Hillary Clinton on Sarah Palin? She's keeping her cards close to the vest

Perhaps Amy Poehler, in the much-anticipated opening skit on the season premiere of "Saturday Night Live," truly channeled Hillary Clinton's innermost feelings toward Sarah Palin.

  But as for the actual senator from New York, if she shares the angst and anguish so comically expressed by Poehler, she's steadfastly keeping it to herself.

The media entourage that once breathed down Clinton's neck has long since moved on. But Elizabeth Moore, our colleague at Newsday, was on the scene this past weekend as Clinton campaigned in Ohio on behalf of Barack Obama, that fellow who bested her in the Democratic presidential race.

As the Palin phenomenon has taken much of America by storm -- and clouded Obama's presidential prospects -- some Democrats have spotlighted Clinton as the party figure best able to stem that tide. They envision her vigorously taking Palin to task in a way that a male politician dare not.

So far, Clinton has carefully avoided going that route. She took a pass at a large partisan gathering earlier this month in New York. And in her two Sunday stops, Moore relates, she "continued to play it cool," delivering "what is becoming her standard vote-for-Obama rally speech."

And what does that mean, in terms of Palin?

Barely a mention.

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Associated Press 

Comments

[Mary]

Wow,

I'm a life-long registered Republican white woman in Ohio who is voting for Obama. I live in a small town, too. I'm sorry, but it IS about the issues. NOT about personality. We are in a HUGE mess right now in this country, and the Republicans, including Republican John Mccain, caused it. Who else can we blame? Who else was in control of the White House the past 8 years and Congress most of that time?

It blows my mind that there are other women out there who apparently don't care that the Republicans caused this mess and are willing to give them a 3RD shot when they have already let us down the past 2 times. How much worse do things have to be? This is the worst economic crisis since the Depression and we're voting for the same guys who caused it all over again because we're mad about Hillary? Our children are dying in Iraq and Mccain wants to DRAFT them to Iran, and we still want to vote for Mccain??? That is rediculous and foolish and selfish. Kids dying in IRAN (Mccain will draft them there) and people not getting health care are just a little bit more important.

Seriously, the Republicans have been in control for 8 years. Is your life better or worse now? LADIES, DO NOT CUT OFF YOUR NOSE TO SPITE YOUR FACE.
IT'S NOT WORTH IT. GIVE OBAMA A CHANCE.

[webb31]

As I recall it was the vituperative nature of Ms. Clinton's campaign, what with the "shame on you" and the "heavenly choirs" and the "as far as I know" that most likely led to her not sharing a ticket with Obama. She's an alpha dog all the way, and she deserves her own dish. Good for her. The Sarah Palin thing is just beginning to unfold. Why blow your response now on something that'll just be labeled a catfight. Remember how Obama saved his endorsements from Richardson, Gore, and Edwards for just the right time - when it would most benefit him in the campaign, the same thing will happen here. And I'm sure Ms. Clinton is looking forward to it: shame on you Sarah Palin! Shame on you!

[vote4thebest]

As usual, Hillary continues to show her intelligence. She knows that for every swat she takes at Palin, both Obama and she will get diminished.

Obama will look even smaller because any criticism against Palin can be turned around against Obama given his resume is even thinner than Palin, especially the executive experience. Hillary will be diminished because she will appear as petty and jealous of another woman. Obama took on Palin and he made people question his experience all over again. What a strategic blunder, on top of the failed first important decision,his choice of VP.

Stick to issues, Hillary. Way to go!

[Este]

Palin is riding a wave of support because she is new and exciting to many. Once they get to know her better the glamor will wear off and people will hopefully realize how unqualified she is to be VP. We should hold Republicans accountable for the past 7.5 years and vote them out of office and not let in fighting ruin our chances.

[Howard in Virginia]

If he looses in Novemeber:
-A lot of blame will go to Hillary and her supporters

Typical Obama hogwash. When is he going to stand up and acknowledge that he will win or lose this election based on his own merits, based on his own decisions. In essense, when is Obama going to develop a fortitude incumbent in a successful politician?

[Dave]

Palin is the anti-Hillary. If the Hillary voters are that dumb to vote for McCain because Palin is a woman (and that would be the only reason, because the differences far outweigh the similarities), then I guess there really is no hope for this country.

[tad]

for the sake of the world and the future of your country please don't vote the republicans in. Anybody else please, they have destroyed America in 8 years, your economy is in shambles and afflicting the rest of the world, your military is falling apart, your spending is out of control. Your leaders, care very little about the average american and more about the lobbyist groups and corporate country clubs.

