Whenever NBC News needs someone to put the current presidential campaign into historic context they usually go to liberal historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and in recent days, on two different NBC News outlets, Goodwin has delivered with her unique historic and liberal perspective on Hillary Clinton.
On this morning's "Today" show, NBC's Andrea Mitchell went to Goodwin for a critical take on Hillary, but even when asked to find a negative about the Senator from New York, Goodwin couldn't help but fill her critique with superlatives as she determined Hillary may need to soften her "articulate" and overly "prepared," image by intentionally making a mistake. The following analysis was aired on the August 7, "Today" show:
Andrea Mitchell: "So far, Clinton has scored points in debates by showing she is knowledgeable. Now experts say she may also have to prove she's likable."
Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian: "It means she may have to take a risk of making a mistake. She may have to take a risk of not being so articulate and so prepared, to show spontaneity, to show humor."
As any student of recent history knows, Hillary is more than capable of making un-calculated mistakes. Perhaps Goodwin believed her disastrous attempt to socialize health care and her infamous "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies" remark were all part of an ingenious strategy to humanize the "so prepared" Hillary.
In fact, judging from Goodwin's comments from her appearance on Tim Russert's CNBC show, back on July 28th, Goodwin seems to have developed an image of Hillary as an innocent victim who has been forced to overcome the mistakes of others:
When Russert asked Goodwin to rate the '08 candidates' ability to overcome adversity, Goodwin noted Hillary's great accomplishment of having "withstood" such public trials as Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky.
Goodwin: "Looking back. I think for Hillary Clinton, to a certain extent, having withstood the extraordinary damage to her reputation with both Whitewater and the humiliation with the Monica Lewinsky affair, and being willing to slog it out again on the public campaign trail, shows that she's come through something."
A little later in the show Goodwin, who accepted a Hillary invite to sleep over at the White House, insisted Hillary was "much warmer, more affectionate," in person. Goodwin also blamed Hillary's reaction to how the press "screwed" her over on Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky for the candidate not being more "open" in public.
Goodwin: "What I wonder about her is that I think she has it in person. I mean, when I've been with her on time, she's a much warmer, more affectionate, more open person than she's let herself be in public. And the wonder is whether or not all that difficulty she went through with the press over Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky closed up some side of her and that she's not yet willing to let it fully come out. You see glimpses of it in these debates, where she's becoming more open and more easy, but I think for her to really establish a connection to the country, she's going to have to say, 'Ok, I'm mad at the press, they screwed me up before. But I've got to just deal with the people the way I think I know how to do it,' without being so closed."
—Geoffrey Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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Doris Kearns
August 7, 2007 - 16:56 ET by bigtimerDoris Kearns Goodwin...
The plagiarist all leftists love and forgive..
Forget about it!
Stick a fork in anything this silly little useless woman with an agenda and a leftist time filler has to say about anything.
Especially LBJ and Lincloln, let alone Hillary/Bill....lol!
I have heard Goodwin on a
August 7, 2007 - 22:12 ET by motherbeltI have heard Goodwin on a couple of occasions and it doesn't take long at all to decide this woman should not be a historian; she is WAY too biased. Her descriptions of former presidents etc. sound more like public relations productions than objective assessment.
Dame Hillary
August 7, 2007 - 17:00 ET by Jack BauerNow that's funny.
We are talking about a woman born in 1947 who claimed she was named after that Kiwi dude Sir Edmund Hillary who climbed that big mountain in ... NINETEEN FIFTY THREE!
Mmmm, didn't know that!
Then there's the little matter of the missing Rose Law firm files... had NO knowledge of them.. had NO idea they were under her bed, or whatever.
Sure, the woman's a regular Encyclopaedia Frackin' Britannica.
Oh.. and she failed the Washington D.C. bar exam, and never retook. This woman is SCOTUS material.
Sure, the woman's a regular
August 7, 2007 - 17:01 ET by bigtimerSure, the woman's a regular Encyclopaedia Frackin' Britannica.
