Ernie Els Scoffs at Losers

DINNER WITH HILLARY: TALKING POINTS FOR THE NEXT ROUND

By DICK MORRIS

Published on TheHill.com on September 26, 2007.

Even for her, Hillary Clinton showed tremendous skill at batting aside questions a

sked of her on the Sunday shows this past weekend and giving, instead, her standard 

talking points. Pinning this lady down is admittedly not easy. Two of the best interviewers 

on political TV — Chris Wallace and Tim Russert — asked tough questions but got scripted and

memorized retorts for their pains. But here are some questions (along with follow-ups) that 

I suggest they ask during the next 

round of Sunday shows — if she ever goes back on the circuit.

•  Bill Clinton refused to accept political action committee (PAC) contributions in 

his campaigns of 1992 and 1996. Obama and Edwards are following his example. Why aren’t you?

•  After all the bad experiences you had with Johnnie Chung and Charlie Trie and their 

campaign donations in the 1996 election cycle, why were you not more careful in vetting t

he donations generated by Norman Hsu? Didn’t you learn your lesson in 1996?

(As a follow-up to No. 2) After you found that you had to return almost a million dollars 

to the donors bundled by Hsu, you said you would be more vigilant in examining the 

backgrounds of donors. Why didn’t you come to that conclusion before the Hsu scandal, 

based on your 1996 experiences?

•  Norman Hsu was no ordinary donor. He was the biggest bundler in your campaign; he 

gave funds to the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton School of Government in 

Arkansas and took Patti Solis Doyle, your campaign manager, and other aides on an 

all-expense-paid trip to Las Vegas. He also donated to Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of 

Iowa, whose campaign debt you agreed to help repay. In view of his high profile in your 

campaign, why didn’t you check him out more thoroughly, and what does this say about your

 ability to make quality appointments?

•  You base your healthcare proposal on the need to cover 47 million “uninsured Americans.” 

Since about a third of them are illegal immigrants and another third are eligible for Medicaid 

right now and just don’t apply for it, aren’t you overstating the problem?

(As a follow-up to No. 4) In 2005 you co-sponsored legislation to provide health insurance 

to the children of illegal immigrants who have lived in this country for five years. In other words, 

their children would get subsidized healthcare under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program 

as a reward for dodging the cops for five years. Do you still support that proposal?

•  You say that your healthcare proposal will leave alone those who are happy with their 

current insurance. But if you provide health benefits for close to 50 million new people, 

thereby generating huge new demand for medical care without any increase in the supply o

f doctors, nurses or hospitals, it will drive up prices radically. Won’t that force you 

to institute cost controls by limiting the care those now on health insurance can 

receive?

•  In Arkansas, you achieved fame by urging mandatory testing for teachers and demanded 

. As a result, he was denied the endorsement by the Arkansas Teachers Union during his 

time as governor. Do you still support your proposal of 1983 and 1984 for mandatory 

teacher competency tests for current teachers — not just for new ones?

•  In Arkansas, you pioneered the idea of testing students to ascertain their progress

 and holding schools accountable for any shortcomings in their test scores. Now California 

Democratic Congressman George Miller, chairman of the House Education Committee, wants 

to change the No Child Left Behind Act to substitute graduation rates for test scores 

as the measure of a school’s performance. Opponents say this is injecting a non-objective 

standard and undercuts the whole purpose of the legislation. Do you support Miller’s proposal?

There’s more, but we’ve run out of time! I hope that the journalists who next have Clinton 

in their sights read this column, take notes and act on it. The answers to these questions 

would be nice to have before we elect her president.