Anne E. Kornblut reports in WaPo:
in a campaign year in which lofty phrases have taken center stage, she has rejected sweeping oratory -- "just words," as her campaign likes to accuse Democratic rival Barack Obama of offering -- in favor of a dramatic speaking style all her own.
In hushed tones, sometimes with palpable sadness in her voice, Clinton tells dark, difficult anecdotes picked up on the campaign trail. They often relate to health matters, culled from her conversations with voters, and are designed to illustrate a policy point.
Like, though I say it, my friend with the bleeding feet who can't get care, though she works twelve hours a day, because she has no health insurance. When Obama backs away from her, and the high-earning, well insured creative class types back away from her, they're leaving her, and me, and millions of working people to suffer and then die in great pain.
And we're supposed to take one for the team and die with smiles on our face, all because Mr. Hopey gives a good speech? I don't think so.
For Clinton, the approach seems to bring together her best skills, especially her ability to listen to voters she meets. In speeches that sometimes wear on and sometimes derail into deadening policy, sharing bleak stories can focus the audience's attention.
Listening to voters... What a concept.
It also allows Clinton, who has only recently grown more comfortable talking about herself, to show that she understands how people live and how her policies would affect them. The story of the pregnant woman, which the candidate heard from a deputy sheriff in Ohio, provides a chance for her to talk about health care. At a town-hall meeting in Hanging Rock, Ohio, where the story drew audible gulps of horror, she ended by saying: "It's a real indictment of our health-care system. That shouldn't happen in America."
No, it shouldn't. Here's the story:
"I remember listening to a story about a young woman in a small town along the Ohio River, in Meigs County, who worked in a pizza parlor," the Democratic presidential candidate said during a stop in Cleveland, beginning a particularly grim tale.
"She got pregnant, she started having problems. There's no hospital left in Meigs County, so she had to go to a neighboring county. She showed up, and the hospital said, 'You know, you've got to give us $100 before we can see you.' She didn't have $100," Clinton said.
"So the young woman went back home," she continued. "The next time she went back, she was in an ambulance. It turned out she lost the baby. She was airlifted to Columbus."
She paused before concluding: "And after heroic efforts at the medical center, she died." The audience, as always, gasped.
In another story, retold recently in Youngstown, Ohio, she describes a "young woman who lost her husband in Iraq, a lovely young woman who had a daughter."
"Here's what happened to her," Clinton said. "She was given $6,000. She was told to leave the [military] base within 90 days. She was told her daughter was no longer eligible for Army medical care. She was basically on her own. So I said, 'That's not right.' So we began to work to change what was really cruel -- you lose your husband, you lose your wife, you lose your mom or your dad, and you're out, and nobody seemed to care."
Shortly before the Texas primary, Clinton spoke of a mother whose daughter collapsed in the crowd at a Houston rally and who, upon receiving a bottle of water from the candidate, whispered in her ear that she could not get her daughter medical treatment.
"She said, 'I don't have any health insurance -- I can't take her anywhere,' " Clinton recalled a few stops later. She said it was people like that who need for her to be president. "I'm not asking you to vote for me so much as I'm asking you to vote for yourselves," she said.
Perhaps the most shocking story Clinton has conveyed...
I like "bleak," and "grim," and "shocking," don't you? Because of what those words show about the unconscious bias of both the reporters and the _______ ers who believe, and say, that people support Hillary do so only for the basest of reasons; that the "Archie Bunkers" of this world don't count.
Bleak? Grim? Shocking? Not so. Perfectly normal, perfectly typical, for millions and millions of Americans.
The millions of Americans who don't own wine racks, that is.
NOTE Cue the Hillary hatred, and the Obama Fan Base going nuts deconstructing the stories and picking nits when they've got time between classes. Who gives a shit? We all know a story like this. Heck, these stories could be our own stories. Could it be that's why Hillary is telling them?
