November 13, 2007
"I think the bases are not weighted enough."
Said Hillary Clinton as she stopped to right some American flags that got toppled when someone swept open a curtain. Of course, the image is ridiculous and unfortunate for a candidate, but I'm highlighting her quote, because it shows something about how she thinks on the spot: in terms of problem solving. Something went wrong. You don't cry. You don't blame. You figure out why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. That's pretty sharp. On the other hand, she knows how to govern her tongue. "I think the bases are not weighted enough" might be the voiced version of "Fire the idiot who didn't realize you need bigger bases for flags this big." But framing one's statements well, like problem solving, is a good presidential attribute.
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Ann,
You are such a Clinton sycophant.
Are you saying that Hillary is fat? Or that she'll blame fat people if she loses Iowa? Surely, you have to be slamming Clinton, yet I can't figure out how you are doing it.
Vortex, vortex, vortex.
Jeez, give the media half a chance and it's flag raising at Iwo Jima all over again!
“Well the Church won’t take an official position on these, phenomena. Don’t quote me on this Lenny; I think it’s a sign from God.”
(Ghostbusters, 1984)
heh...is that bad kharma or what.
She's not problem-solving. She's making sure that another interpretation doesn't begin.
Nobody asked her how she thought it happened.
My old Doberman Susie knew that curtains blowing and canvas flapping indicated unfriendly spirits, and getting away was the best policy. She wasn't interested in deflecting blame.
Of course that meant that next to blowing canvas was an excellent place to train. Yes you do have to hold a sit-stay even though evil spirits urge you away.
Hillary, to her credit, didn't seem frightened by it.
On 9/11, Mayor Giuiliani's first order was to establish a command center. His second was to break out the extra-heavy flagpole bases.
Of course, the image is ridiculous and unfortunate for a candidate
I don't understand, Ann. The image of Hillary righting the toppled flags is unfortunate?
AA said: "That's pretty sharp."
Only in the eyes of those trying desperately to justify their adoration of HR Clinton.
During a recent debate, she unthinkingly quipped something about, "If you want to accomplish a difficult task, choose a woman..." (paraphrasing). A commentator gushed on about her being quick on her feet, apparently not recognizing a tired old feminist slogan. Fawning political commentary says much about the limitations of the observer, and nothing of note about HR.
And so it goes with sickofants.
This is obviously an adaptation of a trick the Clintons previously staged on D-Day 1994, in a military cemetery. What phonies these people are.
I'm shaped like a pear,
I got a big base.
I'd rather be fair
And shaped like a vase.
But soon those who stare
I'll order be tased (bro).
Ann, c'mon.
I'm sorry, but framing one's statements well, like problem solving, is the base level price of admission for someone running for city council, much less the Presidency.
Has the Carville-led Clinton machine dumbed down the expectations level that much in just 1 generation?
.
Has the Carville-led Clinton machine dumbed down the expectations level that much in just 1 generation?
No, the Rove-led Bush machine has.
That was easy.
"I think the bases are not weighted enough."
Indeed. Very "Commander in Chief" of her. I guess we can now call the Iowa Caucus in the bag for the Hillary!
Although this is a bit of a reach of the notion of seeing the big truth of small things...
No, the Rove-led Bush machine has.
That was easy.
danny, you give Bush et al too much credit.
But even if you're correct, you have to go back to the source - James Carville, Mandy Grunwald, Paul Begala, Sydney Blumenthal - all reprehensible, despicable individuals who compromised their souls daily for Bill Clinton.
Give credit where due.
Yes, Ann, now if we could only buy the tin man a heart, I mean the Hilary some integrity. So she won't plant questions and have fake news conferences like our current Commander in Chief.
B, don't let that Clinton Derangement Syndrome hit you in the ass on the way out.
Some folks world view started in Jan 1993; some started in Jan 2001. Me? I remember Lee Atwater!
One could also argue that she made a hasty decision without considering all of the relevant facts and then unilaterally acted upon her beliefs with all the swagger of a renegade cowgirl.
Or something.
The flag incident was a setup by the opposition in an attempt to smear the Hillary Campaign. We have done a full analysis on this event and have screen shots posted.
http://www.voteforhillaryonline.com
Is that like All your bases are belong to us?
