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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Hillary Speaks: “Yes We Will”

posted by on March 4 at 20:38 PM

A great, exuberant speech by Clinton in Ohio just now. Did she just fire her old speech writers and install new ones? Or did she just finally hit on the right formula for tweaking Obama’s rhetoric to her own ends?

Some quotable moments:

For everyone in Ohio and across America who has been counted out but refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you.

You know what they say: As Ohio goes, so goes the nation. Well, this nation’s coming back and so is this campaign… The people of Ohio have said it loud and clearly: We’re going on, we’re going strong, and we’re going all the way…

She noted that no recent Democratic candidate has won the White House without winning Ohio, and shortly after she said this the crowd began to chant a rejoinder to Obama’s “Yes we can” mantra:

Yes she will! Yes she will! Yes she will!

Clinton continued:

Ohio has written a new chapter in the history of this campaign, and we’re just getting started. More and more people are joining this campaign, and millions of Americans haven’t voted yet…

Sounds like she’s going all the way to Pennsylvania, at the very least.

Americans don’t need more promises. They’ve heard plenty of speeches. They deserve solutions, and they deserve them now.

They need:

A fighter, a doer, and a champion for the American people again.

And:

When that phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, there’s no time for speeches or on-the-job training. You have to be ready to make a decision.

Finally, the best rhetorical flourish, and one she would be smart to start wrapping into every speech from here until the end of this campaign:

Together we will turn promises into actions, words into solutions, and hope into reality. It will take leadership and hard work but we’ve never been short on either.

Got that? Obama offers promises, words, and hope, but doesn’t have the stuff to turn his heady mix into actions, solutions, and reality. Finally, and yet maybe still too late, a strong, well-put argument from Clinton.

RSS icon Comments

1

Ha, "YEs She Will!" sounds almost "xeroxed" from the Obama campaign.

Posted by longball | March 4, 2008 8:41 PM
2

That speech might be very incosiderate to Obama's inevitable triumph (rapture?), but it works for me.

Posted by johnnie | March 4, 2008 8:42 PM
3

Prediction: A little bit of victory will go to her head again and she'll be back to pulling dick moves in no time.

Posted by The Baron | March 4, 2008 8:42 PM
4

Obama is invoking all the lessons he learned as a community organizer.
Apart from the benefit to him, what'd he achieve for the people of the South Side? Start a non profit food bank? Get housing for the poor? Start a hygiene center? Get back jobs those jobs that had left as they all strived in the hallowed "shadows of shuttered factories"?

I'm sure he achieved something in his 3 yrs. as community organizer...he just never mentions what it is.
Odd.

Posted by unPC | March 4, 2008 8:44 PM
5

The bullshit never stops with her. I suppose instead of making speeches her hard work is going to be, what, marrying up again? Pilates? What is that politicians do other than communicate?

Posted by chris | March 4, 2008 8:45 PM
6

I guess Rush Limbaugh's listeners came out for her in droves in TX.

Posted by tsm | March 4, 2008 8:46 PM
7

Was I the only one who thought that the crowd sounded rehearsed or even reading an electric sign together? They shouted her website! They were like a Greek chorus! Which, honestly, sounded kinda cool. But more than a little strange.

Posted by Enuja | March 4, 2008 8:51 PM
8

But. . . but. . . but I don't WANT to "go all the way" with Hillary!

Posted by violet_dagrinder | March 4, 2008 8:55 PM
9

Answer the phone at 3am, vote for war, lock up the flag burners... YES SHE WILL!

Posted by DOUG. | March 4, 2008 8:56 PM
10

My decidedly simple and unscientific delegate estimation has Clinton gaining 23 delegates across all four states tonight. Not really a huge win, but certainly better than losing, and plenty of reason to stay in till Denver.

Posted by simple math | March 4, 2008 8:57 PM
11

obama's speech, currently in progress, is simply stunning and puts clinton's to shame, IMHO. she's pushing fear (kids at 3am again? why not just re-do LBJ's "daisy" ad?), and yes we will? xerox who?

