The Clinton’s inevitability for the Democrat Presidential nomination fades as her sense of entitlement is questioned.
Not a good night for the Clinton campaign. Barack Obama has won the Iowa Caucuses with a decisive victory over the supposed front runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hillary was only able to garner 11% of the total votes. The Clinton campaign has rough going for the remainder of this election runoff.
Will Obama be able to hold the lead for the balance of the primaries?
Clinton’s concession sounded strangely as a victory speech:
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, claiming to be unbowed by a third- place finish in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, hailed a “great night for Democrats” and said the strong turnout pointed to the sure election of a Democratic president in November. She said she would “keep pushing as hard as we can.”
But her poor showing here was a searing blow to the former first lady, dissolving her image as her party’s inevitable nominee and setting up a critical five-day race to Tuesday’s leadoff primary in New Hampshire.
Clinton told cheering supporters that she had congratulated caucus winner Sen. Barack Obama and the second-place finisher, former Sen. John Edwards. She promised to take “this enthusiasm and go tonight to New Hampshire.”
“We’re going to keep pushing as hard as we can,” she said, with former President Bill Clinton and their daughter Chelsea at her side. “I am so ready for the rest of this campaign and I am so ready to lead.”
Iowa Democrats delivered a cautionary tale to the New York senator, an established figure on the public stage who is running to be the first woman president.
Caucus goers appeared to reject the central premise of Clinton’s candidacy, favoring Obama’s message of hope and change over her theme of experience and leadership.
More troubling still was her performance among key groups that had been expected to form the core of her support.
Entrance polls in the state showed Obama narrowly beating Clinton among women voters, whom her campaign had expected to turn out in large numbers to support her pioneering quest. She also failed to win a majority of voters who called health care their chief concern, despite her long association with the issue.
Her candidacy also was swamped by a surge of first-time caucus goers who soundly supported Obama. Projections showed a turnout of 230,000 for Democrats, compared to 124,000 who showed up for Democratic caucuses in 2004. The turnout was nearly twice as large as for the Republicans, whose turnout also was up from four years ago.
…
Hopefully this is the end of Hillary’s candidacy.
Andrea Mitchell describes Hillary Clinton’s concession rally on Thursday evening in Iowa:
“This room was, until about five or six minutes ago, completely empty. This is a manufactured ‘celebration.’ It really felt more like a funeral as people started strolling in from upstairs where they had obviously been gathered. This is unlike anything that I’ve ever seen, a completely empty, dirge-like event…”
t/b: Captain’s Quarters, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin
[...] Caucus: Obama Wins, Edwards In Between, Hillary Brings Up … January 4th, 2008 Vanessa Edwards Foster wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptNot a good night for Clinton [...]
If Hillary comes to Pennslyvania she will loose just like in Iowa. She is finished. Nobody really cares for smug, self obsessed, political fools.
Hillary is viewed as anti-Bush because her Left-Wing Base wants it to be so, just for the hatred of Bush.
Barack Obama has the view that he disagrees with Bush Policy not because of hate but because of a difference of opinion, which is acceptable to most people.
When Barack Obama talks about change and getting things done you can tell he means it from the heart. Just like, when you hear a great singer you can tell when they are singing from the heart or just singing the song.
Did you see Bill, his face, as he stood there by Hillary during her speech after she was slaughtered by Obama? He looked like he was at her funeral. He really did. She did as good a job as she could, pretending that it wasn’t a big deal that she took THIRD in Iowa… that’s a BIG deal, and Obama is going to give her one helluva challenge going forward, too. I’m not at all an Obama supporter, but I have to say, it made my whole WEEK to watch Hillary get beat down.
FRED THOMPSON is the best person to lead this country. He is a true conservative and has been his entire life. All one has to do is check his record to see this.
During my time in the Army as an Intelligence Analyst, I served under both Presidents Carter and Reagan (as my commanders in chief). Without argument, President Reagan was the best commander-in-chief a military person could ever have served under. Fred Thompson possesses the same qualities and vision as President Reagan in that he is strong on national defense and sees a dire need to secure our borders and control immigration.
I can think of no better person to lead this country and fix the problems we have. He is the only candidate from either party who has specific and detailed plans on border security and immigration reform; revitalization of America’s armed forces; saving and protecting Social Security; and tax relief and economic growth. These are detailed on his Web site at http://www.fred08.com . I challenge you to find any other candidate who has laid out specific plans to fix anything.
Fred Thompson has published his first principles, some of which are mentioned above. In addition to those, he strongly believes in individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, federalism, traditional American values, the rule of law and is a strong proponent of the Second Amendment — all concepts established during the birth of our country and documented in our Constitution.
Again, try to find any candidate who has laid out their plans to “fix” this country. You will find they all speak in vague and abstract terms on their plans.
For those who have heard Fred Thompson speak, you will usually hear him say that the Fred Thompson you see today is the same Fred Thompson you saw yesterday and is the same Fred Thompson you will see tomorrow. He stands by his principles and values and doesn’t shift his positions based on polls or public opinion; in other words, he doesn’t say what the voters want to hear just to get elected, but remains steadfast on his views and convictions.
During his time in the Senate he focused on three areas: to lower taxes, strengthen national security and expose waste in the federal government. Fred Thompson has foreign policy experience, having served as member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Senate Intelligence committees.
As chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, he opened the investigation in 1997 on the Chinese government’s attempt to influence American policies and elections, and this investigation identified connections with the Clinton administration (documented in the committee’s report).
As a member of the Finance Committee, he worked tirelessly to enact three major tax-cut bills. Fred Thompson remains steadfast and even though a person may not agree with all his views and he understands some may disagree with him, you can count on him to be consistent and unwavering.
Don’t be fooled by his laid back approach and what critics call his “laziness.” As a former assistant U.S. attorney, he earned a reputation as a tough prosecutor and he possesses the toughness this country needs in order to tackle today’s and tomorrow’s issues.
I ask that you take a hard look at what this country needs, then take a hard look at all the other candidates’ views, policies, their records and their track record on consistency. Fred Thompson possesses integrity, loyalty, commitment, energy and decisiveness, all traits of an effective leader, and will emerge as the best person to take this country boldly forward.
Please help Fred win in South Carolina
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