March 13, 2015

"Did she seem to you a happy, hungry warrior? She couldn’t make eye contact with her questioners..."

"... and when she did she couldn’t sustain it. She looked at the ceiling and down at notes, trying, it seemed, to stick to or remember scripted arguments. She was shaky. She couldn’t fake good cheer and confidence. It is seven years since she ran for office. You could see it.... This wasn’t high-class spin. These were not respectable dodges. They didn’t make you grudgingly tip your hat at a gift for duplicity. "

Peggy knocks Hillary.

96 comments:

traditionalguy said...

She watched all her peers get rich under her husband's Presidency, while she got a little salary. if that.

The great Baby Boomer lament.

Amexpat said...

If HRC were a stock, I'd take a big short position.

Michael K said...

This strikes me as the narrative that will go forward from here. Hillary is tired, not a drunk.

ThreeSheets said...

Who cares? She's got lady parts so she'll get the votes.

Rumpletweezer said...

Does Hillary really believe that she'd be any good as President? How delusional she must be.

Hunter said...

It worked in Doctor Who.

Just six words.

richard mcenroe said...

Maybe she's a tired drunk.

Hillary, like Obama, has gone through life devoid of any actual positive qualities and achievements, propped up by people who thought they could use her, by presenting her as something she wasn't.

Of course, this has worked well with Democrats so far...

I Callahan said...

Maybe she's having some health problems. Or maybe, she thinks she's pretty much entitled to this job and didn't think she'd have to answer these questions.

Either way, she's in trouble because she's not up for the task of the job.

Beldar said...

She's never been, and will never be, one one-hundredth the natural politician that Bubba is.

Bubba lies like he breathes, deeply and reflexively, both because he needs to in order to survive, and because he enjoys it.

She's equally shameless and amoral, but lacks the natural talent and zest for prevarication that got Bubba elected POTUS twice.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It's not easy to report news as if it were gossip.

No . . . wait . . . turns out it is.

David said...

And yet, Beldar, without her, Bubba is Gary Hart II.

Beldar said...

@ Hunter: Good clip, thanks! I agree. But who was that skinny kid pretending to be Dr. Who?

Matt Sablan said...

If you're going to lie to the rubes, you have to Razzle Dazzle'em.

Amichel said...

The bit about being envious of your cohorts wealth and ease seems to be as much about Peggy Noonan herself as Hillary.

Chris N said...

If the pantsuit fits, you must acquit!

hawkeyedjb said...

Why do we even consider electing people to the presidency who have never in their life demonstrated any leadership ability?

It's astonishing that the Democratic party is so hungry that this aged hack, who has never accomplished anything, is their front-runner.

We are led by such little people.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Just remember that Peggy Noonan was one of the women (supposedly intelligent, perceptive women) who fell for Barry's schtick.

Sebastian said...

People are being very ageist.

Shame, shame.

Bryan C said...

I've come to realize Hillary isn't very good at anything, really.

She's not even a good liar. She just issues obvious pro-forma deflections ("What difference, at this point...") and relies upon fellow-travelers and an intimidated/friendly press to write fresh alibis for her whenever required.

She's a lot like a less competent Obama, and that takes some doing.

Drago said...

"Being poor" isn't easy and it clearly has taken a toll on Hillary.

That and having to dodge all that gunfire in Bosnia.

PTSD and "Poor"TSD.

Hillary just can't seem to catch a break.

Robert Cook said...

"Hillary, like Obama, has gone through life devoid of any actual positive qualities and achievements, propped up by people who thought they could use her, by presenting her as something she wasn't."

You're forgetting another recent President about whom this is a perfect description. Here's a hint: his initials are G.E.O.R.G.E. W. B.U.S.H.

Martha said...

Amichel said...
The bit about being envious of your cohorts wealth and ease seems to be as much about Peggy Noonan herself as Hillary.

I got the same impression but I think Hillary wants and needs power and affirmation more than $$$$$. Just look at the humiliation she was willing to endure staying married to a serial womanizer so she could cash in on Bill's political success.

