The charge that different rules apply to the Clintons is double-edged: Bill gets to get away with everything, while Hillary gets away with nothing. The problem is that Hillary seems to think she's playing by Bill's rules, thus she blithely feeds the press's hostility, such as A.B. Stoddard's:
In just days, Clinton has issued dire warnings about climate change; been caught jumping on and off a private plane; pledged, because of the plane’s emissions, to make her campaign carbon neutral (without revealing how); jetted to New York City for a $600 haircut; and refused to reveal her position on the Keystone XL pipeline, which those same voters interested in climate change are asking her about….
The brains at the updated and upgraded campaign who refused to repeat the mistakes of the 2008 operation should reconsider whether Hillary Clinton can actually win the White House with a campaign that’s now a joke.
Updated, upgraded indeed. At times Team Hillary proves itself even more feckless than in its 2008 abomination. Hers can be an unfathomable approach that only makes students of politics — those students outside the Clinton bubble, that is — grimace. In this era of prairie-fire populism I wouldn't permit my candidate within 100 yards of a $600 salon. Yet there goes Hillary, only to have it splashed on The Hill's op-ed page, thereupon to ripple throughout the electorate — right up to the office watercooler.
Why does Hillary possess a deficit of 7 points when pollsters ask voters, "Would you say that Hillary Clinton cares about the needs and problems of people like you?" You just read one explanation — which would be obvious to anyone but a Hillary aide, or, it seems, Hillary herself. They too often just don't get politics.
Something tells me, a vague aroma reminiscent of a stockyard, that the sole purpose of her visit to New York was not to get a haircut. That's politics as usual. As to Keystone, her non-position is just as wise as her decision not to grace Netroots with her presence. And to keep silent about TPP. The president just announced, yesterday I believe, that the decision regarding that pipeline will be made during his administration. Any reason to borrow trouble you don't need and get in a bun fight between labor and environmental activists? Nope.
The plane puts her squarely in the camp of just about every prominent climate scientist on the planet who apparently feel that the best way to convince people of our imminent peril is to travel around the world by planes and automobiles to conferences where they urge everyone else to use less oil. Typically you offset such carbon usage by planting a few million trese someplace. Or funding some other such compensating endeavor. She better get that done. And if she's smart she'll be there with a shovel to plant the first tree.
Posted by: Peter G | July 30, 2015 at 12:51 PM
I don't blame her for refusing to take a position on Keystone XL and TPP right now. That poor woman has been ultra scrutinized by the media since the early 90's and they will be dogging her up to her last day in office or maybe even beyond the grave at this point. Every accusation against her is so vague, and so minor, but because the media blows it up to such proportions, her trustworthy rating suffers. I'm not saying she's my first choice for the nomination, but if she makes it to the general, then she has my vote. I'm just saying that if you have been as dogged by the media and the right wingers as much as she has for the past couple of decades, then you'd be over cautious too. Perhaps it is just far too exhausting for her to play by the rules set for her for awhile. It's still only the middle 2015, let her take a break and play by Bill's rules for awhile.
Posted by: Anne J | July 30, 2015 at 03:10 PM
P. S. P.M., you may get your wish of a Bernie Sanders/Donald Trump general after all.
Posted by: Anne J | July 30, 2015 at 03:11 PM
The haircut was an unforced error. It would have been smarter to buy the stylist a first class round trip ticket and offer a generous gratuity for the 'do. According to other news sources, however, the rest of Stoddard's snit is bullshit. The decisions will be made by the Obama administration.
Posted by: Bob | July 30, 2015 at 04:37 PM
Perhaps she is simply treating you, the Great American Public, with the contempt she feels you deserve. Obama does it so why shouldn't she?
Posted by: David & Son of Duff | July 31, 2015 at 01:42 AM
She should learn to wave like a wind-up toy to show the public the respect it properly deserves.
Posted by: Boy | July 31, 2015 at 07:07 AM
Exactly. A two-fingered wave, of course!
Posted by: David & Son of Duff | July 31, 2015 at 08:18 AM
Do you mean like a Nixon victory sign? How cliched.
Posted by: Bob | July 31, 2015 at 11:39 AM
No, Bob, I meant the common - very common! - British version which I believe you Yankees with your frightening efficiency have reduced to one finger!
But, hey, whatever works for ya, know what I mean? (How's my accent?)
Posted by: David & Son of Duff | July 31, 2015 at 12:02 PM
What really is a rude Yankee gesture? We've picked them all up from waves of immigrants - the single and double middle fingers, that putting a hand on a bicep and swinging the forearm up thing, the crotch grab and all the rest. Walk through all the Chicago ethnic neighborhoods and if you're not mugged first you'll see comprehensive rudeness from around the entire globe. It's just one of the things that makes us great.
Is it a Jersey accent?
Posted by: Bob | July 31, 2015 at 02:35 PM
Er, don't you mean 'Joisey', old chap?
Posted by: David & Son of Duff | July 31, 2015 at 03:17 PM
Blimey, I believe I do. Pardon the cock-up.
Posted by: Bob | July 31, 2015 at 05:54 PM