Dec 1, 2007
Clinton Seizes Opportunity After Crisis
Politico: Democratic Hopeful Looked Like A Woman In Charge After Hostage Drama
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Play CBS Video Video Clinton Statement After Crisis "CBS News RAW": Sen. Hillary Clinton makes a brief statement of gratitude for the safety of her campaign staff before heading to New Hampshire.
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Video Hillary's Bomb Scare Standoff A man wearing what appeared to a bomb held hostages at the Rochester, New Hampshire campaign office of Hillary Clinton and demanded to speak with her personally. Paul Burton reports.
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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks at a news conference Friday, Nov. 30, 2007, in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP)
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Photo Essay Hillary Clinton A look at a life and career full of firsts.
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Interactive Campaign 2008 Profiles of the candidates, polls, fund-raising, blogs, video and more.
Friday afternoon began with possible tragedy: A hostage crisis at Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire.
As the incident unfolded Clinton’s campaign closed its doors and canceled her public appearances.
But nightfall brought a happy ending: the campaign workers safe, the man in police custody - and Clinton flying to the scene to express thanks.
The hostage-taking itself offered a rare, if small, genuine drama in a campaign season governed by strict schedules and scripted stump speeches.
And as soon as it ended, Clinton took full advantage of the opportunity she had unexpectedly been handed.
In her New Hampshire press conference, she stood before a column of police in green and tan uniforms. She talked of meeting with hostages. She mentioned that she spoke to the state’s governor about eight minutes after the incident began.
The scene was one of a woman in charge.
“It looked and sounded presidential,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “This was an instance of the White House experience of this campaign. They knew how to handle this.”
That the crisis was outside Clinton's control gave it a rare quality in this era of hyper-controlled politicking, Sabato added.
“What’s most important about it is that it’s not contrived. It’s a real event and that distinguishes it from 99 percent of what happens in the campaign season.”
Clinton’s campaign has long been dogged by key questions: is she authentic, does she genuinely have the experience to be president, and is the country ready for a woman as commander in chief - especially during wartime.
“She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be president as an internship just doesn’t make any sense,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, said in one campaign ad.
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has argued the same line.
“I don’t know Hillary’s experience,” Giuliani has said. “She’s never run a city, she's never run a state. She’s never run a business. She has never met a payroll. She has never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people, much less even hundreds of people.”
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.
In her two public appearances after the hostages were freed, she was stern, but she also spoke of the concerns she felt as a mother, admitting to a “horrible sense of bewilderment” and “outrage.”
Her decision to express her personal anxieties offered a window into how she may veer into territory men avoid - personal feelings during a possible public tragedy.
The personal has at times been hard to find in Clinton. She heads the largest and most manicured of all operations.
Her campaign has an especially organized staff that surrounds her. She stays on script and she stays on schedule.
Even as she flew to New Hampshire Friday evening, she was planning to return to Iowa Saturday in order to return to schedule.
What the hostage incident offered Clinton was a brief reprieve from the petty narrative of her versus Sen. Barack Obama, a break from what at times has devolved to intra-party bickering.
“Voters look for opportunities to see how candidates react in crisis,” Sabato said. “And this wasa mini crisis.”
Copyright 2007 POLITICO
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See all 167 CommentsThe Clintons love to use political stunts to get more attention.
Posted by nameverify at 03:59 PM : Dec 02, 2007
As a fellow citizen of this nation I have to ask why YOU didn''t listen to what she said and did during and after her supporters and workers were taken hostage. When we have gone through the WORST Presidency in our History with someone who can''t even put a sentence together and acts like his government is from the Old Soviet Union, I''d have to question as to why you didn''t? You do know that bigotry and hatred is WHY we are living with the WORST in our history don''t you???
She looks confident and quite elegant.
Political party of people with all their teeth.
The Republicans
Political party of people who obviously think modern
dentistry is the devil.
Brush your teeth, rednecks!
Gulfstream Jet. If you look in the dictionary, Gulph is actually an alternate spelling for Gulf. Having lived in Gulph Mills, PA, that is the spelling i am used to. An honest mistake.
Not bad for a high school deplomacy education.
You might want to look this one up as well,
"A bigot is a prejudiced person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from his or her own."
