April 23, 2008
Hotline After Dark -- The Morning After
Coverage of the PA primary continues. Here are some highlights after the race was called for Hillary Clinton by all of the networks:
Syndicated columnist Mark Shields: "If one really wants to scrutinize the demographic that determines Hillary Clinton's going on and surviving through thick and a lot of thin and a lot of adversity, I think you have to look at her gender. I mean, women voters have been constant, especially women voters over the age of 50, who are not college graduates and probably of incomes less than $50,000 have been the stalwarts, have been the base, have been the real energy of her campaign on election days" ("NewsHour," PBS, 4/22).
Ex-WH spokesperson Ari Fleischer: "I think it's too early to say that she's the comeback kid. She's got too high a mountain to climb before anybody can say that. You know, to use a football analogy, this is the beginning of the fourth quarter and she's down by about three touchdowns" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 4/22).
NBC's Russert, on Clinton's "sizable" win: "It guarantees she will have the money to run a very competitive race in Indiana. Every cent she gets will keep the plane in the air and to buy TV time on the air. And she will raise enough money. She won't be able to repay her $5 million loan and I don't think Mark Penn will be paid off, but she will be on television in Indiana and North Carolina. No doubt about it" (MSNBC, 4/22).
After the jump, more on PA and another Bill Clinton episode on the campaign trail (KATHERINE LEHR).
On HRC's victory speech:
CNN's King, asked what stood out: "Tenacity, as she's going on. She understands the math. She knows the math. She doesn't mention it in her speech. The other thing that jumped out at me in about the first minute of the speech, she said, 'Send money.' She's winning tonight, but guess what? She knows that Obama has more money in the bank. She is low on money. Two weeks now to two critical contests. Striking to hear a candidate, as she says, 'Thank you, I win,' but almost in her very next breath say, 'Send money'" (4/22).
GOP pollster Frank Luntz: "Fantastic, absolutely the best speech that I have heard her give. Words will become solutions, hope will become reality -- drawing a clear, crisp contrast with Barack Obama, trying to say that while he is offering something, she is actually going to deliver it. ... Perfect tone, almost perfect delivery, an audience that was clearly engaged" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 4/22).
Dem strategist Donna Brazile: "I thought Senator Clinton tonight in her speech really didn't speak to superdelegates and try to address some of the process questions about electability. Rather, she talked to the voters. She talked to the American people. ... She was talking to the voters in Indiana and North Carolina and the upcoming states. Because she knows that, in order to win or to have a chance of winning, she must win another big state" (CNN, 4/22).
On Barack Obama's speech:
MSNBC's Olbermann: "It did not have seemingly the effect Senator Clinton's speech did" (4/22).
And HRC did the rounds on today's a.m. shows. See today's Hotline for more.
DENY, DENY, DENY
There was also talk about B. Clinton contradicting himself.
MSNBC's Matthews: "Did the president or did he not say on radio in Philadelphia yesterday that the Obama campaign played the race card against him? Yes, he did. ... And then this morning, talking to our reporter, he denied having said that. I'm just going to the fact here, not the argument. ... I'm not sure he built the usual escape hatch that Bill Clinton likes to build" ("Hardball," 4/22).
NBC's Mitchell: "The Clinton people do have several memos from people inside the Obama campaign suggesting all of this racial bias on Bill Clinton's part. He obviously feels very deeply, very sensitively that this is unfair. He really does not see what happened in South Carolina as a way a lot of other people do see it, the way he's been criticized for it. ... And then today when questioned about it, he bristled and it's classic Bill Clinton" (MSNBC, 4/22).
Posted at 08:50 AM
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