“Senator Hillary Clinton is multimillionaire former First Lady with a solid liberal voting record,” ABC's Jake Tapper observed in a rare story applying an ideological label to a Democrat but, he pointed out Monday night, “you wouldn't necessarily know that from catching up with her on the campaign trail” where she plays a barbecue-eating populist on trade to the right of Barack Obama on guns and the gas tax.
From Indiana, Tapper marveled at how the Democratic presidential candidate now bashes Wall Street though she “has taken millions from Wall Street,” and then explained some other campaign spins which don't match her record, including the rarely recalled fact that Bill Clinton raised the tax on gas:
The National Rifle Association says Clinton's name is synonymous with gun control. But here, in Indiana, in a new mailer, she suggests Obama would outlaw guns. She has distanced herself from trade deals her husband signed into law and she worked to pass. And while her husband raised gas taxes, she wants to give consumers a summer without them.
This is the second time in a week Tapper has informed viewers of Clinton's duplicity. My May 1 NewsBusters item, “ABC Corrects Clinton's Indiana Tale Blaming Bush for Closed Factory,” recounted:
ABC reporter Jake Tapper on Wednesday night undermined Hillary Clinton's campaign trail tale blaming the Bush administration for allowing a Valparaiso, Indiana manufacturer of magnets for smart-bombs to move to China, costing 200 jobs and giving the technology to the communist regime. Tapper, however, pointed out that the sale occurred in 1995 and was approved by....the Clinton administration. “Senator Clinton decries how the company Magnequench moved from Indiana to China in 2003,” Tapper reported, “but there's one key part of the story Senator Clinton tends to leave out: Her husband's role.”...
Giving Hillary Clinton her due, in Monday's story Tapper reported Clinton's populist pitch “seems to be working” and featured a soundbite from an Indiana woman who hailed her as “brilliant.”
The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of Tapper's story on the Monday, May 5 World News on ABC:
JAKE TAPPER: Well, Senator Hillary Clinton is a multimillionaire former First Lady with a solid liberal voting record, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from catching up with her on the campaign trail. She has repackaged herself as a working-class hero. New York Senator Hillary Clinton has taken millions from Wall Street. Less than a year ago, she appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine: "Business Loves Hillary." But this is what Clinton sounds like here in Indiana.HILLARY CLINTON: Why don't we hold the Wall Street money brokers responsible for their role in this recession?
TAPPER: Meet the new populist Hillary Clinton.
HILLARY CLINTON CLIP #1: We have eaten barbecue from one end of this state to the other.
HILLARY CLINTON CLIP #2 DATED SUNDAY: I am unabashed. I am unapologetic. I am going to fight for the middle class, and I am going to take on the oil companies.
TAPPER: The National Rifle Association says Clinton's name is synonymous with gun control. But here, in Indiana, in a new mailer, she suggests Obama would outlaw guns. She has distanced herself from trade deals her husband signed into law and she worked to pass. And while her husband raised gas taxes, she wants to give consumers a summer without them.
HILLARY CLINTON: Senator Obama wants you to pay the gas tax this summer instead of trying to get it so the oil companies pay it out of their record profits.
TAPPER: Policymakers of all stripes think that proposal is a lousy one that may not even save consumers money. That prompted this response from the former First Lady.
HILLARY CLINTON, ON THIS WEEK: Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans.
TAPPER: And in this narrative, Obama is the elitist.
HILLARY CLINTON: And he's always saying, oh, you know, that's just like $20. Well, you know, for a lot of people, $20 is something, right?
TAPPER: Here in Indiana, this pitch seems to be working.
MAN: Her work ethics and her working-class roots really stuck to me. And her determination to get where she wanted to get.
TAPPER: And what about you?
WOMAN: Well, number one, she's brilliant.
TAPPER: The goal, of course, is to win over the support of white working-class voters. And she has a not-so-secret weapon in small towns here in Indiana and throughout North Carolina. She has been sending her husband, former President Bill Clinton in North Carolina today, he went to Lewisburg, Roxboro and Henderson.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center



TAPPER: The National Rifle Association says Clinton's name is synonymous with gun control. But here, in Indiana, in a new mailer, she suggests Obama would outlaw guns. She has distanced herself from trade deals her husband signed into law and she worked to pass. And while her husband raised gas taxes, she wants to give consumers a summer without them.












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I dream of the day where
May 6, 2008 - 00:59 ET by SchnikeysI dream of the day where the media is not excused from the list of hit-piece subjects that are fair game...at least to the extent of exposure on national television.