....according to the msm she is Jack!
...that in itself is a hoot is it not?
LMAO anyway.
BT -- she's the smartest
August 7, 2007 - 18:44 ET by Jack BauerBT -- she's the smartest woman in the bathroom.
GREAT video Jack, very
August 7, 2007 - 18:54 ET by FOXFANGREAT video Jack, very stirring. Makes me proud of our soldiers. Again, good job.
foxfan -- glad you liked my
August 8, 2007 - 04:00 ET by Jack Bauerfoxfan -- glad you liked my little vid effort. Thanks!
Don't know if you saw the
August 7, 2007 - 22:04 ET by bigtimerDon't know if you saw the debate tonight Jack...
...but here is this so-called woman talking about cleaning out things and using a broom as a reference....
Talk about open mouth and insert foot....
WE all know what she is riding on...
You know, leaving her carbon foot-print as Broom Hill....
....Witch that she is....
BT -- the witch actually
August 8, 2007 - 03:59 ET by Jack BauerBT -- the witch actually used a broom analogy? How unwittingly apt.
Well, God forbid she should become Presidentess, but I'm sure the Secrity Service will code name her plane as BROOMSTICK ONE
The Outer Limits - Clinton Style
August 7, 2007 - 22:05 ET by stratmanYou missed that Hilary was the last to know of her husband's adulterous way.
Riiiiiiiiiiiight!
Killing them with kindness isn't working. Time to get scrappy with the Donkeys.
stratman -- LOL-- yep...
August 8, 2007 - 03:57 ET by Jack Bauerstratman -- LOL-- yep... another famous thing she never knew!
But in my defense, what that woman DOESN'T know would fill a planet.
No doubt when the next (inevitable) terrorist attack on US soil happens, she'll be claiming she didn't know they were planning that either.
And, of course, she and her "progressive," quasi-Marxist, neo-commie, socialist Democrat colleagues are determined to ham-string the intelligence services to make sure they don't know either.
You left out the best part.
August 8, 2007 - 08:14 ET by pbanks7Then there's the little matter of the missing Rose Law firm files... had NO knowledge of them.. had NO idea they were under her bed, or whatever....
....until the statute of limitations expired, when they magically appeared on a table in a very busy office.
Ignorance is bliss. It's easier to repeat a mindless slogan than to do some actual research.
From now on the words
August 7, 2007 - 17:11 ET by KhyrisFrom now on the words Hillaryous and hillarious are antonyms
Khyris... I love
August 7, 2007 - 17:13 ET by bigtimerKhyris...
I love it!
Agreed.
Well now, Khyris, you've got
August 7, 2007 - 22:28 ET by motherbeltWell now, Khyris, you've got me confused, because it's late and I just got home from work. Antonyms are opposites..is that what you mean? A littly irony? Or did you mean to use synonyms, meaning the same? Just curious; I think it works either way.
Evening mb.... Dang it
August 7, 2007 - 22:36 ET by bigtimerEvening mb....
Dang it all~ Now I am really cracking up laughing with my response....
I am glad either answer is okay with you, that is for sure!
I (politely) disagree
August 8, 2007 - 07:06 ET by dervishHill has an actual chance of winning, and that takes a lot of the humor out of this. Edwards is funny, Dodd is hilarious. Hillary is funny as a crutch.
Hillary needs to tone down her superior speaking skills?
August 7, 2007 - 17:36 ET by bulbasaurHillary needs to risk being inarticulate?
I'm sorry, but I don't see her having the gift of articulate speech.
Her halting slogans are punctuated by "you know..." and other placeholders that inarticulate speakers use. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm no great public speaker. But I wouldn't ever say I had to "take the risk of being inarticulate."
If you want to put in perspective just how much of a lightweight Hillary is, juxtapose videos of her with tapes of speeches by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. You'll see just how much the citizens of New York have lowered their standards.
bub...What drives me
August 7, 2007 - 17:41 ET by bigtimerbulb...
