September 4, 2016

"You know, I speak with people inside her circle, and one of the reason why they don't like her in large groups or to do press conferences is because she doesn't play well there."

"She's not comfortable in that position. That's only going to make her look more staged, more strategic and less authentic. And so, it's a purposeful strategy why she's not doing press conferences, because that will only add to her unfavorabilities. Look, the email thing, is just terrible, in my opinion, especially when you start looking at the rationale. You know, Matthew and I were joking. She thought the 'c' was to help her put things in alphabetical order. But there's no 'a,' there's no 'b,' and there's no 'd.'"

Said ABC news contributor LZ Granderson today on ABC's "This Week," after the host Martha Raddatz asked him whether Hillary Clinton is "doing enough" about her problem of her favorability rating being at "an all-time low among registered voters, now on par with Donald Trump at 59 percent and 60 percent respectively." Granderson began his answer with: "Well, I they think what they're doing is not adding to the problem."

That is, Hillary is being kept under wraps, because if we see her, we'll only like her less.

And then ABC News chief political analyst, Matthew Dowd attempts to do gender politics:
[Hillary] is judged -- she is judged a little bit, I have to say, all of the controversy surrounding her and they're both -- Donald Trump and her, she's judged a little bit on a Ginger Rogers standard, which is, is that the bar is so low for him. I mean, Ginger Rogers, the famous like she did everything Fred Astaire did but backwards and in heels.
Suddenly, Trump is the Fred Astaire, judged by an easier standard when what his opponent/partner is doing is actually harder?



Obama used the old "backwards and in high heels" line at the Democratic convention last month. He was trying to help Hillary... even though Hillary used "backwards in high heels" against him in 2008:
She said Obama had noted that she looked rested since she ended her campaign against him for the Democratic nomination, and she told him she’d been exercising for a change.

“During the campaign … Barack would get up faithfully every morning and go to the gym. I would get up and have my hair done,” she said as she introduced him. “It’s one of those Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire things.”
She can't use that getting-my-hair done line in 2016, Trump's hair being what it is. (And by the way, what is it?)

Anyway, the political use of the old Ginger Rogers line goes back to at least 1988, when the future governor of Texas, Ann Richards, gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention: "[I]f you give [women] a chance, we can perform. After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels." (The pre-political use came not from Ginger Rogers herself, but from Frank and Ernest.)

But, I'm sorry, I sure don't see Hillary getting judged by a tougher standard than Donald Trump. It's the other way around. It's quite obvious. So it's a cliché, which is another reason not to say it. But it doesn't even serve your purpose, Matthew Dowd, because it's patently inapt and only draws attention to the fact that the backwards here is the bending over that the media have been doing for Hillary.

Now, let's see if Donald Trump can dance like Fred Astaire:

96 comments:

chickelit said...

From Bill's perspective, Monica Lewinsky had to perform fellatio backwards, on her knees, and probably in heels. And yet he's the one poised to return to the WH. Maybe the Hillary people are on to something with that imagery. But hey, at least Monica got to keep the costume.

Tommy Duncan said...

That is, Hillary is being kept under wraps, because if we see her, we'll only like her less.

So nothing.

Better than nothing is a high standard?

chickelit said...

That is, Hillary is being kept under wraps, because if we see her, we'll only like her less.

That cannot bode well for a Presidency, folks. Think about it long and hard.

David Begley said...

Hillary is just running out the clock. Robby Mook must be a basketball fan.

Bill said...

Of course, it's never mentioned that Ginger Rogers was a lifelong Republican.

Birkel said...

She doesn't "play well" is a nice way to say she is an awful human being who cannot relate to people because her lies are too obvious in large crowds.

Also, the fact that she is a miserable, terrible, power hungry, soul-crushingly awful narcissist is harder to hide in crowds.

rehajm said...

Ginger? Nobody is going to relate to that analogy. It's obvious Hillary has a hard time remaining vertical at this point.

buwaya said...

They (journalists and opinionators) are bought, so they have to make the best of the material they are given. Their professionalism can only do so much with what they are given.
The propaganda directorate is the one source of material. It is this central directorate that is struggling to feed its machine.

rehajm said...

Hillary is just running out the clock. Robby Mook must be a basketball fan.

Four corners doesn't work with the shot clock. She's gonna have to leave the cave eventually.

Rob said...

Hillary thought the (C) stood for a four-letter word her staff was too genteel to spell out in full.

tcrosse said...

Hillary is trying to run out the clock, but Trump has the ball.

Adamsunderground said...

Hillary's playing the Howard Hughes gambit. Oh, how foolish you'll all look when she rolls out her Spruce Mooslim!

Humperdink said...

"You know, I speak with people inside her circle, and one of the reason why they don't like her in large groups or to do press conferences is because she doesn't play well there."

So where Madam Hillary play well?

Two areas - rich donors and Huma.

whitney said...

