Hillary Clinton: The Teflon Candidate?

(CBS)  It's getting a little more rough and tumble among the Democrats who want to be president, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod

"I heard Sen. Clinton say on Sunday that she wants to continue combat missions on Iraq. To me that's a continuation of the war," Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said at the Democratic debate in New Hampshire Wednesday night.

Hillary Clinton's rivals see her turning a steady-as-she-goes campaign performance into solid front-runner status and they're sharpening their attacks.

Barack Obama reached back 13 years to her unyielding approach during her health care failure of 1994.

"If it was lonely for Hillary, part of the reason it was lonely, Hillary, was because you closed the door to a lot of potential allies in that process," he said.

But so far, no one's laid a glove on her. During the latest debate, she said "no" when asked by moderator Tim Russert if torture was acceptable to break up a terror plot, as another politician suggested to him.

"The guest who laid out this scenario for me, with that proposed solution, was William Jefferson Clinton last year. So he disagrees with you," Russert said.

"Well, he is not standing here right now," she responded to applause.

Clinton's 2002 vote for the war, the health care debacle and ties to a corrupt fundraiser -- something was supposed to stick. So far, nothing has.

"Don't people think there's so much negative attached to this woman?" asks Axelrod.

"You might think there's more negative because she's in the public eye for a lot more years. All these other guys, all of a sudden they're popping up from here and there. She's been there through thick and thin with Bill," says New Hampshire voter Debbie Fields.

The war and health care are both potential minefields for her, and she's slipped both punches, says Democratic consultant Anita Dunn.

"It's a very risky proposition to be the person who goes and really starts defining differences in a negative fashion and that's because, generally there's a third candidate who ends up being the beneficiary of those fights - you can ask Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt who wins those fights, and the answer is John Kerry," Dunn said.

Nothing points up this Teflon quality of Clinton more than the war. She took a lot of hits from the left when she wouldn't apologize for her vote to go to war. But in the most recent national polls, when asked which Democrat Americans trusted most on Iraq, the answer was Hillary Clinton.

[watcher269-2009]

Teflon? That title is W''s! Not Clinton''s!

[whispyseas]

'' ... i couldn''t give you less than free food and free medicine forever if i even wanted to ... nah, actually: to feed the world, i gotta tax everyone in the world and deny options to the begging ... soo laughing ... anyways: i''ve been wondering lately, if the average county is 577 square miles and 90,000 folk occupying 300 16 acre trail crossings and 300 folk in 300 weeks turn out 90,000 (little eco friendly non resource depleting) museums of medical you are here map song dance skit kit, and 90,000 folk turn out many billion museums of medical you are here map song dance skit kit in the same period, and for many many small small tips, and the average home is 340 squre feet with 2500 square feet of garden and costs anywhere from $2400 to $60,000; then, on a cosmic scale: what''s the average county skize? and how many trail trail crossings? of how many cubic light years? and how many naked folk dance get well feed world songs rallyd round the sick beds drifting the spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trail groups at each trail crossing? and how many (little eco friendly non resource depleting) museums of medical you are here map song dance skit kit does each collection of how many folk turn out in what amount of time? and how volume density surfacearea is the average homed sheltet and the average lawn? and what''s the average cost? ... ''

[prinzowhales]

"Teflon Candidate?"--Not hardly! There are gobs of dirt all over this creature--her supporters, like the Bush-worshippers, and those addled souls who stood with Tammy Faye and Jim Baker to the end, simply refuse to see the diseased nature of the creatures they so admire. Like goslins who think a dog is their mother...nothing can disabuse them of this, even when the dog gets hungry.

[sftodd]

Thats not true. They are cowards because they refuse to deal with [sodomy].
Posted by pwrslm at 09:46 AM : Sep 28, 2007

LOL! You are the republican dream, an ignorant voter who doesn''t know what''s good for the economy or the country, but is running scared of what his neighbor does in the privacy of his bedroom! If only people were having more heterosexual missionary position s e x, everything would be fine! Grow up!

[sjc_1]

How you run a campaign can be an indicator of your management skills in general. I know that there are professionals in the campaign business, but the candidate has to approve, change or reject the recommendations of the advisers.

[getloud1]

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[jbb333]

The reason Senator Clinton is "teflon" is that the people who attack her are childish and obnoxiously rude.

She is riding on "her husband''s" coattails? No, she''s riding on the coattails of the most popular Democratic President in recent times.
EVERY candidate should be riding those coattails. The other candidates have chosen to ignore BC, probably because they think it helps HRC.
FACT: When BC left office, 70% of America thought we were going in the right direction.
Today, with a Republican President, 70% of America thinks we are going in the WRONG direction.

Norman Hsu? Try Jack Abramoff!
He''s still singing about more GOP Congressmen he bribed, so still a factor in 2008, as more head to prison.

Rumors of rape?
Try the Duke LaCrosse team.
Guilty of rape just because the Republican Smear Machine says so?

The long list of "Clinton scandals" they call Blah-blah-blah Gate?
Investigated for years and years by the Republican Congress, for millions and millions and millions of tax dollars.
Result?
Both Clintons'' approval numbers SOARED, and they haven''t fallen since.

The Republican Smear Machine attacked Hillary Clinton the minute she announced her run for Senate in 2000.
She won the Senate seat.

In 2006, the Republican Smear Machine said she needed to win NY by over 60% to be "viable."
She won by over 65%.

Teflon? Compared to Senator Clinton in every forum, the Clinton Haters look like a bunch of giggling sixth-grade bully-boys in a circle jerk.

Go away. You''re boring.

[socrates392]

"Sodomy is no good for the United States."

Posted by pwrslm at 08:05 AM : Sep 28, 2007

I have it on good authority pwrslm knows from personal experience! Once he even tried taking the whole United States up his bum. It was not good for the United States . . . or his bum . . .

[sftodd]

"Sodomy is no good for the United States."
- Posted by pwrslm at 08:05 AM : Sep 28, 2007

I don''''t know. I''''ve never tried it.

Posted by Iceman_1960 at 10:54 AM : Sep 28, 2007

Iceman -- don''t make fun of pwrslm -- she has some deep deep fears about others finding out about her homosexuality.

[speakinup]

Yeah - ain''t it amazin how all the idiot Lefties on this site talk about OUT NOW, and Hillary is saying,

"Well, gee, I don''t know, I don''t think I could do that, but wait, let me get a recent poll, then I''ll let you know my decision. Well, at least my decision for the next 3 hours."