Thursday, May 08, 2008
Hillary 's Bushiness
Today the New York Times is kind as it reports Hillary's experience with students at Shepherd University in West Virginia.
She performed, apparently, like an automaton, ignoring the audience in front of her as though she were insulated inside a TV studio, separated from it by thousands of miles, smiling implacably through the challenges the students issued to her, while declaiming her message. The reporter gives us an accurate picture but softens the edges somewhat.
Ever since Limbaugh's Operation Chaos was initiated in preparation for the Texas/Pennsylvania vote, Hillary has done about as well as Obama. Although she must know that her Republican supporters have no intention of voting for a Democrat in November, she apparently doesn't care. Like George Bush eight years ago, she wants to win, whether she is the people's choice or not.
On This Week with George Stephanopolous this Sunday Hillary seemed a bit out of touch. She and George were seated in comfortable stuffed chairs arranged to facilitate a conversation. When an audience member asked a question, Hillary stood to answer it and continued standing even after that conversation was over. George Stephanopolous asked her another question, and when she looked down on him and began answering, he decided to stand up so they would be on the same level. Rather than discussing, Hillary declaimed, looking out toward the audience/camera and away from her host, unable, apparently, to adapt to the more casual, comfortable ambience envisioned by the shapers of the program.
Could Hillary be, like George Bush, psychologically rigid and unadaptable? Is she any more in touch with reality as this sitting president? She certainly didn't acknowledge or respond to her audience at Shepherd University in any way. The evidence suggests that she has difficulty adapting to varying circumstances. Ready she may be for those disasterous 3am calls, but what about the ones at 9am?
She performed, apparently, like an automaton, ignoring the audience in front of her as though she were insulated inside a TV studio, separated from it by thousands of miles, smiling implacably through the challenges the students issued to her, while declaiming her message. The reporter gives us an accurate picture but softens the edges somewhat.
Ever since Limbaugh's Operation Chaos was initiated in preparation for the Texas/Pennsylvania vote, Hillary has done about as well as Obama. Although she must know that her Republican supporters have no intention of voting for a Democrat in November, she apparently doesn't care. Like George Bush eight years ago, she wants to win, whether she is the people's choice or not.
On This Week with George Stephanopolous this Sunday Hillary seemed a bit out of touch. She and George were seated in comfortable stuffed chairs arranged to facilitate a conversation. When an audience member asked a question, Hillary stood to answer it and continued standing even after that conversation was over. George Stephanopolous asked her another question, and when she looked down on him and began answering, he decided to stand up so they would be on the same level. Rather than discussing, Hillary declaimed, looking out toward the audience/camera and away from her host, unable, apparently, to adapt to the more casual, comfortable ambience envisioned by the shapers of the program.
Could Hillary be, like George Bush, psychologically rigid and unadaptable? Is she any more in touch with reality as this sitting president? She certainly didn't acknowledge or respond to her audience at Shepherd University in any way. The evidence suggests that she has difficulty adapting to varying circumstances. Ready she may be for those disasterous 3am calls, but what about the ones at 9am?