What drives me completely nuts when she speaks before the you knows...it the word ah...
She says that about every three two five words it seems...she drools out the ahhhhh...it makes me cringe.
It was bad enough her sitting behind or standing beside her partner in crime bobbling her head up and down....
Now we get how she is a great speech-maker.
Oh puhleeeeeeze!
Spare us out here in the real world.
dang right
August 7, 2007 - 18:24 ET by bulbasaurThank you for validating what my eyes saw and my ears heard!
The ONE thing this woman is not is a refined speaker!!
"Ah, the ah, you know, ah, ...:"
Please, don't let this woman anywhere near the White House!
There's a reason for her "ahs" and "ums" and "y'knows"!
August 7, 2007 - 19:06 ET by Scout FinchIt's what people use when they're not speaking naturally and honestly. When one has to think about what to say and how to say it and how to place your hands and arms when you say it has to resort to those little verbal pauses. Those pauses allow one to remember what was rehearsed so carefully.
Thanks, guys, I know I tend
August 7, 2007 - 22:16 ET by motherbeltThanks, guys, I know I tend to be picky about speech sometimes, so I'm glad to see I'm not the only one driven crazy by her "you know"s. Well actually she couldn't say anything that wouldn't drive me crazy, so what the heck. LOL
ahhhh...mb...you
August 7, 2007 - 22:23 ET by bigtimerahhhh...mb...you know....ahhh.....you're more than welcome!
Of course I am just throwing his in for ya know....ahhhh...just the you know...ahhhhh...the heck of it!
" Hillary needs to risk
August 7, 2007 - 17:51 ET by Chris Norman" Hillary needs to risk being inarticulate?"
Well, she tried talkin' jest lahk a black south'ner...
The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.
- Arabian Proverb
She sounded so natural
August 7, 2007 - 18:26 ET by bulbasaur"Aaahhhz now waizzzze taaaaard"
What the hell is wrong with this woman?
Props to you, sir. I forgot all about her surreal southern drawl.
Ah, yes, the southern drawl
August 7, 2007 - 22:24 ET by motherbeltAh, yes, the southern drawl when she wants to sound "down home." In the famous "60 Minutes" interview, she said if people didn't believe her husband, some thing like well hey-eck then, don't vote four 'im.
She is so phoney and scripted...watch her make a speech. She looks down at her paper, then up to her left, down at the paper, then up to her right, repeat. She has even mastered body language to convey what she wants...no one can convince me it's natural. There is nothing natural about her. Nothing.
Risk Taker Hillar-ity
August 7, 2007 - 19:06 ET by Special KayWAIT WAIT - I though talking SUH-thuhn was being BILINGUAL. All of this time, I've been copying Scarlett O'Hara, thinking I was learning a new language, and it's really just a DIALECT?! What a freaking waste of my time. Although, I have tricked people into thinking I'm from Georgia...
"Interum faeces et urinam nascimur"
Well, she tried talkin'
August 7, 2007 - 22:31 ET by motherbeltWell, she tried talkin' jest lahk a black south'ner...
Are you saying blacks aren't articulate????? Oh, I forgot; it's an insult if you say they ARE articulate.
"She may have to take a
August 7, 2007 - 17:39 ET by Darth Dutch"She may have to take a risk of not being so articulate and so prepared"
This is ironic considering the fact that Hillary is notorious for being vague and rarely taking a tough stance on any issue. She's taking a page out of her husband's playbook so she can say she is on either side of any issue depending on the crowd she is speaking to at the moment.
Dutch
Doris Kearns Goodwin,
August 7, 2007 - 18:12 ET by MidAmericaDoris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian: "It means she may have to take a risk of making a mistake. She may have to take a risk of not being so articulate and so prepared, to show spontaneity, to show humor."
