Will americans say "yes maam" to their next president ?

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Mrs. Tuberski
Who is complaining imran? No where have you seen me complain, I simply asked what you wanted this ice queen to do for ya! She acts like a B@tch she is an ice queen she bakes you a cake she is soft. Its nothing more or less then that. Regardless if i have the opportunity to vote is not the point because even if i did it dont make a flip to begin with. What ever is gonna be done is gonna be done. I find it funny that all that do vote seem to think that their opinion matters becasue in the end its all gonna end the same, Failed promises and gee i dunno **** that dont matter put into effect.

Hillary isn't the only one who's suffered from this problem and it isn't just a "female problem."

There was the old joke: "How can you pick Al Gore out of a roomful of Secret Service men?' The Answer: "He's the wooden one."

I remember being almost scared of John Kerry's smile after he got the nomination. It looked as if someone had crammed a coathanger in his mouth, sideways.

Both Gore and Kerry worked on humanizing their images. And Hillary has done the same. Not only was her announcement speech well done but I've seen her in two interviews since, and she's been very warm in both. It's plain to see, she realized she has an image problem and has been working hard on solving it.

[Drake Tungsten]

yah, well, the blacks remember her husband, who was the blackest white President we've ever had. Also the most Jewish Gentile President.

There's also questions about whether the black community views Obama as one of their own.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

yah, well, the blacks remember her husband, who was the blackest white President we've ever had. Also the most Jewish Gentile President.

There's also questions about whether the black community views Obama as one of their own.

Yep. In fact, Salon just published a piece by a black pundit called "Colorblind," in which the author claimed that, in the American context, "black" does not refer to skin color per se but, more narrowly, to descendents of West Africans brought to North America by force. In that context, Obama is not black, but instead a son of an immigrant, like Mario Cuomo -- and that's his real appeal.

Not surprisingly, this argument was met with howls of protest and derision -- from Salon's largely white readership.

[Drake Tungsten]

It seems Kaus has added a link to the same Salon piece to his post on the topic...

http://www.slate.com/id/2158010/&#obamablackvoters

[Adam Smith]

COLUMN in yesterday's Washington Post.

Clinton's Presidential Posturing
By David S. Broder
Sunday, January 28, 2007; Page B07

When Lt. Gen. David Petraeus went before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week in open session, its members understandably had many questions for the new commander of American forces in Iraq.

They knew of his reputation as a battlefield leader, trainer of Iraqi troops and co-author of the Army manual on counterinsurgency warfare. They also recognized the difficulty and importance of his new assignment.

Many of the questions probed the rationale for the president's new strategy of injecting more U.S. troops into Baghdad neighborhoods racked by killings by rival Sunni and Shiite gangs. Others challenged the readiness of Iraqi forces and the Baghdad government to do their part in reducing sectarian violence.

A few of the questions were naive, self-serving or tangents. But virtually all members of the committee were present, and senators of both parties recognized the value of probing this experienced and candid witness.

With one exception. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York used her time to make a speech about Iraq policy and did not ask a single question of the man who will be leading the military campaign.

Her speech replayed some of the themes from her news conference the previous week, on her return from Iraq, when she made clear her disagreement with President Bush's decision to add 21,500 soldiers and Marines to Petraeus's force.

She began by blaming the Iraq crisis on a "Congress [that] was supine under the Republican majority, failing to conduct oversight and demanding accountability, and because the president and his team, particularly the former secretary of defense, refused to adapt to the changing circumstances on the ground."

From that partisan opening, Clinton went on to decry "the failures of the Iraqis to step up and take responsibility for their own future." She said that the escalation Bush ordered was too little and too late and instead called on Congress to "threaten to cut money for the Iraqi troops and for the security for the Iraqi leadership," as a way to break the political gridlock in Baghdad and force efforts at national reconciliation.

She wound up the speech by saying that despite her disagreement with the policy, she wanted Petraeus's assurance that "we have every possible piece of equipment and resource necessary to protect these young men and women" going into battle.

"I'll do that, Senator," Petraeus said, and after that four-word response, Clinton was finished. She had no questions to ask.

Judging by all the polls, Clinton is the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a leading candidate for the Republican nomination, is also a member of the Armed Services Committee.

McCain asked Petraeus 14 questions, ranging from the political situation in Iraq to the morale of the troops to the timeline for the planned "surge." He ran out of time before he ran out of questions -- quite a contrast to Clinton.

Clinton aides said that the senator thought it was important to rebut the comments from several other committee members suggesting that congressional resolutions opposing the president's policy would "undercut the troops," so she used her time for that purpose. But I can think of three other possible explanations for her remarkable reluctance to probe the general's thinking.

First, she has been treading a careful line from her early support of military action against Saddam Hussein to an increasingly sharp criticism of the war and calls for troop reductions. Perhaps she feared that dialogue with Petraeus would lead her into dangerous, uncharted waters. Caution is commendable, but she is sometimes faulted for being too calculating.

Second, the hearing came only three days after she announced her presidential exploratory committee, and she may have decided it was a good opportunity to repeat her views on Iraq policy before TV cameras rather than share time with the general. That wouldn't say much about her priorities as she begins a second six-year term as senator, but New York voters presumably knew in November that she might have loftier goals than just minding her Senate duties.

The third, less benign possibility is that Clinton is reverting to the mode of her ill-fated 1993-94 health-care initiative, when she gave members of Congress and other interested folks the impression that she thought she had all the answers -- so please just do as I say. In that period, she and her deputy, Ira Magaziner, two of the smartest policy wonks in captivity, were also supremely self-confident -- and in some eyes, arrogant. And it cost them support, even among potential allies.

This month Clinton began her presidential campaign, as she did her first race for the Senate in New York, by saying that she wanted to do a lot of listening. She sure wasn't listening to Gen. Petraeus. She wasn't even asking.



I think the author is probably drawing too strong a conclusion from one incident. But when someone as astute as Broder (probably the most respected US political correspondent, and a Demorcat) picks up on something like this, people tend to pay attention.

edit: formatting

[Wezil]

...she is sometimes faulted for being too calculating.

This was always my concern with HRC. I suspect she would say or do anything if the numbers told her to do so. I don't trust her.

[gwillybj]

Will americans say "yes maam" to their next president ?

ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY NOT! ... if, that is, it is madame Hillary you think it to be. On the other hand, Madeleine Albright would do the job quite well.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Re: Will americans say "yes maam" to their next president ?

Originally posted by gwillybj
ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY NOT! ... if, that is, it is madame Hillary you think it to be. On the other hand, Madeleine Albright would do the job quite well.

Thank God she's not allowed to; Secretary of State Albright was a churlish, high-handed egomaniac who ran State by talking and listening only to teh cadre of like-minded cronies she brought on board with her, and ignoring the collective expertise of the entire diplomatic corps. She was a bad executive and a mediocre SecState; she'd be an awful president.

[Joseph]

Re: Re: Will americans say "yes maam" to their next president ?

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Thank God she's not allowed to; Secretary of State Albright was a churlish, high-handed egomaniac who ran State by talking and listening only to teh cadre of like-minded cronies she brought on board with her, and ignoring the collective expertise of the entire diplomatic corps. She was a bad executive and a mediocre SecState; she'd be an awful president.

She was not born in the USA, so no problem.