The boo birds return for Clinton speech
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- June
- 20
She wore a canary yellow business suit. And like a canary in a coal mine that needs fresh air to survive, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton found the atmosphere generally good this morning during her speech to hundreds of liberal activists taking part in the annual Take Back America conference in Washington.
The New York Democrat’s biggest applause line came when she related an often told anecdote about how former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was greeted by flag-waving Eastern Europeans who had saved the U.S. flags given to them by American liberators at the end of World War II.
“I want to be that president who restores that feeling about America around the world,’’ Clinton said, softly adding, “Equally and importantly I want to restore that feeling here at home.’’
But there were some boo birds. They jeered the Democratic presidential hopeful when she blamed the Iraqi government for the continued violence that has bogged down U.S. troops. One of them, asking that he not be identified, said he thinks the U.S. government is to blame for the continued military presence in Iraq and not that country’s government.
B. Blair Talmadge of Philadelphia, a campaign organizer, described the jeers as predictable. “She voted for the war and she’s sticking to her guns,’’ he said.
Terry Adams, a New York City transit worker, thinks most Democratic activists “have gotten past’’ Clinton’s vote to authorize the war. “People believe her effort to bring back the troops is a true effort,’’ Adams said.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 9:20 am by Brian Tumulty.
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NEW Yorkers should NOT get past the fact she’s a clinton. and not a NYer.
and being a clinton will change with the tide and not have a conviction of her own except to be popular.
There must be a powerful, anti-imperialism leg of the Democratic party before any ‘compromising’ can be had. The Clinton’s entire legacy is based on taking advantage of, exploiting, and selling out Democratic values. Right-wing Republicans learned what Paul Wellstone (and Ronald Reagan) knew: voters will choose politicians with conviction, who speak from their heart and act on their principles, even if voters don’t always agree with them. The right won power by being a column, not “triangulating.” (They failed because their policies are flawed and unsupportable.)
Hillary’s story about the 48-starred flag in Eastern Europe is a nice, moving story—but false. One could buy American flags in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, indeed when I was an exchange student there I was amused at how popular the US flag was. (I’m sure SOME families saved their flag, but that’s now what she says in her speech.)
Simply put, Hillary is not the leader America needs at this critical time.