Opinion: Hillary Clinton appropriates a signature line from Sarah Palin rallies

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The Ticket professes surprise that the fellow occupying the top slot on the Democratic presidential ticket relied on his most important surrogate -- rather than himself -- to roll out a crowd-pleasing response to one of the high points of Sarah Palin rallies.

Then again, the line probably suits the style that Hillary Clinton developed as a presidential campaigner better than Barack Obama’s more reserved demeanor.

Clinton, doing her part for her onetime rival in suburban Philadelphia today, referenced the popular ‘drill, baby, drill’ chant that punctuates Palin appearances when the Republican discusses energy policy. Clinton told her listeners that Democrats have a better slogan: ‘Jobs, baby, jobs.’

Obama, campaigning in Ohio, spotlighted the same subject with a different rhetorical technique. ‘J-O-B-S,’ he spelled out to his crowd. ‘Jobs. We’ve got to work on jobs.’

A package of new economic proposals he unveiled included a temporary tax credit for businesses that create new U.S. jobs over a two-year period. The Times’ Seema Mehta has more on this and Obama’s other suggestions elsewhere on our website.

The audience-participation part of Palin rallies, by the way, may expand. As she campaigned in Ohio Sunday and spoke of the efforts a John McCain administration would make to increase production of so-called clean coal, she was interrupted by this chant: ‘Mine, baby, mine.’

‘That is very good, and that is new,’ she said. ‘We haven’t heard that yet. OK! Mine, baby, mine... . May I plagiarize that?’

-- Don Frederick