Wake Up Call: New Hampshire
gotcha, america!
2008-01-09
By Terry Glover
The Peoples’ Choice Awards broadcast last night were must-see-TV. Huge crowds, media everywhere, people pushing in for a better look. I’m speaking, of course, not about the much hyped, over-inflated bit of show biz where regular folk vote for their favorite movie, song or action star, but about the New Hampshire primaries, where regular folk vote for their favorite presidential candidate. What a show.
John McCain pulled off a resounding Republican victory, with Fox News declaring him the victor by 7:00pm with 37% of the votes. By 7:30, CNN seconded the results. Mitt Romney, who came in second with 28% , said he was “in it for the long haul.” With a net worth of approximately $250 million, he certainly has the money. But, without a win at some point, all that amounts to is the campaign’s biggest tailgate party.
Early predictions coming out of the collar precincts and exit polls had Barack Obama, still buoyed by his victory laps in Iowa, pegged as the Democratic shoo-in. The buzz coming from Clinton’s corner was that they were running scared, shaking up her pit crew and tinkering under the hood. Hillary’s people sounded less than confident about her ability to come out of New Hampshire with a win, chief strategist Mark Penn thinly suggesting to Chris Matthews that nothing was firm until the last vote was counted.
After the double-digit drubbing she took in Iowa, Clinton decided to take matters into her own hands and she devised a masterful comeback plan to convince the New Hampshire electorate to swing her way. What did she do? She cried.
During one of the marathon Q & A sessions her team orchestrated in an effort to have voters get “in touch,” Clinton started to comment on the drudgery of running a campaign. It all just became too much for her and, her voice breaking just enough, she told the crowd how (sniff, sniff) hard it was, especially when she wanted so much for this country and didn’t want to see us lose all that we have gained.
It worked like a charm and the tide turned her way, media pundits gushing about the crack in Hillary’s armour, about her softer more vulnerable side coming through. In hindsight, it was apparent that Hil decided to play the girl card the minute she hit New Hampshire. She lost the edge in her delivery, opting instead for a softer, more feminine tone as she threw herself on the mercy of the electorate, her Q & A sessions a stark contrast to the planted questions and canned answers one state earlier.
This profoundly disturbing turn of events was made even more so by the fact that she bamboozled not just the voters (51% of women went with Hil, and her youth base went from over age 60 to under 40) but the pundits whom we trust to maintain their steely-eyed objectivity. Brokaw, Russert and Williams (both Brian and Juan) crumbled even as we saw Hillary peeking from behind her dainty handkerchief to survey the effects of her “meltdown.”
At around 10:00pm, Obama gave his concession speech, (Edwards had already taken his third-place 12% and high-tailed it to South Carolina) urging his supporters to “give Senator Clinton a big hand” for running a good race. In New Hampshire the Clintons had managed, he said, to “characterize their race,” a politic way of saying they had shown the levels to which they were willing to go. Was their plan strategic? Maybe. Clearly masterful. But, short of outright stealing an election, one of the most dishonest moves I’ve ever seen in a politician.
In her victory speech, Hillary told the great unwashed that, over the last five days, she had “listened to them and, in the process, found her own voice.” I could have sworn I heard “Feelings” playing in the background.
But I don’t want an emotionally vulnerable woman running my country any more than I want a duplicitous one. Can we expect more of the same when, say, congressional negotiations aren’t going her way? Will she excuse herself and run tearfully from the House floor sporting a pill box hat? This softer, kinder Hillary is the biggest flip flop of the campaign, yet no one seems willing to call her on it. Maybe they don’t want to make her cry.
The desperation coming off the Clintons was/is palpable. They’re not used to losing, and New Hampshire made it clear that they will do what it takes to avoid it, including casting Hillary as the June Cleaver of Capitol Hill. Don’t be surprised if she turns up in her next campaign spot in pearls and an apron. You know, she’ll be the one baking cookies.
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Terry Glover writes about current events, trends and popular culture for Ebonyjet.com.