But.... George Bush does this all the time. : )
Ms. Kearns must be a real Bush fan.
I suppose having her create
August 7, 2007 - 18:14 ET by balboaI suppose having her create new words that previously didn't exist might soften her image a little, or stumbling to finish a thought, or getting lost in an analogy...
Inarticulate or a complete phony
August 7, 2007 - 18:20 ET by RJInarticulate or a complete phony....you choose.
Inarticulate or a traitor who sells US military secrets to the Chinese....you choose.
In her own words?
August 7, 2007 - 18:20 ET by CrashNo really! Did she come up with it on her own or did she use someone elses words?
Crash
August 7, 2007 - 18:24 ET bythat explains it! The other day i opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out. I was flabbergasted, but now i know Hildabeast stole my words!
Crash --
August 7, 2007 - 18:38 ET by dervishProbably Hillary's people wrote this stuff, and left it where Dor could find it.
Forgive Ms. Goodwin
August 7, 2007 - 18:25 ET by pbthinkerI tend to take Ms. Goodwin, with a grain of salt. She's an Irish Catholic, from Boston, who was sucked into the Democratic Party by John Kennedy and will never report honestly on any Democrat. She'll contantly overlook the foibles, and exaggerate their positives which, imho, makes her not a very good historian.
Never argue with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Actually, she's a native of
August 7, 2007 - 20:55 ET by Del DolemonteActually, she's a native of Brooklyn who grew up in Rockville Center. I read her book "Wait Until Next Year", which details her childhood love affair with the Brooklyn Bums, and was impressed with her knowledge of the game.
Her husband Dick, who wrote speeches for JFK, was busted last year for DUI in Massachusetts when he ran his car into a police cruiser. He's a hard leftie also, but to his credit wrote a scathing op-ed in the liberal Boston Globe shortly before Clinton left office that concluded that his Presidency was more or less a total failure. I've got the hard print copy of it around here, but Google is hiding the online version, of course.
Presidential leadership is not control
August 7, 2007 - 18:26 ET by KC MulvilleThe premise is wrong. The myth here is that Hillary is extremely well-prepared, but that to show her humanity, she has to fake a mistake. The reality is that Hillary only allows herself to appear in situations which she completely controls. She is surrounded by Hillary-acolytes and former Clintonites, and she can dictate to the media. She can control her world right now.
Presidential leadership is not control. It's a different skill entirely. She will be at the mercy of the federal bureaucracy. She will be at the mercy of world events. She will face enemies who can adjust and adapt. She will have to deal with Putin and China, neither of which will be intimidated by her. Hillary simply has no experience of that. She controls her world, but she won't be able to do that in the presidency.
I'm afraid that if she becomes president, she will try to control everything, and the real world will refuse to bow to her. She'll resent it, and in typical Clinton fashion, she'll blame everyone else. We'll be stuck with the same problem as the Bill Clinton years. The economy will be good, but we won't confront the problems because the president will be too self-absorbed to risk any political capital. She'll be a hero to her immediate circle, and the rest of us will have to clean up the mess.
KC
August 7, 2007 - 18:36 ET byI think that a real debate without a pandering moderator would be an excellent apocolypso for Ms Rodham
Supreme Court, National Security, Borders, Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.
Real debate
August 7, 2007 - 20:02 ET by KC MulvilleIt would certainly help, but even in a debate, Hillary can prepare. The dumbest advice is the advice from Doris Kearns Goodwin ... my God, she wants Hillary to prepare (i.e., stage) her own mistake! Goodwin is advising Hillary to be more calculating and phony!
Rudy Giuliani is the first to admit that part of his 9/11 success was that the city had prepared and run drills for catastrophe. But 9/11 required an agility that no plan could prepare for, and that's why we respect Rudy so much. Agility is the quality that Rudy has displayed, and that I don't think Hillary will ever have. When everything goes according to plan, she's fine. It might even be a fine plan. But how is she going to respond when things don't go according to plan? Can she adjust?