Bob Ellison said...

She may actually be wondering whether or not to run. She has said so again and again and again and again.

If she steps to the podium within the next 8 weeks or so and says "I've thought about it all and decided it's best if I don't do it", her popularity will rise among all groups, leftist, rightist, centrist, and all.

Drago said...

Robert Cook: "You're forgetting another recent President about whom this is a perfect description. Here's a hint: his initials are G.E.O.R.G.E. W. B.U.S.H"

I would argue that becoming a qualified fighter/interceptor pilot alone puts the lie to that assertion.

But then again, maybe GW Bush NEVER actually flew and instead had his father jet in by SR-71 to secretly fly all W's missions!!

It could happen.

hawkeyedjb said...

@Robert Cook - don't forget about Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Warren Harding or Andrew Johnson. As long as we're going to engage in negative benchmarking to avoid discussing Hillary Clinton's shortcomings, let's go all the way.

I Callahan said...

Actually, I picture Mrs. Clinton as Colonel Nathan Jessup, who WANTS to say it. I think she's pissed off that she's gotta hide from this. I think she wants to say that she made a command decision and that's the end of it.

She eats breakfast 300 yards away from 4000 Republicans that are trained to kill her. And nobody's going to tell her how to run her unit least of all... etc. etc.

She's not a natural liar like her husband.

David-2 said...

"She watched all her peers get rich under her husband's Presidency, while she got a little salary. if that."

I read this comment in the article and didn't understand it. With a $99 subscription to the Wall Street Journal and $1000 borrowed from a willing friend, she could, with her proven knowledge of the commodity markets, be managing her own hedge fund in 12-18 months.

Michael K said...

"You're forgetting another recent President about whom this is a perfect description. Here's a hint: his initials are G.E.O.R.G.E. W. B.U.S.H."

The Bush Derangement is strong in this one.

Drago said...

David-2: "I read this comment in the article and didn't understand it. With a $99 subscription to the Wall Street Journal and $1000 borrowed from a willing friend, she could, with her proven knowledge of the commodity markets, be managing her own hedge fund in 12-18 months."

Not to worry.

With a mere pittance of $2Billion being funneled thru the Clinton machine, I doubt Hillary will have to file tax returns claiming a few bucks for every pair of Billy's used underwear as a write-off moving forward.

Thank goodness.

I wouldn't want my Queen to have to stoop to such pedestrian financial maneuvers.

Big Mike said...

@Hunter, that was my thought, too.

@Beldar, that was David Tennant, and he is hands down the best Doctor Who of the entire 13.

BarrySanders20 said...

I heard clips on the radio so was focused on the sound. The 60 seconds I heard were filled with "ah' and "um", must have been two dozen times.

It sounded like she was lying, and definitely was under stress.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Amexpat said...
If HRC were a stock, I'd take a big short position.


Remember: the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

MikeR said...

"G.E.O.R.G.E. W. B.U.S.H."
George W. Bush is smarter than you:
http://keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/

Revenant said...

The only way Hillary wins is if Republicans nominate Jeb Bush.

Kevin said...

She hasn't run for office in six years, and her only electoral victory was achieving the incredibly difficult task of getting elected Senator from New York as a Democrat.

Compare that to Scott Walker's political background - who is better equipped for standing up to a long, grueling campaign?

Revenant said...

You're forgetting another recent President about whom this is a perfect description. Here's a hint: his initials are G.E.O.R.G.E. W. B.U.S.H.

Fine, so each party has now had its chance to nominate such a candidate. The last 14 years demonstrate what a good idea that wasn't. Let's not do it a third time.

Chris N said...

The ironic thing is that Hillary is more centrist than Obama on a lot of issues: Hawkish on defense (Libya), more comfortable and less activist on the rule of law, more comfortable with the suburbs and Wall Street than activist organizin' types and faculty-lounge radicals and tre chic peaceniks feeling pressure under the activist moon.

