Hillary Clinton lambasted Pres. George W. Bush in her first Iowa campaign ad, saying he didn’t care about working class Americans or even returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House walked right into the trap, calling it “outrageous,” “absurd” and “unconscionable” — and thus giving the story legs in the corporate media, which has led to hundreds of free airings of the spot and its exposure to millions of voters outside its paid run in Iowa.
It also gave Clinton an opening to keep the story alive into another news cycle:
“Apparently I’ve struck a nerve,” Clinton said in response to the White House attack. “I will keep saying it because I believe it.”
At TPM Cafe, M.J. Rosenberg recalls a similar cicrumstance from 40 years ago in which the Lyndon Johnson White House similarly helped boost the campaign of Richard Nixon — whose career appeared to be over after he lost a bid for California governor on the heels of losing the presidency to Kennedy in 1960:
[The] unpopular president from Texas, LBJ, did Nixon a favor. After Nixon criticized Johnson’s war strategy, Johnson, during a televised press conference, lost it.
He blasted Nixon, calling him a “chronic campaigner, whose only concern was picking up a few votes.
The Nixon camp could not believe their luck. They had succeeded in getting under LBJ’s skin. By responding to Nixon’s attack as he did, LBJ elevated Nixon to the Presidential level, right where Nixon needed to be. He was, of course, elected in 1968.
Here is the transcript of the ad:
HRC: As I travel around America, I hear from so many people who feel like they’re just invisible to their government
VO: Hillary Clinton has spent her life standing up for people others don’t see
HRC: You know, if you’re a family that is struggling, and you don’t have health care well you are invisible to this President
HRC: If you’re a single mom trying to find affordable child care so you can go to work, well you’re invisible too
HRC: And I never thought I would see that our soldiers who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan would be treated as though they were invisible as well
HRC: Americans from all walks of life across our country may be invisible to this President, but they’re not invisible to me and they won’t be invisible to the next President of the United States
HRC: I’m Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.
Here is the response from White House Deputy Press Secretary Dan Perino:
[As] to the merits of it, I think it’s outrageous. This is a President who, first and foremost, has helped millions of seniors across the country have access to prescription drugs at a much lower cost. That system that the President put in — helped put in place, with the help of both sides of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, Medicare Part D, is helping millions of people, and working better than anyone would have expected. In addition to that, the President has tried to take on the issue at the root cause of it, and tried to change our health care system so that we actually are helping provide less expensive but still great quality care to people all over the country.
And as to whether or not our troops are invisible to this President, I think that that is absurd, and that is unconscionable that a member of Congress would say such a thing.
This misstep suggests that the White House is already behaving like it is “Brain”-less in the wake of Karl Rove’s imminent departure.
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It also gave Clinton an opening to keep the story alive into another news cycle:
“Apparently I’ve struck a nerve,” Clinton said in response to the White House attack. “I will keep saying it because I believe it.”
At TPM Cafe, M.J. Rosenberg recalls a similar cicrumstance from 40 years ago in which the Lyndon Johnson White House similarly helped boost the campaign of Richard Nixon — whose career appeared to be over after he lost a bid for California governor on the heels of losing the presidency to Kennedy in 1960:
[The] unpopular president from Texas, LBJ, did Nixon a favor. After Nixon criticized Johnson’s war strategy, Johnson, during a televised press conference, lost it.
He blasted Nixon, calling him a “chronic campaigner, whose only concern was picking up a few votes.
The Nixon camp could not believe their luck. They had succeeded in getting under LBJ’s skin. By responding to Nixon’s attack as he did, LBJ elevated Nixon to the Presidential level, right where Nixon needed to be. He was, of course, elected in 1968.
Here is the transcript of the ad:
HRC: As I travel around America, I hear from so many people who feel like they’re just invisible to their government
VO: Hillary Clinton has spent her life standing up for people others don’t see
HRC: You know, if you’re a family that is struggling, and you don’t have health care well you are invisible to this President
HRC: If you’re a single mom trying to find affordable child care so you can go to work, well you’re invisible too
HRC: And I never thought I would see that our soldiers who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan would be treated as though they were invisible as well
HRC: Americans from all walks of life across our country may be invisible to this President, but they’re not invisible to me and they won’t be invisible to the next President of the United States
HRC: I’m Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.
Here is the response from White House Deputy Press Secretary Dan Perino:
[As] to the merits of it, I think it’s outrageous. This is a President who, first and foremost, has helped millions of seniors across the country have access to prescription drugs at a much lower cost. That system that the President put in — helped put in place, with the help of both sides of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, Medicare Part D, is helping millions of people, and working better than anyone would have expected. In addition to that, the President has tried to take on the issue at the root cause of it, and tried to change our health care system so that we actually are helping provide less expensive but still great quality care to people all over the country.
And as to whether or not our troops are invisible to this President, I think that that is absurd, and that is unconscionable that a member of Congress would say such a thing.
This misstep suggests that the White House is already behaving like it is “Brain”-less in the wake of Karl Rove’s imminent departure.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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