Sen. Clinton holds online conversation
Sen. Clinton holds online conversation
By CHUCK RAASCH
(Original publication: January 23, 2007)
WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that she had learned from mistakes she made in pushing national health care as first lady in 1993 and 1994 and told listeners on a Web chat that she would make health care a centerpiece of her presidential campaign.
In a half-hour video Web cast dubbed "The Conversation Begins," the New York Democrat answered a smattering of soft-edged and broadly framed questions about health care, energy independence, terrorism, the United States' relationship with other countries, and hurricane relief. It was the first of three nights of Web chats Clinton plans to have on her campaign's Internet site.
Clinton announced over the weekend that she was running for president and has since engaged in a multiple-platform media rollout. As she was chatting live online, the cable network MSNBC was promoting a Clinton interview with NBC anchor Brian Williams to be shown later yesterday.
Not surprisingly, Clinton's Web chat was more "Oprah" than "Hardball." Those who clicked in heard Clinton say she had plans to address the nation's energy, health care and foreign policy challenges, but few details. Clinton did say she was considering a proposal to allow uninsured people over age 55 to buy into Medicare or other government health insurance plans.
Clinton said she was convinced that the country was reaching a critical point on the need for health-care reform, largely because high costs and the growing number of uninsured Americans was hurting the U.S. competitively in global markets.
"Some people might say, 'Well, you know, senator, didn't you try that before, back in 1993 and 1994?' " Clinton said of her attempts to nationalize health care, which many think contributed to the Democrats' 1994 electoral defeats.
"I did. I worked at my husband's request to see if we could do what was necessary to create a system that everybody could be a part of. And we were not successful, and we made a bunch of mistakes. And I have learned from all of that, and I have the scars to show from what I went through."
Some Democrats are also wary of Clinton because of her 2002 vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq.
Clinton told an e-mail questioner that if the nation had known then what it knows now, she believes President Bush would not have asked for the vote, nor would she have voted the way she did.
Clinton told another questioner worried about the United States' standing in the world that she did not understand why Bush did not engage in more diplomacy with leaders he did not agree with.
The U.S. wants "to lead the world, but we want to do it through cooperation, building alliances, making more friends than enemies," said Clinton, who sat on a sofa in front of bookshelves. "We cannot kill ... or jail all of the bad guys who wish us ill, but we sure can surround them, we can deter them, we can defeat them, if we have people rooting for us."
The medium of the Internet is increasingly becoming the message for presidential candidates. Many '08 contenders have chosen the Internet to declare their intentions and to prove their bona fides as modern communicators. In both style and substance, they are attempting to join the universe of politicos who are forming Web-based alliances and engaging in debates on blogs and chat rooms.
Fellow Democrat John Edwards launched his campaign last month with an Internet video feed from New Orleans produced by the video blog site Rocketboom and posted on YouTube. Over the weekend, another Democrat, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, issued his own Internet video saying he was running. But Clinton's Web presence overshadowed Richardson's.
Clinton launched her candidacy with a video on her Web site Saturday, which showed her sitting, relaxed, on a couch and inviting Americans for "a chat ... a dialogue about your ideas and mine." It seemed designed both to emulate her successful "listening tour" that helped launch her Senate career more than seven years ago and to address the persistent image that she is cool and detached.
Contact Chuck Raasch at craasch@gns.gannett.com
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS05/701230348
By CHUCK RAASCH
(Original publication: January 23, 2007)
WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that she had learned from mistakes she made in pushing national health care as first lady in 1993 and 1994 and told listeners on a Web chat that she would make health care a centerpiece of her presidential campaign.
In a half-hour video Web cast dubbed "The Conversation Begins," the New York Democrat answered a smattering of soft-edged and broadly framed questions about health care, energy independence, terrorism, the United States' relationship with other countries, and hurricane relief. It was the first of three nights of Web chats Clinton plans to have on her campaign's Internet site.
Clinton announced over the weekend that she was running for president and has since engaged in a multiple-platform media rollout. As she was chatting live online, the cable network MSNBC was promoting a Clinton interview with NBC anchor Brian Williams to be shown later yesterday.
Not surprisingly, Clinton's Web chat was more "Oprah" than "Hardball." Those who clicked in heard Clinton say she had plans to address the nation's energy, health care and foreign policy challenges, but few details. Clinton did say she was considering a proposal to allow uninsured people over age 55 to buy into Medicare or other government health insurance plans.
Clinton said she was convinced that the country was reaching a critical point on the need for health-care reform, largely because high costs and the growing number of uninsured Americans was hurting the U.S. competitively in global markets.
"Some people might say, 'Well, you know, senator, didn't you try that before, back in 1993 and 1994?' " Clinton said of her attempts to nationalize health care, which many think contributed to the Democrats' 1994 electoral defeats.
"I did. I worked at my husband's request to see if we could do what was necessary to create a system that everybody could be a part of. And we were not successful, and we made a bunch of mistakes. And I have learned from all of that, and I have the scars to show from what I went through."
Some Democrats are also wary of Clinton because of her 2002 vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq.
Clinton told an e-mail questioner that if the nation had known then what it knows now, she believes President Bush would not have asked for the vote, nor would she have voted the way she did.
Clinton told another questioner worried about the United States' standing in the world that she did not understand why Bush did not engage in more diplomacy with leaders he did not agree with.
The U.S. wants "to lead the world, but we want to do it through cooperation, building alliances, making more friends than enemies," said Clinton, who sat on a sofa in front of bookshelves. "We cannot kill ... or jail all of the bad guys who wish us ill, but we sure can surround them, we can deter them, we can defeat them, if we have people rooting for us."
The medium of the Internet is increasingly becoming the message for presidential candidates. Many '08 contenders have chosen the Internet to declare their intentions and to prove their bona fides as modern communicators. In both style and substance, they are attempting to join the universe of politicos who are forming Web-based alliances and engaging in debates on blogs and chat rooms.
Fellow Democrat John Edwards launched his campaign last month with an Internet video feed from New Orleans produced by the video blog site Rocketboom and posted on YouTube. Over the weekend, another Democrat, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, issued his own Internet video saying he was running. But Clinton's Web presence overshadowed Richardson's.
Clinton launched her candidacy with a video on her Web site Saturday, which showed her sitting, relaxed, on a couch and inviting Americans for "a chat ... a dialogue about your ideas and mine." It seemed designed both to emulate her successful "listening tour" that helped launch her Senate career more than seven years ago and to address the persistent image that she is cool and detached.
Contact Chuck Raasch at craasch@gns.gannett.com
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS05/701230348
posted by presgore19 at 3:36 AM
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