It had to be a little jarring for viewers of NBC's Today in the first half-hour on Wednesday morning to go from a drumbeat of stories about how the Bush administration was allegedly smearing Joe and Valerie Wilson out of raw war-mongering vengeance to a thinly disguised video news release for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. The only consistency was liberal advocacy. Reporter Norah O'Donnell obsequiously repeated how Clinton's advisers say she has "an unprecedented strategy" to mobilize support from Democratic women on the Internet with her "overtly feminist message." The only sour notes in the story are old abrasive clips of Hillary from 1992, but O'Donnell suggested she's revising her image from "hard-driving professional" to show the "softer, chattier Hillary."
How can you run for president and not look like a "hard-driving professional"? Don't ask Norah O'Donnell. She seems to be busy applying for Tony Snow's job as White House press secretary under President Hillary. The transcript from MRC's Geoff Dickens follows:
Ann Curry: "Now to the race for the White House. It's no secret that America has never had a female president but Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to use her agenda, gender rather, to rally support in this campaign. Norah O'Donnell has more on the Senator's women's movement. Norah, good morning."
[On screen headline: "Female Factor, Hillary Reaches Out to Women."
Norah O'Donnell: "Ann, good morning to you, Ann. Senator Clinton's advisers call this, 'an unprecedented strategy to mobilize an army of Democratic women on the Internet to help elect the first female President of the United States. Hillary Clinton is campaigning for President with an overtly feminist message."
Sen. Hillary Clinton: "When we throw open those doors of opportunity and break those glass ceilings then we give everyone in America a chance to be all that he or she can be. At nearly every campaign stop."
Clinton: "I am very proud to be a woman."
O'Donnell: "She emphasizes her gender."
Clinton: "To all those who say a woman cannot be elected President I say we'll never know unless we try."
O'Donnell: "The question is what kind of woman voters perceive her to be. The Hillary of 1992?"
Clinton: "I'm not sitting here, some little woman standing by man like Tammy Wynette."
O'Donnell: "When she sold herself as a hard-driving professional, two for the price of one."
Clinton: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas."
O'Donnell: "Or the new softer, chattier Hillary."
Clinton: "So let's talk. Let's chat."
John Harwood, CNBC political analyst: "She's trying to take the parts of her political persona that haven't worked in the past and set them aside and craft a new more empathetic one that's appealing to a broad range of women."
O'Donnell: "Today she talks tough enough to be a wartime commander-in-chief."
Clinton: "When you are attacked you have to deck your opponent."
O'Donnell: "But she also shows a more tender side that may help her better connect with voters."
Clinton: "There was a song we used to sing in Girl Scout meetings, 'Make new friends but keep the old / One is silver and the other gold.' All the Girl Scouts, thank you!"
O'Donnell: "Now Hillary Clinton's advisers estimate that 60 percent of the Democratic primary elector in 2008 will be women. And with Senator Barack Obama doing so well among African-American voters Clinton must do very well among women voters, Ann."
