Pinochle Politics
By GAIL COLLINS
New York Times
“... I was raised on pinochle and the American Dream.”
This is Hillary Clinton in a TV ad running in Pennsylvania in which she reminisces about spending childhood vacations in Scranton. Once again, a campaign in which we thought we had heard every possible piece of information delivers a little surprise.
Really, it’s hard to count the questions this line raises. Is pinochle particularly popular in Pennsylvania? Did Mark Penn do a poll on this? Did something inspiring happen at the pinochle table that caused Clinton to make this particular connection? (“Young Hillary, if you play your cards right, someday you could become president of the United States.”)
If you were going to say that you were raised on something and the American Dream, what would it be? I’d have to go with television and the American Dream, although it sounds a little “Manchurian Candidate.”
One purpose of the ad is to point out that although the Clinton family may be raking in beaucoup bucks now, Hillary’s roots were humble. Her Pennsylvanian grandfather worked in a lace factory. The Rodham vacation house had no heat or indoor shower, and according to Carl Bernstein’s biography, as Hillary grew up she began to lose enthusiasm for those long summers on Lake Winola.
(Continued here.)
New York Times
“... I was raised on pinochle and the American Dream.”
This is Hillary Clinton in a TV ad running in Pennsylvania in which she reminisces about spending childhood vacations in Scranton. Once again, a campaign in which we thought we had heard every possible piece of information delivers a little surprise.
Really, it’s hard to count the questions this line raises. Is pinochle particularly popular in Pennsylvania? Did Mark Penn do a poll on this? Did something inspiring happen at the pinochle table that caused Clinton to make this particular connection? (“Young Hillary, if you play your cards right, someday you could become president of the United States.”)
If you were going to say that you were raised on something and the American Dream, what would it be? I’d have to go with television and the American Dream, although it sounds a little “Manchurian Candidate.”
One purpose of the ad is to point out that although the Clinton family may be raking in beaucoup bucks now, Hillary’s roots were humble. Her Pennsylvanian grandfather worked in a lace factory. The Rodham vacation house had no heat or indoor shower, and according to Carl Bernstein’s biography, as Hillary grew up she began to lose enthusiasm for those long summers on Lake Winola.
(Continued here.)
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