Hillary weathers grilling from 5 Sunday political talk show hosts -- Says her health plan will not mandate or include coverage for illegal immigrants.
From RealClearPolicitics.com:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton beamed her way through a barrage of questions from five political talk show hosts Sunday morning, appearances that offered some details of her plans on health care and the war in Iraq, but left her basically unscathed politically after the toughest grilling Washington has to offer.
Her exchanges with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, CBS's Bob Schieffer, CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Fox's Chris Wallace were taped between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. at her home in Chappaqua, an aide said. She appeared live on NBC's “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert.
The series of interviews — Clinton's first appearance for more than two years on the Sunday shows hallowed inside the Beltway — seemed aimed at solidifying her front-runner status and positioning her as a candidate in the general election, a result she anticipated throughout the interviews.
“I look forward to debating health care with my Republican opponent, whoever that might be, starting in the spring,” she told Russert.
The only real piece of news in the interviews came on ABC, where Clinton said for the first time that her health plan will not mandate or include coverage for illegal immigrants, who already receive emergency coverage under federal programs for children and the poor.
It was yet another sign that her plan is designed, most of all, for passage, aimed as it is to assuage the concerns of those who opposed her 1993 effort most fiercely: small businesses, and people who are satisfied with their current health care.
Clinton also seemed to preview the centrality of health care in the general election, stressing the unity among Democrats on the issue. “I think it is important that the Democrats are all on the same page. We all want to have a system that covers everybody. The Republicans don't. And that is a great divide,” she told Biltzer.
In the interviews' other major theme, Clinton refused to commit to a full withdrawal of American troops from Iraq if she becomes president. In response to repeated questions, she left the scale of continued American troop presence there deliberately vague.
And asked on CBS about Bill Clinton's role, she said that “we've been talking for 36 years” and that the conversation would continue. However, she said, he would not mirror her own role in the Clinton White House, in which she had a policy post.
“That's one of the lessons I learned,” she told Schieffer.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton beamed her way through a barrage of questions from five political talk show hosts Sunday morning, appearances that offered some details of her plans on health care and the war in Iraq, but left her basically unscathed politically after the toughest grilling Washington has to offer.
Her exchanges with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, CBS's Bob Schieffer, CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Fox's Chris Wallace were taped between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. at her home in Chappaqua, an aide said. She appeared live on NBC's “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert.
The series of interviews — Clinton's first appearance for more than two years on the Sunday shows hallowed inside the Beltway — seemed aimed at solidifying her front-runner status and positioning her as a candidate in the general election, a result she anticipated throughout the interviews.
“I look forward to debating health care with my Republican opponent, whoever that might be, starting in the spring,” she told Russert.
The only real piece of news in the interviews came on ABC, where Clinton said for the first time that her health plan will not mandate or include coverage for illegal immigrants, who already receive emergency coverage under federal programs for children and the poor.
It was yet another sign that her plan is designed, most of all, for passage, aimed as it is to assuage the concerns of those who opposed her 1993 effort most fiercely: small businesses, and people who are satisfied with their current health care.
Clinton also seemed to preview the centrality of health care in the general election, stressing the unity among Democrats on the issue. “I think it is important that the Democrats are all on the same page. We all want to have a system that covers everybody. The Republicans don't. And that is a great divide,” she told Biltzer.
In the interviews' other major theme, Clinton refused to commit to a full withdrawal of American troops from Iraq if she becomes president. In response to repeated questions, she left the scale of continued American troop presence there deliberately vague.
And asked on CBS about Bill Clinton's role, she said that “we've been talking for 36 years” and that the conversation would continue. However, she said, he would not mirror her own role in the Clinton White House, in which she had a policy post.
“That's one of the lessons I learned,” she told Schieffer.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 7:20 PM
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