NY Times, Politico misreported Clinton's comments during emotional moment in NH
SUMMARY: The New York Times and the Politico's Ben Smith misreported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's emotional remarks during a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Times reported that Clinton said, in part, "I have so many ideas for this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards," while Smith reported that Clinton said: "I have so many opportunities for this country. I don't want to see us all fall back" [emphases added]. In fact, Clinton said, "You know, I have so many opportunities from this country" [emphasis added].
On January 7, The New York Times and Politico senior political writer Ben Smith misreported what Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) said during a campaign event that day in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in which her voice broke when she responded to a question asked by Marianne Pernold-Young, a local freelance photographer: "How do you do it? How do you keep up ... and who does your hair?"
According to CNN, Clinton responded that "she had help with her hair on 'special days,' and that she drew criticism on the days she did not." Clinton then provided the rest of her response. The Times reported that Clinton said, in part, "I have so many ideas for this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards," while Smith reported that Clinton said: "I have so many opportunities for this country. I don't want to see us all fall back" [emphases added].
In fact, as video of Clinton's remarks makes clear, she said, "You know, I have so many opportunities from this country," expressing gratitude and explaining her motivations for running [emphasis added]. Clinton's response to Pernold-Young's question was:
CLINTON: It's not easy, it's not easy. And I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't want to see us fall backwards, you know? So.
[applause]
You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political, it's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game. They think it's like who's up or who's down. It's about our country, and it's about our kids' futures. And it's really about all of us, together. You know, some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds. And we do it, each one of us, because we care about our country.
But some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready, and some of us are not. Some of us know what we will do on day one, and some of us haven't really thought that through enough. And so, when we look at the array of problems we have, and the potential for it getting -- really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced.
So, as tired as I am -- and I am -- and as difficult as it is to kind of keep up what I try to do on the road, like occasionally exercise and try to eat right -- it's tough when the easiest food is pizza -- I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation. So I'm going to do everything I can to make my case, and, you know, then the voters get to decide. Thank you all.
In contrast to the Times and to Smith, ABCNews.com reported: " 'It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do,' said Clinton, getting visibly emotional. 'You know, I have so many opportunities from this country I just don't want to see us fall backwards.' "
From the January 7 New York Times article, by Patrick Healy and Marc Santora:
In perhaps her most public display of emotion of the presidential campaign, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's eyes welled with tears, and her voice cracked dramatically on Monday, as she talked about holding up under the rigors of the race and her belief that she is the best candidate for the Democratic nomination.
If it was not an Ed Muskie moment -- Mrs. Clinton did not cry (or look like she was crying) -- she was certainly on the verge of it after a woman asked her, at a round table discussion at a coffee shop here, how she managed to get out of bed and soldier through each day.
"How do you do it?" the woman, Marianne Pernold, asked. And, with a touch of humor, she added, "Who does your hair?"
"It's not easy, it's not easy," Mrs. Clinton replied slowly. "I couldn't do it if I did not passionately believe it was the right thing to do. It's very personal to me."
At this point Mrs. Clinton's voice softened and lowered to a near-hush, and she spoke more haltingly.
"I have so many ideas for this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards," she said, her eyes visibly wet, as a row of news photographers began snapping away to capture the moment. "It's about our country, it's about our kids' futures."
"Some of us are right some of us are wrong," she continued, firming up a bit -- and sounding, some reporters felt, either angry or resentful about Senator Barack Obama. "Some of us are ready, and some of us are not. Some of us know what we'll do on day one and some of us don't."
Smith's January 7 blog post on Politico.com, in its entirety:
Exhausted and facing the prospect of losing the second test of her primary campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton fought back tears as her voice broke at the close of a sedate event in a Portsmouth coffee shop.
She expressed the sheer difficulty of heading out to the trail each day -- "It's not easy," she said -- and suggested she faced "pretty difficult odds."
And with audible frustration and disbelief, she drew the contrast between her experience and Sen. Barack Obama's that suggests that her campaign's current message -- the question of who is ready -- matches her profound sense that she alone is ready for the job.
