Conservatives Now Trying to Hate Hillary More Than They Hate Obama
Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign — or book tour, whatever — kicked off this week with a Diane Sawyer interview and a Hard Choices signing at the Union Square Barnes & Noble. So now it's officially time for conservatives to give President Obama a break and start building their case against Clinton for 2016.
Unfortunately, there's not much in Hard Choices for Republicans to go after, because there's not much in Hard Choices to begin with. One of the "details" being picked out is the fact that as Secretary of State, Clinton kept Condoleezza Rice's driver on as a favor to Rice. Another is that Clinton didn't want to bash Sarah Palin right away in 2008. There's not much to criticize here, and that's by design.
Luckily, Clinton made her first campaign "gaffe" during her interview with Sawyer, explaining that she and Bill were "dead broke" after leaving the White House. "We had no money when we got [to the White House], and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education. You know, it was not easy," she said. So came the #HillaryIsSoPoor hashtag, the most organized social media campaign against Hills yet (that doesn't have anything to do with Benghazi).
#HillaryIsSoPoor she had to stay married to a cheater just to be elected Senator to pay her bills.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 10, 2014
#HillaryIsSoPoor she has to make her pantsuits out of the curtains. pic.twitter.com/CVaimulGCS
— KillerBunnyFooFoo (@PolitiBunny) June 10, 2014
Charles C. W. Cooke spent an entire column in the National Review criticizing Clinton's remarks as evidence that she's panicky and not as good of a speaker as Bill. So Clinton was forced to walk back her comments on Good Morning America today: "Let me just clarify that I fully appreciate how hard life is for so many Americans today. Bill and I were obviously blessed."
As her book tour continues, conservatives will be waiting for more slip-ups. And, of course, Benghazi will never, ever go away. For her part, Clinton's managed to avoid any long conversations about the scandal this week (to Sawyer, she called it a "diversion" and "minor league" in comparison to "the problems facing our country and the world.")
But as Jonathan Chait wrote yesterday, "The project of transferring conservative rage back from Obama to Clinton has only just begun." Clinton should plan on plenty more minor league diversions over the next two years.
