“In politics, Hillary Clinton speaks for the Clinton family now, and aside from her campaign debt, she has no real difficulty supporting Barack Obama privately and publicly.
But Bill Clinton has a beef. A Democrat who has spoken directly to Clinton about his feelings said that the former president remains “miffed” for two reasons. One is that he feels that Obama’s candidacy was essentially an anti-Clinton candidacy; that Obama ran against Clinton’s presidential record at times, implying that it was timeworn, divisive, and damaging to the party while adopting policy positions that seemed to flow directly from the Clinton oeuvre. Why should Clinton embrace a guy who spent the past twelve months bashing him and his accomplishments?”
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/why_bill_clintons_miffed_at_obama.php
It strikes me that Mr. Clinton is suffering from the same lack of good sportsmanship that many of his wife’s more zealous supporters suffer from. Senator Obama was not running against the policies of the Clinton years but against the manner in which the game was played. Mr. Clinton may be (or perhaps not by now) that many within the Democratic Party viewed the returns of the Clinton to the White House with a sense of dread. We have grown weary of the swirl of drama that always seems to engulf the Clintons.
It is also widely reported that Mr. Clinton is upset that as he sees it the Obama campaign went out of it’s way to paint Mr. Clinton as a racist. I for one don’t think Mr. Clinton is a racist, however I do think Bill Clinton like many when feeling cornered is apt to say things that would have been better left unsaid, his Jesse Jackson crack in South Carolina is one such remark. He needs to take responsibility for such remarks. Regrettably I don’t think that is going to happen, if history tells us anything, Bill Clinton is not one who can readily admit a mistake. It’s also been said that Bill is waiting for an apology, for his sake I hope he doesn’t plan on waiting too long, he’s bound to be disappointed. It would not be to Senator Obama’s advantage to been seen as groveling to Bill Clinton. If Bill Clinton wants to be viewed as one of our beloved elder statesmen it’s time for him to step up to the plate and act like one.
BrianInNYC
16 Comments
June 26, 2008 at 2:08 pm
test, please ignore
June 26, 2008 at 2:14 pm
As I’ve said before, I think the reason Bill’s pissed is because Barack is the Bill. Think back to the excitement in ‘92. Now fast forward to 2008. Same deal. Rather than be pissed that Barack stole his gig, he should feel proud that he, the first black president, set the example for the second.
June 26, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Meant to say “Barack is the new Bill.”
June 26, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I agree, I also think the same attitude explains Rev. Wright behavior at the National Press Club, the older generation feeling miffed at the younger taking center stage. I think we’ve seen a lot of that same attitude coming from many of Hillary’s older supporters too.
June 26, 2008 at 2:29 pm
The Democrats’ Lieberman Problem
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1817122,00.html
June 26, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I like old Joe, though I disagree with him on Iraq and that the highest purpose of the US is to support Israel.
June 26, 2008 at 5:02 pm
John Cornyn has a new ad. I guess he doesn’t figure how outrageously funny it is.
With all due respect to Jimmy Dean, here it is:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tt05KC3Add8
June 26, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Well done ad, but the msg sucks and the man is a scum bag. Anytime a politician claims he is doing the lord’s work I start getting nervous.
June 26, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Wow, I found the backchannel blog backdrafted from the old C’lister blister-packaged Clinton-cloned clan of of condescension. Keep up the good fight… and don’t forget to always wear your cup.
June 26, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Wow, blast from the past, glad to see you around Mad. Hey how be a contributing editor and writing some pieces for the blog? We’d all love to hear your thoughts.
June 26, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Well just stopping in before hitting the sack for the night.
Hi Mad,
The Scorpion is still alive and kicking as seen tonight on Dan Abrams show.
I’m still kicking to though not over at Craig’s, just lurk there now.
As much as I hate to admit it Brian I agree with the SCOTUS decision on the 2nd. Amendment.
I do believe though that there should be strong gun control regulations and they should be enforced better than they are.