"Some of us know what we are going to do on day one, and some of us haven't thought that through enough," she said.
The question was innocuous:
"As a woman, I know it's hard to get out of the house and get ready," said Marianne Pernold, a local freelance photographer. "Who does your hair?"
Clinton began by talking about her hair -- she has some help -- but moved to talk more generally about the campaign.
"It's not easy, it's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I just didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said.
"I have so many opportunities for this country. I don't want to see us all fall back," she said, her voice breaking in the last phrase.
"This is very personal for me," she said to supportive applause from the small gathering, at which she'd been discussing policy around a table for an hour. "It's not just political, it's not just public -- I see what's happening. We have to reverse it."
"Some people think elections are a game -- it's about who's up and who's down," she said. "It's about our country's future, it's about our kids' future -- it's really about all of us together."
"And some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds, and we do it, each one of us, because we care about our country," she said.
"Some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready and some of us are not. Some of us know what we are going to do on day one, and some of us haven't thought that through enough," she said.
"When we look at the array of problems that we have, and the potential for it really spinning out of control -- this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced," she concluded.
Of course there would be difficulty for the Corporate Media to discern a likelihood that anyone would be thankful for opportunities from this country, and yet greater difficulty understanding anyone who is greatful yet wants improvement.
To them (and far too many of the Repugnant base) all accomplishment is a personal victory over impediment from society in general, and libruls in particular; and the only change required is to increase their glut - hopefully over the carcasses of those very libruls.
I just saw Creepy Dick Morris on Hannity & Colmes, and he has judged HRC unfit for the office of Prez. based on her crying (Yes, they managed to steer Morris onto the subject of Clinton).
Colmes asked if Dick would say the same about The Mittster for his crying episode.Surprisingly, Dick said that was different as Romney was sympathizing with others, while Hillary was crying for herself.
IOKIYAR
no surprise she might get a little emotional. she has to deal with being questioned during a debate about her likability. that's a question with no answer, and should not have been asked. then she was booed at a meeting when she talked about change, as if that message belongs to one candidate alone. every election is about change.
and something i have noticed that tim russert has done, including this morning on the today show. he keeps talking about the primaries and caucuses where obama is likely to win, and talks about super tuesday on feb 5. but he has ignored the jan 29 florida primary where hillary has consistently held a big lead, including a dec. 20 double digit lead. see link. is timmy reporting the story or making it?
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/florida_primary_dem_2008/
mefirst,
I mentioned on a thread the other day that the media seems to have already decided it's gonna be a McCain-Obama matchup in the general election, downplaying the chances of Hillary, Romney or Edwards as a done deal.
I was just watching Morning Joe on MSNBC & they were talking with Chris Matthews. Now I usually stick up for Chris here but I swear this morning if I could have reached into the TV screen I would have cuffed the twerp. Matthews blatant hatred of Hillary & Romney has reached it's most obnoxious point yet. And his gushing over Obama & McCain is not only embarrassing, it's totally unprofessional. He said a few things this morning that I hope MMFA staffers caught.
I don't know if I'm having some sort of epiphany here, but Matthews has finally turned me off.
At the presidential level it's almost as if we no longer have elections by our citizens, but selections by our media. Scary!
And it's extraordinary, once you recognize it. It's primarily television, and television's insistence upon accompanying any and all video or other mention of a presidential candidate, with commentary and "editorializing".
Television in a presidential election, makes for a kind of all-surrounding womb or matrix around the candidates, "reporting" their words in only ten second snippets, followed by interminable minutes (and hours!) of clucking and spinning those ten second snippets, with the biased idiocy of 'pundits'.
They (the television broadcasters) think themselves gate-keepers to a presidential election, and as a gauntlet of sort, for the candidates to run...
Television is a cancer on the American People's Democracy.
Turn it off. Get your information from the Internet Wire.
