Is it live, or is it memorex?

February 21, 2008 9:07 PM

Hillary Clinton ends tonight's debate on a high note...but was it her note? (YouTube, 31 sec.) Perhaps it was an unfortunate night to say this?
posted by markkraft (34 comments total)

Please stop kicking her, it's over. Show a little class.
posted by hackly_fracture at 9:10 PM on February 21, 2008

The "xerox" line was stupid. Another stupid soundbite that some stupid speechwriter or some stupid PR hack fed her. The whole thing is fucking stupid.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:15 PM on February 21, 2008

Really? I didn't know that Hillary Clinton had dropped out of the race yet.

I'll stop kicking it when it stops biting ankles.
posted by markkraft at 9:16 PM on February 21, 2008 [4 favorites]

ding dong the witch is dead....
posted by photoslob at 9:18 PM on February 21, 2008

I really doubt that Clinton will either quit before she absolutely has to or be classy about it when she does. Being a sore loser has shown itself to be one of her less likable qualities.
posted by Artw at 9:21 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

I propose all political debates and speeches must now be filtered through ROBOT9000, which for the uninitiated, only allows sentences which have never been said before to be said.
posted by patr1ck at 9:22 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Also, is she still the me-too candidate of "change"?
posted by Artw at 9:23 PM on February 21, 2008

So… this is pretty much just gleeful electioneering on your part, Mark? I mean, because linking to the CNN political ticker and a couple of excerpts from a debate right after it happened is either some lame intra-partisan crap or some lame "FIRST!" crap.
posted by klangklangston at 9:24 PM on February 21, 2008

klangklangston: I disagree, I didn't notice Hillary had taken the line from Edwards, it's interesting.
posted by patr1ck at 9:26 PM on February 21, 2008 [2 favorites]

Buh I thought that words don't matter.

The American paradigm is to build someone up so that Nancy Grace or Glenn Beck can dissect them on the news channel and later we can all have a good larf. This is more American than the presdencee. This is her bite of the glory apple.

Footnote to history -- meet Hillary.
May it be said that she was smrt and that she meant well*
(For military industrialists and the status quo.)

Or better yet. . .
Close, but no cigar.
posted by isopraxis at 9:26 PM on February 21, 2008 [2 favorites]

I'd say GYOFB but you already have one and you posted this exact post to it already.
posted by octothorpe at 9:27 PM on February 21, 2008 [10 favorites]

Oh dear. I guess this is just a product of the soundbite culture most of us help to perpetuate. I claim to loathe the dumbing down of politics and the electioneering and the consulting of pollsters like soothsayers, but do I actually make the time to sit down and evaluate candidates' positions on important issues? I do not. For the most part I make snap judgements and I go with my gut. I know there are plenty of politically conscientious, informed Mefis who do more than read editorials and check the poll results, but I'm not one of them, and shit like this makes me remember my culpability. I don't feel able to criticise the circus when I'm sat ringside crunching peanuts.
posted by RokkitNite at 9:28 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Schneider's piece is crap, and without further context, Clinton's bite of Edwards is just "Gotcha!" bullshit. Hence—crap post, electioneering or rush job.
posted by klangklangston at 9:30 PM on February 21, 2008

I thought the quote sounded familiar and searched around, and lo and behold... an little-known Edwards supporter apparently discovered it.

At the time, only about 200 people had seen it, so I think it's a pretty early catch, and quite newsworthy.
posted by markkraft at 9:30 PM on February 21, 2008

More like mammorex lol
posted by wemayfreeze at 9:32 PM on February 21, 2008 [2 favorites]

SO POST IT TO YOUR BLOG AND LEAVE IT OFF METAFILTER. WE ARE NOT HERE FOR YOUR EARLY CATCH OF SOMETHING THAT MIGHT BE NEWSWORTHY.

And, for the record, it's not newsworthy like that—that's a two-para blurb at best (which is why, again, it should go on a personal blog). You obviously need the remedial advice to get three sources in order to make a story.
posted by klangklangston at 9:34 PM on February 21, 2008

Hillary who?
posted by pompomtom at 9:37 PM on February 21, 2008

I'll gladly be your fourth source - as long as it is the number and not the reputability that counts.
posted by isopraxis at 9:38 PM on February 21, 2008

It was silly when they tried to do it to Obama, its silly now. Let's move on to discussing real issues in this country and being honest about where we are instead of falling for the same old distractions.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:42 PM on February 21, 2008

I'd say GYOFB but you already have one and you posted this exact post to it already.

