Thursday, June 26, 2014

CHAIT: HOW HILLARY BECAME MARIE ANTOINETTE

New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait lays out how, in just 6 short years, likely-2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton went from being an economic populist looking out for the working class to Marie Antoinette. - Breitbart
Chait isn't wrong but he is missing one important factor: The mainstream media want Elizabeth Warren to run, which is why they are giving Hillary such a hard time. For now at least, the media have turned against Hillary in the same way they did Romney. It was more intense and dishonest with Romney, but the media's goal is the same: prep the battlefield to put a hardcore Statist in office.
Should Warren become a pipe dream if and when it becomes clear Clinton will win the nomination, the media will immediately cease vetting and holding her accountable for everything. The celebration of The Woman will begin and the media will allow Hillary to be whatever she needs to be to defeat the evil sexist Republican.
How Did Hillary Clinton Become Marie Antoinette? - NY Magazine
...Clinton’s most recent comments, the ones that finally caused her class problem to leap over the breach from a series of isolated episodes to a full-blown media narrative, are overblown. Here is what she said:

But they don’t see me as part of the problem because we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off, not to name names; and we’ve done it through dint of hard work.”...

On the other hand, her previous controversial comments, in which she claims she and Bill were “dead broke” after leaving the White House, were truly delusional. Whatever the literal dollar figure in their bank account the day they left 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Clintons had a six-figure lifetime salary and generous pension awaiting them, along with unlimited earning potential.

3. But how the Clintons took advantage of that earning potential poses both a problem of perception and a problem of substance. The Clintons have attached themselves financially to a wide array of interest groups and interested individuals, some of them quite venal. The Clintons’ buckraking has been swept up into the “out-of-touch” narrative, but it actually represents a far more alarming concern about good government....

Clinton’s surprising struggles in her de facto campaign rollout have raised renewed questions about her political skill. There are two points to bear in mind when assessing her talents as a public communicator. The first is that her lofty approval ratings were entirely the function of her absence from partisan politics, and they are gravitationally plummeting as she reenters the political context...