Posted by skye | March 4, 2008 8:59 PM
12

Eli, is there a page that has the full transcript? Where did you get that from?

Posted by stinkbug | March 4, 2008 9:00 PM
13

Why can't she just lose already?!

Posted by Ughh. | March 4, 2008 9:02 PM
14

@11
well it sounded like all his other speeches.

What did he do and achieve as a ciommunity organizer for 3 years?

Anything?

Don't obama supporters have a list of all the change he brought to the South Side of Chicago where he learned that if a small gorup of people stand up and say they want change, then a bigger gorup will do it, then they will get...change? Where he learned to never doubt the power of people uniting (behind him) for change?

What did he change in the South Side of Chicago?

Posted by unPC | March 4, 2008 9:02 PM
15

but. but... plagiarist!

ps - getting cheated on is not presidential experience.

Posted by mike | March 4, 2008 9:02 PM
16

Did Golda Meir, Maggie Thatcher, Indira Gandhi have to put up with sort of bullshit in surmounting their negatives? Probably - and they may have become better for it. Give Hillary some credit for some Methodist Christ's sake.

Posted by RHETT ORACLE | March 4, 2008 9:04 PM
17

I heard a comparison the other day from State Rep. Alex Wood that, while Kennedy was good at saying things, it took "the old arm-twister" LBJ to get things done.

That was a different time, though, and I really don't see any way that Hillary can be an effective president.

Posted by Ryan | March 4, 2008 9:08 PM
18

I have one request to Hillary, if she manages to get the nomination through a combination of negative campaigning, a drawn out primary and superdelegate shenanigans. Win.

If she loses to McCain after this scorched earth--"as far as I know" Obama isn't a muslim--campaign I will never forgive her, or Bill.

Posted by Jonathan Golob | March 4, 2008 9:09 PM
19

It's over, folks. Hilly's got her mojo working. BO should just do the honorable thing and bow out now.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | March 4, 2008 9:10 PM
20

@17 - Don't forget that RFK basically ran the JFK administration.

Posted by johnnie | March 4, 2008 9:12 PM
21

If the crutch of Hilary's campaign is experience and national security, isn't she going to look like crippled against McCain?

Posted by boyd main | March 4, 2008 9:13 PM
22

@14: I hear he got rid of some guy named Leroy Brown.

Posted by Natalie | March 4, 2008 9:14 PM
23

unPC @4: Your're right that while Barack Obama was wasting his early professional years starting some food bank in a poor neighborhood of Chicago, the far more effective Hillary Clinton spent her time on the board of directors of Wal-Mart, where she most capably busted unions, destroyed small businesses and imported tons of poisonous shit from China. Great experience (for a Republican).

Posted by kk | March 4, 2008 9:15 PM
24

@18

My thoughts EXACTLY.

Posted by violet_dagrinder | March 4, 2008 9:17 PM
25

I love how Eli lays this all out in the blog template so you get the sense that he was sitting there on Hill's shoulder during the speech, helping her coalesce this into a cohesive string for the masses.

Very smart, very sassy, very Sanders.

To quote Randy Jackson, "I like it dawg."

Posted by David K. | March 4, 2008 9:18 PM
26

@21

My OTHER thoughts, EXACTLY.

(terrifying)

Posted by violet_dagrinder | March 4, 2008 9:19 PM
27

@ #2 and all the other "xerox" callers.

Yeah- I see your point. It is totally sucky that someone stole someone else's slogan. I agree- it was totally a dick move when Obama stole Chavez's "Yes we can". "Yes we can" being the motto for the Chavez led 1972 UFW strike.

Hillary supporters' chant of "Yes she will" is not a copy of Obama's slogan- rather it is a clarification of the difference between the candidates- namely that Obama believes we can enact change in this country, and Hillary will enact change. It's a drawing of rhetorical distinction, not attempt to take wholesale the ideas and words of another as her own.