In other news, all three candidates have only our financial imprisonment at heart.
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Grizzly Bear '08
As unintentionally funny as her ad is...
May 6, 2008 - 01:06 ET by sarcasmoIt's in a way good news for the individual liberty side. A decade ago, 2 Democrats would have probably been fighting about which one was more likely to pass more gun laws rather than who might actually leave us all the hell alone. In a dramatic political "about face" the media has so-far barely-noticed, they've both finally figured out the obvious: Victim disarmament is a losing issue. Fortunately for the Democrat side this time, they're both running against a RINO who -- like them -- hardly has a stellar record on the Second Amendment.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
And now they're trying to
May 6, 2008 - 01:11 ET by SchnikeysAnd now they're trying to claim credit for adopting such a position. Frankly, it's bullsh*t.
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Grizzly Bear '08
The Key is figuring out how they will vote despite their
May 6, 2008 - 01:14 ET by Dee Bunkpandering. I think Clinton and McCain would both put more limits than half the country would want, but Obama would place even more. He is in line with the 25% or so wako liberals on gun control and everything else.
"It's in a way good news for
May 6, 2008 - 06:57 ET by Killgrave"It's in a way good news for the individual liberty side."
I wish I could share your optimism. The only reason why they're throwing a bone to gun owners is because they are pandering for votes. Once they return to the deep blue states, then it will be back to the gun-grabbing rhetoric as usual.
I agree. All politicians
May 6, 2008 - 07:06 ET by motherbeltI agree. All politicians say what they need to say, and then claim changed circumstances after they're elected. Hillary Clinton had the best teacher in the world for this. Remember Clinton's claim that he had worked harder than he ever had in his life, but just couldn't manage to do that middle-class tax cut that he had promised?
Well, the only reason they've got the bone to toss
May 6, 2008 - 07:13 ET by sarcasmoIs that Republicans have repeatedly treated gun owners with the "where else ya gonna go, boy?" respect Democrats traditionally gave blacks, but I think it goes a bit deeper. Not all the way down to belief-level, of course, but I think Democrats & RINOs see that it's a losing political issue. Once they get into office, any of the three can and will screw gun owners.
One way for the bad guys to slowly win, and the badguys are definitely winning in this way, is simpler than control freak laws. Ammunition has become vastly more expensive, as what should be cheap war-surplus stuff gets deliberately destroyed (or sold to Afghanistan in deals about which the less said the better) and UN shipping rules get slowly tighter.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Sarc - Gun owners have nowhere else to go but Republicans
May 6, 2008 - 10:01 ET by Dee BunkBecause they are the only ones who care about conservative judges. Politicians are going to bend to public opinion that is why we have judges that are not elected. I agree that neither of the three would veto any type of law that Congress passes on guns. Any law they pass will be supported by 50% or more of the population. The President and the Congress are irrelevant when it comes to gun rights. It's the Supreme Court that matters.
I don't follow the gun cases closely, but shouldn't a decision be coming very soon on the DC gun ban? It will be very interesting to see not only how it comes out but how each of the judges vote, especially Alito and Roberts. McCain voted for and was instrumental in getting them confirmed. Clinton and Obama voted against both of them.
I truly believe that Clinton would have voted for Roberts had she not been planning to Run for President but Obama wouldn't have voted for either under any circumstances.
Huh?
May 6, 2008 - 05:52 ET by WhoIsJohnGalt"Working-class roots"?
"Brilliant"?
Wait a minute, wait a minute...who are they talking about???
This is not good. If the
May 6, 2008 - 06:33 ET by gopsteveThis is not good.
If the msm is so blatant in their love for Obama when reporting on Hillary, imagine what they will be like in the fall...
And Barack Obama has
May 6, 2008 - 06:51 ET by motherbeltAnd Barack Obama has modified his colors (after 20 years) to match those who are appalled and horrified by the things Rev. Jeremiah Wright says and believes.
An interesting take on Obama
May 6, 2008 - 07:36 ET by allahallahoxenfreehttp://ibdeditorials...
CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS!!!
This hits the nail on the head
May 6, 2008 - 07:31 ET by allahallahoxenfreehttp://ibdeditorials...
CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS!!!
Hillary and Obama and McCain are all running for
May 6, 2008 - 08:37 ET by c5thenHypocrit-in-Chief. Hillary's advantage is that she can use an ex Hypocrit-in-Chief to campaign for her.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.