UPDATE I'm for hope and change I can believe in, no question. It's just that I think that hope and change come from very hard work, persistence, evidence and reasoning, and understanding people like me--all of which personal qualities Hillary has in abundance, in addition to being tough as nails. They don't come from feeling good inside after I heard a great speech.
- lambert's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Front page
Comments
The pregnant woman's story
Made me cry, too. One interesting thing about the story, is the way she ties it to the economy, too. That young woman died for want of $100, and eventually, we(the taxpayers and insurance holders) eventually had to foot the bill for the hundreds of thousands it cost to try and save her life.
A lot of people don't understand that part of the reason that insurance premiums have shot up, aside from blind greed, is that our premiums are required to cover the unrecouped costs of the uninsured.
But none of that matters, because Bill Clinton said "fairy tale".
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond
Bill Clinton for First Dude
Bill Clinton for First Dude
then Hillary can send him to Iraq to wave the troops off!
http://www.correntewire.com/ye_olde_writ... fiction link
I Don't Own a Wine Rack
I have a wine cellar. Yup. I am wealthy, very wealthy. And I support Sen. Clinton for precisely her health care policy. I have worked hard and have earned most of what I have honestly with little help from the government or favors from friends or family. I did inherit a trust fund when my father-in-law died in the late 80's because he liked me for "taming his son", that was really in the will..LOL
I have also worked in Emergency Medicine for 29 years in the poorest areas of NYC. I have also volunteered with an International aid organization and responded to disasters all over the world. 40 years ago I new what it meant to be broke, poor and nearly homeless. I had a child and was a single parent. I took a city job that gave me health care and educational opportunities. I already had my bachelor's degree, so I worked nights and weekends and went to school days. Those opportunities are now shrinking for people and that is sad. Everyone should have health care, education and job opportunities. That is why I support Sen. Clinton and contribute as much as I am allowed. My checkbook is closed to the DNC until Dr, Dean comes to his senses and I and my husbands family have told him just that.
I own a wine rack
I own a wine rack
Am creative
Have an IQ
I think the last is the variable.
People with IQ's vote for Hillary
If Da Vinci had to run Italy we never would have had the Mona Lisa
http://www.correntewire.com/ye_olde_writ... fiction link
Thanks, TheMomCat
It's not that I don't like good food and wine, I do. I think wine is an agricultural art form.
But how about a little sense of priority? We're forgetting that people's lives really are at stake here. That's what the stories are telling us, and that's what the oratory ignores, fine as it is, as oratory.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Lambert
I have my priorities straight. And as a medical professional who sees the results of the US health care system every day I go to work, I am 100% in favor of Universal health Care that will cover everyone regardless of income. I cannot begin to relate the tragedies that I have seen and the aftermath on the families. It goes on everyday, in every E.D., in every hospital in every city across this country. Tragedy is an understatement. It borders on criminal. It brings me to tears more times than I care to remember.
Not a Coincidence
That Hillary's strongest base is in these states where people have been doing the worst financially and have been doing so for years. Hell, my hometown in Indiana had a 25% unemployment rate under Reagan. These folks don't want to hear about how anyone is going to change Washington, they want to know what you're going to do for them. And while some of them may technically be "low information" voters, that doesn't make them stupid. They know Clinton. They've known her for years and while there may be things they don't like about her, they know she knows healthcare, that's she's smart, and that she's tough.
For all the talk about race, and it - like sex - certainly is a factor, I don't think it's a factor Obama couldn't overcome if voters knew him better and he had spent the campaign talking about what he was going to do for them (assuming, of course, they liked what he was going to do for him). This is where only 2 years in the Senate really hurts him. Voters don't know him. Hell, I feel like I don't know him and I'm an election junkie. I understand Obama is trying to bring his speeches more down to earth and talk about the specifics of his policies. That's a good thing, but it's a little late in the campaign, IMO.