Yes, she tried to push health-care on the country, and she's part of an ethically challenged, politically hungry power-couple and fundraising machine born of the 60's and subject to the same forces, but throwing out Hilary could open the field to whom, exactly?

Populist progressive, Boston anointed Liz Warren fluent in academese and perhaps stiffer than Clinton...Maryland's entrenched machine's O'Malley?

The concern is that many once more reasonable minds are walking in the turned-over earth of Leftism.

Big Mike said...

If a female former Secretary of State is our next President, then I pray to God it's Condi Rice.

And me, an atheist!

Curious George said...

"Mingus Jerry said...
Who cares? She's got lady parts so she'll get the votes."

I'm not sure she actually does but I'm am sure there is no one willing to check.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

Hillary's a tired old hag
Who looks like your uncle, in drag
The mooch loves the hooch
And oft' screws the pooch
While skilless, and half in the bag

Pianoman said...

Cookies rant about how the President is beholden to Wall Street interests resonates with Insty's "President Goldman Sachs" posts. In my mind, this gives Cookie some credibility. At times, the President *does* seem to be focusing on propping up Wall Street.

And then Cookie unloads a pile of BDS ... and I'm all, "Dude, really? Just when I was ready to BELIEVE you!"

"And So It Goes" -- Vonnegut

Rocketeer said...

She'd seem more like a happy, hungry warrior if she decorated her walker like a chariot with giant Oreo cookies for wheels.

tim in vermont said...

She ain't no-ways tarred.

I understand that we Right Wingers are afraid of vaginae is all.

Spell check assures me that the above is the plural of vagina. When did we start applying the grammatical rules of the language from which we imported the word?

tim in vermont said...

Hawkish on defense (Libya)

Hawkish, but incompetent. You want to talk about a "war of Jenkin's Ear" there it is for you.

Robert Cook said...

"Fine, so each party has now had its chance to nominate such a candidate. The last 14 years demonstrate what a good idea that wasn't. Let's not do it a third time."

Hear, Hear!

Unfortunately, we will.

Robert Cook said...

"Robert Cook - don't forget about Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Warren Harding or Andrew Johnson. As long as we're going to engage in negative benchmarking to avoid discussing Hillary Clinton's shortcomings, let's go all the way."

How is comparing Hillary to Obama and Bush avoiding discussing Hillary Clinton's shortcomings? The point is obvious: they all suck! Don't imagine for a second I favor her for the presidency.

Paul Kirchner said...

I like how Peggy Noonan adds some gratuitous art criticism (with which I happen to agree):

"She’s been in the grand townhouses and Park Avenue apartments since 1992. She’d go in and be met and she saw what they had. Beauty. Ease. Fine art of a particular, modern sort, the kind that is ugly, that reminds its owners that just because they’re rich doesn’t mean they don’t understand that life is hard, painful, incoherent. It is protective, cautionary, abstract and costs $20 million a picture."

averagejoe said...

"They didn’t make you grudgingly tip your hat at a gift for duplicity."

This in a nutshell is why we still have the Clinton's in our hair, and why Obama is president. Here's a nationally syndicated columnist who, at the very least, wants to admire the ability of a politician to lie and deceive. Instead of outrage and banishment, a liar earns admiration and praise. I guess it's true that we have the leaders we deserve if we as a people, as a nation, do not possess the integrity to shame and ostracize those who lie, cheat and steal.

Robert Cook said...

"I would argue that becoming a qualified fighter/interceptor pilot alone puts the lie to that assertion."

Did he ever do anything with that training? No. He was only there to avoid going to Viet Nam, an escape hatch available to him because of his family connections.

Drago said...

General Robert Cook: "Did he ever do anything with that training? No"

Wrong.

He flew his designated missions for 2 years post his 2 years of flight training.

His aircraft type was then selected for decommissioning.

Thanks for playing along dummy.

Or were you aware of the truth and just lying instead?

Virgil Hilts said...

