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January 25, 2007
Hillary, You're No Bill

Hillary Clinton may have expected a return to the kind of support enjoyed by her husband when he ran for President last decade, but she discovered yesterday that a key source of energy for Bill's campaign may not support her at all. Hollywood seems more taken with Barack Obama than in another triangulist, and they have begin to put their money where their mouths are:

Is Hollywood abandoning Hillary?

On Wednesday morning, hundreds of Hollywood's movers and shakers received an invitation that they may find hard to refuse.

They've been invited to come meet Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's new superstar. He already has the buzz, but can he bring home the prize?

Movie moguls Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg want their Hollywood peers to join them at a Feb. 20 fundraiser the three are throwing for Obama.

This presents a huge problem for Hillary. A large segment of the Left takes their lead from such Hollywood power brokers, and the early support for Obama gives the freshman Senator a significant boost in credibility. The Dreamworks trio do not waste their time flacking for also-rans, and this signals to the entire Democratic Party that Hollywood wants an alternative to Hillary.

Jeff Katzenberg has already endorsed Obama. Spielberg and Geffen prefer to remain uncommitted at the moment, and Spielberg said he may hold fundraisers for more than one primary candidate, including Hillary. That's small comfort to the one candidate who has been running for more than six years for a return to the White House. It also represents a change in thinking for the moguls; after all, they have contributed heavily to Hillary's past Senate campaigns. Given that those have been little more than Trojan horses for the 2008 Presidential race, one could be forgiven for thinking that Spielberg, Katzenberg, and Geffen had already jumped on the bandwagon.

Why have they begun edging away from the presumptive front-runner? It can't be the triangulation. Bill practically invented it, and he spent most of both terms governing from the center, a position that comes less naturally to Hillary. They probably have started to question her electability, and see Obama as the candidate that best represents the collective wisdom of Hollywood.

If I were Obama, I'd sue for defamation.

I should note the end of another Hillary outreach to the center. The Clinton campaign bought blog ads on my site, as well as several other prominent conservative blogs (Power Line, Hugh Hewitt, and so on). Abbi Tatton reported this on Tuesday's Situation Room:

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, when you're on a conservative blog like this one, Captain's Quarters, it's not unusual to see an advertisement or blog ad, like this one for Republican Rudy Giuliani.

What is unusual is the one directly underneath it, this one for Hillary Clinton, directing people to her Web site, where there is a series of Webcasts this week, where people are invited to send in their questions online.

Now, the adverts are all over the place on Web sites, blogs on the left, in the middle, on the right. But it's those placed on the right that are getting the attention -- a writer at the conservative Town Hall Web site suggesting that it's wasteful, saying none of their readers there are going to be supporting Hillary Clinton.

We spoke to the Internet director at the Hillary Clinton camp. And they said that the blog ad buy was big and it was diverse. They wanted to reach out as widely as possible. It's about starting a conversation with people that might agree and with people that might disagree.

I spoke briefly with Abbi about this topic, and she asked me for my reaction. I told her I briefly considered rejecting the ad, but accepted it. I figured that if the Clinton campaign wanted to throw its money around, they could throw some at me. I also told Abbi that advertisements represent an endorsement of Captain's Quarters, not an endorsement by CQ. I have no intention of going easy on any political candidate just because they buy a blog ad. Believe me, I don't come that cheap.

I don't think it was a waste of her money, at least not altogether. The campaign wanted to make a splash with their video conversations this week, one of them inexplicably scheduled on the same night as the SOTU speech. They were hoping to find the widest possible audience, and that means they need to attract people from the Right as well as the Left.

Now, however, the ad should be gone. The campaign canceled them last night after the final video conversation, and that makes sense. If Hillary or Obama or Kucinich want to buy ad space in the future, I won't object. In their own small way, they're helping to fund the publication of conservative thought, and I'm satisfied with the irony.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at January 25, 2007 5:09 AM

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» With Friends Like These... from Sensible Mom
Hillary Clinton's learning she doesn't have a lock on the democratic nomination: On Wednesday morning, hundreds of Hollywood's movers and shakers received an invitation that they may find hard to refuse. They've been invited to come meet Sen. Barack Ob... [Read More]

Tracked on January 25, 2007 9:10 AM

» With Friends Like These... from Sensible Mom
Hillary Clinton's learning she doesn't have a lock on the democratic nomination: On Wednesday morning, hundreds of Hollywood's movers and shakers received an invitation that they may find hard to refuse. They've been invited to come meet Sen. Barack Ob... [Read More]

Tracked on January 25, 2007 9:11 AM

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