When she becomes president, she will answer to know one. She will rule by decree with no one to block her. I'm basing this on how she act and is treated as a candidate

todd galle said...

She's a lying hack, Trump might be too, but we know her dishonesty is wide, deep, and practiced for reasons that shouldn't require obfuscation. She believes she is above the law, no question, and why should she think differently.

Yancey Ward said...

It is seriously bad if, as a candidate, you can't go out in public and answer questions from acolytes like Granderson. Granderson can't even bring himself to admit that the answer Clinton gave to the question about what she thought "(C)" meant is a flat out lie, and a ridiculously obvious one at that- all he can do is sort of allude to what he really thinks.

I wrote here in a comment after the DNC that Clinton would and should start taking unscripted interviews and press conferences, and she seemed like she was going to do that starting with the Chris Wallace interview she gave the weekend after the convention. However, two things happened- Wallace called her out on her public lies in that interview, though he did it as nicely as he could, and all she could do was lie again and then later claim she didn't understand that Wallace's questions pertained to her public statements. Secondly, Trump stepped into the Khan Job, and it seemed like Clinton could simply stall it out it and let Trump self-destruct. The last week has made that strategy untenable, in my opinion. Trump is setting the agenda every single day, and doing it well. I still think my advice is good, though the FBI details released make it harder to do it now- it is clear she lied to the FBI during her interview, it is likely her aides have lied as well, though we still haven't seen those 302s, and it is clear that her campaign made a full on effort to delete subpoenaed material after the original story about the server appeared.

The web of lies is likely to keep her under wraps now, and I think she is simply praying that the debates can somehow be steered around and not allow any questions about her honesty. I don't think Trump is going to let that happen, though.

chickelit said...

whitney said...When she becomes president, she will answer to know one. She will rule by decree with no one to block her. I'm basing this on how she act and is treated as a candidate.

Maybe Hillary thinks that her silence to the press is supposed to resonate with people who don't much like the press. We're supposed to appreciate that she's just giving them a big FU.

JayneI said...

Did Mrs Clinton really once say that she had to get her hair done???? Hahaha! Seems that lately she keeps on forgetting that part of her day. Man, she looks rough these days beginning with her horrid hair styles, or should I say, style-less hair. Dang.

So, if Clinton cannot groom herself to look like a professional, cannot remember her security briefing and therefore how to manage classified information, cannot be trusted to turn over her email papers from her time functioning as a government official, and cannot be trusted not to lie, then just what can she actually do other than raise big bucks and act entitled?

Never, never, never, Clinton!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

"...one of the reason why they don't like her in large groups or to do press conferences is because she doesn't play well there.""

Right. But we're supposed to believe that she'll balance the interests of 320 million people without any problem whatsoever.

This woman is a fucking downright HACK! What the hell was the DNC thinking! Losers.

cubanbob said...

If Hillary was an analogue of Ginger Rogers then she wouldn't be the unlikable criminal hack she really is.

richardsson said...

Ginger Rogers was a great actress and dancer in her own right and in partnership with Fred Astaire. They had nothing but good things to say about each other after their roles together ended.
Fred Astaire was the most physically coordinated man I have ever seen. I watched all those movies on TV when I was sick and home from school in the 4th grade. Fred Astaire could hit golf balls like Sam Snead, he could play piano like James P. Johnson. He danced with a smoothness and ease no other man had.
I remember when Ann Richards said what she said; I thought she was as dumb as a box of rocks. I don't remember Ginger Rogers, who was still alive, making any comment on it; she had too much class. And, as commenter Bill said, "she was a lifelong Republican." The idea that Hillary Clinton is in any way comparable to Ginger Rogers is simply ridiculous and perhaps pathetic.

narciso said...

it's been mostly kabuki from word one,

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/09/maybe_hillary_should_have_studied_jujitsu_instead_of_yoga.html

William said...

"She gave him sex appeal, and he gave her class,." There are a number of analogies of Fred & Ginger that don't apply to Donald & Hillary.........Abbott & Costello? No. Hitler & Stalin? Tempting, but no. Jason & Freddie? Closer, but no. King Kong & Fay Wray? Even closer, but still no.......I'm having trouble thinking up a comparable cinematic pairing. What was that movie where John Wayne played Genghis Khan and Susan Hayward was his costar. These were roles that both stars were ill suited for and both stars suffered disastrous ill effects from rolling around in the radioactive dust. The analogy is apt, but perhaps a little too labored. I'll get back to you later.

todd galle said...

I've been driving around South Central PA, Cumberland, York, Berks and Lancaster Counties. Very few (read none)' "Hillary" signs. I've seen 4 x 8 homemade "Trump" signs along the byways. I've been reluctant to believe the heralding the 'behind the scenes' Trump supporters not appearing in the survey's, but it may be there.

Ron said...