Posted by Sara | March 4, 2008 9:22 PM
28

I really meant @1

Posted by Sara | March 4, 2008 9:23 PM
29

kk @23: Clinton made $15,000 a year for serving on the board at Wal-Mart, the largest employer in the state where her husband was governor, along the way pressuring for better representation of women in management positions and more environmentally friendly building practices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/us/politics/20walmart.html

No, her record on the board wasn't a huge success, but it's hardly the nightmare scenario you propose.

Posted by josh | March 4, 2008 9:23 PM
30

1. Obama poured money into these races - many times Clinton spending - what does that mean, cause in theory all that money should have pushed him to easy vicory

2. Polling matchups now show Mc Cain doing well against Clinton and Obama - early polling can be fragile but all these players are well known to voters. Mc Cain wins New Jersey over Obama .... what the hell ... is it racism, the glam crash or just that good old Mc Cain has voter appeal that has been discounted, hidden up to now? Huckfuck out will boost Mc Cain as well.

God, what a political season.

Obama should take the VP.

Posted by Freddy | March 4, 2008 9:23 PM
31

Nice to have a little race here, but after playing around with the delegate calculator over at: http://www.slate.com/features/delegatecounter/

I don't see how mathematically she can win end the trail with the lead in pledged delegats. I gave her a 55 to 45 win in Texas tonight, then proceeded down the colums giving her wins of 60% to 40%in all but oregon and puerto rico and she still is down by 29 pledged delegates in the end.

Then with the rumor by Brokaw that Obama has 50 superdelegates all put together as a bloc, this is not looking good for HRC. I don't think I want to get my hopes up for her...I just hope that the divisiveness of the campaign doesn't spill over into the general election...if Obama or Clinton job this one up I will never forgive either of them...its McCain for christ sake.

Posted by Commmon'Tator | March 4, 2008 9:23 PM
32

Hillary tonight:

"I want to end by sharing with you a message that I got late last month from someone who didn't have much money to spare, but sent me $10 for my campaign and sent an e-mail in which she wrote, "My two daughters are two and four. And we chant and cheer for you at every speech we see. I want them to know anything is possible." Tonight, I say to them: Keep on watching. Together, we're going to make history. "

Obama after winning SC:

"I think of that elderly woman who sent me a contribution the other day, an envelope that had a money order for $3.01 along with a verse of scripture tucked inside the envelope. So don't tell us change isn't possible. That woman knows change is possible."

Hillary tonight:

"This is your campaign and your moment, and I need your support. For more than a year, I've been listening to the voices of people across our country, you know, the single mom who told me she works two jobs, neither provides health care for her kids. She just can't work any harder.

The little girl who asked how I'd help people without homes? It turns out her family was about to lose their own.

The young man in a Marine Corps shirt who said he waited months for medical care, he said to me, "Take care of my buddies. A lot of them are still over there. And then will you please help take care of me?"

Americans don't need more promises. They've heard plenty of speeches. They deserve solutions, and they deserve them now."

Obama after SC win:

" Theirs are the stories and voices we carry on from South Carolina. The mother who can't get Medicaid to cover all the needs of her sick child. She needs us to pass a health care plan that cuts costs and makes health care available and affordable for every single American. That's what she's looking for.

The teacher who works another shift at Dunkin' Donuts after school just to make ends meet, she needs us to reform our education system so that she gets better pay and more support and her students get the resources that they need to achieve their dreams.

The Maytag worker who's now competing with his own teenager for a $7 an hour job at the local Wal-Mart, because the factory he gave his life to shut its doors, he needs us to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship our jobs overseas and start putting them in the pockets of working Americans who deserve it and put them in the pockets of struggling homeowners who are having a tough time and looking after seniors who should retire with dignity and respect.

That woman who told me that she hasn't been able to breathe since the day her nephew left for Iraq or the soldier who doesn't know his child because he's on his third or fourth or even fifth tour of duty, they need us to come together and put an end to a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged.

