Hillary Clinton Booed at NH Democratic Dinner
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James Joyner | Saturday, January 5, 2008 |
Hillary Clinton was booed the largest political dinner in New Hampshire history, Jay Newton-Small reports for TIME’s Swampland.
If the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s 100 Club dinner is any bell weather – Barack Obama will handily win here. When Obama, the dinner’s last speaker, took the stage the crowd surged forward chanting “O-bam-a” and “Fired Up, Ready to Go!” So many people pressed toward the stage that an announcer asked people to “please take their seats for safety concerns.”
By comparison Hillary was twice booed. The first time was when she said she has always and will continue to work for “change for you. The audience, particularly from Obama supporters (they were waving Obama signs) let out a noise that sounded like a thousand people collectively groaning. The second time came a few minutes later when Clinton said: “The there are two big questions for voters in New Hampshire. One is: who will be ready to lead from day one? The second,” and here Clinton was forced to pause as boos from the crowd mixed with cheers from her own supporters. “Is who can we nominate who will go the distance against the Republicans?”
Without more information, it’s hard to read much into this. Maybe Obama supporters bought more tickets. Or they’re just rude in comparison to Hillary supporters.
Then again, it’s not as if she hasn’t been booed before in similar circumstances.
Photo credit: New York Magazine
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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To be fair, there was the 2004 AP report of Bush being booed when he related news of Bill Clinton's heart attack and good wishes for a speedy recovery. The audio of the speech didn't have the boos, but the reporter heard them because he wanted to hear them. There is a possibility of a similar phenomenon happening here.
yetanotherjohn,
You may have a good point there. But I can't bring myself to the point of this original story being disproved yet. Bush's audience response, as reported by the AP was quickly disproved as not being disrespectful to the former hound dog in chief.
As I have observed in the past, all of HRC's previous public appearances have been carefully scripted and managed and she fails miserably when she or her staff can not control the situation.
having been to a couple of sponsored forums and a couple of individual rallies, my vote would be for rude. though, it is a privilege that youth of any generation believes it has...
Eneils,
I agree that the likelihood of a bunch of democrats not being able to listen respectfully to someone they disagree with approaches one. Whether that is them 'speaking truth to power' or being rude is in the eye of the beholder.
What I was pointing out was not the most likely scenario, but a sufficiently realistic one that in fairness to the Clintonistas it has to be pointed out. Given the news cycle, I suspect you are right that the Clintons would be roundly disputing the charge. But given the data (e.g. let out a noise that sounded like a thousand people collectively groaning) there may be enough interpretation of the sound that they don't have as clear a case. Of course that would also require them to think ahead and weigh the damage done by being seen to be 'booed' at a democratic function (which might actually be helpful in some quarters) and getting into a playground hissy fight about whether it actually happened.
I suspect Obama will do well here-if yard signs and passionate supporters are any indication.
I probably see two Obama signs/supporters for every one sign from any other candidate.
If the booing happened-my vote is for rude attendees-if it is a Democratic general dinner-it is especially rude.
At a rally, where a candidate is stirring up supporters, boos wouldn't seem quite so rude.
Obama is a showman. What to expect from his supporters? They can not respect different opinion. All what they got is “passion”. Where is brain?
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