On Friday, November 30, 2007, a forty-year-old man named Leeland Eisenberg cornered several hostages at Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters in Rochester, New Hampshire. Pretending to have a bomb, Mr. Eisenberg held three people for four hours as the police locked down the street outside with sharpshooters and an armored car.
In the end the man released the hostages and turned himself in. There was word that Mr. Eisenberg was known to be mentally unstable and couldn’t afford to pay for care. But why did he target Hillary’s campaign headquarters instead of one of the others that were also close by?
This story was shown in real time on my local news. Family members called to make sure I was watching and they expressed their own speculations as to why they thought that the event was likely to happen. It was the word ‘likely’ that caught my attention. There is a very real belief among some voters that because Hillary is such a divisive figure that threats to her life are inevitable. The bomb scare might be merely a prelude as to what we could expect if she was to become President of the United States.
The voters have to face the reality that an uncomfortably high number of fanatical and unstable individuals have the very deepest hatred for the former first lady. If she's elected, some of these wild-eyed crazies will come out of the woodwork to take aim at her, perhaps provoking more incidents like the one we saw in New Hampshire. But is this going to affect who we choose? Do we really want a President who is constantly dodging bullets both literal and figurative? It certainly negated the Presidency of Gerald Ford. It’s hard enough running the richest nation on earth without these types of distractions.
Opponents of Mrs. Clinton have decided to boost this anger by creating a new 527 called Citizens United Not Timid. This is from some of the people who brought you the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, except that this time the acronym spells out who they are targeting. These extremists believe only the worst about Hillary and are ready to plaster it over every available airwave. Unlike normal smear campaigns that attempt to discredit the candidate by appealing to a voter’s sense of injustice, this group seems intent on reaching those who already dislike her. With negative opinion polls reaching as high as 45% there is a captive audience for any conspiracy to be dreamt up or resurrected.
Article comments
1 - Lee Richards
And the Pointless Purple Prose Award goes to...
***
This "my family thinks..." so it's got to be true, and suggesting she's driving unstable people over the edge in droves is really pretty silly.
No reason or analysis here, no facts to back up the wild assertions, no evidence to support the prophecies of rampant mad bombers stalking her now and in the future, just "Hillary as some kind of a modern Medusa", driving all who gaze upon her stark raving stone nuts.
Irrational behavior is...irrational, striking with or without provocation and in any and all directions. Kennedy and King were shot, and so were Reagan and the Pope.
If Bill hasn't turned to stone yet, there's some hope for the rest of us as the campaign plays out. (For the record, I hope she doesn't win the nomination--because of her politics, not because she has the power to cloud men's minds.)
2 - Franco
How do you come right out and say "Far Right Wing **********" and bury it in your opinion piece amists fallacy ad hominem attacts?
The voters have to face the reality that an uncomfortably high number of fanatical and unstable individuals have the very deepest hatred for the former first lady.
These extremists believe only the worst about Hillary and are ready to plaster it over every available airwave.
Opponents of Mrs. Clinton have decided to boost this anger by creating a new wegsites. Unlike normal smear campaigns that attempt to discredit the candidate by appealing to a voter's sense of injustice, this group seems intent on reaching those who already dislike her.
With negative opinion polls reaching as high as 45% there is a captive audience for any CONSPIRACY to be dreamt up or resurrected.
Shazam!!!! **+*$&^<^>)(*(()* the “C” word bellows from his mouth…….
3 - john polifronio
This is another case where media are up to their usual treachery against Hillary. Why would such a preposterous question arise? It could just as easily have happened against any other candidate, but because it happened at a Clinton office, this "coincidence" is jumped on by media, to create the illusion that we have an additional reason not to vote for Hillary.
4 - john polifronio
This is another case where media are up to their usual treachery against Hillary. Why would such a preposterous question arise? It could just as easily have happened against any other candidate, but because it happened at a Clinton office, this "coincidence" is jumped on by media, to create the illusion that we have an additional reason not to vote for Hillary.
5 - BigBoy
...too many unstable Dems' out there :)
6 - JustOneMan
this is Hilliararious stuff...next time please title as parody! You almost got me!
JOM
7 - rightwingdog
I am not lover of Hillary Clinton or her politics but to call the "attack" on her office a conspiracy is way over the top. Eisenberg had a mental disorder pure and simple. There are plenty of nut-jobs out there whoi claim they would like to kill her and Bill, that is why they have secret service protection. Most is boast and few would actually follow thru.
8 - jwberrie
i think George Bush inspires more hatred than Hillary Clinton but he keeps on at it. Maybe we need to make the rightwing face its demons by voting her into office. President Ford was unsuccessful for other reasons than the attempt on his life. Reagan had an assassination attempt on him too and he's thought be many to have been a good president.
9 - independent former Hillary fan
All this coming from a pornography model. Sure, Alex, you have a lot of objectivity and credibility....
10 - Christopher Rose
I have no idea if the author is a former porn model but fail to see why that would undermine his credibility.
Comment #9 seems the work of a petty and thoughtless mind to me, which is probably why they didn't have the integrity to use their name.