Hillary runs for the White House as ‘new Thatcher’

[Gman]

The Sunday Times January 21, 2007

Hillary runs for the White House as ‘new Thatcher’
Sarah Baxter, Washington
HILLARY CLINTON is to be presented as America’s Margaret Thatcher as she tries to become the first woman to win the White House. As she entered the 2008 presidential race yesterday, a senior adviser said that her campaign would emphasise security, defence and personal strengths reminiscent of the Iron Lady.

“Their policies are totally different but they are both perceived as very tough,” said Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s campaign chairman. “She is strong on foreign policy. People have got to know you are going to keep them safe.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2558085,00.html

------------------------------

The few that weren't driven over the edge today with Hillary's announcement will no doubt plunge after reading this.

[Captain Hilts]

1. The Times is a right-wing rag. nt

[Gman]

3. Depends on which board you read

here the NYT is right wing. At FR the 9/11 hijackers should have flown into the NYT.

[scarletwoman]

18. Not sure what your NYT reference means, since the newspaper in question is the LONDON Times.

[fujiyama]

32. The NYT isn't particularly ideaological

Though, their decision to delay NSA wiretaps and weak reporting during the run up to the war (as well as keeping Judith Miller on board for so long) arguably shows an inability to really investigate those in power in a meaningful way.

The Times of London IS a paper with a conservative bent. It is part of Rupert Murdoch's "journalism" empire. It should be taken about as seriously as the NY Post.

[Hippo_Tron]

55. Like most papers, the NYT opinion staff is seperate from their news staff

Hence the NSA wiretaps weren't released before the election because the call wasn't made by the opinion staff. The NYT opinion page is certainly slanted to the left (at least by the standards of American politics), but even some Republicans will agree that their news coverage is very good and quite balanced.

[The Magistrate]

35. The Sunday Times Is A Tory Paper, Sir

No one in England would seriously dispute that. The "Thatcher" characterization is wholly theirs: no one in Sen. Clinton's camp has said anything close to, or even reasonably twistable into, those words. The Tories rather enjoy that it they who managed the first woman Prime Minister, and enjoy twitting the Labor Left over whenever opportunity offers....

[T_i_B]

40. Yep, the Times is RW

It's a Murdoch rag, and the standard of reporting is not IMHO up to the same standard as its main rivals.

The Times has supported New Labour in the past although they are likely to change in the future and start cheerleading for David Cameron's Tories.

[Captain Hilts]

51. I prefer the Daily Torygraph when I want the Tory point of view. nt

[fredrickdouglas]

52. Double Ditto

[liberaltrucker]

2. WTF! That's all we need

:sarcasm:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. What? She's gonna run as...

A batshit crazy old British twit? Great. She can hire John Cleese as Minister of Silly Walks.

[Placebo]

5. Hillary '08

My dream has finally come true.

I am going to work my ass off for this woman.

[earthside]

6. You Forgot the 'Sarcasm' Smilie ...

Right?

:sarcasm:

[ShortnFiery]

7. Your dream is my nightmare.

The M$M and right wingers are going to push votes for ONLY Hillary. The right wingers will even go to the polls in every state primary that they can. They ALL will push her right up until she gets the nomination ... AND THEN ... they'll unleash a smear campaign that will make the swift boating of Kerry look like "a day at Disneyland."

Besides she voted for the Bankruptcy Bill and the Iraq War Resolution. That, IMO, is very UN-Democratic.

If you're not a part of the Investor Class with at least $350,000 of disposable wealth, Hillary is NOT the candidate for you. :shrug:

[UCLA Dem]

22. Than we need to be ready for them. Dems need to run better campaigns!

[kimsterdemster]

25. Yes...

If you're not a part of the Investor Class with at least $350,000 of disposable wealth, Hillary is NOT the candidate for you.

I'm far from one of the chosen rich folks and she has never made a connection with me. I still hold out hope for Al Gore, he's what this country needs now and he is far less hated by the MSM, they have to make things up in order to swiftboat him, like he invented the internet and what color of clothes he wears :eyes:

[AJH032]

38. Wrong

She did not vote for the bankruptcy bill. Please don't say things that are not true.

