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Hillary’s Withdrawal Speech

June 7, 2008 by GayPatriotWest

Would it that I had not slept in this morning and could have caught the whole speech, but when I tuned in (just after 10 AM PST, 1 AM EST) to hear Hillary announce she was suspending her presidential campaign, I noticed how she shouted it, speaking almost without inflection. Until the end of this address when she spoke softly, almost elegically, she hardly shifted her tone.

It seemed incredibly self-serving, talking mostly about herself, defining herself as a pioneer. No real female leader would have spent so much time dwelling on her gender.

In the part of the speech I caught, I didn’t hear her once reference the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. An interesting oversight if that held true for the entire speech.

While she did endorse Barack Obama, she didn’t seem very gracious or indicate she was humbled either by the support she generated in the campaign or the loss she suffered in the end. At times, it seemed she was defiant.

When I tuned it, I heard little more than a string of platitudes, no memorable lines, not a discourse likely to be remembered as has been Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy’s speech, conceding the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination to Jimmy Carter. Only one line struck me as particularly memorable and it was her offensive insistence about “taking back” America as if some foreign power had conquered us and we needed to end the occupation.

UPDATE from Bruce (GayPatriot): The most shocking thing to me about her speech was that she said some twisted 13-year old girl in Ohio gave up her lifelong dream/savings of going to Disney World in order to go with her Mother to work for Hillary in the Pennsylvania Primary. What the hell is in the water in that Ohio town? 🙂

UP-UPDATE from Bruce (GayPatriot): Oh yeah, another thing. Dick Morris is WRONG AGAIN. He has been saying for the past God-only-knows-how-many-YEARS that Hillary Clinton would be elected President in 2008. Why do people still listen to him, again?

UP-UP-UPDATE from Dan: A close friend of mine and Hillary supporter, now backing Obama, disagrees with my assessment of the speech and thought it moving and heart-felt as did our thoughtful Hillary-supporting commenter, Darkeyedresolve.

UP-UP-UP-UPDATE from Dan: Citing Chris Cilliza’s Washington Post blog report on the speech, Paul Mirengoff writes:

like most defeated candidates, Clinton invested her campaign with a significance and heroic quality it doesn’t quite deserve. While Clinton talked about a glass ceiling, the reality is that initiallly the race was hers to win. If there are identity barriers associated with obtaining the Democratic nomination for president, the one Obama faced is at least as formidable as the one Clinton complains about.

Filed Under: 2008 Presidential Politics Tagged With: Hillary

Comments

  1. Dave says

    June 7, 2008 at 2:03 pm - June 7, 2008

    “as if some foreign power had conquered us and we needed to end the occupation.”

    What’s really offensive is that it’s not a foreign power but fellow citizens of the US who are determined to destroy us as a country of freedom and justice for all in the name of psuedo-conservatism, sado-christanity and nationalistic isolationism that they falsly call patriotism. We do indeed need to take back America before it’s too late.

  2. Vera Charles says

    June 7, 2008 at 2:05 pm - June 7, 2008

    Sure, Hillary shared top billing for 8 years with Bill Clinton but her show just closed.

    When the left got on its collective knees and swallowed her husband; she stood in silence and swallowed her self-respect. Even after she was forced to defended the indefensible (her husband’s sex-capades), buried her dignity and took her solo act on the road playing, in no particular order: the stoic spouse, the policy wonk in pantsuits, the diva fighting big Pharma, the socialist Santa with presents from the progressive elf’s workshop, and my personal favorite, the Grande Dame of the Democratic party with blonde highlights, pink blouses – and a bloodied battle-ax, she was still viewed as the runner-up candidate not the newer, slimmer, trimmer version of ‘Bill – without the baggage’, like Barack is.

    As for the fractured political left and their over-wrought, over-paid, self absorbed media sycophants (Vera’s looking at you, NBC…), if the Lady from Chappaqua ever does get back into the Oval Office, say, in 2012 or 2016, you can bet they’ll all say it’s ‘the change we’ve been waiting for!”

    Whores, the lot of ‘em.

    Vera

  3. Ian S says

    June 7, 2008 at 3:41 pm - June 7, 2008

    Just a short comment to say:

    I told you so!

    Long time denizens of this site will recall I always maintained that Hillary would not be nominated this year. Plus, I also predicted that the GOP would hold their noses and fall back to support McSame, whose turn it was after all. I did say that you should watch out for Huckabee and I’m not sure I would backtrack on that just yet.

