This past weekend brought a slew of Presidential candidates to the DNC Winter Meeting. Obama, Hillary, Edwards and others spoke from their campaign speech notes and tried to rile up the crowd of activists and party faithful. Obama exchanged 'I Love You's' with the audience, Edwards got tons of cheers and Hillary got a mixed bag.
From HuffPo:
Clinton's welcome was not just less enthusiastic, but hostile -- and though there seemed to be almost as many Clinton placards as there were people in the room, catcalls drowned out any roars of approval from her cheering section as she began to speak. In reaction to a claim that she had been a tough critic of the war, someone in the crowd shouted, "NOT!'' Code Pink protesters repeatedly interrupted her, yelling, "Stop funding war!'' and one Army vet kept calling, "How about bringing them home, Hillary?'' Definitely, the applause at the end of her address was much louder than when she'd started - which, as her campaign sees it, is how all of America will react once they get to know her. Unless, you know, they already did that.
Hillary is known by many and that is her number one problem. The millions of dollars aren't needed for name identification but to spin that name and her positions to be palatable for Democrats voting in the primaries. The obstacle to the spin machine is that activists have long memories and are not so quick to forget Hillary's positions on the war among other issues that make them say 'hmmm' to Mrs. Clinton.
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