"Something went wrong. You don't cry. You don't blame. You figure out why it happened and how to avoid it in the future."
More evidence that Hillary is, how you say, masculine!
This was hardly a problem. It was just an embarressing moment that happens on the campaign trail. She stood next to an embarressment when Bill was Prez so she can shrug this off on her way to the coronation.
She's going to fix bases for us for the common good.
Some folks world view started in Jan 1993; some started in Jan 2001. Me? I remember Lee Atwater!
Things went downhill for me when Emperor Trajen died.
Well, whatever your interpretation of her statement is, it was far better than what Kerry would have said; "Those Son-of-a-bitch flags tried to trip me. Don't they know who I am?"
"I think the bases are not weighted enough."
I agree, that's a sensible reaction.
Bissage - On 9/11, Mayor Giuiliani's first order was to establish a command center. His second was to break out the extra-heavy flagpole bases.
Actually, his second order was "Run! This place is a deathtrap! Run!(Building 6 of the WTC)
Seriously, it would be nice to have a mechanism where voters could better assess those running with a sparse record of executive decision-making and problem solving. There are groups that make their living testing perspective managers and execs for such skills.
I have no doubt that in this crop, Edwards, Giuliani, Romney would easily pass - and probably Clinton, Huckabee, Thompson, and Obama would. I have my doubts about Richardson, Kucinich, and Paul.
It would be great if voters had their candidates for exec positions - not just Presidents but Governors pass through a 3 week evaluation. And appointees for important executive positions in State and Federal Gov't.
With results confidential except disclosure of "Pass-Fail", with failures welcome to retake it in a year or so. (Pass-Fail so voters just don't say the person scoring 92 in the skills test is automatically better than a 87 scorer.)
Crisis management.
Ability to process info, some ambiguous - and arrive at a reasonable, defensible decision.
Problem-solving.
Ability to perform under pressure with a team.
And so on.
If we required candidates to show those skills - we might have never had Kathleen Blanco become Governor.
Its certainly better than journalists who don't hold executive management positions nor have to do problem-solving and crisis management moderating debates that are supposed to help such journalists inform the voters of skills the journalists themselves rarely are involved in.
Maybe Bush and Jimmy Carter would have been scored in the "Fail" category. And lots of pain could have been avoided.
Jeez! Althouse says something vaguely positive about Mrs. Clinton, and everybody gets their shorts in a twist. Hillary hate oozes from the woodwork here, only to be replaced by anti-Althouse bile elsewhere.
What's wrong with you people? Hillary is neither the savior-goddess, nor the five-letter word beginning with "b" that some 55-year-old Southern white lady called her at a recent McCain event.
And Althouse isn't your mother or the reincarnation of your favorite/least favorite teacher, either.
Hillary is a very smart, hard-working, rather compromised person who wanted to be President since she was playing with her dollies. Althouse is a very smart, hard-working, interesting, rather stylish law professor with an attitude and an independent turn of mind.
Both of them in their own way, I suspect, can be pains in the butt.
I may or may not vote for Hillary, but I don't hate her, and neither should you. Althouse is quite correct in pointing out that Hillary's immediate reaction to this little problem spoke well of her.
That alone is not enough to make her President by acclamation; it's just one little thing to be noted.
I found this poster the other day. It shows Hillary as some would wish her to be. But it's ambiguous with its attractive image and message that may or may not give you a little frisson.
Do you shudder, shrug, or are you secretly thrilled that someone promises to finally, finally take care of you?
Something went wrong. You don't cry. You don't blame.
I would seriously doubt the sanity of anyone who would have either of these reactions to a couple of flags falling over.
I seriously doubt the sanity of someone who thinks that a major presidential candidate could possibly have either one of these reactions.
Someone who thinks that this incident demonstrates Hillary Clintion is anything other than a raving, completely unhinged, lunatic, must have set the bar so low for rational behavior in herself that she can't even recognize it in others.
Commenting on this incident as though it reveals anything (other than the lack of insanity) is goofy. Next you will be commenting in the restraint she shows in not biting the heads off of live bats during her appearances.
Althouse is quite correct in pointing out that Hillary's immediate reaction to this little problem spoke well of her.