Barack Obama is widely accepted around the world as a very positive step forward in correcting Americas place in the world spotlight. I live abroad and travel all over the world, if you choose to vote for your republicans then your country will become a broken republic. The lies and deception they put out every election campaign are obvious, remember just 4 years ago, the claims the bush party was making, remember 4 years before that?

No candidate is perfect, but this election stems on something much greater then just a war, an economy, and a few popular candidates.

Your country is learning at the rate of a 3rd world country, there are people in your country that live and get as much health care as some 3rd world countries. The biggest, baddest, wealthiest country in the world, does not take care of it's own and spends more money abroad helping other countries then it does for your own people. If your rich in America it's great, if your not, we'll deal with it. Your leaders have failed, you. Don't reward them with another term in office.

[Curly]

BJ said: "...why should she (Hillary) put herself in the line of fire for Obama?"
How about because Palin stands for everything anathema to Hillary?
Posted by: Ski | September 15, 2008 at 06:46 PM

There are two things that needs to be remembered.
1) By not trashing Palin Hillary is promote int women at the highest position.
2) If she campaign for Obama and he wins he will most likely have two terms. If she runs against Obama she would tare the democratic party apart, and if she won the nomination she would loose the black vote. Where as if McCain wins she can then run against McCain or Palin. In this case it could be Palin and she would insure that a woman would be president!!!!!

[BeReal]

Do any of you that suggest that Barack should have selected Hilary as his running mate remember the primaries? The 3:00 am wake up call question? The he is not prepared to be the Commander and Chief, only John McCain and I are comment. The Bill Clinton’s comments in South Carolina? There were very few political scholars, experts, pundits that did not agree about the divisiveness in the primaries, mostly spurred by the Clinton campaign. Do you remember when it was mathematically impossible for Hilary to win the nomination as early as April, but yet she continued to push. Do you remember the comment about Bill not getting the nomination until August and her saying that anything could happen and then referencing the Kennedy assassination? Do you understand that the premise of Barack’s campaign is about Change? How can change be represented by the continuation of the Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Clinton cycle? Do you remember how the right was frothing at the mouth and geared up to drag this campaign down into the muck with all of the years and years of filth that they believe they have on the Clintons? DO YOU REMEMBER???

Democrats get over your personal feelings. Hilary lost. She has a place in this campaign and possibly in the Obama administration, but she is not going to be the Vice President of the United States come January.

You all know that John McCain does not represent the policies and agenda that we stand for across the board including: The Economy, Health Care, Taxes, Education, The Wars, Immigration. Do you need more? You certainly know that Sarah Palin is not prepared to lead this Country.

So please tell me how in the world can you honestly be willing to throw everything that you stand for, everything you hope for the future of this Country, by voting for John McCain or worse yet standing on the sideline. Think ahead. Where do you think this Country will be with a McCain / Palin administration. What about the possibility of a Palin Presidency 8 years from now?

DID YOU FORGET OR DO YOU CHOOSE NOT TO REMEMBER?

[Affirmative Action]

...huummm lets see Obama sends 30 plus lawyers to Alaska to "rig" a witch hunt for purely political reasons and the messiah clowns wonder why Sarah will not participate in this kangaroo court ...the American people are to smart to pay ant attention to this drivel ...except of coarse the freak fringe of the Obama at any cost crowd...

[Frank]

Obviously people love Hillary and don't remember much from the Clinton years. Maybe these people collect old Coke bottles too. Reading these comments makes me wonder if they really love Hillary that much, or hate Obama even more. Maybe these people should waste their vote on McCain, and get more misery than they bargained for.

[HILL OBAMA]

I was a Hillary supporter until now. I can't accept the fact that she was really vocal and ugly in the primaries against Obama, and now she has nothing to say against PALIN who goes against everything women stand for. This woman even charges women for rape kits. She's just one of the guys. If Hillary really stood for uplifting women, she would speak against Palin. Seems to me she's out for herself. If Palin/Mc cain win this election, I'm going for PALIN for president in 2012... And I think all the religious African Americans and religious women will be backing PALIN 2012 for president.

OBAMA 08

[Clara @ Bristol]

People are giving Hillary so much credit. All of a sudden, Hillary Clinton is this honorable person much like Reagan was canonized after his death. Now really!!?!! The only democrats who are atleast as dirty as the Republicans are the Clintons. In fact, Hillary Clinton lost because of Bill Clinton. Nobody can argue that Hillary Clinton is not a brilliant woman, however, just like the Clinton name helped it is also the biggest negative she had. Had Obama chosen Hillary, do you really think the Republicans would now be so admiring of her strength and grace--attributes I do not remember seeing throughout the primaries anyway. Listen, Hillary Clinton learned her politics from an early age campaigning with her dad for the Republican party--she's good. What I refuse to accept is that she is being 'decent'--calculating and hoping to make a comeback in a few years? Absolutely! But don't tell me that the Clintons are decent, above the fray, honorable people. We all know better than that.