My reason is because one day the people may need to once again pick up their arms and take to the streets to regain our Constitution from a Dictatorial Regime such as Der Fuhrer Bush’s.
A lot can happen between now and November and we could end up under Martial Law with the suspension of the Constitution.
I put nothing past this insane Decider and the House and Senate are fools if they think they can control him. Just like the German Legislature thought they could control Hitler only to find out they couldn’t.
Anyway its time for bed so night all and…
God Bless.
June 26, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Mad mad mad! you are a sight for sore eye babe! Good to see you and try to go to the Internet outlet more often.
Great thread Brian. I will give it a good once over tomorrow. After i rest. Been a long day.
June 27, 2008 at 9:13 am
from Ambinder: pool report of Obama and Clinton meeting with HRC’s fundraisers, written by Shailagh Murray of the WaPost:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/clinton_donors_meet_obama_a_po.php
I wish Ambinder still carried reader comments on his blog posts; his readers were a pretty astute bunch….
June 27, 2008 at 9:35 am
Some thinkers on the future of the GOP might be getting it: David Brooks column today on new book on returning GOP from country club Republicans to Sam’s Club Republicans (drawing on a quote by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, heavily rumored to be a possible McCain VP nominee).
High praise for “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” by Ross Douthat (blogs for The Atlantic) and Reihan Salam, a former asst to David Brooks.
…:Douthat and Salam argue that the Republicans rode to the majority because of support from the Reagan Democrats, and if the party has a future, it will be because it understands the dreams and tribulations of working-class Americans.
They open the book with a working-class view of recent American history. Douthat and Salam write admiringly about the New Deal. They mention Roosevelt’s economic policies, but they also emphasize the New Deal’s intense social conservatism. Self-conscious maternalists like Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins ensured that New Deal programs were biased in favor of traditional two-parent families. [MATERNALISTS?]
……..
The heart of the book is the last third, where Douthat and Salam lay out a series of policy ideas to help working-class families cope with economic, health care, neighborhood and family insecurity.
“What all these ideas, from the sober to the speculative, have in common is a vision of working-class independence — from bosses, from bureaucracy, from entrenched interests of all kinds,” Douthat and Salam write. This is not compassionate conservatism (which flattered the mind of the compassionate donor), it’s hard-work conservatism, which uses government to increase the odds that self-discipline and effort will pay off.
I’m not sure how quickly the G.O.P. can swing behind this working-class focus and this vision of government-enhanced social mobility. …. It may take a few defeats for the G.O.P. to embrace a Sam’s Club agenda, but sooner or later, it will happen. Trust me.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/opinion/27brooks.html?ref=opinion
[Dog's digression: Must it be Sam's Club, with its ties to Sam Walton and emphasis on low prices, which drives production to China and LDCs? What's wrong with Costco, with it emphasis on fair treatment of employees, and, more likely, the discount warehouse David Brooks is most likely to shop?]
June 27, 2008 at 9:50 am
Brian: first of all, thank you for putting together an excellent collective blog. Am very excited to hear that we will be posting opening essays by new voices and opening the forum to McCain supporters and ensuring this blog remains a welcome site for a diverse set of opinions (as long as one can make one’s case rationally and perhaps even engagingly!)
Second: on the Bill post above: WJC is an incredibly smart man, and with a bit more reflection he should be able to get past HRC’s narrow loss to Obama.
Obama is first among the next generation of successors to President Clinton — and this entails building on WJC’s many good efforts and the sound foundation he left. (Regrettably, lots of rebuilding to do after the disastrous administration that followed Clinton’s.)
WJC fears being irrelevant more than anything else, and has talent, wisdom and purpose to spare, so I hope we will see extended use of his talents in the new Democratic administration (please, let that be this fall’s outcome) or however WJC chooses to deploy them.
Have been an Obama supporter for many months, but never a Bill Clinton detractor. (Which is not to say that I was impressed by Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, a different matter entirely.)
June 27, 2008 at 10:20 am
NEW THREAD
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