Hillary! Takes A Stand: "No" on Drivers Licenses for Illegals

I'm no campaign expert, but this appears to have been poorly handled, and by "poorly handled" I mean god damn what a fucking train wreck THAT was.

At some point they might want to consider a strategy other than "it's all George Bush's fault". I realize that can and does work, some of the time.

Not this time.

More... [Ace]: Seems like a big enough deal to warrant an excerpt:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday came out against granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, after weeks of pressure in the presidential race to take a position on a now-failed ID plan from her home state governor.
Clinton has faced criticism from candidates in both parties for her noncommittal answers on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's attempt to allow illegal immigrants in his state to receive driver's licenses. Spitzer abandoned the effort Wednesday.
"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal," Clinton said in a statement. "As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."

So, after saying she supported it, then saying no maybe she didn't, she just supported the idea of it but maybe not so much, Spitzer then buckles under a tsunami of public opinion and Hillary! decides, "Oh yeah, that's right, I didn't support it at all. I forgot."

Leadership.

Too bad they can't have dumb college students moderate these debates. Then I bet she'd have all the answers.

But this doesn't save her, or the Democrats. This past summer immigration was a wedge issue for the GOP. Now it's a wedge issue for the Democrats -- their hardline liberal/open borders base wants amnesty and full citizenship for anyone who can sneak across the border, but the vast majority of Americans -- including half the Democratic party -- hate the idea.

This is, for the Democrat, a question with no right answer. Including, as Hillary attempted, answering it both ways and neither way at all.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 05:57 PM

Comments

1 Wow, what a profile in courage. Way to take a stand and lead.

Posted by: Drew at November 14, 2007 06:03 PM (hlYel)

Yeah...what timing now that it's been dropped.

courage.

Posted by: Bosk at November 14, 2007 06:13 PM (+aNmG)

3 What choice did she have with Spitzer's backtracking? His actions forced her hand.

Posted by: Ken at November 14, 2007 06:13 PM (Bsj5b)

4 That finger in the wind shit isn't quite so easy as slick willy made it look apparently.

Posted by: Eleven at November 14, 2007 06:15 PM (7DB+a)

5 She couldn't lead (I mean truly lead -- like getting people to do things they otherwise wouldn't) if her life, or ours, depended on it. Rational people run away from her filthiness. God help us if she somehow makes it the White House.

Posted by: Ken at November 14, 2007 06:15 PM (Bsj5b)

6 Now Obama and Edwards need to be drawn out on this. Let's see one of them make a stand FOR these licenses. A way to contrast with Hillary. It's lose-lose for Dems on this. Either they lose much of America or they insult (but maybe not lose) their immigrant vote.

Posted by: Mark in Portland at November 14, 2007 06:22 PM (+45yf)

7 She's an Idiot.

Posted by: MagicalPat at November 14, 2007 06:24 PM (woOKl)

8 Nuance baby, nuance...

Posted by: karl at November 14, 2007 06:26 PM (tafPN)

She was for it before she was against it.

That's a winning strategy.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at November 14, 2007 06:33 PM (pzen5)

Hillary! today announced a clear-cut position vis-a-vis victory or surrender in WWII:

"I am often asked this question by young people,and my position is clear: we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!"

A college student at the back of the room then asked the tough question that is on everyone's lips... "How does it feel to be carrying the hopes and dreams of women everywhere on your shoulders?"

Posted by: sherlock at November 14, 2007 06:36 PM (ojW85)

11 Primates....Sex....Ovoid-Shaped, inflatable, pig-skin-covered object.

Posted by: franksalterego at November 14, 2007 06:40 PM (jqKZU)

What choice did she have with Spitzer's backtracking? His actions forced her hand.

Yep. She gave the one retraction that could spare her an outright contradiction. her original answer was that she "supported governors' efforts to fix the problem." So, she supported a disatrous idea, and then when its proponent got kicked in the groin, well, gee, she supported that too! What a surprise.

It's bullshit, of course, but plausibly deniable bullshit, and it's not like the press'll call her on it.

Some damage has been done, thankfully, but this shit is just slick enough to possibly insulate her down the road.

Posted by: jdub at November 14, 2007 06:42 PM (0t6Ct)

course, hay can still be had on her hubby's record re: immigration. the what? 500% increase during his tenure? true, jorge arbusto tried to sell us even further down the river, but he's not running. and to the extent that she tries to deflect that criticism by yelling "george bush!" rudy can (whether he will is an open question) use it as an opportunity to distance himself from pedro the amnesty monkey and demand strict enforcement.

i don't know how sloppy the handling of all this was, actually. the way she handled the original question was awkward, but remember, she managed not to REALLY alienate anybody, which is the name of the game at this stage. now she's taken some hits, but she bought time to see which side of things spitzer and the rest of the country would come down on, and wouldn't you know it, she followed their lead! so yeah, she got smacked around a little for a week, but it bought her the luxury of not having to make a stand that might have damaged her chances more substantially.

pretty slick, actually.

remember, now that she's taken her oh-so-principled stand, the press will let her earlier nuance slide.