So understand this, South Carolina. The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It's not about rich vs. poor, young vs. old. And it is not about black vs. white.

This election is about the past vs. the future. It's about whether we settle for the same divisions and distractions and drama that passes for politics today or whether we reach for a politics of common sense and innovation, a politics of shared sacrifice and shared prosperity.

There are those who will continue to tell us that we can't do this, that we can't have what we're looking for, that we can't have what we want, that we're peddling false hopes."

Posted by stinkbug | March 4, 2008 9:26 PM
33

@14, What did Hillary do in the White House that gave her more experience?

As First Lady did she have top secret clearence? (no)

As First Lady did she did she pick out the China and Drapes? (yes)

As First Lady did she meet with Generals and Admirals outside of White House Balls? (no)

The Red Phone Ad is a joke, she has more expirience being the White House's Offical hostess than she does making command decisions. That sort of eperience really don't help you make the right decision upon answering that call.

Posted by Cato | March 4, 2008 9:29 PM
34

Nice to have a little race here, but after playing around with the delegate calculator over at: http://www.slate.com/features/delegatecounter/

I don't see how mathematically she can win end the trail with the lead in pledged delegats. I gave her a 55 to 45 win in Texas tonight, then proceeded down the colums giving her wins of 60% to 40%in all but oregon and puerto rico and she still is down by 29 pledged delegates in the end.

Then with the rumor by Brokaw that Obama has 50 superdelegates all put together as a bloc, this is not looking good for HRC. I don't think I want to get my hopes up for her...I just hope that the divisiveness of the campaign doesn't spill over into the general election...if Obama or Clinton job this one up I will never forgive either of them...its McCain for christ sake.

Posted by Commmon'Tator | March 4, 2008 9:29 PM
35

@14: nice troll, parroting the whole lack of experience rhetoric. obama's done plenty. clinton's also done plenty, but not necessarily the kinds of things i want to see in a presidential candidate.

Posted by skye | March 4, 2008 9:30 PM
36

@23
Come on. Have an honest dialogue.
What did Barack accomplish as a community organizer for three years?
As far as Hillary's first few jobs, I don't know enough to compare her to Obama. She worked in Alaska as a fish slimer at one point. She never talks about it but she should. Flaw of hers, isn't it. After law school she worked on the committee that impeached Nixon in the Senate. Good. She also founded a thing called Children's Defense Fund which has worked for decades for better funding for programs for kids, reform of laws to protect best interest of children and stuff like that.

I can't tell if Barack accomplished anything as a lawyer, he does not talk about that either in his speeches.
Did he win any important cases? Win any discrimination cases? Voting rights cases? Sue the Tim Eymans of Illinois ?
Force a clean up of a toxic site?
Anything?

Guess nobody knows.

Posted by unPC | March 4, 2008 9:31 PM
37

What Golob said. All would be completely forgiven if I thought she had the slightest fucking chance of winning at this point.

I wish I did.

Posted by tsm | March 4, 2008 9:32 PM
38

75 years ago today, at his inauguration, FDR said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Based on the Ohio results, with ads about 3 a.m. calls and support from the racist and the unemployed, I guess we can shorten that to "the only thing we have is fear itself."

Posted by 75 years ago | March 4, 2008 9:41 PM
39

@33
what HRC did every year of her life is well documented.

What did Barack do or accomplish as a community organizer (other than discover his identity)?
Start a foundation, or a movement, or actually get 2000 units of low income housing built?

Or just have meetings?

What has he done as a lawyer?
Win a big discrimination class action? Win a big products defect suit? Win a big brain injury case like Edwards?

Evict tenants and write up corporate bylaws?

Is it a secret?

Why does no one know?

Posted by unPC | March 4, 2008 9:42 PM
40

Freddy,

Sen. Obama came into this race with very little name recognition and a lot going against him and Sen. Clinton was the presumptive nominee. If he wins, it won't be about money.

unPC, no one wants to answer your questions precisely because you don't want to have an honest dialogue.