Any president can have a plan. The great presidents know what to do when the plan fails. Look at Lincoln. Can anyone remember what his electoral promises were? We revere his memory for what he did when hell broke loose. And kept breaking loose. Does anyone think Hillary could have withstood so many defeats?
A sports analogy -- sometimes, in golf, even the best ones put it in the water (cf. the recent British Open). It happens. What do you do then? Do you fall apart, or do you get yourself ready for the next shot? Rudy will curse and stomp, but by the time he gets to the next shot, he'll be ready. I think we all know what Hillary will do: she'll blame the club, and the Vast GolfClub Conspiracy, and she'll storm off the course ... and she'll lose the tournament for us.
I still tend to believe
August 7, 2007 - 20:16 ET byI still tend to believe that a moderator who challenges her to answer questions and not evade/avoid will uncover some of the true Hil. Take her 'glance' at Obama who dared to stand-up to her. This insecure person can not stand to be shown as anything but in full control. When she loses control i believe she will lose control. Thus will she be revealed.
Supreme Court, National Security, Borders, Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.
LOL, her handlers and
August 7, 2007 - 20:06 ET by Del DolemonteLOL, her handlers and enablers have never let that happen, and never will.
leadership
August 7, 2007 - 18:43 ET by MidAmericaKC well put.
The Cuban missle crisis was somewhat precipitated by the perception that John Kennedy was young and inexperienced. Whoever is elected president next will be tested sooner or later.
A question that needs to be asked of our candidates is a question they will face as president. "Can you kill?"
wrong spot?
August 7, 2007 - 19:01 ET by?
I watched a REAL historian today
August 7, 2007 - 18:39 ET by RJI watched a REAL historian today....Newt Gingrich gave a talk at the Press Club. (He also took questions from the floor.)
Unlike Goodwin, he is intelligent and not anyone's toady.
I don't agree with everything he says, but how refreshing it is to hear someone who actually knows what he's talking about, and is able to put it into perspective.
Newt at the Press Club
August 7, 2007 - 19:10 ET by Special KayI saw that, too, while I was hiding inside from the heat. I flipped past it, and went back - Newt is so gifted and has a knack of making me feel hopeful that all is not quite lost yet...
"Interum faeces et urinam nascimur"
"Finding a negative on Hillary.." it's not so difficult.
August 7, 2007 - 19:45 ET by Gary HallNext time Andrea Mitchell wants to ask someone about Hillary Clinton's negatives, perhaps she should look beyond Hillary's personal fan club. This isn't difficult.
How about NY Times bestseller, Greg Palast. He's qualified himself as a weapon of the left, as according to his own bio: "Palast is best known in his native USA as the journalist who, for the Observer (UK), broke the story of how Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black Florida citizens from voter rolls before the 2000 election, thereby handing the White House to his brother George. His reports on the theft of election 2004.. OK? So he's no pastsy for the neocons, and that little credit, in itself, should be enough to qualify him for an interview on Hillary with every mainstream outlet out there.
So, check out his May 3, 2007 piece titled Hillary’s Mother-F’ing Tour Business, where we get just one notch more of an education, on what Mitchell should have been looking for:
Actually, it is pretty. It's real pretty if one is an investigative reporter looking to dig deep with an interest in waking up the US voter, before it's too late. Of course, there really aren't any of them in the mainstream media these days, are there?
And for the bonus of the day, since Hillary seems to be self-promoting herself to the KOS crowd using the "I'm a progressive" angle a heck of a lot in recent days, why should one not take a peak at a site called the "Progressive Review?" Check this out: THINGS WORTH KNOWING ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON BEFORE 2008. Look, it's a lot of ole hash for those who knew to look a few feet beyond the front pages of the NY Times and the network news, but it's still a wonderful little review. Every single Hillary supporter (Mmm - that includes our nation's network anchors and the lot) should have to sit down and read all the way through one of these, at least once befor the election.
