Becuase Everything Else Sucks

Hillary Makes a Joke at Bill’s Expense

By Manila Ryce
Published Tuesday, January 30th, 2007, 3:17 am
Filed under: War, US Politics

At a morning rally in Iowa, 500 people came to hear Hillary Clinton speak. Senator Clinton further distanced herself from the Iraq War she voted for. “This was [Bush’s] decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy,” she said, adding, “We expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office.” The White House condemned her comment as a partisan attack with the standard accusation that she was undermining US troops by criticizing Bush.

However, the highlight of the event was when a question came from the audience asking the senator whether she had the mettle and experience to deal with evil and bad men like Osama bin Laden. Clinton then repeated to the audience, that the questioner wanted to know “what in my background equips me to deal with evil and bad men.” She then smiled, raised her eyebrows, and nodded knowingly at the questioner. Her nod elicited an eruption of laughter from the crowd lasting 31 seconds.

Rally-goers concluded that Hillary was humorously suggesting her experience with Bill was qualification enough. “She was talking about Bill being a bad man. There was no doubt whatsoever,” said Tyrone Williams, an engineer from nearby Bettendorf, Iowa. “That was good,” Williams added with a chuckle. Afterwards, Clinton deflected questions about Bill being her target. During an afternoon press conference, she said, “You know, you guys keep telling me, ‘Lighten up. Be funny.’ You know, I get a little funny and now I’m being psychoanalyzed.” Clinton currently trails Edwards and Obama in Iowa, but that may change if she is viewed as being more likable. This human-like joke will likely boost her in the polls.

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3 Responses to “Hillary Makes a Joke at Bill’s Expense”

  1. This is a total fabrication and part of a Republican smear campaign.
    Hillary was speaking to exuberant supporters, as she pretended to wonder if she had any experience with “evil men” in response to a question about dealing with the likes of Osama Bin Laden. As audience members confirmed afterwards, she was conjuring up images of people like Ken Starr and Bush, and as the AP reported, they laughed with her and “applauded”. ONE PERSON was quoted as thinking she was referring to her husband.
    The inevitable right-wing Republican smear campaign kicked in, however, with a story by Lynn Sweet in the Chicago Sun Times in which that incident was transformed into Hillary putting her foot in her mouth and giving people an opportunity to laugh at her because “everyone knew” she was thinking about Bill and his affair. This kind of distortion is then repeated endlessly until people think it really happened. The hacks in the press who are part of these smear tactics know what they are doing and have no shame. Please don’t perpetuate it.
    Disclosure: Hillary is not my first choice as a candidate. I just detest those who lower our political process to such a level.

    DeanOR
    01/30/07 at 10:51 am

  2. Senator Clinton was clearly offended when a reporter asked her afterwards if the audience may have thought she was referring to her husband.
    Another urban legend takes root

    DeanOR
    01/30/07 at 10:56 am

  3. @DeanOR
    I’m sure she probably was referring to the Republicans, but it was not received as such. Some people in the crowd (I’m not going to speculate about what percentage) obviously thought she was talking about Bill, and it worked for her. She hasn’t said, “Hey, I was talking about Bush and not my husband” because the joke was successful. She’s keeping some sense of ambiguity surrounding the statement. If it was a Republican smear campaign to make her and Bill look foolish then it definitely backfired.

    Manila Ryce
    01/30/07 at 1:57 pm

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