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March 22, 2008
President Clinton's Remarks
I disagree with JumpyPants (below) on President Clinton's "two people who loved this country" statement. I don't think the point of the remarks had to do with specific candidates. I think he was honestly trying to say that he hopes the general election battle will be waged on substance -- and not loaded with smear- and fear mongering. After all, there will only be two people "who loved this country" in the general election. Now certainly President Clinton supports his wife for president, but I think he was talking in generalities in this case.
That said, after the kind of smear-and-fear campaign the Clintons have run, the negative reaction to the former president's remarks is totally understandable.
UPDATE: I stand corrected. JumpyPants has directed me to this video (forward to about the 5-minute mark). With this further evidence, it's clear that President Clinton was attempting to give us a variation of Senator Clinton's awful, awful "my experience; McCain's experience; Obama's speech" statements. And President Clinton totally mangled it. So it's clear that President Clinton was praising Senator McCain's experience and record over Senator Obama's record. Terrible and shameful.
Posted By Bob Cesca | March 22, 2008 08:27 AM | DIGG ME!
Comments
Yeah, I'm with you on this one. I am beginning to become weary of how both sides, Right and Left, leap on every sentence uttered by any prominent political figure and find a way to twist it into something nefarious and damaging. The way the Right jumped on Obama's comments about his grandmother are an example from this week.
I happen to agree with Bill C. on this but, unfortunately, I think what he's talking about is just "a fairytale".
Posted by: Eclectablog ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.bobcesca.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 22, 2008 09:07 AM
I don't agree ... especially given Senator Obama's transcendent speech, where we were implored to address the divisions among the races.
President Clinton seems to be directly ignoring/rejecting this extremely important request from the next President, and I don't believe it's an accident.
Posted by: bradjacks at March 22, 2008 09:22 AM
The Obama campaign responded by comparing Clinton's remarks to McCarthyism.
Boo ya!
Posted by: jackbauer at March 22, 2008 10:44 AM
Sorry, Bob. I have to go with Jumpypants on this one.
Bill Clinton is no neophyte when it comes to public speaking, and these were prepared remarks.
To ask me to believe that Bill Clinton "accidentaly" chose those words stretches credibility far beyond the breaking point.
In light of his wife's repetition of how she and McCain are the only "qualified" people running, Bill Clinton's implication was clearly that only she and McCain "love this country."
The Clintons are assholes of the first order, and will cheerfully destroy the chances of any Democratic candidate who is not Hillary Clinton.
Posted by: Packy Jude at March 22, 2008 11:03 AM
I cannot tell you how disappointed I am. I supported and defended Bill Clinton - both of them - for so long. I thought he was good for this country and, frankly, wouldn't have minded seeing him back in the White House, even if he wasn't the president. The past few months have been an eye-opener and it's not pleasant. Did he really change this drastically or has he had this hubris all along & I was blind to it?
I'll still vote for Hillary if she's the nominee because this country can't withstand four more years of Republican insanity, but I won't be happy about it.
Posted by: ceu at March 22, 2008 11:25 AM
AND I'll be royally pissed if the superdelegates decide that Hillary is to be the nominee!
Posted by: ceu at March 22, 2008 11:27 AM
Yeah. Mea culpa. Man, I used to really, really like Bill Clinton but he seems to have gone out of his way to betray my respect for him.
Posted by: Eclectablog at March 22, 2008 11:36 AM
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