BY RICH GALEN
APR 16 | Reprinted from Mullings.com
Democratic strategist Ann Lewis and I were on Channel 4 – that’s Channel 4 in London, not WNBC in New York – to talk about the Hillary campaign one day after her YouTube announcement.
I don’t know Ann well enough to like her; I certainly don’t know her well enough to dislike her, but I know her sufficiently well enough to respect her.
The interviewer touched on the high spots of the American campaign (remember this was for a British audience).
I repeated a line from MULLINGS the other day when I wrote that Secretary Clinton and I are about the same age and, let me tell you, 68 is not the new 58. 68 is the new 67 and 8 months.
The interviewer asked if I were suggesting that Mrs. Clinton was too old. I said I was not, but that unlike the British system …
SIDEBAR
There is a major election which will result in the selection of a Prime Minister coming up in Great Britain. Here’s the sequence of events.
March 30 – Dissolve Parliament and call elections
May 7 – Hold elections
Total elapsed time for campaigning? About 7 weeks.
END SIDEBAR
I recited this on the air to show that I had done my homework. But I recited it to remind our British cousins that while their elections would begin and end in seven weeks; ours still had about 19 months to go.
Ms. Lewis, because she is never not on message, launched into a lengthy and spirited defense of Mrs. Clinton saying (more-or-less) that she draws energy from meeting with “everyday Americans;” that the very act of campaigning allows her to recharge her batteries, the better to plunge into the adoring crowds at Bob’s Bake Shop & Transmission Supply in Ottumwa (or where ever).
I said that the campaign was 23 hours old and had a long way to go. I thought (but did not say) that this description of Hillary Clinton messing around with extracting energy from would-be supporters made her sound like Hermione Granger.
We bantered back-and-forth for the allotted four minutes and thirty seconds, and were dutifully thanked by the British guy.
The excitement didn’t really start until I got back to my office and found that Channel 4 (London) had found my 68-is-not-the-new-58 line so engaging that they Tweeted it.
I don’t follow Channel 4 (London) but I follow me so it popped up in my timeline. Also popping up were a slew of Hillary supporters who called me: “Ageist and sexist.”
This is my first (but likely not last) run-in with the Hillary Police. A reporter for the New York Times, Amy Chozick, described in a series of Tweets her adventures on Clinton’s Magical Mystery Tour:
A group called HRC Super Volunteers just warned me “We will be watching, reading, listening, and protesting coded sexism.” Sexist words, they say, include “polarizing, calculating, disingenuous, insincere, ambitious, inevitable, entitled, over confident …”
Also sexist, according to HRC Super Volunteers: “Secretive” and “will do anything to win, represents the past, out of touch …”
Upon further review I don’t think I violated the rules as laid down by the HRC Super Volunteer geniuses, but some of them decided to, like the U.S. Supreme Court, expand the definition to include the words “Sixty Eight.”
This is a tactic that was used to great success in the earlier days of the administration of President Barack Obama.
Any criticism of the President was declared to be “racist” and, rather having to deny that charge many observers retreated into the relatively safety of writing about why the Nationals’ shortstop, Ian Desmond, is on pace to commit 108 errors this season while batting just above the Mendoza Line.
Another thing about being called “ageist” is that it has that peculiar ring of Kremlin-Speak:
“Comrade Galen is an ageist, expansionist, interventionist, revisionist enemy of the State and so, at his request, we have invited him to join us in Siberia for an extended re-education vacation.”
I am not ageist. In fact I am embracing my 68-year-old-ness. I ride the DC Metro for half price. Get into the movies cheaper. And I get a Senior Citizen Discount at the Harris-Teeter if I shop there on Thursdays. What’s not to like?
As to being sexist, even at my advanced age I still enjoy [DELETED BY ORDER OF THE MULLINGS DIRECTOR OF STANDARDS & PRACTICES]
Editor’s Note: Rich Galen is former communications director for House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Dan Quayle. In 2003-2004, he did a six-month tour of duty in Iraq at the request of the White House engaging in public affairs with the Department of Defense. He also served as executive director of GOPAC and served in the private sector with Electronic Data Systems. Rich is a frequent lecturer and appears often as a political expert on ABC, CNN, Fox and other news outlets.