There were a handful of head-scratchers and questionable claims in Hillary Clinton’s confrontational (and profoundly entertaining) one-on-one with Tim Russert Sunday.
1. “I don't think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it's not about race.” The latter may be true – but she doesn’t think it’s about gender? On Nov. 1, Clinton spoke to her alma mater, Welleseley College, about how the presidential race was a “boy’s club.” EMILY’s List has crusaded for Clinton – and the group’s founder Ellen Malcolm has attacked Obama’s Illinois State Senate voting record on abortion issues. Clinton mentions the historic nature of her candidacy (with good reason) at nearly every campaign appearance and her staff is micro-targeting female voters in every state she’s competing in.
2. “Tim, I didn't pay attention to polls before New Hampshire and I'm not going to start paying attention to it after New Hampshire.” Maybe she was just referring to public polls. But she’s the only top-tier candidate in the race whose top strategist is a pollster (Mark Penn, at least for now) and the people who know them best say Bill and Hillary Clinton consume voter data like other folks scarf down microwave popcorn.
3. On a bid to stop the Nevada caucus in the courts, which Obama’s people claim was inspired by Clinton. “Well, first of all, I don't think it's supporters of mine.There seems to be some misunderstanding about that.” Technically true, but... The suit, which alleges that “at-large” caucus sites in Vegas violate the one-man, one-vote rule, wasn't filed by her campaign. But the plaintiffs, among them the state teacher’s union, and their attorneys have connections to Clinton, including union deputy Debbie Cahill, an important Clinton operative.
4. On her “yes” vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq in Oct. 2002. “[I]f, of course, you see the vote as I saw it as opposed as how it's been characterized, I thought it was a vote to put inspectors back in.” This is obviously the subject of heated debate. Many of those close to the Clintons, including James Carville and Paul Begala, say that the vote was an up and down for war, plain and simple. ( Kos explores this at greater length, with particular attention to Clinton’s “no” vote on the Levin Amendment, which was explicitly aimed at giving inspectors more time while avoiding an invasion authorization.)
-- Glenn Thrush