In a sorry attempt to provide so-called balance the Washington Post manufactures from whole cloth a negative story about Hillary Clinton. This is reminiscent of the anti-Gore coverage in the 2000 elections. Al Gore was the front runner and George Bush was a clown and a fraud and therefore the media felt that they had to balance their coverage by knocking Gore down.
When an article is titled "Some Say Clinton Model Is Flawed" it is reminiscent of a style of attack--perfected by Fox News--that hides behind a third person. It begins presenting the Clinton camp's argument that her experience overcoming electability questions in New York is relevant to Clinton's presidential bid.
Now, running for president, Clinton is invoking the inroads she has made Upstate as a kind of talisman against worries in her own party that she is too polarizing to win next fall. If she can appeal to Republicans in Cattaraugus and Boonville, her campaign argues, her electability -- and her ability to unite the country -- are undeniable.
The writer quotes two experts, apparently the "some people" that the piece refers to, on the meaning of what Clinton's significant but non-universal support in conservative Upstate New York means.
"I don't think the fact that she knocks them dead in Oneonta means that she's going to do it in Massillon," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, referring to towns in New York and Ohio, respectively.
...
"She's working hard and is probably in a little better shape than she was six or seven years ago," said Syracuse University political scientist Jeff Stonecash. "But there's still something out there that she's got. It's hard to figure out what it is that they dislike so much."
The simple answer is that Clinton went into both conservative and liberal counties in New York and took the time to listen to the concerns of the people there. She had the smarts and the expertise to come up with fine tuned speeches and a policy platform that addressed the issues that people cared about. When elected she went to work for farmers and 9/11 workers. In this election cycle she has similarly addressed health care, Latino, middle class, and pro-family issues in ways that display her depth of knowledge and understanding of the obstacles that regular people face. The stubborn dislike or skepticism of Clinton is due to over a decade and a half of mud slinging by the Republican party and their conservative media minions.
STATE BLOGS
