Smile and wave inside the crush at Ag building. @HillaryClinton at State Fair pic.twitter.com/sk5ATJ3qLT
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) August 15, 2015
The hardcore haters will never quit, of course. But after months of whining about how they just couldn’t feeeel President Hillary Clinton, some of the media pack seems to be edging towards admitting that, for normal voters, HRC might be likeable enough. (At least in comparison to watching yet another Repub candidate step on his own… tongue.) Ruby Cramer, at Buzzfeed:
… At many of Clinton’s public events, causal interaction is overwhelmed, and often made altogether impossible, by a spectacle that neither she, nor her aides, can much control: the aggregate effect of, in varying degrees, the media attention she commands, celebrity status she assumes, and the Secret Service detail she has required, in public and private life, since the ’90s.
All three forces were at work in the extreme on Saturday as Clinton toured the various delights of the massive and sprawling Iowa State Fair, moving from the show cows near Gammon Barn, down by the Pavilion and the Fun Forest Stage, into the Agriculture Building, past the beet and onion tables and the life-size cow sculpted from butter — out the back door, up the main drag, and over to the front counter of the final destination: the Iowa Pork Producers’ Porkchop on a Stick tent…
Clinton and company tore through the fair. The C-SPAN footage is almost harrowing. Foot traffic came to a halt everywhere they went. At point, inside the hot and crowded Agriculture Building, the group was going too fast with no room to move: While a campaign aide warned a security agent to please watch Harkin more closely (He was getting “pushed and shoved!”), a security agent snapped at a campaign aide to please keep the entourage moving (“When you stop, it creates a bubble and we can’t move!”)…
Only April Stumpf, the mother from Riverside, pushed her way through for more, dropped the name of an ambassador friend, sidled up to Clinton and — upon telling the candidate her story — brought the whole operation to a stop for a few, rare minutes of relative quiet on late Saturday morning.
“I just wanted to introduce myself and say hi,” said Stumpf, face to face with Clinton. “And I also wanted to let you I am a mother of a severely disabled child. She’s on 14 different medications right now: methadone, morphine, and…”
Clinton grabbed her hand. “How old is she?”…
She told Clinton she’s been advocating for medical marijuana on a nationwide level, that Quinn’s medications are so hard on her 3-year-old body that they will kill her faster than her disability — and that the cause could use Clinton’s support, said Stumpf. “For a real medical purpose.”
“And to do the research,” Clinton said, nodding. “I will certainly support it. I have and I will continue to support it. And I want to get the research going.”
They talked some more about alternative medicine and about Quinn’s clinical trial. “She’s only 3. She’s gorgeous,” said her mom. “She deserves so much. So thank you so much. It was nice to meet you…” When Stumpf turned to leave, Clinton asked her to wait for an aide to collect some contact information first — to stay in touch.
Later, standing near the porkchop stand, after her two hours at the fair were almost up, Clinton said she was grateful for the exchange with Stumpf. Hearing stories like Quinn’s — “that’s what helps me think about what I can do to help them.”…
Only in Iowa. Man asks @HillaryClinton to get out of the way so he can get in line for pork chops on a stick. #IowaStateFair #iacaucus
— Brianne Pfannenstiel (@brianneDMR) August 15, 2015
Politico — not exactly a Dem-friendly outfit — says “Hillary Clinton sways the doubters at Wing Ding“:
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — The verdict from the jam-packed auditorium was nearly unanimous: Hillary Clinton crushed her speech at Iowa’s now-famous Democratic Wing Ding Friday night, winning standing ovations from the very Iowans who turned against her the last time she ran for the White House.