Hunter: that was brilliant. What a great opening 6 words for someone to use in their first debate with her (D or R). She's going to look really tired next to O'Malley especially if he can arrange for a debate in swimwear.

MadisonMan said...

and he is hands down the best Doctor Who of the entire 13.

Uh oh.

He was great with Donna, but not with Rose (but maybe that's Rose's fault).

I'd take Matt Smith and Rory/Amelia over David Tennant and anyone else. Also a big fan of Tom Baker/Romana.

Drago said...

It's astonishing how effective the MSM/lefty (but I repeat myself) narrative on GWBush's flying career has been.

I've lost count of the lefties I've encountered who don't even know W flew and when told, simply don't believe it.

As with Cookie here, they then have a series of fallback narrative such as:1

1) W completed ground school but never flew
2) W completed ground school and some flight training but quit early to go to Alabama
3) W completed flight training but never did anything after it (Cookies latest position)
4) Okay okay, W completed flight training and did some flying but then went AWOL!

On and on and on.

Amazing.

averagejoe said...

hawkeyedjb said...

We are led by such little people.

3/13/15, 12:09 PM

Yes, and that, unfortunately, speaks volumes about us as a people. That so many in our nation willingly select weak, devious, and wicked people to represent us is truly and deeply disgraceful.

SteveM said...

Averagejoe at 1:56 pm states exactly what I felt when I read that sentence of Noonan's. That one sentence sums up the legacy of Bill Clinton perfectly, to the detriment of our society.

Roughcoat said...

I've never been in one of those grand townhouses or Park Avenue apartments. Obviously, Peggy has. What was she doing there, I wonder? Secretly sneering at the decor and the other guests while making nice in that very proper Catholic school-girl way of hers?

Michael K said...

"I'm not sure she actually does but I'm am sure there is no one willing to check."

Huma. Or, if you want second hand information, Weiner.

Pianoman said...

Further proof that GWB was a complete imbecile:

* B.A. in History from Yale
* MBA from Harvard Business School (only President to have earned an MBA)
* Recon pilot, flying F-102s, for two years
* Created oil exploration company
* Served on Board of Directors for Harken Energy Corporation
* Managing General Partner for Texas Rangers for five years
* First governor in Texas history to serve consecutive 4-year terms
* Two terms as President
* Bilingual (Spanish)

Yep, he's a total dunce, a moron, a doofus, a retard. No question about it.

< /sarc >

Crimso said...

“Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.”

Frank Herbert

hombre said...

Cook: "He was only there to avoid going to Vietnam."

His commanding officer has been quoted as saying Bush volunteered to go to Vietnam, but was told the aircraft he was trained to fly was not suitable.

But I'm sure you know better.

David-2 said...

I agree with the several comments above about Noonan.

Every time I get to fill out a WSJ "site survey" and they ask at the end the freeform "how can we improve the site?" I always suggest replacing Noonan with Rabinowitz.

They haven't done it yet, but I encourage you to do the same, and maybe they'll someday take some action!

UNTRIBALIST said...

F-102 pilots risked their lives on every flight. Only highly-qualified pilot candidates were accepted for Delta Dagger training because it was such a challenging aircraft to fly and left little room for mistakes. According to the Air Force Safety Center, the lifetime Class A accident rate for the F-102 was 13.69 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours, much higher than the average for today's combat aircraft.

gerry said...

Why do we even consider electing people to the presidency who have never in their life demonstrated any leadership ability?

They elected Obama.

I wonder if Hill has organized any communities?

Sammy Finkelman said...

Hillary is probably only running because Bill wants her to, or to protect herself. That's what I really think.

The whole idea of her making independent decisions on her career is so completely wrong in my opinion.

Did anyone notice she never alludes in public to consulting Bill about anything?

There's no way it is the case she doesn't.

Sammy Finkelman said...

Physically, Hillary is probably feeling she is not quite up to it.

Conserve Liberty said...

