Wednesday on Morning Joe there was a surplus of Hillary super-fandom in the wake of her latest victory in California, as she became the presumptive Democratic nominee. One by one they shared their anecdotal accounts of last night’s events, as Joe Scarborough drooled over her “frame-worthy” Daily News cover and Mike Barnicle idolized her as a “woman who is finally free.”
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I'm excited!
JOE SCARBOROUGH: That is suitable for framing right there.
BRZEZINSKI: It’s really cool.
WILLIE GEIST: You know, for all the talk of Hillary Clinton being such a robotic political candidate, there was a moment when she first stepped on the stage, and saw that crowd and was drinking in the moment --
MIKE BARNICLE: If, if you watch her, and you're right, the way she took it in, awash with cheers from that, from that audience. The music was great as she came out. You could sense, you could at least I did, perhaps wrong, you could palpably sense the fact that she feels now free, finally free. Free from the burden and the heartbreak of losing in 2008. Free from the burden of introspection of the media surveillance, just free. A free woman running for president of the United States.
Hillary Clinton, free at last? The “heartbreak” Clinton endured in 2008 was quickly set aside when she was nominated to serve as Secretary of State in 2009. What she has done, however, is spend the last eight years meticulously paving her path to the White House. Despite major impediments to her record, such as the investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attacks as well as the investigation into the illegality of her private email server.
What was particularly alarming about the commentary this morning was Nicolle Wallace’s insistence that after last night, her problems are solved:
NICOLLE WALLACE: She strung together from last Thursday to last night two of the strongest performances in her career. They were the two best crafted speeches. I mean, you know, they read well, as well as having been performed well. She's also, we talked about this before we came on the air, she's fixed the problems that she had sort of as a politician and a candidate. I mean she figured out the performance piece. And what you always heard from her friends and defenders was that you know in a room and privately, she's so engaging. And it just, it doesn't -- you know, it's not reading. It's how they would sort of explain it. But she's figured out how to make her weaknesses strengths. And that's the whole trick. Right?
To be clear, Clinton’s victory last night did not give her a clean slate. It did not magically wipe away all of her problems overnight. The abundance of obstacles she faced leading up to the California primary are still present today. She is still inaccessible by the media, though they jump at every opportunity to elevate her ego with embarrassingly easy questions. She is still in the epicenter of a major, ongoing FBI investigation. She is still wildly unappealing to young, female voters. She still needs a plan to unite a very divided Democratic Party. And, she still needs a miracle if she is going to draw in the millions of Bernie Sanders’ supporters who aren’t quite ready to kiss the ring.
Do not let MSNBC’s love affair with Clinton cast a shadow on the reality that the problems with Clinton are plentiful, and the solutions are scarce.
View Full Transcript Here:
06-08-16 MSNBC Morning Joe
6:03:07 AM - 6:07:29 AM
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: But look at this one [Holding up the Daily News Front Page Cover of Clinton]
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Ooh! This is an amazing one. Yeah, here.
WILLIE GEIST: That's the latest edition. That’s the updated one.
SCARBOROUGH: Look at that.
BRZEZINSKI: I'm excited!
SCARBOROUGH: That is suitable for framing right there.
BRZEZINSKI: It’s really cool.
GEIST: You know, for all the talk of Hillary Clinton being such a robotic political candidate, there was a moment when she first stepped on the stage, and saw that crowd and was drinking in the moment—
MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah.
BRZEZINSKI: Mm-hmm.
GEIST: There was real emotion on her face. And you don't see it from her very often. But if you watch that 30 seconds or so, beginning right now, you can see her drinking in that moment.
BARNICLE: If, if you watch her, and you're right, the way she took it in, awash with cheers from that, from that audience. The music was great as she came out. You could sense, you could at least I did, perhaps wrong, you could palpably sense the fact that she feels now free, finally free. Free from the burden and the heartbreak of losing in 2008. Free from the burden of introspection of the media surveillance, just free. A free woman running for president of the United States.
SCARBOROUGH: Well you know, as you look at her here and you see the genuine smiles, there's a lot of times that you see her on stage and she's smiling and looks like a politician who was trying to smile.
BRZEZINSKI: It’s also exhausting.
SCARBOROUGH: That does look so genuine. And, and so many people who know her who have long said they wish she would just be herself because they love her up close. And last night, I think Mika we got more of a glimpse of the personal meeting the political.
BRZEZINSKI: And the person who knows there's still a very tough road ahead and is ready for it. Here is more of Hillary Clinton last night, strongly contrasting her vision for America with that of Donald Trump.
[Video of Hillary Clinton Speech on 6/7 in Brooklyn, NY]
HILLARY CLINTON: Cooperation is better than conflict. Unity is better than division. Empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls. When he says let's make America great again, that is code for let's take America backwards. When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for. We believe we should lift each other up, not tear each other down.
[End of Video clip]
SCARBOROUGH: Nicole, let me ask you, that, I, just, you've been around presidential campaigns for a long time. We have been brutal, brutal, brutal on, on Hillary Clinton and her staged robotic performances, terrible campaign from time to time, I thought that was a great moment for her. I thought she hit all the marks and I thought she hit them exactly the way you want to right when people are starting to pay close attention.
NICOLLE WALLACE: She strung together from last Thursday to last night two of the strongest performances in her career. They were the two best crafted speeches. I mean, you know, they read well, as well as having been performed well. She's also, we talked about this before we came on the air, she's fixed the problems that she had sort of as a politician and a candidate. I mean she figured out the performance piece. And what you always heard from her friends and defenders was that you know in a room and privately, she's so engaging. And it just, it doesn't -- you know, it's not reading. It's how they would sort of explain it. But she's figured out how to make her weaknesses strengths. And that's the whole trick. Right? The side that wins in a general election contest is the side that one remains on offense more than they’re on defense. And two, turns whatever their perceived political weaknesses are into assets. And she's made this sort of steadiness, this sort of maybe lack of a little bit of pizazz into an incredibly, at this point, favorable contrast to her opponent. She’s shooting from the hip in a way that's got the entire Republican establishment running around with their hair on fire.
BARNICLE: It’s called discipline.