[HughBeaumont]

50. Actually, your statement isn't entirely true either.

She DID vote for S-420 but abstained from S-256 because of Bill's surgery.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Sure, go ahead and market Hillary as a reborn Maggie Thatcher

Thatcherism and Clintonism, wrong prescription for what ails our country. Out of 300 million Americans, and we can't break out of the habit of electing Bushes and Clintons!

Time for hope and a new future, not the politics of accommodation that did not do us any good in the past.

On edit:

The opening skit on Saturday Night Live, with "Tweety and Hillary," was funny, devastating and deadly accurate in its portrayal of Hillary.

[Bucky]

9. I'll repeat what I always say... Even the worst Democrat running is better than the best Republican

Mrs Clinton isn't the worst Democrat, of course. She's just the worst one running. If she's nominated, I'll work for her election tirelessly. I won't have any real enthusiasm for her, but as a yella dog I can fake it better than Laura Bush on her honeymoon. The alternative to supporting the Democrat is to help destroy my country with a yet another Republican crook and lier.

If I can't have a trustworthy Democrat as president, I will at least settle for a shifty, flexible opportunist who listens to focus groups and keeps a finger to the wind at all times. That, at least, is a form of democracy. Government by Republicans keeps ending up as a form of monarchy.

[fredrickdouglas]

53. Now That's A Hopeful Political Vision I Can Get Behind!

Clinton is a right-wing rag. Slightly different from the out of the closet conservatives called Repubicans. It sucks that so many are taken in by what should be an obvious political ruse.

[roamer65]

10. Thatcher was a disaster for Britain.

Terry McAuliffe is her campaign chair? I have a lot less worries about an HRC candidacy now.

[scarletwoman]

17. Ah yes, the lovely and talented Terry McAuliffe...

He's off to great start -- witness this side-splitting line:

"...You don’t walk into a knife fight without adequate gloves."

Gloves?!?! How about an Uzi? Didn't they ever see Indiana Jones?

I have a lot less worries about an HRC candidacy now.

Me too. :evilgrin:

sw

[roamer65]

29. Oh, excuse me for a second, "Baroness" Thatcher.

:eyes: :puke:

I forgot she was pseudo-royalty now. :sarcasm: :rofl:

[Pastiche423]

11. Eewww!

Are they banking on Americans not remembering Thatcher?

[madrchsod]

12. where did terry say she was going to be like a right wing thatcher?

he compared their "styles" so what? this is a bullshit article by the right wing rag times and a writer that claims to be a democrat but voted for bush. a few minutes on google and you`ll see the only publications running this is right wing papers across the globe..the aussies just picked this same story 4 or 5 hours ago...
the right wing is spinning bullshit and i`m surprised that people fall for it.

[Warpy]

13. Ask, your friends in the UK how well Mad Maggie

worked out for them.

I wish the pubbies would get their act together and kick out the religious lunatics so the party would get back to normal and we could get rid of conservative baggage like the DLC and Blue Dogs.

Maybe then OUR party would get back to normal and we could once again energize the working class base.

[T_i_B]

42. Thatcher was loved by some, loathed by others

I grew up in Sheffield, and Thatcher is still hugely loathed there today for what she did to the steel and mining industries.

However, these days I live in the South-East of England, and it's quite common round here to find people who still adore Thatcher and did well under her government. The problem with Thatcher is finding any sort of middle ground between those who had to deal with the mass unemployment and those who got rich under her.

[atomicdawg38]

14. OMG

and I'm supposed to vote for this with a smile.

[originalpckelly]

15. A new Iron Curtain falls.

[area51]

16. H. Clinton

Hillary Clinton's going to run as Milk-Snatcher Thatcher? Great idea. Yeah, we certainly need more right-wingers ruining this country. :crazy: </sarcasm>

[janx]

19. You're right.

Now I KNOW it's time to go to bed--with a good novel.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

20. That's all we Americans need, someone emulating

that b*tch.

