# Hillary gets an unusual backer **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 1, 2007, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847 "2007-11-01T09:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/1 "2007-11-01T09:15:13Z")
[Boris Johnson](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/11/01/do0101.xml) wants Hillary for President! The clown of the Tory Party. Basically he wants Bill back. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/2 "2007-11-01T13:06:07Z")
He probably saw that clip of Schwarzenegger reacting to his speech style. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/3 "2007-11-01T18:23:05Z")
Even for ol’ Boris, that’s pretty surprising. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/4 "2007-11-02T00:10:14Z")
Wow. He’s right about the difference between Bubba & W, you know. Interestingly, for those of us familiar with the candidates, this also works as an argument for the other foot-in-mouth resistant genius in the race: Barack Obama. This fits nicely with my theory that the greatest constituency for Hillary is foreigners, rather like the desire of people outside India to keep a Ghandi in power for ease of remembering the fellow’s name. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/5 "2007-11-02T00:26:53Z")
Ah, well, it’s no weirder than Blair siding with Bush. Strange bedfellows indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/6 "2007-11-03T19:02:33Z")
Reading the comments at the bottom of that link makes my brain bleed. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/7 "2007-11-06T20:54:50Z")
Well, even if I wasn’t a fan of Bill at the time as I thought he disgraced the office a bit, he did have my admiration as a leader who was in contact with Americans and people of all nations. And so I think Boris has a good point. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/8 "2007-11-07T11:55:12Z")
Boris is the Tory candidate for London mayor. As such, he’s got a problem: London has consistently voted for Red Ken - a candidate considerably more left-wing than the theoretical UK centre-ground. By contrast, it’s very easy to portray Boris as unreconstructed 80s era right-winger. (And it would still be easy even if he hadn’t decided to introduce the word “piccaninnies” into modern British political discourse). So, what he needs is to start signalling that he’s not as barking as he appears to be. Not by anything so taxing as actually setting out moderate policies (which, after all, would mean thinking some up and defending them against critics) but by vaguely hinting, insinuating and suggesting a more moderate stance. Hence, lending his immaterial backing to a Democrat candidate. Most people in the UK couldn’t tell you Hillary’s precise politics (I certainly couldn’t) but they know she’s “anti-Bush”. And so in a nice, safe, non-accountable way, he makes himself marginally more palatable to Londoners. All politics is local. ---
**Author:** ![Wills1954](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e47774/32.png) [@Wills1954](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wills1954)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/9 "2007-11-07T16:04:46Z")
Boris appears to be a buffoon and idiot but underneath he is as cunning and intelligent as any other politician (sorry I’m making an assumption there). However by backing the next President of the United States (oops another assumption) and by association anti Bush then I agree with amrussell. In effect Boris is playing a blinder. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/10 "2007-11-07T16:09:39Z")
Boris’s big problem is that he comes across as very intelligent - even when you disagree with him - when he has time to think things through, but he’s not so good when he has to think on his feet. It’s almost as if the written Boris were a different person. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/11 "2007-11-07T16:41:29Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Boris’s big problem is that he comes across as very intelligent - even when you disagree with him - when he has time to think things through, but he’s not so good when he has to think on his feet. It’s almost as if the written Boris were a different person. [/QUOTE] Yea - I enjoyed his Roman TV series and the book. But I’m guessing the term ‘research assistant’ covers a multitude of sins here. My WAG is he’s not stupid at all, but very, very ignorant and out of touch. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/12 "2007-11-07T22:29:43Z")
[QUOTE=tagos] But I’m guessing the term ‘research assistant’ covers a multitude of sins here. [/QUOTE] Including adultery with Boris? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hillary-gets-an-unusual-backer/424847/13 "2007-11-08T08:58:02Z")
[QUOTE=tagos] My WAG is he’s not stupid at all, but very, very ignorant and out of touch. [/QUOTE] I disagree: I think he’s simply not so good at thinking on his feet.