No offense at all to Ginger, but Astaire spent months working out those dance routines (with longtime collaborator Hermes Pan) while Ginger was a contract player working on other films.

I would not say Fred had the easier part of the job, just because of the shoes.

n.n said...

I don't understand this virulent gender conflict. There are physiological differences that inform social expression. However, Astaire and Rogers, men and women, are equal and complementary. Contemporary efforts to avoid reconciliation has been toxic to society, relationships, families, and individuals.

wildswan said...

Hillary is wearing high heels backwards? Well, no wonder she stumbles and can't concentrate on briefings. Some friend show her: "toes here, then arch, then heel - no, Anthony Weiner is not in your shoes, texting and whatnot - Hillary, stop stamping and grinding, stop, Help, someone's fallen under her shoes and is being cut to pieces. God it's horrible, like watching a charging rain barrel with stiletto legs." "Yeah, well, now you know why we had her wearing high heels backwards."

todd galle said...

I should note that my wife informed me she saw a 'Clinton" yard sign on 16th Street while out jogging through our borough. Not there when I went for gas though.

tds said...

is it fact-checked that dancing in high heels is more difficult, or is it an urban legend?

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said...

It pains me to see Frank & Ernest credited as the originator of the gag. I immediately googled "Frank & Ernest" "Writers Market" and it turned up a pdf of an article from the 2009 Writers Market that contained this:

First, you can submit captions and ideas to a professional cartoon artist. When artists run out of material, they seek out writers to generate fresh concepts. Some of the most famous cartoonists, including Bob Thaves (“Frank and Ernest”) and Bill Hoest (“Agatha Krum”), used the submissions of cartoon writers on a regular basis.

Countless comics have, of course, sold their own bits to comic strip creators over the years. But countless comic strip creators have also bought material that was steno-ed from the back of the house by a unscrupulous freelancers. I read the Frank & Ernest strip a lot when I was a kid. I continued reading it when I plunged into the standup world. I began to notice F & E bits that were... familiar. Not saying Thaves is a thief, just saying that he's one of the ones who buys "original" material which sometimes turns out not to be original. (Yeah, yeah, parallel development, blah, blah, blah.)

And-- fun fact-- Joan Rivers once solicited gags in the deepest, darkest back pages of the Writers Market back in about 1983 or so. She had an insatiable appetite for new material, as she was appearing on network television a lot and hosting shows, etc. Thaves and Rivers and others require that the freelancers sign a release swearing up and down that the material is original, but it's mainly to cover their asses.

And, like Rivers and other prominent comics, Thaves has (had?) an insatiable appetite for gags, as his strip was probably syndicated and appearing seven days a week. That's a lot of gags to come up with. My guess is that Thaves didn't come up with the gag on his own, that he either heard it somewhere or bought it from someone who wrote it (unlikely) or bought it from someone who heard it somewhere. And we'll never know the true origin.

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said...

Turns out I said the same damn thing a year ago. I'm consistent if nothing else.

Edmund said...

The whole Ginger Rogers "backwards and in high heels" bit is wrong if you actually look at their routines. Both of them moved backwards, probably about equally. While she was in higher heels than Fred, they were not "high heels" - in their more intricate dance routines they had a mid-height heel that was quite broad.

Luke Lea said...

We love Ginger Rogers but we look at Fred Astaire.

rcocean said...

This isn't an election - its a coronation.

We not only will elect our first Female president, we'll elect our first president who doesn't like talking to "large groups of people" or answering questions from the Press.

rcocean said...

And that's a good thing. According to the MSM!

Diogenes of Sinope said...

At her core Hillary Clinton is an asshole who is unable to accept being questioned. Clinton can't be trained to hide this fact. So they keep her away from people and especially away from crowds and cameras for fear that she can blow-up at any moment.

These are terrible personality traits for a president.

Anonymous said...

If being President is so difficult (and I see no reason to doubt it), maybe we should prefer the candidate who will do it in sensible shoes.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Clinton's close personal associates have seen how she can explode.

Mountain Maven said...

Clinton has nothing to say. "Because!" doesn't play well past grammar school.

MaxedOutMama said...

Yes, this IS ridiculous. It doesn't make Clinton look better to have this type of strained apologetics deployed on the airwaves. It makes her supporters look like they really have nothing.

Clinton needs to get out and campaign on a one-to-one, without scripting, if she wants to win this election.

Big Mike said...

At the one level, this is political consulting 101 -- if your candidate is best in small groups then get your candidate into small groups, if your candidate is awkward in small groups but great in front of large audiences then don't schedule small groups and do arrange for big events.

This works fine for PTA president, and even up to Congress-critter. The job of President of the United States heavily involves getting on TV and speaking as the embodiment of the people of the United States, or speaking to the people of the United States to explain, and maybe comfort. If you can't do that, and you can't effectively run a single department of the federal government, then there are lots of things you can do in life by President of the United States isn't one of them.

