Wingnuts Freak Over a Presidential Clinton
01 December 2007 3:03 pm by Taylor Marsh
I’ve been battling Internet connection since last night, so I’m on the
move at a cafe posting, because it’s still hell in my web world. So that’s why
I haven’t been around much today. I’m trying to get back online, but evidently
rain is just too much for COX cable to handle. I’ll likely be mobile all weekend. So feel free to use this thread to discuss this topic, but to also let me know what you’re hearing and reading. I’m in and out on web connection right now. … ..
When I finally got to a place with a connection today,
needless to say seeing Ann Althouse’s rambling rhetoric on Clinton was a vista for my eyes.
How delicious. Surfing around proved even more entertaining. Conservatives just can’t stand Clinton looking presidential. Some Democrats can’t admit it either.
Stretching the analysis a bit here (hey, it’s a Friday evening), I wonder if it also subtly reinforces the sense that Hillary somehow provokes crazy, extreme reactions among people in a way the likes of Obama and Edwards do not–which goes to the larger questions of electability and governing ability.
TNR sucking wingnut talking points through a straw.
But the conservative blogosphere just doesn’t know what to do. Althouse
delivers a classic.
Well, once the hostages were released, it wasn’t even a crisis anymore, but
what does it mean that she looks held-together when she strolls out for a
photo-op?
Let me get this straight. A local New Hampshire volunteer campaign staff was threatened by a lunatic who was mentally ill and had something explosive strapped to his body, which we didn’t know until later was not nearly as bad as it could have been, but saying something after the crisis is over
and law enforcement handled it flawlessless is a “photo-op”? Imagine
if Clinton had said nothing and gone on with her campaigning. Althouse also
ignores the rise in any threat level once something like this happens. You don’t
take it lightly.
Afterwards, she used the occasion to make a show of her emotions (or did
you think she was cold and mechanical?). She said:
“It affected me not only because they were my staff members and volunteers,
but as a mother, it was just a horrible sense of bewilderment, confusion,
outrage, frustration, anger, everything at the same time.”Is that what you want in a President? Someone who feels extra confusion
because she’s a mother?
This is truly remarkable. Compassion isn’t a virtue. Understanding what parents
feel when their kid is in danger, especially when they’re under your auspices
in some way as they are in volunteering, isn’t appropriate? Only if you’re Hillary
Clinton. But in the end Althouse gives herself away.
… Let’s just hope there aren’t copycats out there ready to turn their despondent
drinking binges into a day of fame that helps their favorite political candidate.
“… that helps their favorite political candidate.” In the end, her rant leads her to the core of her frustrations. Hillary Clinton looking presidential just drives the wingnuts, well, nuts.
Oh, and speaking of drinking
binges.
The truth is that Althouse, even after her unhinged analysis, finally reveals
the real fears of conservatives. That Clinton will prove to be anything but
what the stereotype of her is in the wingnut world, which has been long woven into the political culture through the concerted efforts of right-wing hate radio, which even some Democrats love to parrot. But if Clinton defies the description, then what will Republicans do?
Looking the part
Friday presented Clinton with a moment to look the part of president.
“You had one of these breaking news stories … and so everybody was
glued to the set,” said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier
Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “She
got on TV and provided a sense of closure and executive cool. It is like how
Giuliani used television during his crisis.“There was a sense that this was a dress rehearsal of how she was going
to deal with … crisis as president,” Thompson added. … ..
Petty,
partisan and ungracious
was all the wingnuts had to offer. On this one, silence would have been golden.
Because through all their rhetorical railing all they reveal is panic.
It’s a feast for Democrats.
