Hillary Clinton, talking to voters rather than reporters.
The American political conversation has changed since 2008, and
the New York Times is On It. Well, on how Hillary Clinton is not running the exact same campaign as in 2008, which is naturally, per the
Times' Patrick Healy, all about her as an individual and not about the intervening seven to eight years. This time, she's "projecting a scandals-be-damned attitude and barreling ahead with her agenda." The snide unhappiness about that oozes off the page: Why, why, WHY is she ignoring all these scandals Republicans are creating and the
New York Times is enthusiastically diving into? Her own agenda? WTF is that?
Healy must have worked overtime to get to this gem:
What she does not say is that she used to side with many Republicans on some cultural and social issues. She now sees a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, for instance, after years of saying that marriage was only between a man and a woman.
It is not every day that a lawyer like Mrs. Clinton discovers a new constitutional protection, but Democratic primary voters increasingly favor same-sex marriage — and she is determined to catch up with them.
Gosh, there's a way Clinton is unique! Her views on marriage equality have changed, which is not an experience anyone else has had in recent years.
I'm sure there is political calculation involved—just as there was when President Obama and probably a majority of Democrats holding federal office "evolved" during the same time period. If this is an issue on which Clinton "used to side with Republicans," the same can be said about almost any other top Democrat. (Though I should note that then-Rep. Bernie Sanders voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, as did 65 House Democrats.)
But I think this sums up the real problem for Healy, the Times, and much of the rest of the traditional political media:
“Her presidential campaign seems a lot less distracted by the day-to-day news stories than it was in 2008,” said Bill Burton, who was the press secretary for Obama’s first presidential campaign. “That means her ability to project a cleareyed focus on the American people is a lot more effective.”
Dammit, how dare she not get yanked around by the media and instead focus on voters? That's got to be creating some real bitterness in a press corps that already had the habit of turning into a vicious teenage clique at the mention of Clinton's name.