Friday, May 02, 2008

Sen. Clinton on O’Reilly Factor (1st half)

She should have made that appearance during her February 11-state losing streak (Both she and Obama have avoided the Fox News Channel like Superman avoids Kryptonite. Which makes no sense sine FNC draws more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined. Why the Democrats haven’t figured that out in the 5+ years Matt Drudge has been posting the ratings on his website, I have no idea. Maybe they only read the Drudge Retort!). Some plusses for Bill:
· Got her to indicate that Payroll Taxes (i.e. FICA, Social Security) would likely increase to maintain the current benefits.
· Beat her up about energy – her “NO” votes on increasing fossil fuel production are a significant factor in our rapidly rising energy costs. We haven’t developed alternative sources yet -
· Questions that had depth – about Rev. Wright – he didn’t let her get by with “Let the voters decide or her standard “Look it up on my website”
· Universal Health Care – she is still clinging to “Barack’s plan won’t cover everyone” – he focused on the exorbitant cost and the fact that 2 of the BLUEST states, CA & NY, couldn’t figure out how to finance UHC.
· Rebutting her claim that America needs a “fighter” in the White House. We don’t need a fighter – we need a LEADER. It’s difficult to gauge that now because candidates are expected to have detailed plans on so many different things (that the government shouldn’t be involved in) that the candidate’s words become those of the “handlers”. Bill expressed his opinion (correct assessment to me) that she was losing in this portion of the race (and ultimately this would be a deciding portion).

Some counter-punches & topics that I would like to have seen:
· She talked about how great the economy was during the 90’s (that Bill O. did well while the Clintons were in charge) – he could have pointed out that they’ve done pretty well while Bush has been in charge; it also would have been good to point out that things weren’t as rosy as she paints them. The Tyco, Worldcom, and Enron accounting debacles all occurred then (forcing passage of SOX in 2002). And the NASDAQ is still not back to its 2000 high. That tech bubble was a pretty big one. If she is going to point to the housing bubble as a housing crisis, then I’m going to point back to the tech bubble.
· She mentioned that American families aren’t well off. Well, what percentage of them have amenities like Cable or Satellite TV service, High Speed Internet Service, HD Game Consoles, boats, RVs, ATVs, Jet skis, etc. now vs. 2001?
· What will Mr. Clinton’s role be? After all, he’s raking in TENS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS, mostly from companies based in OPEC nations. They raised a TON of money for his 1996 re-election in China – now she’s complaining that too many American jobs are going there? What the heck did she expect?

No comments: