‘The Hillary I Know’
EmailABC News’ Kate Snow and Eloise Harper Report: In a beautiful old wooden barn, Hillary Clinton was almost upstaged by her friends Monday morning.
With just over two weeks before Iowans vote, Clinton’s campaign is doing all it can to paint a fuller picture of the candidate.
"I should almost just say thank you…" Clinton said as she took the microphone from her childhood friend Betsy Ebeling, who she’s known since the sixth grade.
This was no roof-raising rally. There was no shouting. The crowd was small and intimate. The tone was soft, the words carefully-chosen.
"Here in Iowa, I want you to have some flavor of who I am outside of the television cameras, when all the cameras and the lights disappear," Clinton said in a warm, but subdued voice. "What I do when nobody’s listening or taking notes or recording it."
Ebeling had just talked about Hillary as captain of the crossing guards — wearing a goofy sash, the new kid on the bus.
Shannon Mallozzi, the Long Island, N.Y. mother of a six-year-old girl with a incurable brain disease, drew tears when she told of meeting the senator for the first time.
"My perception of her was a media-cultivated one," Mallozzi said. "I thought she was a bit remote." Then, she said, they sat in a parked car and talked mom-to-mom.
"That day the senator took my hand and she said, ‘I’m a mom too.’" She described how the senator called the doctors and nurses at her daughter’s hospital, working to get her the very best care.
"When she’s with us, she’s our girlfriend," Ebeling told the room.
"We’re not all the same in every setting we find ourselves in are we?" Clinton asked rhetorically.
The event coincides with the launch of a new website — thehillaryiknow.com — filled with testimonials from "people who really know" Clinton.
Call it saccharin. Call it predictable. But Clinton’s advisors are banking that the strategy is political gold.
Sen. Clinton’s senior advisors have been concerned in recent weeks that they’re losing male voters to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Events like Monday’s are meant to bolster support among Iowa women in particular.
Supporters of Clinton — mainly women — have been holding house parties and going door-to-door across snowy Iowa.
In this week before people leave on Christmas vacations, Clinton has a packed schedule. She and her surrogates, including Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson, have events planned in all of Iowa’s 99 counties. And she is inviting Iowans to give her a close inspection.
Again Monday, Clinton made the strange comparison between voters choosing a candidate and farmers choosing cattle. At a barn in Dunlap, Iowa on Sunday, Clinton compared herself to a steer, suggesting that voters should "look inside [her] mouth."
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So let me see if Ive got this right. Hillary is making videos proclaiming that she really is warm and cuddly, and dragging people around to events so that they can tell of her goodness as well. This is gonna backfire faster than John Kerry’s idea to bring some liberal swifties on stage and share tears and hugs of gratitude. The American people can smell a put-on in a second. Really bad idea Hillary.
Posted by: bill h. | December 17, 2007, 12:31 pm 12:31 pm
Hillary is a very caring- and very capable person. The media has done a terrible job in portraying her in an effort to get ratings. With all the negative press about Hillary (most of it false) it speaks volumes to her true character that she would be polling as high as she is. I hope people get the message with her new campaign initiative that she will work hard for Americans every single day in the White House. Thankfully, Hillary will likely still win the Democratic nomination and then the Presidency.
Posted by: Christopher C. | December 17, 2007, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
“Thankfully, Hillary will likely still win the Democratic nomination and then the Presidency.”
More than a few of us are out to change that.
Posted by: L Robinson | December 17, 2007, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
what a joke. Hillary needs to tell people she really is not cold, ect. She needs testimonials to let people know this? OMG.
It smacks of real desperation.
If you need to do videos to try to convince people that you really are not like the person that people keep getting the vibe she is, then she needs to pack it in.
Just like her needing Bill to come to her rescue. What does that say. She cannot do this on her own. Really makes people wonder
Or the fact that her campaign has totally gone off the rails because of one bad debate. She cannot withstand adversity.
Couple all this with poor judgment and you have someone who is a disaster.
Then, look at the way Obama has coolly and professionally run his campaign, has deflected the HRC attacks, usually with some very good wit, and you see a real leader.
Posted by: vwcat | December 17, 2007, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm
I think Barack Obama has a lot more flexibility to say whatever the hell he wants – and Hillary is in the unfortunate position of having her every move scrutinized. For that, I say give her the nomination. She’s inspiring and a much stronger candidate than Obama.
Posted by: Mike | December 17, 2007, 5:48 pm 5:48 pm
How sweet that Hillary’s childhood friends attest to how likeable she is, as they know her. Fact is, Hillary is still a cold, me-person. She has not been able to project hersef, nor is she cabable of projecting herself, as likeable to the public forum. So, she has to drag in personal friends to attest to her “being nice”!! Very sad!! She comes across as shrill, domineering, condecending, and unapproachabe,…and let’s not forget that hyenish cackle. Sorry Hillary, you can bring in all your personal friends’ testimonials; that still does NOT change your image.
Posted by: Nina | December 17, 2007, 8:09 pm 8:09 pm
Clinton compared herself to a steer, suggesting that voters should “look inside [her] mouth.”
Not exactly a farm girl, is she? You look inside the mouth because an inspection of the teeth helps approximate the age – to avoid getting an old one. Edwards, Clinton, Obama – is she suggesting we vote for someone younger?
Posted by: Tom J | December 17, 2007, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
Why is it sooooo necessary to put down a Candidate you are not going to vote for? Does it make you feel “intelligent”? Is it just that you like showing the world what a potty mouth you can be?
Posted by: Chuck | December 18, 2007, 4:19 am 4:19 am
What ever happened to “ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THEN WORDS?” Why is the media so bent out of shape about everything Hillary does or doesnt say? Why arent they comparing health plans, voting records and who has crossed party lines?
It is so easy to say we want CHANGE, but please show me how the candidates have fought or worked for change. It is disgusting that the media doesnt take more reponsibility for reporting facts . Later they will have to take responsibility for electing a person who
cant get us out of the horrible mess we are in today in every area!
Posted by: sue | December 18, 2007, 10:19 am 10:19 am
No matter what Hillary Clinton does to try to change the negative opinions some small-minded Americans have of her, there will always be a sizable segment of the public who decided long ago that they would HATE HILLARY until hell freezes over. And why? Well, rarely do they bother to offer any concrete, rational reasons for their vitriol towards the Senator, except the usual ambiguous “there’s something about her” that they just don’t like. Please! Stop the madness!
For 15 years the corporate controlled media of this country has played up as many negatives as it could about the Senator and her husband, create and perpetuating the idea that they were the ultimate political couple who thirsted after power in a manner never seen before, and the American public bought this ruse hook, line and sinker. Please! Stop the madness!
Yes, Hillary is calculating and cunning, occasionally arrogant, and sometimes appears overly “packaged,” but name a politician who doesn’t share those “faults.” Barack Obama? Please. He’s just as media hungry and politically power hungry as Hillary or anyone else — Republican or Democrat — seeking their party’s nomination. Don’t be fooled by his “Kum Ba Ya” “can’t we all get along?” superficial character.
Hate Hillary, if you like, but please, do so because of differences on the issue, not because of her so-called personality deficits. After all, this office of the presidency of the United States that’s on the line, not presidency of the student council. The issues are sooo much bigger than that.
Posted by: Rita | December 20, 2007, 8:27 pm 8:27 pm