I can tell you about Obama's work mobilizing communities to bring youth centers closer to their area, or to have low-rent housing tested for asbestos, or to register tens of thousands of new voters, or to win employment training services, playgrounds, after-school programs, school reforms and other public amenities for these people. He worked for $13,000 a year with a Columbia University degree. Then he earned a JD from Harvard, obviously at the top of his class, and went BACK to the south side.

But you won't say, "That's impressive. Nicely done, Senator." You'll deride and dismiss it because you have an abrasive tone and an agenda that shows through in all your posts to Slog. So why should anyone respond?

Posted by V | March 4, 2008 9:45 PM
41

unPC, perhaps you could bother to do two minutes of web-surfing. After law school Obama was a civil rights lawyer and a professor of constitutional law (that means he neither evicted tenants nor wrote up corporate bylaws). It's not a secret, it's umm, on his web site. Why does no one know? Well, apparently you don't know because you're too lazy to actually find out.

Are you the person who still thinks he's a Muslim? Or that he's just not given you any reason to think that he's a Muslim?

Posted by The Internets | March 4, 2008 9:50 PM
42

@39 - what are you looking for? what if he "discovered himself" while working for low-income neighborhoods at that point so early in his career? does that negate kidcare or the ethics reform of his state senate work? his congressional record?

Posted by skye | March 4, 2008 9:55 PM
43

Oh, Hillary also said this tonight:

"We've won Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arkansas, California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee"

The fact that she included FL and MI in that list is annoying, as always.

Posted by stinkbug | March 4, 2008 9:55 PM
44

the money point is more that Obama has has ALL the resources needed for a bigger win - didn't work - why not?

I think the glam is fading fast, even his stump speech is getting stale, as in the fast media age we have all heard it ten times.

The third member of the Democrats choosing a nominee is now Mc Cain .... early polls, etc.

Those super delegated can change their minds a dozen times between now and the convention ... some very wild aces.

Richardson is a puke. Edwards not far behind.

Posted by Freddy | March 4, 2008 9:59 PM
45

josh @29: not sure if you're a Hillary Clinton supporter that you want everyone reading the NYT article on her tenure there. The $15,000 she got each year was for attending four meetings. Somehow, she wound up with $100,000 of Wal-Mart stock, too. And Wal-Mart was a major client of the corporate law firm of which she was a partner.

My question: if any other Democratic candidate had served on the board of directors of Wal-Mart, easily the most regressive corporation in the nation, would he or she even be considered for the Presidency?

I wonder if all those union voters in Ohio who supported her this evening knew this about her:

Mrs. Clinton largely sat on the sidelines when it came to Wal-Mart and unions, board members said. Since its founding in 1962, Wal-Mart has fought unionization efforts at its stores and warehouses, employing hard-nosed tactics — like allegedly firing union supporters and spying on employees — that have become the subject of legal complaints against the company.

A special team at Wal-Mart handled those activities, but Mr. Walton was vocal in his opposition to unions. Indeed, he appointed the lawyer who oversaw the company’s union monitoring, Mr. Tate, to the board, where he served with Mrs. Clinton.

During their meetings and private conversations, Mrs. Clinton never voiced objections to Wal-Mart’s stance on unions, said Mr. Tate and John A. Cooper, another board member.

“She was not an outspoken person on labor, because I think she was smart enough to know that if she favored labor, she was the only one,” Mr. Tate said. “It would only lessen her own position on the board if she took that position.”

Classic Clinton.

Posted by kk | March 4, 2008 10:03 PM
46

The anti-money point is that he has all the resources to pull him up from obscurity, but there are of course huge disadvantages. They are both spending quite a bit, and Sen. Clinton's negative ads seemed to have an effect.