But I've got another thought. At this point we have only the word of Hillary's inner circle of advisors and the word of people who paid tens of thousands of dollars per person to meet her one on one that she's any good even in that setting. Here's a thought experiment. What if she isn't? What if her inner circle is lying -- something they'd be highly motivated to do -- and what if someone discovers after paying tens of thousands of dollars that they're meeting someone repulsive. Would they admit that they've spent all that money to support a rich but repulsive woman? Or would they gush about her to make it sound as though it was worth it to part with enough money to run a homeless shelter for 33 weeks just to spend a couple minutes (if that) in her presence?

Humperdink said...

Apparently Hillary and her staff "play well" with a hammer.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Hillary does a lot of stuff backwards. Benghazi, for instance.

Guildofcannonballs said...

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/sotomayors-vainglorious-lecture-bromide.html


June 10, 2009
"Sotomayor's vainglorious lecture bromide about herself as 'a wise Latina' trumping white men is a vulgar embarrassment..."
"... a vestige of the bad old days of male-bashing feminism when even the doughty Ann Richards was saying to the 1988 Democratic National Convention: 'After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.' What flatulent canards mainstream feminism used to traffic in! Astaire, idolized even by Mikhail Baryshnikov, was one of the most brilliant and peerless dancers and choreographers of the 20th century. The agile but limited Ginger Rogers, a spunky, smart-mouthed comedian, is only a footnote. Get real, girls! This is the kind of mushy balderdash I doggedly had to plow through for five years in trying to find a good feminist poem for my collection, 'Break, Blow, Burn.' I never found one. Rule of art: Cant kills creativity!"

A Paglia paragraph on Sotomayor and everything else.
Posted by Ann Althouse at 7:27 AM
Tags: Ann Richards, dancing, feminism, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Paglia, poetry, rhetoric, shoes, Sonia Sotomayor, Wise Latina

SteveR said...

The blurred "I forgot" excuse for lying a worse example of the media's Hillary love. They let her get away with that.

Birkel said...

Even anti-Trump shit stains like Chuck know better than to comment on Hillary-centric Althouse posts.

There is not a single positive reason to vote for Hillary Clinton.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Isn't that just a crazy, improbable coincidence--that the nonpartisan and neutral chief political analyst for ABC would use the exact same metaphor to describe and support Hillary Clinton that one of her political allies used? Just a shocking coincidence, I tell you.

rhhardin said...

It reminds me of Thurber's "The Greatest Man in the World," where a hero aviator turns out to be foul-mouthed and ill-tempered, and in one press meeting, he's pushed out of a window by somebody official who's had enough.

"My God!" the press exclaimed as a single man, "He's fallen out the window!"

I can see the Democrat party doing that and the press doing that.

Jupiter said...

MaxedOutMama said...

"Clinton needs to get out and campaign on a one-to-one, without scripting, if she wants to win this election."

It's fairly clear that Clinton's handlers disagree. They realize that the people who are going to vote for Hillary Clinton will mostly be doing so because of the D next to her name. The less they see of her in action, the better.

It would seem they believe this is a case where nothing can beat something.

Kate said...

Thank God others (including La Paglia) are complaining about that annoying "Ginger did it backwards" platitude. What an insult to Astaire, one of the two (with Gene Kelly) greatest male dancers on screen. And if you want to list the great female dancers, Ginger as a solo act won't make the cut. (The list is: Cyd Charisse...and other talented gals.)

Actually, comparing Hillary to Ginger is perfect: she's only famous because of the man she partnered with.

grackle said...

But, I'm sorry, I sure don't see Hillary getting judged by a tougher standard than Donald Trump. It's the other way around. It's quite obvious.

One of the MSM’s favorite techniques: First, they fabricate a false narrative by wildly misconstruing what Trump says. Then, when Trump does not act out the role they have dictated for him, they call it a “flip-flop.” They love it and go back to it time and time again. It’s worked beautifully on every GOP presidential nominee since Bush, jr.

There’s variations on this technigue:

Trump acts “presidential” in Mexico, dominates the joint presser & makes the Mexican President look like the beta he is. They grudgingly and with much puzzlement(Trump was supposed to fail) admit that Trump came off well.

But then Trump holds a rally on the same day & oh, my! They really, really do not like all those enthusiastic rally crowds and according to them Trump should stop firing up those people IMMEDIATELY, otherwise Trump marks himself as dangerous! THIS is where they’ll get him! Trump is dangerous. The proof? Look, mind you, just look at those crowds at the rallies.

This is characterized as a “flip-flop.” Why? Because Trump used a respectful tone in Mexico and then disrespectfully laid into The Queen at the rally.

Sal said...

As President, is Hillary going to be more like Richard Nixon or the Wizard of Oz?

OldManRick said...

