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nevadamedic
11-11-2007, 03:36 AM
Hillary says she cares about the working folks - but she walked out of a restaurant and did not leave the waitress a tip.

She did the same thing in her first Senate run

So much for her "caring" and "compassion" for the working folks.

Of course, her staff took the blame and tiped the waitress AFTER the story broke



Chance Encounter with Clinton

I followed Clinton during a recent bus tour across Iowa, when she and her entourage pulled into a Maid-Rite, a greasy spoon famous for its loose-meat sandwich. Clinton settled into a red stool at the counter, ate a sandwich, chatted with her waitress and then was on her way.

The scene gave Clinton perfect fodder for her next few stump speeches. It turns out her waitress was a single, working mom — just the kind of voter Democrats are courting aggressively this year.

Clinton recalled the meeting for an audience up the road in Boone. "The woman waiting on us — it was her first day," she said, adding, "She was a little nervous. Single mom, raised two boys, works at a nursing home and always has a second job."

If she's elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better.

The way Clinton eased the waitress into her rhetoric is something repeated day after day, by all the campaigns. But in the process, people like the waitress don't always have their stories told.

'Nobody Got Left a Tip'

"I wished I would have been asked first," the waitress, Anita Esterday, said of Clinton's decision to insert her in a speech. "I wish she would have asked if she could talk about me later. I didn't like it when someone called me up and said Hillary Clinton is talking about you. It's like, what'd I do now? What's she saying?"

When I returned to the Maid-Rite a few weeks later, Esterday said the senator had caught her off guard. But once they got talking, she was honest with Clinton about her need to work two to three jobs.

"I've been doing it all my life. Why should it change now that I'm old," Esterday said.

Esterday does not think Clinton got it. "I don't think she understood at all what I was saying," Esterday said. "I mean, nobody got left a tip that day."

Clinton may have decided not to tip. She was also never given a bill — her meal was on the house. Still, Esterday said Clinton might have left her something: "Maybe they don't carry money. I don't know."

The visit hurt Esterday in another way. The local paper ran photos of her with Clinton. She said her supervisor at the nursing home isn't a big Hillary Clinton fan and she thinks that may be related to why her hours were almost totally cut.

Now, Esterday is looking for a different second job. However, she said she's not upset that Clinton visited the restaurant.

"I got my 15 minutes of fame out of the world," Esterday said. "There you go. I got her autograph. That's something I'll treasure forever."

But as far as the attention she's received? "It hasn't helped me. It's made things worse."

Still, Esterday doesn't blame Clinton; she says she may even vote for the former first lady. She's also considering voting for Barack Obama.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=16099751

AlonzoMourning23
11-11-2007, 03:40 AM
Just out of curiosity, does anyone think that Hillary is actually in charge of paying the bill when she goes out to eat? I would think one of her staff members took care of things like that. Seems like something that would be well within the duties of her staff.

nevadamedic
11-11-2007, 03:44 AM
Just out of curiosity, does anyone think that Hillary is actually in charge of paying the bill when she goes out to eat? I would think one of her staff members took care of things like that. Seems like something that would be well within the duties of her staff.


Yes I do. when I worked on our Governors campaign and we all went out he would pay and leave a tip with his credit card so there was always a receipt.

AlanC
11-11-2007, 04:05 AM
Just out of curiosity, does anyone think that Hillary is actually in charge of paying the bill when she goes out to eat? I would think one of her staff members took care of things like that. Seems like something that would be well within the duties of her staff.

So you are saying that Hillary is incapable of running her campaign staff? If she is not in charge, then who is?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Lazarus
11-11-2007, 05:07 AM
When Real Lives Get Swept Into Campaign Rhetoric (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16099751)
I replaced your missing link.

Also:
NPR has issued a follow-up-
Clinton Campaign Says It Tipped Maid-Rite Waitress (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16143435)
Clinton spokesman Phil Singer wrote to NPR in an e-mail: "The campaign spent $157 and left a $100 tip at the Maid-Rite Restaurant. Wish you had checked in with us beforehand."