Welcome to the fold, J2... I had that same epiphany a not too long ago :)
I lost a considerable amount of respect tonight for Keith Olbermann, after watching his cynical, smarmy coverage of this moment, and his false attempt to misrepresent her motives and actions as if she were Guiliani Jr.
It just goes to prove the old saying: journalism is to writing and research, what jacking-off is to sex. These guys are all cut from the same cloth. They're all part of the same problem.
I lost a considerable amount of respect tonight for Keith Olbermann, after watching his cynical, smarmy coverage of this moment,...
I was surprised at this segment myself. My afterthoughts turned to “At least this guy is proving that he isn’t just another Hillary shill.” I’ve got to hand it to him for speaking his mind on a subject he knew would throw his viewers for a spin. So much for Keith O and MSNBC liberal bias, aye?
It just goes to prove the old saying: journalism is to writing and research, what jacking-off is to sex.
By this you mean, simple, to the point, and sometimes even more satisfying? LOL
There must be some videotape available of Rep. John Boehner weeping in public. Play that now; juxtapose that against this, for the sake of comparison.
As a matter of fact, if you put together all the recent examples of politicians weeping in public (and there's maybe a dozen over the past several years), they'd mostly be Republicans spilling crocodile tears, if my memory serves.
I recall Rep. Issa weeping like a baby, when he publicly announced he was begging out of the California gubernatorial recall effort that he had just personally financed (making way for the Terminator).
Play that tape now... I need to see it again, because I still haven't figured out why the guy was crying like a baby in public.
I thought her performance was worthy of a golden globe award. She's crying because she's losing, and you people are falling lock/stock&barrel for her act! Hillaryious!! Is that how she would handle China's leader, by crying till she gets what she wants?? Oh yeah, she is soo worthy of being president .... NOT! Voting for Jeb Bush would be more productive than voting for hilary.
Philib, not sure I'm following you here. Are you saying that HC's crying is phony, and this half of the calculating cunning Clinton machine thinks that crying is an effective route to a successful campaign?
You seem to have not settled on a talking point, and these two are at odds.
Of course he is. He got his info from Michelle Maulkin.
heh. Thanks Snoop. I'm always amazed when the wingnuts get two mutually exclusive talking points all scrambled up, and they post or talk without realizing it. Kinda hard to pretend you're not a zombie when you can't even process the lies you're repeating.
And shouldn't that be "Hillaryous"? ;)
It seems as though dehumanization is a quintessential right-wing modus operandi. Just look at that link, and watch when Dick Morris says "She's a real human being, she's good at crying when she needs to." In other words, yeah she's actually a person (hard to believe), she's good at (fake) crying when she wants to win support.
Of course it was fake. Just like her laugh a few weeks ago. Are you telling me you BELIEVED her? Do you really think that there is a difference between Bush and Clinton? Both will run the country the same way. You would have to be a complete idiot to think otherwise.
Who's Michelle Maulkin?
philib, i'm sure that hillary can handle china's leader. she's managed to charm most of the republican senators. i also doubt she would sit there reading a book while we were under attack, and then run off to hide in a underground bunker in nebraska.
" i also doubt she would sit there reading a book while we were under attack, "
We were attacked? By who? I sure hope the US is fighting back. BTW, I don't think there would be ANY difference between current president and hilary as president.
sorry you didn't hear. we were attacked on 9-11 by terrorists who hijacked airliners and flew them into the world trade center. it was in all the papers.
I like Obama, and am not a huge fan of Clinton, but it's clear that the media has decided that promoting Obama, while disparaging Clinton, is more sensational and better for ratings. Bill Clinton has a point when he said that the two are not held to an equal standard of media scrutiny. It's a better theme to have "david" (Obama) take down "goliath" (Hilliary) and it fits the theme when the Clinton juggernaut is brought to tears. Moreover, now that Hillary needs the media to print more favorable stories about her campaign, you can rest assured that they'll have her on their shows or give her interviews, only if she now approaches them with her tail between her legs.