And, yes, those stories are horrifying. They aren't surprising, but they're horrifying.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
Obama Speech
This is a typical Obama Speech (condensed)
And we will get there,
We will get there because we have Hope,
I'm not going to bring up Race
Race, race, race, grandma
She has brought it up, and it is keeping us from getting to where we are going.
we will get there if it is there then we will know we have arrived.
Now some of you will wonder, but when you do it is because she has kept you from arriving where it is we are going.
We are going where it is because....
giddhoms
leave me to my destication
http://www.correntewire.com/ye_olde_writ... fiction link
No wine rack; no Hillary either
I don't own a wine rack. I can't afford my medications and I'm a few days away from being homeless. While I can understand how appropriating the suffering of others makes for an effective political campaign, I don't understand why it would induce anyone to think she'll actually do anything particularly constructive about it. The health care industry certainly doesn't, if the contributions she's racked up from them over the years are any guide.
Not that I think Obama will, either; my rationale for voting for him in my state primary (he lost) was simply that if elected, an Obama machine will be more malleable than the Clinton one. Both their health plans promise universal coverage for insurers, though, so at least someone will be happy.
Actually, I believe the reverse
Obama's machine will not be more malleable than Hillary's, for two reasons:
1. He didn't ask for our vote. That's the meaning of the rightward slide in Iowa.
2. His base is more youthful, and so, feeling themselves immortal, they give less priority to universal health care and Social Security than Hillary's base would.
Not to say that they're not both centrists; they are. They both take plenty of corporate money. But there's reason to believe that we'd do better with Hillary--even a marginal difference is a difference.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
I dunno ...
Possibly I'm just unreachably alienated at this point, but I have no sense that anyone is asking for my vote, at least not by way of offering me anything substantive in return. What I meant by malleability, though, doesn't have much to do with the base. It's predicated on the economy going south to the point that the middle class rebels and starts demanding entitlements. Soccer Moms for Single-Payer and so on. Absent something that feels like a depression, I'm relatively sure that neither candidate has the capacity, and maybe not even the desire, to deliver on even the modest promises they make. If we get one, I think Obama has more potential for jettisoning his corporate baggage than does Clinton. Could well be wrong, and I'm not strongly invested either way.
TheMomCat, yes!
I know you have your priorities straight; that was evident from your original comment.
I meant that the country didn't (and most of our political class doesn't). Sorry I wrote in haste.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Lambert,This Country
has been more off balance since Reagan. We started on the road to recovery with Clinton but took the wrong fork in the road because of Clinton. And now what? I am very afraid that this country will not survive economically with another Republican White House. Never mind the Iraq debacle, our best bet there is a calculated withdrawal and better foreign policy in that region. We have a lot to undo. We won't do it with McCain. And I fear that Obama cannot win.
Yes...
Obama's upside potential is looking less and less (we don't hear much talk about a landslide and a mandate any more, not in the wake of the 48-state strategy). And the downside is looking more and more risky (what next?)
Whereas Hillary is stable, both on the upside and the downside. The last thing we need is more risk, or so I feel...
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Backing Away on Healthcare
My main problem with Obama on healthcare, is not just that I think his plan isn't as good as Clinton's (although I'd prefer single payer), it's the way he has framed those differences, using right-wing framing to attack the universal healthcare plans being offered. I agree that they're both centrist, but only one is backing away from universal healthcare using rightwing framing in a democratic primary. It's that last part that gets me, I understand running to the center in the general election, but running to the center in a primary (and this isn't the only issue Obama has done that on)? That bodes very ill, IMO, for his willingness to fight for UHC. If you won't defend it in a democratic primary, when will you defend it?
Clinton also has a long history of working to expand healthcare coverage, from S-CHIP to National Guard family members to Plan B. The one time Obama worked on healthcare, he wasn't exactly a fighter.