I hope Terry McAuliffe was joking about this, because this is one Irish-American that absolutely despises Maggie Thatcher.

Can't wait to tell Mr. Wonderful about this tomorrow morning. He'll be really thrilled. :sarcasm:

[ingac70]

21. Margaret Thatcher is a horrid BITCH!!!

Does this mean Hillary will support overthrow of elected governments for Facists dictators, like Maggie???

I hope Hillary DOES NOT get far in the primary.

[wisteria]

23. How dare they try to compare Margaret Thatcher to Hillary.

Thatcher was a tough, honest woman who took a leadership position and was well respected because she was genuine and honest and yes tough. Hillary is none of those things except maybe tough in a mean sort of way. Gee, what rhymes with witch and begins with a B?

Oh, and when Terry McAullife says it you know it isn't the truth. This is the slim that sabotaged Kerry's campaign, did nothing about voting issues and lost three elections for us. And as usually he is lying, Clinton has no foreign relation credentials. Going over to Iraq for the first time in two years and doing a photo-op does not give one enough foreign policy experience to get the job done in Iraq and mend our reputation through-out the world.

[fujiyama]

34. Thatcher was genuine and honest?

[LeftishBrit]

39. She was genuine all right - genuine pure 100% evil!

[Jack Rabbit]

24. How is that supposed to get my vote?

[Kelvin Mace]

26. Hillary is the "New Thatcher"?

Not with my vote.

In fact, she just lost the entire progressive wing of party.

[MonkeyFunk]

28. Of course

Clinton didn't say that, nor did the article quote McAuliffe as saying that.

But everybody's willing to automatically believe what a right-wing rag says when it pertains to Sen. Clinton.

[Kelvin Mace]

54. When did the London Times

become a RW rag?

[struggle4progress]

27. Sarah Baxter, author of "I'm a Democrat for Bush" (Oct 2004)?

[ShortnFiery]

31. Now that makes perfect sense.

Baxter is about as impartial toward Hil as the old radio show - "I was a communist for the FBI" was in portraying the antics of The Feds during the late 1940s. :eyes:

Talk with most objective Brits and they'll give you an earful about that heartless and ballsy broad. She demonstrated bigger cajones than the late Ronnie Reagan. Not really a good thing for the UK. :P

[killbotfactory]

30. Terry McAuliffe....

Well, no need to worry about this American Thatcher

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WritersBlock]

36. Margaret Thatcher is pretty much the UK equivalent to George W Bush in public opinion over here

I have yet to meet anyone who has a good word to say about her, and I've lived here for several years.

Most everyone I've talked to holds the opinion that she ruined the country.



Well done, McAuliffe.

:eyes:

[LeftishBrit]

37. Note the crucial phrase that invalidates the rest of it: "their policies are totally different"

The comparison is really a bit of subtle sexism, either on McAuliffe's part or that of the Times, which has degenerated from a distinguished past into a right-wing unreliable Murdoch rag. The implication is that all assertive women leaders are basically the same person. Which is rubbish, of course.

Hillary Clinton isn't my favourite American Democrat, but the comparison with Thatcher is ludicrous. Thatcher was basically a somewhat more intelligent version of Ronnie, and ruined the country in lots of very important ways. Hillary would be much better than that IMO.

[MonkeyFunk]

47. Nobody will note that

before next week is over, people here will be claiming that Sen. Clinton "wants to be the new Margaret Thatcher"!!

They'll ignore the fact that Clinton never said that, nor does the article even quote Mcauliffe as saying it. But will become part of "the things people know about Hillary Clinton that aren't true" that are so prevalent here. I should trademark (ttpkahctat)!

[generaldemocrat]

41. Lived in the UK for two years.......

And let me tell you......Thatcher is despited by BOTH right and left in this country. By the left she is viewed as a corporate hag who privatized everything and anything, while the right views her as an authoritarian figure who was opposed to joining the EU. Thatcher was removed from power by her own party.