The media is just entertainment, similar to sitcoms competing with one another for ratings. They overdramatize everything to a disgusting degree
It's time for Hillary to do as Willie Nelson sang "turn out the lights, the party's over"
We are a country with a proud tradition of judging tears as a sign of weakness depending from whom they are flowing (man, there's an English grammar lesson in there somewhere!)
Us old guys remember Edmund Muskie getting beaten down to the gutter in the press over tears he shed becuase someone had said something unkind about his wife. Any chance of sucess he had up to that point in the '72 election was dashed. And it happened in New Hampshire.
On the other hand, The Decider claims he sheds tears in private for the thousands of lives and billions of dollars he's squandered.
I don't hear any of his conservative ditto-heads questioning his ability to lead in a time of war...the war he started.
Jesus, I'm ready to start crying just thinking about our country this morning.
Wow. What a pathetic attempt by Media Matters for Hillary. Please try harder. Hillary needs you now more than ever.
I agree that MM, for whatever reasons, tries to carry Hillary's water, but the way that some of the media has been so exceedingly one-sided in terms of clinton v. obama is ridiculous. Guys like Matthews and co. go after her like they're scorned lovers. She got emotional, so what? She didn't cry over her own lies like romney did regarding his religion's unambiguously racist history.
Thomp,
Ripper doesn't do discussion. I don't think he's really interested in actually engaging you with conversation. I have never once seen a post by Ripper that was nothing more than "MMfA isn't doing a very good job covering for Hillary."
This whole Hillary crying “story” just makes me want to scream in a screachy voice and vomit. First off, she did NOT cry. I’ve watched the video a half dozen times in high resolution on full screen, and if it weren’t for the emotion in her voice you would not even know she was the least bit distraught. Her eye movement and blinking remains constant and normal throughout her utterance. If someone has a picture of her crying, or even tearing up, at this meeting, I’d like the link please.
If you need examples of REAL crying, there’s already been plenty of links of Republican “men” crying posted in this thread. (You know, the type of crying where you SEE tears and handkerchief wiping?)
As with all the other “negative” characteristics that these conservative pundits seem to find in Democratic candidates, all I can continue to say is that there are as many, or more, voters who find a person who speaks with animation, emotion, and compassion to be a much more likely candidate for their vote than any of the boring stone-faced Republican candidates.
I guess that, to Republicans, a good speaker is Fred Thompson, or better yet – Ben Stein? YAWWWWN! God forbid anyone show any real human emotion.
Fox News Flash.
HRC can't win. She is too cold and un-feeling.
HRC can't win. She cries and shows emotion.
HRC can't win. She shows just the right amount of emotion indicating she is calculating.
This reminds me of Tipgate and toiletpapergate. You know, she uses too much or too little,... and dozen other complaints.
She also dances too much or too little, smiles too much or too little, skirt is too high or too low, not enough color, too much color and kisses too long. Don't laugh we are getting all of that from a major so-called news source.
I am sorry guys but I too never heard the "You know" before I have so many etc. Either way it doesn't matter unless Hillary starts speaking and looking less entitled to the Presidency she will fail. It is pretty sad at this time. This is not a right wing conspiracy this time. The people just do not trust the Clintons and want a change. I agree that all of the American people believe (except the journalists)that the media run this country. The hatred for our President now by the MSM and the people shows what kind of country this has become. Media Matters hasn't helped Hillary but this is out of our hands. The people clearly don't trust the Clinton's and they have to get back the faith in the people. That is definitely and up hill climb.
Soozyg NCGo ahead and vore for the unpatriotic Obama and watch us lose in the general election to an experienced republican..Ugh!!!! Another 4-8 years of more of what we have now..
I would like to see an official transcript from this. I heard this played on the radio yesterday and today and I though she said "for". The only replay I could get to work on my computer was from YouTube and after playing it over and over I think she may have said "from", but it is definitely not clear.
I think the emotion and stress probably played into it not being very clear. I don't think this rises to a hit on Hill's though.
And the misreporting continues - I hears Rush Limbaugh misquote Hillary during his radio pukefest earlier today.