Have you ever heard the phrase "damning with faint praise"? What Ann is saying is that she is amazed (or at least finds it noteworthy) that Hillary didn't go apeshit over an incident that any sane person wouldn't be the least bit upset about either. That in fact, her reaction was that of a normal, rational person.
With friends like Ann, Hillary doesn't need enemies.
Someone who thinks that this incident demonstrates Hillary Clintion is anything other than a raving, completely unhinged, lunatic, must have set the bar so low for rational behavior in herself that she can't even recognize it in others.
Whoops, of course this should read that all that the incident demonstrates is that Hillary is not a raving lunatic.
Only a raving lunatic would start crying or throw a temper tantrum because a couple flags fell over.
rhhardin said..."Hillary, to her credit, didn't seem frightened by it."
Good Lord...a couple of flags tipped over, none of which came even remotely close to Hillary or injuring anyone.
HuffPo has a headline no less, that reads: "Hillary Clinton Attacked By Flagpoles At Press Conference"
Does this tell you anything about a lack of real news coverage?
Fredder: What do you want, that we should fall down and worship at the feet of the queen/goddess in the poster?
I don't read this a damning with faint praise. I personally have been around people in authority who would have gone ballistic if this happened. I am spoiling my appetite for dinner thinking about my boss in this situation.
Perhaps Althouse's wicked irony is just too subtle for me, but, while it's faint praise, it's praise. And, speaking for myself, the only kind of praise I'm willing to give politicians is faint indeed.
paul a'barge said..."Is that like All your bases are belong to us?"
Huh?
As near as I can tell Ann is trying to figure out a way to vote for Hillary. Those of you with your head up the Vortex might want to pull it out in time to see that.
While you guys will be accusing her of being a wing nut, I'll be trying to talk her into not voting for her.
I may or may not vote for Hillary, but I don't hate her, and neither should you.
Why not?
I personally have been around people in authority who would have gone ballistic if this happened
So have I. But I don't consider them the paragons of mental health and wouldn't vote for them to be dog catcher, let alone president.
Fredder: What do you want, that we should fall down and worship at the feet of the queen/goddess in the poster?
Well no. I demand more out of my president than simply not being apeshit crazy.
Ann, apparently has much lower standards. She is making progress though. She evidently is raising her standards a little bit, since in this election she is looking for evidence that her chosen candidate is not completely insane.
SteveR said..."As near as I can tell Ann is trying to figure out a way to vote for Hillary."
Well, considering her alternatives, why wouldn't she?
As for "hating" Hillary...Revenant said..."Why not?"
I've said it before repeat: I've always felt that the term is overused and sounds silly when discussing political candidates.
Maybe hating their policies or decisions...
*And yes, I know people here think I hate G.W., but that's not true.
I just think he's been an atrocious President and his policies have been bad for America...and there are certainly things he's done that I "hate" to see.
Freder Frederson said..."I demand more out of my president than simply not being apeshit crazy."
You compare Hillary, calmly watching a couple of flag poles topple, to "not being apeshit crazy"??
Wha...?
Ah, "Not Insane," the campaign sloagan of George G. Papoon. Considering what we've had, I'm willing to entertain a candidate whose main qualification is that he or she is Not Insane.
Revenant: You should not hate Hillary, or anyone else (well, maybe a little slipping now and again), because it's bad for your soul. It doesn't hurt the object of hatred, but hate can damage you.
Now if you deny the soul, or Karma, or the Transcendent, well, now you know what it feels like to be a badly-written shell script.
paul a'barge said..."Is that like All your bases are belong to us?"
Huh?
He's referring to this Internet phenomenon from a few years ago, in which some folks with Photoshop and time manufactured a supposed conspiracy that the phrase "All your base are belong to us" was appearing everywhere. Wikipedia entry.
This site has some images.
It was pretty funny, and some of the photoshopped images were quite clever.
No actual relationship to Hillary. "All your base are belong to us" may have been a consipracy, but not of the vast right-wing variety.
No introductory comment, I’m just tossing this one into the vortex: LINK.
It's 90 IQ stuff to figure out that the bases are not weighted enough. Give us something that you'd need at least a 130 to achieve. Bush, according to the NY Times, has about 130. Gore about 136.
Kerry about 120.
130 should be a cut-off for presidents. It should be in the requirements along with citizenship and being age 35.
