In New Hampshire, Bill Clinton Finds Less Spark

[jakem]

Former President Bill Clinton has been drawing sleepy and sometimes smallish crowds at big venues in the state that revived his presidential campaign in 1992. He entered to polite applause and rows of empty seats at the University of New Hampshire on Friday. Several people filed out midspeech, and the room was largely quiet as he spoke, with few interruptions for laughter or applause. He talked about his administration, his foundation work and some about his wife.

“Hillary’s got good plans,” Mr. Clinton kept saying as he worked through a hoarse-voiced litany of why his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is a “world-class change agent.” He urged his audience to “caucus” on Tuesday for Mrs. Clinton, before correcting himself (“vote”). He took questions, quickly worked a rope line and left.

Maybe the sluggish day was a blip. It was, in fairness, the day after Mrs. Clinton finished third in the Iowa caucuses, behind Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards of North Carolina. Mr. Clinton was working on 30 minutes’ sleep. He traveled to New Hampshire from Iowa in the wee hours, and the university was on winter break.

But there was a similarly listless aura at the previous stop, in Rochester. And again, on Saturday in Bow, at just the sort of high school gym that the master campaigner used to blow out. Only about 225 showed up in Bow — about one-third the capacity of the room — to hear Mr. Clinton hit his bullet points on the subprime lending crisis, $100 barrels of oil and how “10 of Hillary’s fellow senators have endorsed her.”

“The crowd seemed very passive,” Arthur Cunningham of Bow said after the speech. “Maybe they were tired.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/us/politics/07bill.html?em&ex=1199854800&en=897fbfb841ddcc8c&ei=5087%0A

[babylonsister]

1. Whaaa, the 'secret weapon' isn't working? Say it ain't so! nt

[Eurobabe]

2. I watched Bill for a bit yesterday, and he put me to sleep

he was really woozy, and rambling. Sad.

[Webster Green]

3. It's the late deuzies, not the early nineties. He's a has-been.

I'm still pissed at him for his part in media consolidation, which is a major reason we are now a fascist state. Not only that, but he's big pals with the traitorous old Nazi Poppy Bush, and NAFTA kinda sucks too!

Fuck that asshole! I wouldn't walk down the street to see him speak.

[Red Zelda]

4. I agree

His hand-holding with Bush the elder makes me sick. His day is OVER. Same with his missus.