    I’m truly delighted with this match up – the contrast is stark. All this time that Obama and Clinton have been battling it out and driving up each other’s negatives, “McSame as Bush” has remained mired in the low to mid 40’s in match ups against Obama or Clinton. You can count on it being downhill from here for the senior Senator from Arizona as he tries in vain for Bush’ third term!

    And yes, I know, I am violating my pledge that I would never comment here again. So sue me.

    P.S. Whatever happened to all the great back and forth here? A quick look around and most posts seem to get less than a dozen comments and most of those seem to be from the same few old cranks. In the good old days, you’d have posts with hundreds of comments. Kinda sad really. Well, gotta go and spend some time and money helping elect the next President of the United States, Barack Obama. ta-ta.

  4. Vince P says

    June 7, 2008 at 3:56 pm - June 7, 2008

    Dave is a parody now.

  5. Darkeyedresolve says

    June 7, 2008 at 4:12 pm - June 7, 2008

    I guess I heard a different speech…or people just have blinders on because I thought it was one of her best speeches throughout the campaign season. She talked about the historic nature of both campaigns and what it means for progress in America on the racial and gender front. She is a pioneer, what other female politican would have gotten this far? She had unique advantages, there is no doubt about it, but she did open more people up to the idea of having a female president.

    Its bittersweet to see her give this speech, she has become a much better candidate since this started. If only she had been able to speak like this and be as personable before, the nomination would have been her’s. Hillary will help unify the party and this speech did a lot to start the process, and she will get benefits from doing it.

    And if Obama loses, Hillary will be quite hard to beat in 2012.

  6. Vince P says

    June 7, 2008 at 4:38 pm - June 7, 2008

    Here is what some conservatives who were at Hillary’s speech say:

    Some nobody at National Review

    re: Hillary Speech [Mark Hemingway]

    I just returned from the Clinton rally, and I don’t know if this really came across on TV but there was a surprisingly audible number of boos every time Obama was mentioned. There were also a lot of people who didn’t clap for him.

    The majority obviously are enthusiastic about Obama, but the boos sort of took everybody in the press area aback when she first mentioned his name.

    Matt Lewis/Townhall

    Update: The Building Museum is a terrific venue. The Clintons look great. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to watch this, but now it looks like an iconic moment.

    Update: I do think that one thing that has been lost in this election is just how historical Hillary’s campaign has been. She has obviously been the most successful female presidential candidate in history. Though her effort failed, her candidacy has, to a certain extent, broken the glass ceiling.

    Update: 12:54 – Hillary concedes and endorses Obama. “Join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.” She started off strong, but when she segued into the concession part of the speech, her smile left her. Now she’s reading the words. Now it’s the mean Hillary, again.

    Update: Now, it seems as if she’s saying that any Democrat is better than any Republican. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for Obama. She just had a big line about how she’s standing with Obama to say: “Yes We Can!” She looked pained.

    Update: Her advice at the end reminds me of Nixon’s farewell speech.

    Matt Lewis again

    Go back and watch it again.

    When she talks about her campaign, she’s the new Hillary — the one who started winning primaries these last several months. She smiles. She seems friendly. I like that Hillary.

    But when she talks about Obama, she frowns. Her words say she loves him — but her eyes betray her. All of a sudden, she’s the old Hillary; mean and angry. When it comes to praising Obama, she’s just going through the motions.

    The differences are stark.

    Amanda Carpenter

    At Hillary’s Concession Speech
    Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 2:58 PM
    I’m tired. I stood in line for hours to listen Hillary’s concession speech. Not worth it, since I could have just as well watched in on TV, but I figured I owed it to her writing the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy’s Dossier on Hillary Clinton and all.

    It mainly involved a lot of standing and waiting. She started 45 minutes late at 1:45 pm and I had been there since 8:45am, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when she finally started speaking.

    At the rally (I’m sure this is not politically correct to mention) I’ve saw more lesbians than I have ever seen in my life put together. (And I played college softball, okay?) They all seemed to be fifty-ish and the pair standing next to me held each other through Hillary’s big goodbye. Yes, there were tears.

    I wish I could say I felt better, or happy or something for Hillary, but I don’t. The end of he speech made it seem like all women owed her something for being the first female to run for President. Like us girls would never be successful if it hadn’t been for her. Maybe this is the legacy she wants. The whole thing just left a real sour taste in my mouth.

    I posted a picture from my post on the floor (about forty five feet from the podium) and a crowd shot of Hillary, Bill and Chelsea over on Glamocracy.

    If you are around a TV I’ll be on Fox with Geraldo tonight and on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” with Howard Kurtz tomorrow morning. I’ll be in a segment with the Huffington Post’s Rachel Sklar, whom I’ve emailed a little bit with after talking about her website on O’Reilly. She seems like a nice girl and I’m looking forward to meeting her in person.