I always hated the "in heels and backwards" line because if you look through Fred Astaire's movies you see he was a master at matching his dancing style to his partner and the master at making his partner look good. When dancing with Betty Hutton, he was a physical as her. When dancing with Judy Garland, he emphasized comedy more than style. When dancing with Eleanor Powell, he went full tap to highlight her abilities. When he danced with Cyd Charisse, he went elegant. He even did this with George Murphy, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and Gene Kelly. He did it with co-stars who couldn't dance a lick. Ginger didn't match him "in heels and backward", he tailored his dancing to her abilities and concentrated on making her look better. She gave him class because he focused on her and matched her style.

Ron said...

Well put OldManRick! Astaire is underestimated....even now.

Bruce Hayden said...

Talked to my partner about dancing in high heels (her college was paid for by a dance scholarship), and she claims that she found it easier to dance in heels. The proviso though is the question of whether someone is trained in toe dancing - she was, with her mother putting her in toe shoes about two. If a woman is classically trained as a dancer, she is probably fine, if not great, in high heels. Less so if her training was primarily in modern, tap, or jazz.

Ron said...


Ah, Kate there's a reason Fred did 10 movies with Ginger though, and by himself Astaire would be lumped together with other male stars..."Fred and Ginger" have that power as a couple that makes them even more memorable than either one alone. Kelly never had that, nor Charisse or Hayworth or any of the rest.

Bruce Hayden said...

I think that the problem for Crooked Hillary is that by hunkering down, spending it fundraising with the Rothschilds, is that she concedes the initiative and agenda to Trump. This week he acted Presidential in Mexico, then went into a Black church, quoted scripture, and got a standing ovation. There are apparently parts of the country right now where his percentage of Black support could doom the Clinton campaign, if it spreads. All the surrogates in the world aren't going to help that much, esp when they are asked, why they are there, and not her. She is getting into damned if she does (speak publicly to the press) and damned if she doesn't.

FullMoon said...

AA says :"Obama used the old "backwards and in high heels" line at the Democratic convention last month. He was trying to help Hillary... even though Hillary used "backwards in high heels" against him in 2008":

That was Obamas way of telling Hillary, Fuck You. Letting her know he has not forgotten or forgiven. Jessee Jackson Jr. in prison because Sr. dissed O. Obama is revengeful. She knows it, and insiders know it.

He is backing the Democratic party, and that requires pretending to like Hillary.

Darrell said...

Anyone who uses the "backwards and in heels" line has never danced. Both dancers move forward and back in ballroom dancing.

Darrell said...

Astaire named his two favorite dance partners and Rogers didn't make the list. Rita Hayworth and Barrie Chase, if anyone is interested.

chickelit said...

Those of you asserting that dancing in heels is no handicap are missing the powerful resonance with the sisterhood: Heels are part of the dreaded patriarchy -- of course it must be harder -- for that reason alone!

mockturtle said...

I agree with Ron: Fred & Ginger had synergy.

Laslo Spatula said...

Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse.

Better than porn. .

I am Laslo.

Lewis Wetzel said...

If women can do everything men can do, plus become pregnant and give birth to a living human being, they are not equal to men, they are superior to men.

So forget this 'we just want equality' crap. That was never the goal of feminists.
Ann Richards believes that she lost to GW Bush in 1994 because of a 'whisper campaign' that she was a lesbian. Yeah, four years as governor, and all it took was a whisper to get the voters to throw her out of office. Typically feminists blame their personal failures on men. Their dad, their brothers, their boss, the patriarchy . . .
It's almost comical.

SukieTawdry said...

Ginger was a fine little dancer, but she could not do everything Fred did, not by a long shot. Now, Eleanor Powell (someone I didn't much care for), she was another story as demonstrated here.

Fred didn't care for Eleanor, either. He called her "too mannish." But Pandro Berman, Astaire's frequent choreographer, said Fred didn't want to dance again with Powell after Broadway Melody because he was afraid she was too good, better than him, even.

Now, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, Hillary Clinton. As much as we dislike her now, just think how much we're going to dislike her once she's president.

mockturtle said...

Now, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, Hillary Clinton. As much as we dislike her now, just think how much we're going to dislike her once she's president.

Sukie, I think most of us would rather talk about Ginger Rogers than Hillary, don't you?

MacMacConnell said...

"I agree with Ron: Fred & Ginger had synergy."

Ginger made it look fun, she was an actress. Astaire wasn't much of an actor, nor was he a classically good looking man, he needed the good looking Ginger to make it work. One also has to consider the arc of Astaire's dancing in the 1930s into the 1960s, from Ginger to interpretive dancing (almost modern ballet) to judge his partners.

My favorite Fred and Ginger clip from Swing Time, check out those legs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ

Oh, I almost forgot, the Clintons and the press are complete scumbags.

SukieTawdry said...