Posted by an Obama voter, written by an Obama voter, of an Obama voter.

Big Mike said...

I think I read somewhere that early in the war the US attempted to use F-102s for combat escort missions, but that every one of them that went up against a MiG in a dog fight was shot down. So ANG units flying F102s were not deployed to Vietnam.

Sammy Finkelman said...

There's so much to sau about her press conference, theer's no way people will get it all rigght.

Here's another little thing (it;s obvious, but people can miss this)

http://time.com/3741847/the-clinton-way/#3741847/the-clinton-way/

After she finished taking questions, Clinton’s staff disclosed that no one actually read through those 30,000-odd documents before she “chose not to keep” them..

...She commissioned a review of the 62,320 messages in her account only after the department–spurred by the congressional investigation–asked her to do so.

And this review did not involve opening and reading each email; instead, Clinton’s lawyers created a list of names and keywords related to her work and searched for those. Slightly more than half the total cache–31,830 emails–did not contain any of the search terms, according to Clinton’s staff, so they were deemed to be “private, personal records.”
Now, this still probably still does not get to it.

Because a little thought (and paying attention to the clues that there was some negotiationg going on) tell you that:


The search terms were probably reverse engineered.

Jonah Goldberg says he is told that such a search would not go through any attachments. So if she forwarded e-mail, you'd only be find it if it got captured by the what was in the main body of the text. The best hope would be the recipient, but if the recipient was not a special person in tghe searchm it wouldn't be turned up.

And on top of that, something really bad might have been deleted, contemporaneously, or in the fall of 2014.


Gusty Winds said...

Hillary is a shell game. What's the basic premise to "Rules for Radical's"? Pretend to be something your not, to accomplish goals to don't want stated up front.

Pulling off this type of bullshit requires a certain level of charm and charisma. Neither of which Hillary possesses, no matter what her chosen gender identity.

Roughcoat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Roughcoat said...

Only one F-102 "Deuce" was shot down by enemy aircraft in the Vietnam War. It was used mainly to fly escort for Arc Light missions and in the ground attack role. It was not suited for either role, having been designed for continental air defense to fly very high at supersonic speeds to intercept Soviet bombers attacking the CONUS. It was a notoriously "hot" aircraft, hard on pilots, with a reputation as a widowmaker.

chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

She was NEVER any good as a campaigner.

Drago said...

So, to summarize: Cookie has HWBush flying SR-71s when he never did and GWBush not flying when he clearly was.

That's batting 1000 sports fans, but not in a good way.

Big Mike said...

@Roughcoat, thanks. After I posted my comment I discovered a link that said much the same.

Roughcoat said...

The fighter pilots of the air national guard are generally the best in the business, regularly defeating the Air Force “regulars” in air-to-air combat exercises. Typically regular Air Force fighter units were deployed to Vietnam because fighting wars was their main job. Pilots serving in the ANG were typically assigned to units charged with the defense of the CONUS, a very important job indeed. Whenever Soviet bombers and recon aircraft flew too close to our borders it was ANG pilots who scrambled to meet them. In October 1965 during the Cuban Missile Crisis when the SAC went to DEFCON 2 and in October 1973 during the Yom Kippur War when both SAC and the Continental Air Defense Command went to DEFCON 3, ANG fighter units, many flying F-102s, were in the air and providing our first line of dense against a possible attack by Soviet bombers armed with thermonuclear weapons.

Big Mike said...

@Drago, not to forget that George W. Bush merely earned a Harvard MBA. Cookie presumably has his MBA from a more prestigious institution.

Roughcoat said...

