'I'm Carole Simpson and It's My Honor to Introduce Hillary Clinton'

Three months after former ABC News reporter and anchor Carole Simpson bounded on stage in New Hampshire to endorse Hillary Clinton for President, on Monday night (as previewed in this earlier NB post), she hosted a Hillary Clinton town meeting telecast from 9 to 10 PM EST on the Hallmark cable channel. At the top of the paid show, Simpson trumpeted “Voices Across America: A National Town Hall with Senator Hillary Clinton” as “an historic event bringing together voters from across America to discuss the issues that matter and the changes this country needs.” Welcoming Clinton, Simpson enthused: “It's my honor to introduce Hillary Clinton.”

Video clip of how Simpson opened the info-mercial (55 secs): Windows Media (3.6 MB), plus MP3 audio (300 KB).

The entire introduction narrated by Simpson:

Welcome to 'Voices Across America: A National Town Hall with Senator Hillary Clinton.' Live from 22 states on the Hallmark channel and worldwide at HillaryClinton.com, an historic event bringing together voters from across America to discuss the issues that matter and the changes this country needs.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Carole Simpson. Welcome. And it's my honor to introduce Hillary Clinton.

My October 18 NewsBusters item, “Hillary-Backing Carole Simpson Just as Liberal at ABC News,” recounted:

Endorsing Hillary Clinton for President at a Tuesday night rally in New Hampshire, former ABC News anchor/reporter Carole Simpson exclaimed, an NBC News blog reported, that “it's very freeing now that I'm not a journalist, that I'm able to speak my own mind.” But Simpson hardly hid her liberal political views during her years at ABC. “Long Live Hillary” read the headline over an online tribute from Simpson, then anchor of World News Tonight/Sunday, following Clinton's 2000 senatorial victory. At about the same time, she denounced Clarence Thomas as the “cruelest” Supreme Court justice “because he has consistently voted against human rights.” If Bush names more like him, she groused, “God help us.” The 1994 GOP congressional victories upset her: “I would like to think that the American people care about poor people, about sick people, about homeless people, and about poor children. I am shocked by the new mean-spiritedness.”

Most infamously, in a 1999 interview with President Bill Clinton at an Arkansas tomato processing plant, Simpson made the story all about herself and her glory: “I have to bask in this moment, for a moment, because I am here talking to the most powerful man on the planet, who was a poor boy from Arkansas....I am an African-American woman, grew up working class on the south side of Chicago, and this is a pretty special moment for me to be here talking to you. How does it feel talking to me? That I made it, too, when people said I wouldn't be able to?” Clinton: “It's a great country.”... (For click and play Flash video of this, scroll down to “Just a Tad Self-Absorbed” in the MRC's 20th Anniversary edition of Notable Quotables)

Check that posting for more on how she endorsed Clinton and several more examples of her liberal pontificating while at ABC News.