Fred, btw, didn't like tap. He said you had to work like a ditch digger and he didn't think he was very good at it (when, in fact, he was one of the best ever). He much preferred the kind of jazz dancing he did later on his tv specials with Barrie Chase.

SukieTawdry said...

I just realized I said Pandro Berman when I meant Hermes Pan. Apologies.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It can't be said often enough about Hillary and her secret server:

At the time she gave her March 2015 press conference her emails had been subpoenaed by 7 Congressional Committees looking into Benghazi, and requested in FOIA documents by both Citizens United and Judicial Watch. NINE different entities had come up empty handed after judicial orders for her highness's emails. Only after Guccifer's exploits became known and Gowdy followed the thread back through the hdr@cliontonemail.com chain that the NYT took notice and published it's story on her secret server.

Only after that point were efforts to "bleachbit" and destroy data by other means employed. AFTER she said at the UN she wanted "all her emails made public." So her own lawless behavior in ignoring her responsibility to not only safeguard public data but produce it in a timely manner when subpoenaed is 100% responsible for the current drip-drip-drip of "revelations."

She's forfeited her right to use the "old news" or any other excuse. She exposed now trying to claim "smartest dame on earth" at the same time "she can't remember nuthin." She's smarter than Trump but can't identify classified material when she sees it. Stupid or incompetent are just your two choices with her alone.

mockturtle said...

She's smarter than Trump but can't identify classified material when she sees it. Stupid or incompetent are just your two choices with her alone.

She may be more knowledgeable than Trump but I doubt she is smarter.

Michael said...

Look, Ginger Rogers was terrific, and she brought attributes that Astaire did not have. But she was always the partner; Astaire was the genius, the ineffable talent. It takes nothing away from her, but she did not do everything he did - backwards in high heels or otherwise, not with the line and effortless grace he had.

walter said...

It's a good thing that public speaking skills aren't important to the presidency..
It's high time. She wants it.

Ron said...

The thing for me is that it is not just about the dancing only. It's the chemistry of the partnership and in that regard 'Fred and Ginger' are head and shoulders above the others. A lot of that is Ginger's acting and the sense of fun they convey together.

I wonder if Astaire would have succeeded as well as he did without Pandro Berman bribing/arm twisting him to stay partnered with Rogers. He might have gone back to the stage...and probably be forgotten today, like his sister Adele is, which is sad because Adele seems charming at a distance. Without their mutual chemistry, they might be remembered today like Marge and Gower Champion; that is to say, not at all any more!

I think the opinion started to shift in Rogers favor when they finally both did solo films, and Ginger's (Stage Door) was a minor hit, while Fred's (A Damsel in Distress) actually bombed and lost money despite a Gershwin score and George Burns and Gracie Allen as the supporting comedians!

To be sure, Ginger's ascendancy was short lived (though she did make $335K in 1945) compared to Fred's, who was successful long into the 50's and even in early TV, with the first color prime time special in '58.

But I'd rather have either as POTUS instead of Hillary....

mockturtle said...

Ron, I'd rather have YOU as POTUS than Hillary.

MacMacConnell said...

Ron
Don't forget Ginger won an Oscar for best actress. Thanks for reminding me of Burns & Allen, Gracie was the funny one.

walter said...

Did Trump dance with Hil at his latest wedding?

Ron said...

First.... a little humor for you all...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-2r3zzZYgA

Mockturtle, I appreciate the vote of confidence...I assure you I will be judicious in my application of tactical nuclear power, limiting myself to Big 10 rivals (I'm lookin' at you Althouse! Recant! Return to your Wolverine Origins, ersatz Groundhog!), Lois Lerner, and anyone who gets me up too early in the morning.

Bruce Hayden said...

@Terry - of course, women can't do everything as well as men can. No rules keeping women out of the NFL, but they just aren't big enough or fast enough to play there. And female officers apparently still haven't been able to graduate from the Marine's infantry officers course. Or, become SEALS. And, my pet peeve - they don't pay nearly their share of income taxes. Men greatly tend to build the fortunes, and women end up with them.

Rush has long said something like that feminism is for women too ugly to get dates. One of Stacey McCain's points though is that it is led primarily by a bunch of lesbians. And, by now, they have taken over much of women's studies on college campuses, at least. And, there, you sometimes may have a chicken and egg question - are they fat and ugly because they are lesbians, or lesbians because they are fat and ugly, and can't find dates (my personal view is that some are homosexual, some are man hating bisexuals, and some just experimenting).