For anyone who doubts Obama's solid legislative record in the US Senate (not the state senate, where his accomplishments are even more numerous), I recommend this diary from Daily KoS. I'm linking Google's cache, as the site appears to be down:
I Refuse to Buy Into the Obama Hype

Posted by V | March 4, 2008 10:04 PM
47

Senator Obama chairs a commitee in the US Senate on the war in Afganistan --- which HAS never met --- Wait for that ad.

sloppy recod, sir.

The teflon is sliding.

By the way, the Republicans have changed the whole of framing words about this election and perhaps the future. WE DO NOT ELECT A PRESIDENT - BUT - RATHER A COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

I have voted for many presidents and never heard the phrase in popular use up to this election.

Karl Rove is owed big time by the crooks, liars, and thieves.

Posted by Lynn Ward | March 4, 2008 10:12 PM
48

kk

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

who cares, zero sum issue

Posted by John | March 4, 2008 10:14 PM
49

kk

In the south where the rent for the trailer is 150.00 per month, honey, 7.00 per hour might be just fucking fine.

Your Seattle bubble head is showing.

In fact in many parts of the US any job is considered damn fucking fine compared to starvation, no house or no 2 bucks for a couple of beers.

People who make low wages get very frugal, no eating out at 50.00 dinner spa/fine dining places. And no Neimen Marcus.

I ma a Texas transplant who has worked hard for small wages, and thanked God for those.

Posted by Larkin | March 4, 2008 10:24 PM
50

@47 -- Howard? Howard Wolfson, is that you? Uh, Senator Obama chairs the Subcommittee on European Affairs. Last time we checked the map, Afghanistan was not in Europe, but if it's moved, then by all means, Senator Obama should start holding hearings on the war there.

Posted by Howard? | March 4, 2008 10:32 PM
51

@49
There are certainly some situations in which $7/hr is comfortable. Any debt, children, or unexpected expenses (medical for example) can throw that off balance.

It's good to be frugal, even if the GOP is urging you to spend and "keep the economy going", but with wages stagnant and living costs rising, there is no one in the game arguing that nothing needs to be done for all the Americans caught up in this.

Clumsy, perhaps, but the point is valid.

Posted by JGreenwood | March 4, 2008 10:34 PM
52

@47 - from this

"Clinton is technically correct that Obama could have used the subcommittee to conduct oversight of actions and policies related to Afghanistan. But the full foreign relations committee, under the guidance of Senator Joe Biden, has held several hearings on Afghanistan that covered NATO's role there. It's not as if the foreign relations committee did nothing on Afghanistan because Obama did not take on the mission. Also, as happens with many committees, the chair of the full committee reserves the right to handle the big issues him- or herself, and Afghanistan counts as a big issue.

Clinton ought to be careful about hurling stones in this area. As she always tells campaign crowds, she is a member of the Senate armed services committee. In February the committee held two hearings on Afghanistan. On February 8, it focused on appropriations for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. [...] Clinton attended neither of these hearings. She was on the campaign trail."

Posted by skye | March 4, 2008 10:40 PM
53

@36,

She also founded a thing called Children's Defense Fund which has worked for decades for better funding for programs for kids, reform of laws to protect best interest of children and stuff like that.

Wrong.

The Children's Defense Fund was founded by Marian Wright Edelman. Clinton was a Chairwoman; she did not found a damn thing.

So, let's see. You know nothing about Obama, because you're too lazy and disingenuous to look anything up yourself or listen to anything other people tell you, and you make shit up about Hillary Clinton. Good going there.

Posted by keshmeshi | March 4, 2008 10:58 PM
54

John @48: But I thought Hillary supporters were wonks who like details! Not the one who are bored by the recitation of fact and need soaring rhetoric to keep them awake--those are the silly Obamatons.

Posted by Details! | March 4, 2008 11:04 PM
55

Ugh the Yes She will chant is fucking gross.

It's always about her isn't it. Where as with Obama it's about America.

She needs to go. Oh and when did OH become the bellweather state. Thats actually MO which Obama won.

Posted by cbc | March 5, 2008 5:35 AM

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