[NYTr] Clinton's cackle may give opponents the last laugh

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Independent - Oct 1, 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3015299.ece


Clinton's cackle may give opponents the last laugh

By Leonard Doyle in Washington

They call it the Clinton cackle. It comes out of the blue, lasts a few
seconds and leaves those who witnessed it wondering if they have missed
a joke. Hillary Clinton's deployment of the full belly laugh is the
latest weapon used by the leading Democratic presidential candidate
when she is being pummelled by reporters or rivals.

Friends say the cackle is her way of deflecting aggressive questioning.
It may also be a sign of nervousness over Iowa, where she is now
running second to Barak Obama, according to one weekend poll.

Hillary Clinton still leads comfortably in the national polls over her
closest Democratic rivals – Mr Obama and John Edwards. But Iowa is the
first bellwether state in the race, where the first major event in the
nomination process occurs in early January followed immediately by the
New Hampshire primary.

Defeat in Iowa would be a serious blow and may explain why Clinton is
using humour to deflect criticism rather than the withering ripostes
she is known for.

Mrs Clinton's friends say she has a terrific sense of humour. But her
sarcastic tendencies do not go down well with Mid Western voters. So
she has turned to laughter. When attacked about her many flip-flops –
she voted for war in Iraq but now opposes it and she opposed universal
healthcare but now wants it – she now bursts out laughing.

Conservative radio hosts routinely play Hillary Clinton's "cackle" on
their radio shows and her enemy Dick Morris says it is "loud,
inappropriate, and mirthless... a scary sound that was somewhere
between a cackle and a screech."

The questions about her judgement are coming thick and heavy. This week
there will be more as her adversary Mr Obama tours Iowa to mark the
fifth anniversary of a speech he gave opposing the war in Iraq. Even
Bill Clinton seems nervous about Mr Obama and said publicly last week
that he was too inexperienced to run for the White House.

Mr Obama's ability to persuade the country that he has both good
judgement and experience could now be key. His deliberately
non-confrontational style of campaigning is showing signs of working,
at least in Iowa, where Newsweek says he is leading the Democratic
field among those expected to attend the caucus "meeting of neighbours"
to decide the candidate. Victory here would be a huge boost to the
Obama campaign, energising his support across the country and upending
the predictions that Hillary Clinton has the nomination all but sewn up.

Mr Obama is also raising more money than Mrs Clinton – more than $75m
(£37.5m) over the past nine months – as ordinary people rather than
wealthy donors eagerly contribute $10 and $20 a person through his
campaign website. Mr Obama's advisers express confidence that he will
do well in both Iowa and New Hampshire and surge to victory a few weeks
later when many states vote in what is being called Super Duper
Tuesday. His quiet-spoken style of electioneering has led many in the
media to write off his campaign. And while he has sharpened his
criticisms of Hillary Clinton he still refuses to engage in an all-out
assault.

"I know there's a tremendous blood lust out there in the political
community who want us to be in a steel-cage match with her," said his
chief strategist David Axelrod. "Barack Obama didn't get in this race
to tear Hillary Clinton down or to tear anybody else down. He got into
the race to lift the country up. No doubt we have differences, and he
will draw on those differences. But he is going to resist the thirst
for gratuitous combat, because that's part of his critique of the
political process."

As he takes his unorthodox campaigns to the schoolrooms and community
halls of Iowa this week, Mr Obama is falling back on the oldest and
most reliable trick in the book – pitting himself as very much an
outsider against the Washington elites who have brought the country to
its current impasse.