[T_i_B]

43. "the right views her as an authoritarian figure who was opposed to joining the EU"

Actually, Thatcher campaigned for a "Yes" vote in the 1976 referendum (my own very RW parents were part of the "No" campaign), and the right wing here in Britain LOATHES the EU (witness the success of the UK Independence Party for starters). It was the centrists in the Tory party who rebelled over the EU after she became more of a Euro-sceptic in the late 80's and managed to remove her. The Right would still like to have her in Downing Street bashing the EU all the way to kingdom come.

[generaldemocrat]

44. Her own party abandoned her over the EU.....

Thatcher was opposed to the idea of a common currency and thought that the EU should just be a structure limited to free-trade whereas her companion in the Tory party wanted otherwise.

[T_i_B]

45. I hate to be the one to break the news to you...

But it was the centrists in the party who where opposed to her over the EU and the Poll tax, not the right. And after the two wings of the party engaged in civil war over the EU in the 1990's (which in turn allowed Tony Blair to lead Labour to a landslide victory in 1997) the party has become almost totally Euro-sceptic. They may still want Britain to stay in the single market, but they very much are opposed to further integration. Even with the election of the supposedly moderate David Cameron as Tory leader, the party has stayed staunchly Euro-sceptic.

And furthermore, outside of the Tory party, the EU is very much unpopular in Britain, and nowhere more so then on the right wing. Indeed, Europhile politicians such as Ken Clarke and the late Ted Heath are if anything more unpopular on the right then on the left!

I would suggest that your knowledge of UK politics is a few years out of date.

[LeftishBrit]

48. There are a lot of divisions in the Tory party...

over the EU and all sorts of things. The party spectrum ranges all the way from people who would be moderate Democrats to hard-line Republicans in the American political spectrum.

John Major, Thatcher's successor, had constant trouble with right-wingers in the party who would have liked Britain to leave the EU altogether (not to mention bringing back hanging and flogging, chucking out all the immigrants, and other things dear to a right-winger's heart). In fact, UKIP (UK Independence Party) was founded, ostensibly as a single-issue anti-EU party, but in fact is essentially a splinter group for Tories who think their party isn't right-wing enough.

The current Tory leader Cameron is relatively moderate (insofar as you can tell when someone has never actually held office), but is under a lot of pressure from more right-wing types in the party.

To get back to the main point: Thatcher was indeed removed by her own party, but her opponents in the party were to her left, not her right. The real 'right' in this country still adore her, and look back nostalgically on her reign. The left hate her, and many moderate Tories (she called them 'Wets') do not like her either.

[generaldemocrat]

49. Hence, most people dislike Thatcher.....

If there is a considerably sizeable faction of her own party that dislikes her, then it's safe to say that the majority of people dislike her.

[T_i_B]

56. It's not a "considerably sizeable faction" really

Most Tories these days are staunch Euro-sceptics, and almost all Tories these days approve of her other policies such as privatization and union reform.

What can be said about Thatcher, is that people either despise her or idolise her. There is no middle ground with that woman.

[LeftishBrit]

57. Not as simple as that...

Many Tories nowadays, even those who might not have fully agreed with her when she was in office, have a certain nostalgia for her. At least she was a Strong Leader (never mind that it was over a cliff); at least she dealt with those unions after the 'winter of discontent' and all that; and, perhaps most crucially for them, she won elections!. Possibly a bit like American Republican nostalgia for Ronnie. Also there are a number of British people who disliked her in some ways, but regarded and still regard her like a dose of medicine: she may have tasted nasty, but that meant she was Good for You.

Not saying that she'd win if she was suddenly re-installed as Tory leader, but it wouldn't be absolutely impossible. There's still a certain amount of positive mythology around her.

[Zero Division]

46. Nah. More like an American version of Blair, which is what scares me.

The thing that makes Blair worse than Bush in my mind is that he seemed smart enough to stay out of the Iraq debacle, but he didn't. Hillary seems determined to present herself as the most hawkish of the Democratic front runners.

And the fact that she's surrounding herself with people like McAuliffe and members of the old Bill Clinton campaign team, makes me wary, as well. It's time for some new faces and ideas in this new decade of politics.