Esterday said "nobody got tipped that day," and NPR should have checked with the Clinton campaign before the story aired to see if any tip was left and how it was done. We regret that this was not done. On Thursday, Esterday was sticking by her story.

Maid-Rite's manager, Brad Crawford, said Thursday that while he was not present at the restaurant on Oct. 8, he knew that a bill was paid by the campaign that day. He also said that he believed three of six servers working that day received tips from people he thought were working for or affiliated with the Clinton campaign.
"Where Hillary was sitting, there was no tip left," Crawford said.

Esterday, speaking to NPR from home later Thursday, said the Clinton campaign staffer who visited the diner apologized to her and said a $100 tip was left on a credit card the day of Clinton's visit. Esterday said the staff member said the money was meant to be shared.

"I explained to her that our credit card machine, you know, doesn't add on the tip," Esterday said. "And she said, 'Well, then, they left a $100 bill there.' And I said, 'Well, it didn't get divided up amongst us, because I had gotten nothing.'

"She just said, 'Well, there was one left,'" Esterday said. "She just kept repeating, 'There was one left.'

Sounds rather fishy to me, yet they just keep diggin'.

Pookie
11-11-2007, 05:11 AM
I've never been a Hillary fan, anyway. Just think -- if her staff could not leave a tip and she herself could not bring it upon herself to leave a tip -- what will her administration be like if she wins in '08?
Dang, what a scary thought.
Hisses to Ms. Clinton,

ViolaLee
11-11-2007, 05:32 AM
I heard the interview on NPR. And I also heard the follow up story.

The Clinton campaign went back and gave the lady a $20. I guess they'll be more careful about leaving tips in the future.[hr]I also think that the negative stories about Hillary don't even compare to the negative stories about other candidates. Like Giuliani for example, and his relationship with the crook Bernie Kerack who's on trial right now for tax evasion and taking bribes. Giuliani wanted him to head up Homeland Security but he got caught not paying taxes for his illegal immigrant nanny. Not leaving a tip doesn't compare in any way to all that imho.

Pookie
11-11-2007, 05:47 AM
Good! Hopefully they learned a lesson. It's going to be really interesting to see who's finally running in '08.
Purrs,

Lazarus
11-11-2007, 06:20 AM
I neglected to add these words of wisdom -
You People Are Really Nuts (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/us/politics/09clinton.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin)

Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.

“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”


Now everybody focus their attention on the shiny object, while the country goes to shit.

ViolaLee
11-11-2007, 06:26 AM
Smart lady, Ms. Esterday.

AlonzoMourning23
11-11-2007, 11:17 AM
Just out of curiosity, does anyone think that Hillary is actually in charge of paying the bill when she goes out to eat? I would think one of her staff members took care of things like that. Seems like something that would be well within the duties of her staff.

So you are saying that Hillary is incapable of running her campaign staff? If she is not in charge, then who is?

Sorry, couldn't resist.


The reason you have other people doing things is so you don't have to take care of every little detail at that time. Now if she doesn't correct it in the future then your "not in charge" comment makes sense, but people usually have the leeway to screw up on the duties the first time before the one in charge realizes it and corrects it.

RLN
11-11-2007, 05:48 PM
I believe that Hillary's campaign did pay the tip; it was on a credit card because expenses must be recorded. Another article explaining what happened. (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003670383)

Scorpion
11-11-2007, 06:00 PM
Why is she complaining that she didn't get a tip? She got Hillary's autograph which she can easily sell for...um...well? Ok, so she deserves the tip.

:madlaugh:

icemancole
11-11-2007, 06:20 PM
I'm sure it was not on purpose.

www.ivotedforhillary.com

www.ivotedforhillary.blogspot.com

:help:

lily
11-11-2007, 10:06 PM
A $100.00 tip for a $157.00 bill sounds pretty generous to me!