While it's true that Clinton has a lot of donations from the healthcare industry, those aggregated numbers include donations from individual doctors and nurses (see, e.g., http://mediamatters.org/items/200709170005). Which is not to say she doesn't also have donations from healthcare executives, it's only to say that not all of her healthcare industry donors necessarily oppose UHC. TheMomCat, for example, probably qualifies as a "healthcare industry" donor.
And, I'm totally with you guys on risk. The problem with risk right now is that we cannot afford another failed Presidency. As for Obama's upside, I keep reading how it doesn't matter that polls show him losing Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida, he'll make it up by expanding the electoral map with all his cash and charm. But for some reason, there's rarely any detail about precisely where he'll make it up. That's 85 electoral votes, 68 if you assume he can pull out Michigan. He isn't going to make that up with Colorado (9 EVs), Iowa (7 Evs), and Virginia (13 EVs) or even come close. See, e.g, this post by Jonathan Singer, which ends "Given that some states that are not traditionally blue are already potentially in play for Obama, I have little doubt that he would be able to find 270 -- or a lot more -- come November." Why is it so hard to understand that he could win a lot more states and still lose the election. If we're going to award the presidency to the candidate who wins the most states, we're screwed. Because even if you move Florida to Gore, where it rightly belongs, Bush still won 29 states.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
To be clear,
I find much of Obama's shtick repellent, emphatically including the "Harry and Louise" copycat ads. I think he's more capable of being an exceptional president than Clinton is, but I fully anticipate my lowest expectations to be realized whichever one wins.
a postscript on electability ...
McCain will do well to crack 45% of the popular vote against either Clinton or Obama. I think all the parsing of demographics at present underway will prove irrelevant in fairly short order once the campaign against McCain gets underway.
You need to add the anaphora, jeqal
We are going where it is because we know that we are the ones who are going there where it is.
We are going where it is because where we are going will make us who we are when we get there, where it is.
We are going where it is because who we are when we get there where it is will be more awesome than who we are now where we are now when we aren't there. Where it is.
Et cetera, et cetera. Obama as Gertrude Stein.
Man, read that aloud. I think I'm getting pretty good.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Do The OFB Hate Hillary More Than They Want Universal Healthcare
All signs point to yes. Because it's more important to prove Hillary's a liar, like Gore and Kerry were liars, than to call bullshit on a hospital covering its ass. And since when does a fper at DKOS simply accept the word of 1) the media or 2) a large hospital? Oh, right, when they're calling Hillary a liar. Kind of like how it's now completely accurate to say no one could've predicted 9/11.
And since when is it lying to accurately repeat a story you were told?
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
Did I call it, or what
Like I said:
Follows as the night the day. I'm only surprised that it took more than a news cycle.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
You Called It
My favorite part is that even though the deputy sheriff confirms he told Hillary the story, she's still a liar. Because, you know, she's a Clinton.
And if Obama is the nominee, I wish the OFB
good luck in pushing back against this kind of bullshit nitpicking the media will do to every one of his stories (and you know they have inaccuracies and exaggerations). Having set this as the standard, how can they complain when it's applied to Obama?
These folks truly cannot see around the next fucking corner.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
An Example of Obama Not Living Up to the OFB's Hillary Standard
His "embellishment" (read lie) about his family's connection to the Kennedys.
Now, when I initially read this I thought "what a fricking surprise, a politician exaggerated a story" and was grateful it was Obama and not Clinton who had done this, if only to spare me a Special Comment by Keith Olbermann. Now, however, that I know that even to accurately repeat a story one heard from a deputy sheriff makes one a chronic liar, I see this story in an entirely new light and realize Obama is not only not my choice for the democratic nomination, but using the standards established by Obama's very own supporters, is unfit for the presidency.* Thanks, OFB
!
* Sarcasm alert for the reading impaired since I do not have time to respond to 50 posts claiming that I just said I was going to vote for McCain. I'm not.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
What If That Medical Story Hillary Told Turned Out To Be True...
Gee, that would be embarrassing for a lot of people, wouldn't it?
See http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/07/...
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt