Friday, January 11, 2008 Seares: Hillary, Gloria haters By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
THERE are haters of Hillary Clinton, who scored the other day in the New Hampshire primary an upset over rival Barack Obama. Just as there are haters of Gloria Arroyo, who to this hour struggles to keep her seat as president.
Hillary and Gloria draw both intense love and searing hate. Few leaders stir as much passion in people.
Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote the book "The Case Against Hillary Clinton" to stop the former First Lady from getting elected to the Senate in 2000. In 2008, Hillary's on the way to the White House.
Noonan hates the label "hater" pinned on anti-Clintons. "Hater," she says, suggests critics are so blinded by animus they cannot see, so unbalanced by anger they cannot be fair.
Christopher Hitchins is more scathing on Hillary and her husband Bill (the president who insisted that a female intern's going down on him in the Oval Office wasn't sex). Hitchins says, "I don't hate them. I have contempt for them."
What matters
Not hairsplitting, just being precise. Strong dislike in "hate" gets a heavy mix of scorn in "contempt." Object of contempt isn't just hated, he's seen as low, mean, and unworthy.
Hate or contempt matters little unless the sentiment is translated, in Hillary's case, into votes. And in Gloria's case: into an enraged mob and military rebels battering Palace gates.
The New Hampshire win, after the Iowa loss, has kept Hillary pretty much in the running. But tough battles still lie ahead. Scuttling the last coup and riding the storm of scandals, Gloria keeps hanging in, despite stinging rebuke in poll surveys.