Still, my biggest complaint is that much of feminism today, after gaining majority status as voters and in college, and as education becomes ever more feminized, that feminists have managed to trade Uncle Sugar for husbands. Welfare is women taxing and appropriating the labor of men so that they don't need husbands. It is easier to vote Democrat, and let the state support them, than to attract and keep a husband. And, they have the advantage then of having alpha males donate the sperm for their children. There are a couple of societal problems though that arise with that. One of the things that males do a lot better than females is raise sons. And, probably daughters too. Boys, to become contributing men in our society, first need fathers, then wives, and then families. When women pick baby daddies instead of husbands (which welfare allows them to do), they greatly increase the odds that their sons will, instead, grow up as violent criminals, in prison, or dead early (as has become so common in esp lower income Black communities). And their daughters are likely to follow in their footsteps, having baby daddies, a lot of abortions, and sons who end up as violent criminals, in prison, or dead at a young age.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Bruce Hayden said...
@Terry - of course, women can't do everything as well as men can. No rules keeping women out of the NFL, but they just aren't big enough or fast enough to play there. And female officers apparently still haven't been able to graduate from the Marine's infantry officers course. Or, become SEALS. And, my pet peeve - they don't pay nearly their share of income taxes. Men greatly tend to build the fortunes, and women end up with them.

It is astonishing, Bruce Hayden, how many women believe that the notion that men have greater physical strength than women, pound for pound, is a myth created by the patriarchy. For forty years, schools have taught women that they can do ANYTHING a man can do. A year or so ago, I read an article in Science, of all places, that tried to show that men and women had similar physical capabilities by noting that there was some overlap between the blood testosterone level of male and female Olympic athletes. The results were far from clear, and it was a crappy metastudy using data from blood doping tests, but Science published it anyway.
We now duplicate the rigorous standards of the politicized 'science' of the 1920s. That's progressivism in the 21st century.

RuyDiaz said...

Also, what Fred Astaire REALLY did was sell tickets to the female audience that loved his movies. That no woman could do.

TobyTucker said...

A poor analogy; from Ginger's point of view, it was Fred who was "dancing backwards". Why are we always looking at things from the MAN's perspective! Down with the Patriarchy!!!

The high heels thing I will go along with, wearing those things has to be painful. But if we ever see Hillary! in heels, she's bound to have "escorts" on either side, otherwise I fear she would tip over. In people her age, that might result in a serious injury that could lead to an early death:

https://share.kaiserpermanente.org/article/elderly-women-who-break-a-hip-at-increased-risk-of-dying-within-a-year/

Lee Moore said...

That is, Hillary is being kept under wraps, because if we see her, we'll only like her less

Yup. I was convinced that Kerry would win comfortably in 2004 if only he had been locked in a dark room immediately after accepting the Democratic nomination, and not released until Jan 1 2005. But he kept on turning up on TV and saying things. And whatever he tried to say the words kept on coming out the same - "I am a stupid arrogant jerk. I am a stupid arrogant jerk."

tim in vermont said...

haven't yet seen a Clinton yard sign. Maybe I have seen a bumper sticker for her, but I don't remember it. And I am not in Vermont all the time. The only ones I see are for Bernie and Trump, even outside Vermont. And I see quite a few Trump home-made signs in Vermont.

I have run into one Hillary supporter, a dental assistant. I was in the chair, waiting on a root canal, and asked her to turn around a Time Magazine that had Hillary on the cover, because I was suffering enough that morning. She was disappointed that I asked her to do that. But she did allow as to how our choices were terrible.

Oh yeah, and there was the guy who said he was voting based on the person least likely to push "the button." He was young, I told him that they used the same line against Goldwater, and then Johnson dragged us deep into Viet Nam.

tim in vermont said...

As Secretary of State, she did not have the judgement to notice that something should have been classified, for instance, pathetic, pig-Latin style attempts to hid the identity of the Iranian scientist who helped us, and was hanged once the emails came out.

Maybe the Iranians didn't find out by hacking her servers, they probably found out from the FOIA release, but the fact that they hanged the man after reading her emails proves that this was a subject that any person with good judgement in her position, should have considered highly classified. She has terrible judgement.

Unknown said...

Althouse says, "But, I'm sorry, I sure don't see Hillary getting judged by a tougher standard than Donald Trump. It's the other way around. It's quite obvious."

When Admiral Parker raised the signal for the English fleet to withdraw from Copenhagen ... actually he was trying to do his deputy Nelson a favor because he was unsure how the battle was going and feared Nelson would feel obliged to fight on even if things were going badly ... Nelson put his glass to his blind eye and stated that he did not see the signal.

Ron said...

RuyDiaz, no, RKO figured out that women were coming to see Ginger, not Fred. It's why she kept insisting on new fashions for each film.

iowan2 said...

I've been saying this since the primaries. The more Clinton's wife is exposed to voter, the more voters learn how unlike them, she is, the lower her polls go.
This is not new. When she ran for Senate, remember her listening tours? She gave a short monologue, listened, and left. She is an unlikeable creature. Mostly because everyone is less than her, and she just tolerates, like you spend a few minutes "paying attention" to your friends year old. Clinton's wife pretends to be interested in what her base is saying.

Lewis Wetzel said...

