Candidates Feel Hill Prez-ence in Iowa
DES MOINES - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had the look, the message and even the campaign theme music for a White House run, but last night she was content to merely slam President Bush.Same old tune, but what were the words this time?
Clinton, speaking before thousands of Iowa Democrats, said she was "embarrassed" by Bush and charged him with draining the reservoir of good will America held after the horror of Sept. 11, 2001.You really have to be sh*tting me.
"The president instead when the rest of the world opened its heart to us, he turned his back," said Clinton.
And in a subtle dig at the nine declared Democratic wannabes seeking to unseat Bush, Clinton advised them to offer voters something more than just complaints about the way things are.Pot, kettle, black.
But here's the best part - Hillary has dueling groupies!
Prior to the dinner, Clinton's two competing backers sold buttons and greeted some of the 7,000 people who attended the event as they walked into the auditorium.That's OK, they had a big pitcher of Kool-Aid.
Andy Parkhomenko and Bob Kunst, who do not like one another and are waging dueling battles over the Internet to line up support to draft Clinton as a candidate, both declared the night a success.
"A lot of people were really excited to see us here," said Parkhomenko, a community college student from Virginia who is financing his draft Clinton movement mostly on his own.
Meanwhile, Kunst sold scores of stickers and buttons, complaining all the time about how cold it was compared to his native Florida.
Iowa Democratic officials refused to let either draft-Hillary effort into the auditorium where the established candidates handed out literature and stickers.
And one more thing:
Each candidate picked different music to blare as their theme song; Clinton had her own, choosing U2's "It's a Beautiful Day," which is one of her favorite songs.I wonder how long it took the focus group to come up with that one?