[Ralph]

Hillary should do whats right for her. 4 years of McCain, and you know Hillary will have a shot at becoming Prez again. With Nobama, she'd have to wait 8 years.. We'll all have to learn new handshakes - is it bump fists like Obama's wife was teaching the gals at The View..
Also ask yourselves, why is Oprah so wholeheartedly supporting Obama? Definately not because he's the first African american (he's half white and half Africa african). Otherwise she would have put Condi Rice on a pedestal. Somewhere in their dealings he's promised higher taxes on everyone (no secret - plenty of proof on various sites) and I bet a lot of that money will be shipped to Africa, perhaps with Oprah at the helm building more schools there. I say what about America and its children? Why do we have to put up with crappy public schools? Why couldnt Oprah build a model school like she did in Africa in downtown Chicago? There are plenty of poor innercity kids that could turn their lives around and become world leaders.. with the right education.

[Mark]

"Very true, however McCain does not represent a bipartisan middle road approach; he is not the maverick he once was back in 2000. He has promised a very conservative government vs Obama's promise for a liberal one. The switch McCain is not a vote for party cooperation but for a simple switch in partisanship. Instead of working with the democratic congress, i expect he will be vetoing their efforts left and right just like bush has been doing."

Pretty true statement and if you turn it around a bit you can see why conservative and even middle of the roaders have some fear of Obama. Liberal Dem president hooked up with Nancy Pelosi? Checks and balances out the window. There would not be any bi-partisan work going on, it would be only a far left agenda. Scares the crap out of the far right, but also has to be worrysome to many centrists. And some of the HIllary supports were probably centrists.

McCain is a conservative, but he is closer to center. He picked Palin in part to placate the far right. But as VP, who really cares, her influence will be minor in those areas if at all. With a dem congress, you think he'll be able to get a pure conservative onto the supreme court? No. More likely a moderate.

McCain is a lot more centrist than Bush. I see him concentrating on the economy, Iraq and the world - which are all tied together and not worrying much about the far right stuff. He has Palin to lip-service that. He himself does not have a lot of fans in the far right.

Far left president with a far left Pelosi and Dem congress is gonna equal bigger government and higher taxes over time. No doubt.

[Ralph]

Is it really Mary, or Marcus from San francisco, a flaming liberal? If you were such a strong Republican as you so fervently profusely assert, then in the very next sentence, begin to bash McCain, I dont believe you one iota. You think that with nothing achieved the past 2 years by democrat control, it will all of a sudden change? By a extremely liberal candidate? If you are thinking about the Clinton glory years, do keep in mind, Clinton was more middle of the road,and even looked republican when he cast a lot of his votes. With a Republican congress, a lot got done. We had that with Bush' initial 6 years.. economy was doing great.. then the democrats took office (using the war platform), and look what has happened now. Atleast McCain has promised to use both democrats and Republicans in his cabinet.. I dont see Nobama committing to that.. I would bet he uses all extremely liberal candidates. Everyone knows national healthcare doesnt work.. unless you raise the money by charging 20 percent sales tax as in Canada.. do we want the VAT tax like they have in Europe and everwhere they have social health insurance? I say we charge healthcare by the pound.. If you are 300 pounds, then you pay $300 per month per healthcare policy.. Bet we'd have a lot of lean healthy people quickly, wouldnt we? Also, tax the fast foods and junk foods very highly.. Get them off their fried twinkies real soon..

[Mark]

"Our children are dying in Iraq and Mccain wants to DRAFT them to Iran"

McCain has repeated said he is against a draft, Republicans are typcially against a draft. The only recent support for a military draft recently was an attempt by a Democratic congress member.

[jerry seinfield]

Hillary Selfish Ambitious... Just killed the DEMOCRATIC PARTY forever.

Think about it: Why would Obama pick Hillary when the republicans had tons of footage of everything bad she said about him? The two they used in the ads were only the beginning. Obama begged and pleaded with her to slow down on some of her remarks, saying they will use this later. She refused, so she didn't get picked. So he picked Biden. Now they selected the first woman, who nows just took half of the democrats most loyal voters. If they go with Palin this time, the will probably stay Palin and maybe even republican for a while. So instead of her disputing with Palin, to keep our loyal women on this side, she gives her a free pass. She attacked Obama more than she's doing now, and he's on her side. She should atleast rally her women supporters to stay democrat if nothing else. Democrats used to have a lock on women, not anymore. IF Mc Cain wins, blacks will not forget the racial undertones Clinton sparked during the primaries, "Whites won't vote for him." If Blacks try to forget that, believe me, there's plenty of republicans who will remind them. And Bill Clintons South Carolina remarks... So there goes the other loyal voters.... Thanks to Hillary, we just lost half our women voters (for not pushing back against Palin) and our black voters (for allowing Mc Cain to win, by not pushing back against Palin).