  7. GayPatriotWest says

    June 7, 2008 at 5:18 pm - June 7, 2008

    Ian S, welcome back, keep your comments civil as was this one as I’ll fight to allow you to keep commenting here. But, to call him “McSame” trying for “Bush’s third term” is a political slogan without any meaning, given how different he is–and has been–from the incumbent. Amazing how so many on the left want this election to be a referendum on W. No, it’s not that and Americans are smart enough to recognize the difference between the two.

    That’s just a cheap stunt designed to avoid a real consideration of McCain’s record, his leadership potential and his actual platform–and try to run this race on the terrain most favorable to Democrats.

    Darkeyed. If she were a true pioneer, she wouldn’t have needed to dwell on it, would have thrown it — at most — one paragraph to the notion, not a whole section of the speech. And given that I tuned in just before that section, that may have colored my views of her remarks. So, please note how key my conditional remarks are to my evaluation, that I only saw the second half.

    She didn’t come across as very personable, just hectoring.

    That said, during the course of the campaign, I did notice a marked improvement in her debate performances.

    Vince P, in #7, as to your remarks on her body language, this is one time when I went to tune to O’Reilly when he has that body language gal on to see what she has to say about her references to Obama.

    That said, I was hoping someone might pick up on my comment about her failure to mention McCain. It does seem she didn’t mention him in the entire speech. I wondered how others might interpret that seemingly deliberate “oversight.”

  8. Laurieann says

    June 7, 2008 at 7:25 pm - June 7, 2008

    Seems the Press were surprised to hear her supporters Boo Obama!!! Where have they been living all these months??? In Washington DC??? In Axelrod’s press room???

  9. American Elephant says

    June 7, 2008 at 8:52 pm - June 7, 2008

    What’s really offensive is that it’s not a foreign power but fellow citizens of the US who are determined to destroy us as a country of freedom and justice for all in the name of socialism, atheism/environmentalism and nationalistic isolationism that they falsely call patriotism. We do indeed need to take back America before it’s too late.

    …there, now it’s correct

    Funny that the first thing Ian does after all these months is to come here and post the moment Hillary concedes. It’s like he’s been sitting in the corner, carving his leg with a butcher knife and flipping the light on and off just waiting for the day! Of course, he probably has been.

  10. Darkeyedresolve says

    June 8, 2008 at 12:28 am - June 8, 2008

    I guess I am not sure how to argue this point, since some people thought she should have talked more about gender in the race and others thinks she spent too much time on it. Considering I have watched most of her major events, this seemed to be most she focused on gender and its historic relevance. I think its a rather subdued part of the campaign, she has not focused on gender as Obama has focused on race. The commentary on the race seemed to be lopsided about how historic and proud we should be of Obama being a viable black nominee and not the possiblity of Hillary as a viable female nominee.

    I dunno, its probably all subjective.

  11. John W says

    June 8, 2008 at 2:08 am - June 8, 2008

    I guess according to Jan S I am one of those “few old cranks” since I am 86.

    This is a very informative and interest blog. I know that GP welcomes all comments right or left. However the vile propaganda that some people are bring over from Kos benafits no one. Its word for word the same crap that I have heard for 75 years. Only the names have changed.

  12. John W says

    June 8, 2008 at 2:09 am - June 8, 2008

    That is informative and interesting

  13. PatriotMom says

    June 8, 2008 at 6:51 am - June 8, 2008

    PLEASE HILLARY – GO AWAY!!!!!!!
    DO NOT STOP – JUST GO AWAY!!!!

    The only good thing that came out of this is that people saw Bill for what he really was – trailer park trash for the start…..

    I am not an Obama fan but how dare she rain on his historic day, it was only 40 years ago that there were separate drinking fountains and now a black man has been nominated for the highest office in the country. that is historic and should have been given our full attention, whether we like the man or not.

  14. heliotrope says

    June 8, 2008 at 10:54 am - June 8, 2008

    I can’t get over the picture of Hillary and Bill practicing “withdrawal” as a pregnancy prevention and Hillary making a speech. The famous Hillary Withdrawal Speech. Sorry, but the teenager in me just can’t be quelled. Politics is an aphrodisiac to both of them, so my mind just naturally strays there.

  15. Vince P says

    June 8, 2008 at 11:35 am - June 8, 2008

    Bill likes to use cigars

  16. ILoveCapitalism says

    June 8, 2008 at 11:45 am - June 8, 2008

    GWP, you do know that Ian gamed GayPatriot by posing deceptively under simultaneous multiple handles such as gil/keogh, KYKid and probably others, right? It is not an accident that they all they ‘chose’ to vanish from GayPatriot on the same day.

