Thursday, January 17, 2008

Our Readers Respond...

Giuliani Supporter Upset By Backstabbing


Dear Editor:

I am a Rudy Giuliani supporter, but it looks as though, as the old saying goes, “If not for bad luck, he wouldn’t have any at all.” There’s been too much fuss and attention to his relationship with his former wives, especially wife #2, Donna Hanover. Now, he’s taking dents and dings over Judy Nathan and her security issues.

If anything can be said as a mark against him, and I don’t see it that way, he is very loyal to his friends. It’s not Mr. Giuliani’s fault that Bernard Kerik turned out to be so bad, and now it reflects on him. Some people are like that. They accept your help, and then they do
something that makes you look bad. Kerik wasn’t the only one who turned on Rudy. When Janet DiFiore was running for DA here in Westchester, I’m sure everybody still remembers Rudy’s press releases and campaign phone calls for her.

How was he supposed to figure she would go running out to Iowa to support Hillary? You never know with politicians like that. What did Hillary do for DiFiore when she needed help to become DA? I like Rudy cause he’s a stand-up guy and he doesn’t go around backstabbing his friends.

A True Republican From Eastchester


Reader’s Letters to Hillary Clinton Go Unanswered

Dear Editor


During the last few years innumerable letters were constructed, written, and addressed to the offices of Hillary Rodham Clinton regarding health care, immigration and the Iraq War. As “First Lady” advocating health care reform and seeking a New York State Senate seat I made a request to Mrs. Clinton to challenge the constitutionality, legality, and discriminatory nature of New York State’s “Health Care Reform Act of 1996” (HCRA). Needless to say, I never got the courtesy of a reply nor did she do anything about health care reform for our country while in the White House.

Within the last year, a letter regarding undocumented immigrants was drafted and sent to several of Mrs. Clinton’s Senatorial offices in New York State and Washington. Again, no acknowledgement or response from her, her multiple offices and her enormous staff. A letter regarding terrorism, the Iraq War, and asking for support of our troops went unanswered. It should be noted that all of Senator Clinton’s offices and staff are maintained at taxpayer expense.

It is irresponsible, inexcusable, and reprehensible for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to ignore the public, the issues, and her constituents. I do not understand how anyone could support Hillary Clinton for the office of the President of the United States when she has done nothing for our country, nothing for the State of New York and nothing for the Nation’s people. She has been less than candid with the
people, demonstrated indifference to the voters and evaded the issues.

Edwin P. Heideman, Pleasantville


In Our Opinion.....

What Went Wrong...


Most astute political observers understand that the successful marketing of any candidate for public office is largely dependent upon control of the candidate’s image and reality. Image, of course, refers to the persona, physically, spiritually, morally, and historically; in short, the package of properties, the gestalt, that one conjures up when contemplating another. It may be based on a past reality that is no longer applicable, but remains stubbornly attached. Or, it may be largely fictional, a hype born in, and nurtured by, the media.

Chappaqua resident Hillary Clinton, in her quest to become the nation’s first woman President has, over the last several years, struggled successfully a number of times to repair and remake her popular image. Her election to the United States Senate seven years ago, and again little more than a year ago, by wide margins, would suggest she has largely been able to keep a credible, desirable portrait, at least before New York State voters. She would appear to have coasted into the Iowa contest the likely winner, having remained on top of the national polls right up to the Caucuses. That having been said, the Iowa results must have felt, to her, as though she had walked into a glass door.

Certainly her fundraising had been encouraging. And, with her partner, Bill, out there greeting and pitching supporters, neither she nor her advisors and supporters, ever expected her third-place finish, losing to Barack Obama by double digits, and getting nudged from second place by John Edwards. The truth was, simply, that Obama had bumped her from the stage. And, while it was true that his voting record in the Senate, and hers, over the last two years, were quite similar, the craving for change in this country is so profound and so widespread it is driving individuals of every political stripe, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, into the political process with resurgent energy and commitment not seen in decades.

Key in the mix in Iowa were youthful and first-time voters; individuals whose presidential recollections were largely named Bush and Clinton. Quite simply put, even with similar voting records, standing side by side before a country poised for change; a country tired of paying more than $3 a gallon for gas, a country tired of a war in Iraq that has already run 13 months longer than our involvement in World War II, a country losing their homes to foreclosure while working two and three jobs to keep up; standing before that country, Obama looked, sounded and felt much more like change, in Iowa.

He looked more like change as a youthful Black husband and father, than she did, a middle-aged White woman. He sounded more like change, more anti-Establishment, more anti-Bush/Cheney, more anti-war. Hillary had been too centrist, too generic, too unimaginative in her declarations. She did not make a compelling argument, nor did she present a convincing image of one who would make a complete break with
all that middle-class America wants to put behind it.

Beyond the uninspiring image problem she failed to overcome, her reality had recently been unhelpful to her as well. From our perspective, it would appear that what we had seen lately had been less and less of the real Hillary and more and more of what her handlers and strategists wanted her to come off as. The real Hillary had impressed us two years ago as a good listener and a very intelligent individual with enough
personal power to be a great President. Unfortunately, the Senator who came out two years ago for the candidacies of Tony Castro, for Westchester District Attorney, and Chuck Lesnick in the race for Yonkers City Council President, was totally absent when called upon by Dennis Robertson, running for Mayor of that same city just two months ago.

Whether Andy Spano, who promised Dennis $25,000 and never delivered, influenced her, or her own campaign advisors in New York City, who had been contacted, failed to inform her, was really not the point. One way or another, neither Hillary, nor Bill, nor anyone from that camp, raised a finger to help a Democrat running for Mayor of the fourth largest city in her home state, the largest municipality in her
home county. That was bad advice, whatever the source. That was not the Hillary we had come to know.


What Went Right...

We believe Hillary needed that bruising finish in Iowa to realize, if only just in time, that the people of New Hampshire would be there for her if they were convinced she was there for them, passionately, explicitly, and yes, a little vulnerably. She got back on track in the debate Saturday night, January 5th, when she fought off both Obama and Edwards with strength and with facts. She left no doubt that, yes, she was
a real woman with feeling and emotion, but she could take on the guys convincingly. She won three days later in New Hampshire because, as she said in her opening remarks at 11pm Tuesday night, “I listened to you and, in the process, I found my own voice.”