Amy Chozick, chief Hillary Clinton follower and supporter at the New York Times, joined in the celebration of Clinton’s solid win in Tuesday’s New York primary on Wednesday’s front page: “Democratic Primary Triumph Is a Story of Love Rekindled.”
Chozick went far beyond praise for a successful campaign, molding carpetbagging Clinton into a true blue New Yorker, dancing and playing dominoes all across the city and ending with Hillary triumphant: “'I love New York,' Mrs. Clinton said, squinting in the bright primary-day sun."
She danced the merengue in Washington Heights. She slammed down a mean game of dominoes in East Harlem.
And in the East Village the day before the New York primary, Hillary Clinton broke her long-held rule of not eating in front of the news media by digging into an ice cream concoction named the Victory.
Chozick gushed:
New York has always been the state that loved her back, and on Tuesday it delivered one of her biggest boosts yet toward becoming the first woman to capture the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
....
But none of the remaining states hold the psychological weight of New York, where in 1999 Mrs. Clinton first dipped her toe into making the transition from presidential spouse to political force.
Overcoming the inconvenient facts that she was born in a Chicago suburb and spent most of her adult life in Little Rock, Ark., and Washington, Mrs. Clinton dived into retail politics and “listening tours” with voters, working to prove that she was not a carpetbagger. The Clintons vacationed upstate in Skaneateles in 1999, and that fall they bought a $1.7 million five-bedroom Dutch colonial in Chappaqua.
....
....Mrs. Clinton echoed her first Senate campaign and kept many of her appearances targeted and intimate. And for a candidate sometimes criticized as aloof and wooden, Mrs. Clinton, in New York, seemed carefree, or as carefree as a cautious presidential candidate can be.
On Friday, as Mr. Sanders visited Vatican City, Mrs. Clinton toured an apartment in the Edward Corsi Houses, an affordable-housing complex for older adults in East Harlem.
She wiggled her shoulders and threw up her arms when she bested a trio of men playing dominoes at the complex’s recreation center. “You play good! Oh, my God,” one of the men exclaimed. “I’m taking dominoes to the White House!” a swaggering Mrs. Clinton replied.
Again, the Times finds no trouble with a Democratic politician pandering to the religious:
Mrs. Clinton spoke at three black churches in Brooklyn one Sunday, beginning her remarks with the same refrain: “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
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By Monday, Mrs. Clinton, sensing that her lead in the polls had solidified, exuded the confidence to risk an unflattering food photo, and ate.
Chozick skimmed over some less flattering anecdotes before showing the confident candidate basking in the sun.
There have been mishaps in Mrs. Clinton’s coming-home tour. It took five swipes of a MetroCard before she got through a turnstile to get the No. 4 train in the Bronx, and she took part in a racially tinged skit with Mayor Bill de Blasio.
But after Mrs. Clinton voted on Tuesday at Douglas G. Grafflin Elementary School in Chappaqua, where she first saw her name on the ballot in 2000, the scattered rain that had been falling just minutes before had stopped. The clouds had parted.
“I love New York,” Mrs. Clinton said, squinting in the bright primary-day sun.
The Washington Post wasn’t nearly as thrilled with Hill's win, saying that “Clinton looks much weaker than recent nominees” and citing recent negative polling.