  17. ILoveCapitalism says

    June 8, 2008 at 11:52 am - June 8, 2008

    Oh Ian, and this:

    And yes, I know, I am violating my pledge that I would never comment here again. So sue me.

    Nobody need sue you. But it is comforting, in “I know I was right about Ian” way, to know that *you* are still obsessed with GayPatriot. I now know that yes, you are reading this.

    P.S. Whatever happened to all the great back and forth here? A quick look around and most posts seem to get less than a dozen comments

    You know the answer, Ian. *You* were obsessively, single-handedly, “the lowercase clan”, making post after post after post under different names.

  18. ILoveCapitalism says

    June 8, 2008 at 11:54 am - June 8, 2008

    (that being the reason you all disappeared at once)

  19. Peter Hughes says

    June 8, 2008 at 4:58 pm - June 8, 2008

    Hey ILC, good posts and I have a question for Ian/keogh/Sybil whoever it is:

    If you claim that McCain’s election will be George W. Bush’s third term, would the same have also applied to Al Gore in 2000 as being Clinton’s third term as well?

    Checkmate.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

    (PS – I missed you about as much as a teenager misses a boil.)

  20. Bryan Durio says

    June 8, 2008 at 6:29 pm - June 8, 2008

    I’m no fan of McCain, but I still can’t help but wonder when he suddenly changed from being a maverick to keeper of the status quo.

    I thought his appeal was that he often bucked Republicans and got into bed with the Democrats. How does that translate into being four more years of Dubya??

  21. Dave says

    June 8, 2008 at 10:59 pm - June 8, 2008

    “How does that translate into being four more years of Dubya??”

    Because those who claim that thing that the conservative voter base that is significantly to the right of center who helped put Bush in will back McCain. From what I read there is still quite a bit of discomfort for those who fit that category when they think of voting for McCain. I think when it comes down to it many will pull that lever rather than seeing Obama in there but most of McCain’s support is going to come from those closer to the center of the political spectrum. McCain, who once said he would serve only one term (not sure if he’s flipped on that yet), is going to want to smooth anti-Republican feelings and set up the next GOP candidate for President.

    [Did McCain ever say he would serve only one term? I thought he had said he was open to the idea. Please provide a link to his comment should it exist somewhere outside your imagination.

    Just because conservatives who voted for W may end up voting for McCain doesn’t mean that McCain will be four more years of W. Anyway, much of that conservative base is upset with Bush for failing to govern as a conservative — Dan]

  22. Vince P says

    June 9, 2008 at 12:45 am - June 9, 2008

    From what I read there is still quite a bit of discomfort for those who fit that category when they think of voting for McCain. I think when it comes down to it many will pull that lever rather than seeing Obama in there but most of McCain’s support is going to come from those closer to the center of the political spectrum

    You got that right. No conservative I know is voting FOR McCain.. they’re all fired up to vote AGAINST Obama though. Very motivated to vote against Obama.

  23. Ian S says

    June 9, 2008 at 11:42 am - June 9, 2008

    #17:

    Ian gamed GayPatriot by posing deceptively under simultaneous multiple handles such as gil/keogh, KYKid and probably others, right?

    The only person “gamed” has been you and that’s been through your own gullibility. Although I’ve never pretended to be anyone but myself, I will admit to frequently responding positively to some of those other commenters you name, in part just to observe your reaction. You didn’t disappoint!

  24. ILoveCapitalism says

    June 9, 2008 at 12:26 pm - June 9, 2008

    Sure, Mr. Obsessed-can’t-stay-away. Whatever you say.

  25. ILoveCapitalism says

    June 9, 2008 at 12:35 pm - June 9, 2008

    Oh – and as you work for Obama, let me wish you the best of luck on keeping your fellow Obama supporters’ rank anti-Semitism under control. You’ll need it.

  26. Peter Hughes says

    June 11, 2008 at 12:39 pm - June 11, 2008

    Meanwhile, I’ve noticed that Ian/keogh/Sybil/whoever has conveniently ignored my question in #20.

    Some things never change.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  27. Bryan Durio says

    June 14, 2008 at 9:21 am - June 14, 2008

    Dave, your comment #22 did nothing to address my question; in fact, it appears to have come out of left field (pun intended).

    You seem to imply that four more years of ANY GOP President is four more years of Bush. How you arrive at that conclusion is baffling.

    Unless McAmnesty taps someone like Mitt Romney to be his VP, I can easily see myself voting for Bob Barr.

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