In Iowa, Democratic activists not upset by Clinton’s Sept. 11 comments: (Hillary Group)
AMES, Iowa — To listen to the pundits is to conclude that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s comments at Saturday night’s debate invoking the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to explain her coziness to Wall Street was a gaffe so tone-deaf that it might haunt her campaign.
But a handful of Iowa partisans interviewed Sunday at a local Democratic Party barbecue here in Ames drew different conclusions.
“It didn’t bother me. No, not at all,” said John Stein, 51, a supporter of Clinton rival Bernie Sanders. “It was a good-faith attempt to answer a question she was asked. Some folks are trying to make something out of nothing.”
Sue Seedorff-Keninger said, “I take her at her word. It makes sense. Those were her constituents.” Seedorff-Keninger, 62, who has not decided which Democrat to caucus for, added, “I wasn’t bothered by it. I didn’t see it as a gaffe. I saw it as an explanation for why she received money from them.”
When Clinton supporter Valinda Parsons, 56, was asked about the exchange, she admitted, “That question, I don’t even remember it.” When a reporter described it, Parsons said it did not bother her. “Not a bit. She is the most qualified candidate. No other candidate compares.”
The interviewees in Ames hardly make up a representative or scientific sampling, and people’s opinions about Clinton’s Sept. 11 remarks could change in coming days. But their comments Sunday suggested that the immediate reaction of Democratic activists in Iowa, whose Feb. 1 caucuses kick off the presidential nominating contest, is markedly different than that of her critics nationally....
...the prevailing sentiment, at least among the Ames crowd, was that the controversy over her Sept. 11 comments was much ado about nothing.
"There's a logic to what she said when you think about it," Martha Anderson, 77, said of Clinton's remarks.
Asked whether she saw the Sept. 11 line as a "gaffe," Anderson, who has not settled on which Democrat to support, shrugged and said, "The pundits say that all the time. They always pick up on something that's going to haunt somebody. But pundits are who pundits are."
“She was the senator from New York and the entire country was attacked,” added Paul Fitzgerald, the Story County sheriff, who has not endorsed yet in the Democratic race.
“My God,” he added, “what’s the big deal?”
Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/15/in-iowa-democratic-activists-not-upset-by-clintons-sept-11-comments/?postshare=9951447619547104&tid=ss tw
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