June 21, 2005--Bob Kunst, founder of HillaryNow.com, speaks to WMRNews reporter Joel Wishengrad outside the Brookings Institution, where Sen. Joe Biden had just delivered a speech on Iraq. Kunst said he received nine favorable responses to the idea of a Clinton/Biden ticket, six who preferred Biden/Clinton, and one against both of them.
Kunst, of Miami Beach, Florida, launched the HillaryNow.com website in August 2003, and was a familar sight on the 2004 campaign trail, promoting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democrats' best presidential prospect and selling his bumperstickers and buttons outside events around the country.
He said the tone of critics of Sen. Clinton is much softer in recent months than it had been in the previous two years. Before, he said, some of the comments he received were "vicious." A new book, The Truth About Hillary by Edward Klein (Sentinel, June 2005), presents an unflattering portrait of the former First Lady and has generated considerable discussion recently. Asked about the controversies that have at times surrounded the New York Senator, Kunst said his approach is "accept the controversy and use it as a positive, not a negative." The Democratic party, Kunst said, has been "afraid to handle controversy" and needs to "go on the offense." Kunst said he is going to write a book titled "Hillary Haters and How She Wins the 2008 Election" to rebut the arguments that the New York Senator cannot be elected president.
Kunst's current tour started at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, TN, then took him to the Bessie Smith Strut in Chattanooga, TN, and to Columbia, SC where his efforts helped Clinton to a first place showing in a straw poll run by the Democratic Party of Richland County (the top four were Clinton 44, Edwards 34, Warner 32, and Biden 24). He next plans to appear at the Caribbean Carnival in Washington, DC on June 25.
| Links Hillarynow.com Hillary Clinton Forum StopHillaryPAC.com Senate Office Friends of Hillary HILL PAC The Truth About Hillary (Amazon) |