Hillary’s Gas ‘Outrage’: Comical-She Hasn’t Touched a pump in Years

April 30, 2008

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Hillary has been leading an all out assault on Senator Barack Obama over the past two days due to his statements pointing out just how counter-productive lifting the “gas tax” for a arbitrary three month span would be for American’s and the infrastructure of this country. Through a blitz of attack ads and stump speech’s Hillary is doing her best impersonation of a typical GOP head hunter; “attack, attack, have surrogates and 527’s attack, then attack some more.” This is nothing new of course, Hillary managed to show her true colors early on in this race –a race I should mention she lost two months ago but still doesn’t realize it courtesy of her ambition goggles– but this latest Clinton-jamboree of smear is humorous for totally different reasons.

Today on The Hotline, the National Journals online magazine, Mike Memoli focuses on a fascinatingly entertaining piece regarding Hillary “Yes, I made $109 Million in seven years but he’s the elitist” Clinton’s latest PR campaign in Indiana and North Carolina, where apparently she is continuing to prove what a “good ‘ole girl” background she really has — a background which had her growing up in an upper class, republican, Chicago suburb where she attended the best schools:

The message of the week, in both North Carolina and Indiana, has been Clinton’s plan for a gas tax holiday. So the bit of showmanship was a creative way to keep reporters talking about it — even as the story line and tepid back-and-forth grew stale.

And like all publicity stunts, it was transparent. The worker, Jason Wilfing, belongs to a union that has endorsed Clinton (though he maintained he is undecided). Rather than Clinton meeting Wilfing at his home, he came to her hotel to pick her up. Wilfing actually lives outside of South Bend in the town of Plymouth, 45-minutes away. Perhaps best of all, he wasn’t even driving his own car. He had to borrow the pickup of his supervisor so that Secret Service could come for the ride, too.

The story continues to talk about Hillary’s interaction with Wilfing, you know, “The Real American”, Hillary was spending the day with:

the logistics of the enterprise presented a challenge. Driving ahead of Clinton was a dirty-green GMC truck, with its rear doors lashed open. One network cameraman, shooting for all national outlets, joined local cameraman, two still photographers, and a couple print reporters crammed into the rear to chronicle it all from afar.
Meanwhile, all other outlets huddled outside on the chilly morning at the Marathon station (with some smarter reporters choosing to wait it out inside the mini mart). The campaign had the fill-up choreographed to a T, all the way to which specific pump they would use so that cameras could be in position when they arrived. Within the shot for many was the large sign displaying the $3.75-per-gallon price tag.

I can only imagine how funny it would have been to watch the camera men, producers, and campaign aides furiously working to get “the most natural shot” of Clinton during her first visit with someone whose net worth was below $50 million, Jason Wilfing. Anyway’s we haven’t gotten to the best part, here’s Memoli talking about Clinton’s behavior while at the gas station:

Clinton hopped out of the truck without incident and joined Wilfing at the pump. She seemed very interested in the actual set up, *acknowledging later that she hasn’t pumped her own gas in years.*

For some reason, Clinton chatted with Wilfing so quietly it was as if they were at a library and not an outdoor fueling station. Eventually, a reporter shouted out a question, prompting Clinton to turn and launch into her stump on how the impact of high gas prices has impacted prices across the board for consumers.

“I think it’s important we start trying to focus our attention on taking care of people like Mr. Wilfing and his family for a change,” she said. “That’s my passion in this campaign and going forward, we’ve gotta start getting our priorities straight. And this is a big wake-up call.”

A few more questions followed, with Clinton staying on message, referring occasionally to Wilfing, who stood silently to her side. “This is a very complex problem that somebody needs to start unpacking, and begin to answer questions for people like Mr. Wilfing.”

Clinton then shuffled off to go and pay her “exorbitant bill.” While inside, she stopped at the coffee machine, struggling a bit to get it working before pouring a French Vanilla cappuccino.

Now, at this point I am beside myself with laughter, visualizing Hillary fumble around with a foreign object, known by common folk as the “gas pump”, while at the same time trying to look “country” is simply to much for me to handle. Then, to top it all off, she goes in and doesn’t get a coffee “no cream, no sugar” instead she gets a cappuccino. Ha ha, I know it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just that it comes across as such a beacon of “please Hillary, the gig’s up” sentiment regarding her; “A day in the life of a real American” shtick.