she is convinced that really represents the electorate. She would be right to think that wasn’t the case even ten years ago, and was too slow to outmaneuver Obama, and this is clearly a second chance.
And just as Hillary could cheerfully sell us out for her banker friends if she thought it was what one does, she can sell out the bankers and be their worst nightmare if she really figures the zeitgeist calls for it. That’s what triangulation is. In realistic terms she can’t carry them anymore. She can’t carry the injustice of racial police violence anymore. Those ‘voting blocs’ have to be thrown under the bus. Hillary Clinton does NOT have a moral center that will weld her to any one given position, she’s a natural politician like Bill before her, and she’s going to represent the zeitgeist.
If she can do that, we’ll be seeing it in her performance and in what she becomes willing to say. Then it’s a matter of keeping track, and keeping the pressure on which is part of Bernie’s message: PACs don’t sleep, neither can you. We have to stay involved with governance, or entities such as corporations which don’t experience human sleep or fatigue will take the reins.
Hillary could be more effective than Bernie at enacting Bernie’s platform IF that’s what she decides must happen.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
The fact that the Village is agin er is starting to make me for her. I like Bernie too but he’s not drawing the Village’s ire like the Clintons inexplicably do. I mean they lapped up W’s phony Texas good ol boy schtick. Bill is a real good ol boy, and at this point should be one of them regardless thanks to being rich and powerful. But no, they still hate the Clintons. Maybe I shouldn’t root for Hillary just because the Village hates her but I find myself doing so.
Tree With Water
I do not support Hillary for reasons familiar to readers here. But all this idiot wind about her (that I first heard in the summer of 1992, by the way) puts me in mind of a George Harrison lyric: “Sitting on a friend with a microscopic glass, You know the faults, now let the foibles pass”. I don’t take Hillary’ measure by her “personality” and it’s insulting to imply otherwise, although reporters have been doing it for decades.