Heh.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:43 PM on February 21, 2008

It's gonna be a long year.
posted by notmydesk at 9:47 PM on February 21, 2008

So you xeroxed your own post?
posted by jeblis at 9:48 PM on February 21, 2008

I kind of feel bad for her that a lot of the things she tries to do and say just backfire. Because she may not be doing well at all, but she's better than this. I mean really - xerox? It really is sad that her best line of the night (at the end) wasn't even hers. Because I actually thought she seemed personable at that moment. Not emotional, as the silly cnn person said, which apparently plays to women (sexist, hello), but personable.

I take her rigid stick-up-buttness as a lack of experience. So while she's saying she's all experienced, the way she talks is not like someone who really is experienced. When I encounter someone with a lot of experience, they know what you're going to say before you say it, and know what you're going to do before you do it. They talk and act with a distinct ease because they've been through things before and they know what to expect, so they can act off of that, and typically you're toast.

So when she finally has that moment briefly, it was disappointing, but simultaneously telling. I think John Edwards has that ability to sound coherent, smooth and experienced. She channeled him for a moment, but the balloon popped as CNN reported where she got it from.

Ironically if she talked less about experience and actually exhibited the characteristics of someone who knew their stuff cold and delivered with an uncanny ease, she might be doing better. She's got 20 years on him or something. She should be making him look silly with how smooth she is with her discussions.

But she always seems a step slow, behind, and sorely, sorely lacking in an ability to outthink someone who supposedly has so much less experience.
posted by cashman at 9:52 PM on February 21, 2008

Pundits are saying that Clinton's best line was her comment at the very end of the debate.

However, it appears that was blatantly lifted, too.

Hopefully, this is the end of the whole plagiarism meme, and we can get back to discussing real issues.
posted by darkstar at 9:54 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is stupid.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:55 PM on February 21, 2008

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:56 PM on February 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

The fact that she stole that line from Edwards is perhaps historic. That'll be how it went down: she tried to paint her opponent as a plagiarist and ended her campaign with plagiarism.

She is going down, too. This whole thing has been a chess game, and move by move she has been destroyed by a superior opponent. I think Obama getting the endorsement of every major Texas newspaper was the checkmate.
posted by mullingitover at 10:00 PM on February 21, 2008

I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam I am. I would not eat them in a house, I would not eat them with a mouse. I would not eat them with a fox, I would not eat them in a box.
posted by KingoftheWhales at 10:04 PM on February 21, 2008

I think we have a freakishly rigid definition of plagiarism. It's not like ideas aren't re-used and recycled constantly in public discourse.
posted by mecran01 at 10:06 PM on February 21, 2008

I don't deny it... it is silly. Everyone online thought it was silly yesterday and the day before, too.

And yet, Hillary Clinton made a point of using the debate tonight to bring it up and drag out her new "xerox" zinger, eliciting an audibly negative groan from the audience.

So, yes... by all means, we do need to concentrate on discussing real issues in politics. Which is my point, really.
posted by markkraft at 10:07 PM on February 21, 2008

I missed the debate, is it online yet?
posted by KingoftheWhales at 10:08 PM on February 21, 2008

Oh, man, I don't agree with Hillary's Xerox line... but these YouTube clips? They've got about three words in common each. These aren't carefully crafted lines or lifts from Edwards or Bill - they are just examples of simple rhetoric that are being taken wildly out of context here.

I'd love it if she'd been shown up for the same thing she's accused Obama of, but these aren't examples of it.
posted by crossoverman at 10:09 PM on February 21, 2008

Meh.
So, was McCain in the bed with hookers lobbyists?
'Cuz that is what really matters...
posted by schyler523 at 10:14 PM on February 21, 2008

SHE
VOTED
FOR THE
WAR
posted by roll truck roll at 10:15 PM on February 21, 2008 [2 favorites]