A new voice for Hillary

Wednesday, 9th January 2008

So what happened? The New York Times thinks it knows:

Several New Hampshire women, some of them undecided until Tuesday, said in interviews that a galvanizing moment in the race had been Mrs. Clinton’s unusual display of emotion on Monday when her eyes filled with tears and her voice cracked as she described the pressures of the race and her goals for the nation.’ As voters began to see the choice they have and heard Hillary speak from her heart, they came back to her,’ said Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategist.

Well, if this is really true then the Dianafication of America that I wrote about below really has started to rot the US brain big-time. But maybe other factors were also at work in New Hampshire. Maybe the post-Iowa feeding frenzy over Obama made the NH voters look much harder at him and realise he was a dubious flake. Maybe the fact that Iowa voted through a non-secret ballot made a difference. Maybe the Clinton machine simply managed to mobilise its core vote. Many theories will now doubtless fill many pages. Who knows. The only thing we can be sure of is that anyone who predicts the outcome of this presidential race, including the pollsters, can safely be ignored.

But just watch Hillary now do empathy. She is being made over -- and Obama will find himself triangulated.

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Ian C

January 9th, 2008 12:54pm

If history is anything to go by the initial burst of primaries is followed by a big yawn for early unexepected front-runners. Iowa was a wake up call and presumably a galvinising moment for HC and her team - but their $100m reserves enabled them to fight back quickly. If the only decent candiaite of them all is McCain we must want HC to see off Obama so that McCain knows what he's dealing with. A Princess Obama will have such momenmtum if (s)he gets the nomination.

J. Isaacs

January 9th, 2008 2:30pm

Uncle Sam's Animal Farm. Chapter 1 Synopsis. Hillary the crying hen, ably assisted by korova the cow (no Obama fan), plots a trap for Napoleon Obama ("NO" to his friends), the hot favourite in the race for the Farm House. But NO has the long-horned Rev Goat Boy behind him. Since Goat Boy is of the cloth, he plans to enact a Munich putsch-style coup on NO's current chief henchman, Dr. Right, the Black horse whisperer minister. Who will win the charge to the Farm House? Don't miss the next thrilling instalment.

Joseph McNulty

January 9th, 2008 8:19pm

This election could be called "The Revenge of the Boomers" According to Michael Barone, a politically-astute analyst of elections, 55% of the electorate in New Hampshire is OVER 50 -- in other words, a "Boomer." This is a generation that looks back fondly on the Clinton era. This, plus the staged "moment of emotion" (okay, give her credit for carrying off something not in character, although Bill can fake emotion effortlessly) brought out the aging women "Boomer" vote for Hillary. This may have turned out to be a good day for conservatives, because Obama, had he strided ahead to the nomination with ease, was probably unbeatable because the press will hesitate to examine him for fear of being branded as "racist."

Joseph McNulty

January 9th, 2008 8:22pm

Friend of Bill

January 9th, 2008 9:51pm

Boo-hoo. Wa, wa, wa. Hillary has found her note to, once again, snow the ingnorant. A path of tears to the White House. She won't "tear up" again (they neglected to show the plate of fresh cut onions beneath her nose) but she will carefully nod to the "event". She has finally found the soft spot with women voters. Maybe she will be baking cookies for her man after all.

field

January 9th, 2008 9:58pm

I don't think the general voter will be impressed by tears and tantrums. Not when they are electing someone who will have the power to send us all up in smoke.

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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'Londonistan', published by Encounter and Gibson Square.

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