Nice Link Gary
August 7, 2007 - 22:36 ET by stratmanAnd some think Alberto Gonzales is memory impaired!
From http://prorev.com/legacy.htm.
ARKANSAS ALTZHEIMER'S
Number of times that Clinton figures who testified in court or before Congress said that they didn't remember, didn't know, or something similar.
Bill Kennedy 116
Harold Ickes 148
Ricki Seidman 160
Bruce Lindsey 161
Bill Burton 191
Mark Gearan 221
Mack McLarty 233
Neil Egglseston 250
Hillary Clinton 250
John Podesta 264
Jennifer O'Connor 343
Dwight Holton 348
Patsy Thomasson 420
Jeff Eller 697
FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES: In the portions of President Clinton's Jan. 17 deposition that have been made public in the Paula Jones case, his memory failed him 267 times. This is a list of his answers and how many times he gave each one.
I don't remember - 71
I don't know - 62
I'm not sure - 17
I have no idea - 10
I don't believe so - 9
I don't recall - 8
I don't think so - 8
I don't have any specific recollection - 6
I have no recollection - 4
Not to my knowledge - 4
I just don't remember - 4
I don't believe - 4
I have no specific recollection - 3
I might have - 3
I don't have any recollection of that - 2 I don't have a specific memory - 2
I don't have any memory of that - 2
I just can't say - 2
I have no direct knowledge of that - 2
I don't have any idea - 2
Not that I recall - 2
I don't believe I did - 2
I can't remember - 2
I can't say - 2
I do not remember doing so - 2
Not that I remember - 2
I'm not aware - 1
I honestly don't know - 1
I don't believe that I did - 1
I'm fairly sure - 1
I have no other recollection - 1
I'm not positive - 1
I certainly don't think so - 1
I don't really remember - 1
I would have no way of remembering that - 1
That's what I believe happened - 1
To my knowledge, no - 1
To the best of my knowledge - 1
To the best of my memory - 1
I honestly don't recall - 1
I honestly don't remember - 1
That's all I know - 1
I don't have an independent recollection of that - 1
I don't actually have an independent memory of that - 1
As far as I know - 1
I don't believe I ever did that - 1
That's all I know about that - 1
I'm just not sure - 1
Nothing that I remember - 1
I simply don't know - 1
I would have no idea - 1
I don't know anything about that - 1
I don't have any direct knowledge of that - 1
I just don't know - 1
I really don't know - 1
I can't deny that, I just -- I have no memory of that at all - 1
Killing them with kindness isn't working. Time to get scrappy with the Donkeys.
Goodwin
August 7, 2007 - 21:52 ET by pocomocoIn a comment I made about Mike Barnicle hosting ‘Oddball’, I wrote:
“Old plagiarists never die, they just get cable TV shows.”
In the case of Goodwin, my statement seems apropos.
You’ve gotta’ admit, though, she looks pretty good with her new face.
And if the dictionary had a picture next to the word sycophant, it would be a tossup between Goodwin and Diane Sawyer.
}}---> Presidential Historian
August 8, 2007 - 04:09 ET by Cool ArrowWhere's the rest of the accompanying picture? You know, the guy with the pitchfork. Yeah, American Gothic, that's it.
}}---> I recognize her
August 8, 2007 - 08:49 ET by Cool ArrowShe's Helen Thomas' hungry sister.
Isn't this like the smarmy
August 8, 2007 - 14:12 ET by TheDeuceIsn't this like the smarmy applicants who list 'perfectionist' or 'too dedicated' as their 'bad' qualities in a job interview?
How can you spot a
August 11, 2007 - 19:00 ET by 4arrowHow can you spot a phoney? Tight jaw line, with age appropriate face.
You are now up to bat at being the elder for G.S.
What? You want to remain being a chick/stud forever?
Next in line please We will respect the natural Grandparent figure.
Good luck being 'out there'.