Obama word of advice: Hillary does not want to speak to women on your behalf, do not, I repeat, DO NOT speak to the black voters in 2012 on behalf of the Clintons. Do like her, just roll the county giving half @$$ stump speeches that your hearts not really in. Let's see how PUMA likes that.

Thank you Hillary...

Democrats 08

[Phillip]

If Hillary want's to run in 2012, it's in her interest for Obama to loose. Simple as that.
Nobody can blame her for Obama lose, he and Democratic party did it to themselves.

[addision]

This is absurd. Hillary was only able to become a Senator in New York because she bought a house there. What experience did she have before that? House wife to the president.

Maybe she performed well hiding, sorry misplacing, documents from congressional investigators. In reality before she was Senator she had no experience of her own in politics other than being First Lady.

And lets examine what the Vice-President actually does, they break ties in the Senate. Wait doesn't doesn't Hillary work there? What exactly has Hillary done? Please list specifics... Accompanying her husband in his duties does not count.

Actually that is a good question other than sponsoring legislation to increase America’s commitment against Global AIDS and co-sponsoring legislation enacted in 2004 to extend tax credits to communities in regions designated as Renewal Communities. I don't believe she has created any laws.

How does that make her qualified? If someone wants to argue this point please point out specifics. You may change my mind of her. Personally, I am for Obama right now because I want a new face in Government that is not as tainted with owing personal favors. There are two people right now who fit that bill, Obama and Palin. The president makes decisions based on experience AND advisement from his team of advisors. They don't make decisions without consultation, there are just too many to make. If your an expert in economics it's unlikely your an expert in foreign policy.

If we were going on experience alone and consider nothing else Condoleezza Rice is the best candidate, having been both National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State, and previously serving on the National Security Council. Credentials no current candidate can compete with. But we don't choose on experience alone do we. So lets be done with that part of the argument.

[Duh!]

For me, it's a simple formula. No theatrics involved.

I was for Hillary Clinton.

If I see an Obama/Clinton ticket, I'll vote for it.

If not, I'm voting for McCain/Palin.

That's my right and I'm sticking to it.

[Geekmoid]

All of the "wounded" Hillary supporters really depress me. I'm sorry that Hillary lost, and you percieve that it was not fair, but the truth is Obama won fair and square. He pulled no more dirty punches than Hillary did (anybody remember the "kitchen sink" strategy?). You may disagree with him on some of his policies, but I can't for the life of me imagine what, since there were only very nuanced differences between Obama and Hillary's policies anyway.

But I ask you to take a very close look at McCain/Palin's policies and see what the represent. Palin believes creationism should be taught in schools. She doesn't believe in a woman's right to choose, even in the case of incest or rape. She even went so far as to make sure that women in her town had to pay for their own rape kits (this is a FACT, go look it up).

And this far right republican mouthpiece would only be a 70+ year old man's heartbeat away from the President's seat! Is this really someone you want to support, purely out of spite!?!

[Libby]

What is it about Obama supporters that they do not believe what they have been told over and over? Obama is not fit to be president. That is why democrats and independents are voting for McCain.

You would have to do some research and believe what you refuse to even acknowledge, before you could ever understand, so you just make stuff up.

[Reality]

Both Hillary & Bill Clinton should stop campaigning for Barack Hussein Obama. After the way he played the race card on them, He doesn't deserve their support. I am a Hillary supporter but I will never vote for unqualified Obama. Where is Obama & Michelle's current family and friends ? All the other candidates have in-laws or extended family and friends interviewed on TV. No one comes forward and say good things about Obama. Most of his close friends were, ( are ), Rev.Wright, Michael Pfleger, Rezko, Farrakhan and others like this who are now in hiding because of their unamerican practice. Does america really want this type of person as your president ?

[SIMONE]

I think Hillary asked the question best:

Is it about Hillary or is it about the platform of the Democratic Party?

I was a Hillary supporter until South Carolina. Things went down hill after that for me. Hillary stepped away from her own values and listened to advisors who in the end snow balled her candidacy. It's sad.

I'm not impressed with Palin or the idea that the Republican party has done something historical. Now had they offered Hillary Clinton the Republican VP nomination I was be impressed. Alas, I am not