HILLARY JUMPED TO GO NEGATIVE TOO SOON
Hillary’s momentum in Pennsylvania may have stalled according to the most recent polling. If so, why? She jumped all over the Obama “bitter” comment the moment he said it. That meant that she probably didn’t poll it. With Penn sidelined, perhaps the campaign is not as poll dependent as it once was. In any case, it appears not to have been that big a deal in a Democratic primary. After all, putting down gun owners and those who take strong stands against immigration, and religious people is not all that bad among liberals.
BILL & HILL’S GAME: GOOD COP, BAD COP ON TRADE
Published in the New York Post on April 16, 2008.
People have always accused Bill Clinton of wanting to be all things to all people. Now he and Hillary have found a way to do it in her campaign.
The former first couple has a carefully choreographed pas-de-deux in which they take opposite sides of an issue, depending on Hillary’s political needs of the moment.
MCCAIN BEGINS TO GET IT RIGHT
Published on TheHill.com on April 15, 2008.
John McCain built up massive popularity among American voters with his populist opposition to swindlers, liars and thieves, whether in business, Congress, labor or the defense community. His take-no-prisoners attitude toward corruption and his willingness to battle it wherever it crops up has made him an icon among our political leaders.
But in 2008, that John McCain has been under wraps as he catered to the Republican electorate.
Only the Arizona senator’s opposition to terrorism – to be sure, a real part of his agenda – was on display. His populism was anesthetized under a blanket of conformity and positive boosterism.
HILLARY CYNICAL ON NAFTA
Nothing is as hypocritical as Hillary’s attempts to persuade us that she always opposed NAFTA. Her official schedule includes several meetings to back ratification and participants recall that she was strongly in favor. There is nothing in her memoirs to suggest anything other than strong support for one of her husband’s major achievements. And, in our personal phone conversations throughout 1993 we discussed the need to get NAFTA approved to boost Bill’s reputation for effectiveness, somewhat tattered after the defeat of his stimulus package.
HILLARY’S NAFTA PRETENSIONS
Published on FOXNews.com on April 11, 2008.
Forget about her claim to have dodged sniper’s bullets in Bosnia, or that she was named after Sir Edmund Hilary, or that she met a woman who was denied health care and died.
All of these Hillary Clinton fibs and exaggerations are basically harmless. But her current attempts to lie about her record and to pretend that she always opposed free trade agreements and disagreed with Bill on NAFTA is a serious distortion of her record as she searches for blue collar support in Pennsylvania.
HILL & LOBBYISTS: MORE THE MERRIER
Published in the New York Post on April 9, 2008.
When Hillary Clinton professed to be furious about Mark Penn’s lobbying for the Colombia Free Trade Pact, did she realize that she’s up to her ears in lobbyists for foreign entities?
Many of her top advisers and strongest supporters are registered lobbyists for foreign governments and corporations – and many may have gotten lucrative clients via referrals from Bill Clinton himself or by advertising their close connections to the couple.
Start with Colombia.
OBAMA’S WEAKNESS IS WEAKNESS
Published on TheHill.com on April 8, 2008.
The USA Today/Gallup Poll of late March suggests a strategy for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the general election. The poll compared Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and McCain on certain key variables. Here were the results:
Obama won:
- Cares about the needs of people like you, 66% to 54%
- Shares your values, 51% to 46%
- Understands the problems Americans face in their daily lives, 67% to 55%
PENN ONLY TIP OF LOBBYING ICEBERG
Published on TheHill.com on April 8, 2008.
The Clinton campaign decision to dismiss Mark Penn for lobbying for the Colombia Free Trade Agreement begs the question of the involvement of Grover Park, another lobbying firm staffed by Clintonistas, that now gets $40,000 per month to lobby for the agreement. Joe Lockhard, former Clinton press secretary and Clinton confidente and frequent spokesman, is a principal of the firm as is Howard Wolfson, now on a leave, who is the campaign spokesman. A third firm, Johnson-Madagin, also lobbies for Colombia. They were recently retained by Clinton loyalist Harold Ickes to assist in his efforts to get earmarks.
It is no coincidence that all three of the firms that lobby for the Colombia deal have Clinton connections. Until Hillary’s flip flop on free trade and NAFTA, the Clintons were in the forefront of efforts to secure free trade agreements around the world.