I think that Hillary would probably make the cut-off, but not on the basis of the anecdote that you offer here.
Revenant: You should not hate Hillary, or anyone else [...], because it's bad for your soul. It doesn't hurt the object of hatred, but hate can damage you.
I dunno, that explanation sounds silly to me. What would hurt my soul would be thinking up flimsy rationalizations for NOT hating people who deserve it. Being honest about your feelings is usually the best policy.
Kirby Olson said..."IQ stuff: Bush, according to the NY Times, has about 130."
The conclusion of Steve Sailer, a conservative columnist at the Web magazine Vdare.com and a veteran student of presidential I.Q.'s.
During the last presidential campaign Mr. Sailer estimated from Mr. Bush's SAT score (1206) that his I.Q. was in the mid-120's.
*By way of comparison, Bush's 2000 opponent Al Gore scored 134 and 133 the two times he took an IQ test in high school, putting him just under the top 1 percent of the public.
Revenant said... "What would hurt my soul would be thinking up flimsy rationalizations for NOT hating people who deserve it. Being honest about your feelings is usually the best policy."
Yeah, and I think it was Jesus who said: "And now if you could jut spread that hate around a little..."
"*And yes, I know people here think I hate G.W., but that's not true.
Glad you came around. A few weeks ago I mentioned you hating Bush and you were proud of it. And no, I am not going to dig around your thousands of posts to find it.
Jeffrey,
And once again, you prove yourself to be nothing more than a lying sack of shit.
I've never said I hated George W. Bush. I've always said basically the same thing: I find him to be inept and bad for our country.
Period.
Throwing out silly "A few weeks ago I mentioned you hating Bush..." bullshit, relating to what you say I've posted (especially when you can't back it up with any real evidence), makes you look even more like an idiot than you already are.
Either find a posting where I say I "hate" Bush...or shove it up your lying ass.
"Jeffrey,
And once again, you prove yourself to be nothing more than a lying sack of shit."
Right back at you Lucky. Yes you did. Maybe you can scurry around and track it down and delete it before someone stumbles across it. As I stated, and you ignored, I am not about to dredge through your sewer of comments to find it.
Not to mention IF I did go find it you would pull another Clinton out of your ass and claim that when you said "I hate Bush" you were clearly speaking of the shrubbery in the front yard. Kiss my ass Lucky. Tired of your intellectually dishonest brand of debate.
Jeff,
Lying isn't good for your soul.
If you can provide one posting of mine where I say I "hate" George W. Bush, I'll apologize, but merely saying "Yes you did" just isn't going to cut it.
You're lying through through your teeth and you know it, too.
Jeff,
Why no profile?
Jeffrey,
Crawl back into you little hole?
HA!
She was trouble by the lack of balance. Why had it tipped over? It wasn’t fair. Something that had given her so much pleasure just a few minutes ago had toppled over. But Hillary is a problem solver. She didn’t become President by sitting back and not fixing a problem. Something went wrong. You don't cry. You don't blame. You figure out why it happened and how to avoid it in the future. So she reached over to the nightstand and opened the drawer. She took out a tube of raspberry flavored lube. She slowly and lovingly massaged it. From the base. To the tip. Up and down, up and down she greased the flagpole. And soon it began to right itself. But she knew the answer. She had to be decisive. She gives a coy little smile. A devilish wink. The President slid further down the bed…..gave the semi erect flag pole a final tug and took her mouth…and then…..and then....and then…….she “Turned Up the Heat.”
Brought to you by Concerned Citizens Hoping to Humanize Hillary.
jeff,
In the name of all that is good and decent, would you please stop arguing with Lucky. Thank you.
Interesting. Why would she say that the bases aren't weighted enough? Is it because the flags just happen to have fallen on her that she had to say something. Obviously she couldn't blame anyone personally, since she wasn't at a right wing conspiracy event. They were all helping Ron Paul run against her. Oh well, I wish people would just look at it for what it was, a simple flub happened to a deserving woman. I'm sure the symbology is ripe for the making, but even in that maelstrom of embarrassment, I think one of her meaningless cackles might have actually have saved her instead.
Rev,
Blow me.
Luckyoldson said...
Rev,
Blow me.
Either this is an inside joke or you've moved onto requests. Are your edges cracking?
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