Take your hatred elsewhere.
Not long ago, someone actually did ask that question.
Hillary''''s response was, the current law permitts that. It''''s true, there is a loophole that exactly permitts that. He response should have been, you are correct, that is a practice I will stop.
Each year the Clinton''''s make 10-50 million dollars. She could easily have reported the correct amount.
That would require integrity. Hey, if you don''''t have it when you are running for office, I wouldn''''t expect that you would acquire it while in office.
"I never had *** with that women"
Hillary, eventually we do catch on.
You are the Republican''''s dream Democratic candidate. That is why they are donating Gulphstream Jets for you to fly on.
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Posted by why__not at 11:26 AM : Dec 02, 2007
+ report abuse
*** like this has no business in this argument... NONE. It''s garbage like this that people.. TOE TAPPERS like Rove use to get simple minded Red Necks to vote against what is in their OWN best interest. It''s time we moved away from such division...
And Ron Paul, amusingly refreshing tho'''' he may be, in no way has the capability to be President. In fact, if you listen to his rhetoric, I''''d be surprised if he didn''''t support the Confederacy''''s right to secede from the USA.
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Posted by gkc99 at 12:10 PM : Dec 02, 2007
+ report abuse
You make more sense than anyone I''ve read on here. You may support some other canidate but to buy into the SAME garbage we''ve seen for the last 6 years is just INSANE.
The CFR Bush/Clinton oligarchy works together."--Posted by gunownerdan
With people of reputation like Colin Powell, and the official "slam dunk" pronouncements by the head of the CIA Tenet, backing up the lies and deceit of the Bushits, a lot of people were deceived. Nobody wanted to see Saddam with H-bombs. Yet it was Bushit and the Neocons who gambled their reputation and credibility on there being not only WMD in Iraq, but such a threat of imminent use by Saddam that the United Nations process was ineffective. This has since been shown to be an engineered lie, "the intelligence was fixed around the result."
The Clintons leave much to be desired--I''ll support Obama--but they''re head and shoulders above the corrupt incompetence and arrogance of the Darth Bushit admin.
And Ron Paul, amusingly refreshing tho'' he may be, in no way has the capability to be President. In fact, if you listen to his rhetoric, I''d be surprised if he didn''t support the Confederacy''s right to secede from the USA.
"Gulphstream"? This must reflect the typical educational level of the non-billionaire Bushit population.
Hillary is the Repugniscum Party''s worst nightmare. That''s why the smear grease is getting laid on so thick by the Neoconscum shills.
Not long ago, someone actually did ask that question.
Hillary''s response was, the current law permitts that. It''s true, there is a loophole that exactly permitts that. He response should have been, you are correct, that is a practice I will stop.
Each year the Clinton''s make 10-50 million dollars. She could easily have reported the correct amount.
That would require integrity. Hey, if you don''t have it when you are running for office, I wouldn''t expect that you would acquire it while in office.
"I never had *** with that women"
Hillary, eventually we do catch on.
You are the Republican''s dream Democratic candidate. That is why they are donating Gulphstream Jets for you to fly on.
I agree. That would have taken courage.
There is an old joke which almost applies. A women goes into a store looking for a dress. In this particular store, they have white mannikens surrounded by banks of flood lights.
The clerk asks the women what color dress she would like. She replies "green".
The clerk hollers, Harry, turn on the green lights, the women wants a green dress.
What Hillary believes is that she would like to be President of the United States. Her campaign is better produced than Saterday Night Live.
Good luck, and good night Hillary.
ronpaul2008.com
All of this is a shame, when 40 million Americans do not have health insurance. If is very difficult to actually predict what a person will do in office, and more importantly what decisions she/he may face.
Why is it that we have so much trouble finding a person with integrity and honesty who would like to be the President of the United States?
I would be great to have a women candidate who was qualified and who you could trust. That is not going to happen in 2008.
"AT least this crisis wasn''t staged, unlike Bushit and his Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction lies."
Bush''s WMD lies about Iraq are also Hitlery''s lies, don''t you remember that she fully supported the war?
The CFR Bush/Clinton oligarchy works together.
How do you know it wasn''t staged?
Hitlery has already been caught using plants before.
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