Liberal historian and former Johnson administration staffer Doris Kearns Goodwin was on Sunday’s Meet the Press panel and to the shock of no one, sang the praises of Hillary Clinton by proclaiming how she projected an “amazing...internal confidence” in the debate and has become “a better candidate now than she was six months ago” and from 2008.
Before uttering her fawning praise for Clinton, moderator Chuck Todd originally posed this question to Kearns Goodwin concerning the debate performance of socialist Senator Bernie Sanders: “But did you hear anything from Bernie Sanders that says ‘okay, he can take her?’”
After not introducing her as a member of the Johnson administration (along with being an author), Kearns Goodwin pushed Sanders aside so she could fawn over someone whose husband allowed her to spend a night in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom while he was President:
Well, I think the most important thing that Hillary did last night, it's not that Bernie didn't do well and had a good night, too, but she showed such amazing confidence. I mean, that moment when “should corporate America like you? “Everybody should like me.” Think of the difference between 2008 when there was a question about, “do you think you can catch Obama because you're not likable.” And she said, “well, I feel hurt.”
Looking back to earlier in the fall when she participated in the first Democratic debate on October 13, Vice President Biden revealing he won’t run for president on October 21, and went before the Benghazi Committee on October 22, she pointed to that stretch as to when she “got her internal confidence”: “I think when that's there, yes, these problems will come up, you have to worry about confidence becoming arrogance, but she is a better candidate now than she was six months ago. She's better than in '08.”
Of course, something else Meet the Press or any other show she appears on would not disclose is her long history of donating to Democratic candidates. According to Open Secrets, Kearns Goodwin has given money over the years to then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992, former Senator Ted Kennedy in 1994, current Democratic Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (Mass.) in 2010, and to current Democratic Congressman Joe Kennedy III (Mass.) in 2012.
The relevant portion of the transcript from NBC’s Meet the Press on December 20 can be found below.
NBC’s Meet the Press
December 21, 2015
11:24 p.m. EasternCHUCK TODD: But did you hear anything from Bernie Sanders that says “okay, he can take her?”
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, I think the most important thing that Hillary did last night, it's not that Bernie didn't do well and had a good night, too, but she showed such amazing confidence. I mean, that moment when “should corporate America like you? “Everybody should like me.” Think of the difference between 2008 when there was a question about, “do you think you can catch Obama because you're not likable.” And she said, “well, I feel hurt.” Ever since that big week when she did the debate well, when she had the Benghazi hearing and when Biden got out of the race, she's got her internal confidence and I think when that's there, yes, these problems will come up, you have to worry about confidence becoming arrogance, but she is a better candidate now than she was six months ago. She's better than in '08.