A national politician who does not do well in front of large audiences or press conferences is a politician without an office. No wonder Hillary needs Bill and others to act as her public face. Maybe the truth is the reason people see her as unlikable is because she is unlikable.
You hear, sometimes, about ex presidents doing nice things for people. Appearing at a celebration for a stranger, giving something valuable to a charity, etc. Ever heard any story like that about either of the Clintons?

docweasel said...

Ugh, I'm so sick of that "backwards and in high-heels" bullcrap. I mean from a reality standpoint: look at one of their dances. Astaire LITERALLY danced circles around her. He probably did twice as many steps as she did, and then he'd usually take a solo while she stood there. There's a reason he's renowned as one of the great dancers of all time, along with Gene Kelly, and she's not. She was a passable dancer and partner for a great artist, who by the way also choreographed a lot of his own steps. He worked hours a day, alone, perfecting the routine.

So enough with the "she did everything Astaire did back-wards and in high-heels"- no, she didn't. Not even close.

walter said...

Blogger tim in vermont said... haven't yet seen a Clinton yard sign
--
Even when you do, the big H merged with the arrow doesn't even read as "Clinton".
It's like they're ..umm..hiding her.

walter said...

Oh..while there, found this classic bit of Sharpton doing some prime ESL:
Al Sharpton on Trump's Detroit stop
(Al feels Trump should have turned the appearance into an in depth policy forum.)
What does he say at 1:29? Quotining?
2:15..doesn't want anyone to instruct his intelligence.
3:50 Quotes the sage commentator James Brown..but Al clearly doesn't feel good about all this.
5:09..echoes my sentiment this was about white votes
7:00ish Trump invoking Lincoln is insulting..needs to ask why R's arent the party of Lincoln anymore...wants numbers on how many blacks he's employed.

Gospace said...

Mac McConnell said...
Ron
Don't forget Ginger won an Oscar for best actress. Thanks for reminding me of Burns & Allen, Gracie was the funny one.


Something George emphasized in his books and memoirs. All of which I have and reread when I need some uplifting of the spirits.

iowan2 said...
I've been saying this since the primaries. The more Clinton's wife is exposed to voter, the more voters learn how unlike them, she is, the lower her polls go.

Yancey Ward said...
...I wrote here in a comment after the DNC that Clinton would and should start taking unscripted interviews and press conferences, and she seemed like she was going to do that starting with the Chris Wallace interview she gave the weekend after the convention.


Iowan2 wins on this. Anyone who knows anything about Monica Lewinsky’s ex-boyfriends wife, a corrupt brain damaged alcoholic enabler of her sexual predator husband is fully aware that she's most liked when she's least seen and heard from. The debates will be disastrous for her. Trump isn't going to fold like Lazio did.

Unknown said...

She's bought and paid for folks, just like the rest. Maybe "The Donald" isn't maybe he is, I'm not convinced one way or the other yet although I AM leaning towards not but I can say this for sure, Hillary is. She's as bought and paid for as the MSM at this point and the established, insider cult of D.C., NYC and LA power brokers who have been running this country for years now. Its time WE the people take it back. Is The Donald the 'One'? I don't know and I have SERIOUS doubts but I know in my heart of hearts that Hillary and her ilk are just more of the same.

Regardless of who is elected and the sad part of ALL of this is the fact that NOT only do we STILL have a Congress of buffoons to deal with, most of whom are also bought and paid for in the same exact way but we have a MASSIVE federal bureaucracy filled with lifers and technocrats most of whom are un-elected and have almost NO accountability to 'we the people'.

Massive federal regulation, bureaucratic crap upon bureaucratic crap endlessly arrayed in a modern form of tyranny the likes of which or forefathers never envisioned.

Don't believe me? Try running afoul of our Federal administrative judicial system my friends..

jschiraldi@gmail.com said...

If you really think this election is going to be close then you are not paying attention. I mean one day Trump gets up flies to California does a rally, then hops on a jet and holds a press conference with the President of Mexico then flies here to Phoenix and holds an hour and a half rally. I don't think he coughed once but the Clinton Press machine only looks for negative things to say. When the racists and non-citizen protesters violently attack Trump supporters and American citizens the press is silent. I don't believe the press realizes how dangerous a part they are playing in the poisoning of the nation. We saw Trump in Detroit being praised by the Black ministers and what is the headline “Shut it Down!”: Reuters Orders Cameraman to Kill Positive Trump Footage. These are the enemies of a free press and we need to not call it media bias but media political support and demand that the FEC charge these organizations with in kind contributions and start getting injunctions against these organizations. Its not an election its war and we are winning.

Martin said...

It has always been the case with Hillary, and with Obama, for that matter, that the more people see of them, the lower their numbers go. People want to have a good image of them, but the reality is quite different. Keep them mostly under wraps and people can imagine them to be what they desire. Confronting people with the grim reality is asking fro trouble.