I should add that flying in defense of the CONUS requires highly specialized training to develop, as Liam Neeson oberves in the “Taken” movies, a “very particular set of skills.” Even with sophisticated radars and related detection and tracking technologies, vectoring fighter aircraft to intercept both high-flying supersonic bombers equipped with various devices and weapons capable of thwarting the attackers and low-flying nape-of-the-earth skimming intruders (think Slim Pickens’s B-52 in Dr. Strangelove) is no easy task. Which is to say nothing of what happens or could happen when the interceptors engage the intruders in combats whose outcome is by no means assured. Which is, further, to say nothing of flying such missions, even in peacetime, in a widowmaker aircraft like the Deuce. George W. Bush’s service was militarily significant and inherently dangerous and we should honor him for it.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Good to see you guys can still gather sufficient enthusiasm to give George W.'s anus a good tongue bath.

As the primary reason Obamacare passed, I'm a big fan too. Shame about the war, though.

victoria said...

EW, Don't run, Hillary. I sure won't vote for you.


Vicki from Pasadena

n.n said...

It's a cookbook. Stop the planning! There are other choices.

Drago said...

AReasonableMeltdown: "AReasonableMan said...
Good to see you guys can still gather sufficient enthusiasm to give George W.'s anus a good tongue bath"

Yes! Of course!

So, to clarify, a failure to lie about GWBush's flight record in the Air National Guard and instead simply noting the basic facts about that flight record constitute a "tongue bath".

Well, maybe ARMeltdown simply doesn't view any "service" outside Verencemos "Brigade" heroics as valid.

I realize that GWBush's actual flight record pales in comparison to Hillary's stellar "sniper fire avoidance" experiences, but still, shouldn't it count for something?

Drago said...

It's also somewhat revealing the ARMeltdown proceeds immediately to the anus tongue bath phraseology.

Perhaps revealing a tad more about his thought processes than he intended to.

Along the lines of garage's repeated "Chicken/rat/pig f*****" preferred terms.

Nancy Reyes said...

Hillary had either a stroke or a subdural hematoma from a fall awhile back, was hospitalized and needed rehab. This was covered up, and since then she has not been her old self. As a doctor, I wonder why the press hasn't asked for her medical records.

MathMom said...

He was great with Donna, but not with Rose (but maybe that's Rose's fault).


I think he was best with Wilfred Mott. Cried my eyes out.
His best two episodes were when he was human with Martha in Human Nature/The Family of Blood. Young Timothy was convincing as a young man that knew what needed to be done - what C. S. Lewis might call "men with chests".

Matt Smith and Amelia/Rory was a wonderful run, too. I miss Matt's Doctor.

Newest doctor and most of the new stories suck on roller skates.

Keir said...

Rules are broken or bent for her convenience, rather than duty owed from her position.

Skeptical Voter said...

Say Peggy--You Go Girl!

MathMom said...

boinky -

I think she walks with less certainty, and slower, than before the head injury. According to some reports, she was in a plane crash in Iran on a secret trip, and was not expected to live.

European Union Times, Salem-New.com, and other links.

geokstr said...

The search terms were probably reverse engineered.

I was an expert at using searches for purposes of data-mining in and between multiple systems with major companies until I retired in 2003: in-house developed accounting/distribution systems and databases, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, SAP, Paradox, Excel Pivot Tables, MS Access and more.

Putting lawyers in charge of designing searches is a planned failure.

Kirk Parker said...

Cookie, you contemptible partisan: GWB won the office of Governor in TX, and was by all accounts during his tenure there an effective, work-across-the-aisle guy.

Michael K said...

"Well, maybe ARMeltdown simply doesn't view any "service" outside Verencemos "Brigade" heroics as valid."

He is probably not old enough for the Spanish Civil War which was the communists last real chance for target practice until Ferguson.

Michael K said...

Also, Cookie, your pals on the left are all saying "Cotton couldn't find Iran on a map." I assume you agree and assume they have all been there to see.

Anonymous said...

Peg usually trades in psychological speculations about inner motives of political figures. This kind of stuff is unprovable and only mildly to moderately interesting. Her endorsement of Obama in 2008 disqualifies her as a pundit you should listen closely about anything important.

bbkingfish said...

Poor Peggy.

H said...

To run or not to run is not Hillary's decision. It's Bill's. And he wants a third (fourth) term. So she will run.