[puke]

Posted by: jdub at November 14, 2007 06:48 PM (0t6Ct)

14 "As president, I ......will press for comprehensive immigration reform........"

What the hell does that mean?

Didn't Bush "press for comprehensive immigration reform"?

And citizens rose up and cut him and Congress a new ass!

Posted by: GarandFan at November 14, 2007 06:57 PM (+tCxF)

Well, it's pretty easy to figure out why the NY governor decided to cancel the bill. It wasnt from the polls of the people of New York. He was already against them from the start. But, since the issue of illegals getting licenses in NY was still on the table, you could easily bet that Hillary would have to clarify her position. Now, with this issue suddenly taken off the table, Hillary no longer has to answer or clarify her position.

So, in point, Governor Spitzer took the license issue off the table, not because of the voters of NY, but because of Hillary having to further answer to this issue.

Posted by: SGT Bazz at November 14, 2007 07:01 PM (NZDRZ)

16 "So, in point, Governor Spitzer took the license issue off the table, not because of the voters of NY, but because of Hillary having to further answer to this issue."

The cynic in me tells me that there was most likely a back-room conversation between the hillary and spitzer camps and spitzer was promised something big from her should she win the White House. Afterall, hasn't the clinton machine operated this way for decades?

Posted by: Ken at November 14, 2007 07:09 PM (Bsj5b)

17 She isn't against the original proposal. She merely "support[s] Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal." She, like Spitzer, can still tell half the country that she thinks the proposal was a good idea, or a reasonable thing for a governor to do in the face of federal unwillingness to "fix the issue," while telling the other half of the country that she supports the withdrawal of the proposal since, she will tell the first half yet again, as did Spitzer, there was no sense spending all that good-as-gold political capital on something that was doomed never to pass. Easy, right?

Nuance. Baby got nuance.

Posted by: Z as in Jersey at November 14, 2007 07:09 PM (kZT4X)

18 I am actually surprised that she said she didn't support it. I think her grand plan is or was to actually get them licenses on a national level so they would vote for her in term #2. She is now on record as not supporting it, which would crush her if she actually instituted it in her first term. Think "read my lips...."

Posted by: Judd at November 14, 2007 07:14 PM (JB0d8)

As president, I ......will press for comprehensive immigration reform........"
What the hell does that mean?
Didn't Bush "press for comprehensive immigration reform"?
And citizens rose up and cut him and Congress a new ass!

And yet McCain, Rudy and Huckabee still think it's a swell idea too.

Posted by: Hollowpoint at November 14, 2007 07:26 PM (plsiE)

20 "That finger in the wind shit isn't quite so easy as slick willy made it look apparently."

The trick is you have to be upwind from everyone else for it to work.

Hillary is doomed to be forever downwind, because she is a panderer, not a leader. And panderers have to hear what you want first, before they can stroke you properly.

This twat is doomed.

Posted by: Steamboat McGoo at November 14, 2007 07:26 PM (41Dd+)

Slightly off-topic because it`s about Spitzer, via

http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/6815-Weds.-Morning-links.html

it seems the fellow thinks he has found a way around Congress` decision to retain the non-collection of "internet" sales taxes

http://www.nysun.com/article/66382

by claiming that if a resident`s web site has a revenue[comission]-generating link to a vendor, that constitutes the "physical presence" allowing forcing said vendor to record/collect/forward taxes - even those on sales not made via the link.

Posted by: teqjack at November 14, 2007 08:04 PM (CEphM)

22 #16
"The cynic in me tells me that there was most likely a back-room conversation between the hillary and spitzer camps and spitzer was promised something big from her should she win the White House. Afterall, hasn't the clinton machine operated this way for decades?"

Dude, you know it. There were definitely back room conversations with the two. She didn't want to embarrass herself anymore with half-ass answers to simple, easy yes-no questions. Maybe there were more than just conversations, probably threats from Hillary to the Governor. And, I'm sure you're probably dead on. Spitzer was probably promised a little something after she won. (Or maybe something even before she won, like Spitzer waking up to a severed horse head, or never even waking up at all again. I do think she is very capable of doing these horrible acts).

Posted by: SGT BAZZ at November 14, 2007 09:47 PM (J7W2z)

"Hillary! Takes A Stand"

OK let's see: I kind of think my buddy Eliot is right plus it's Bush's fault so I'm kind of in favor of it but most people seem to be against it so I guess I'm kind of against it and it really is Bush's fault. Boy this leadership stuff is tough - but being as I'm the smartest woman in America I'm going to have to take a courageous stand and say I'm against it because of that 80% disapproval thing, and oh by the way did I forget to mention its Bush's fault.

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