D-D-DADDY!!! H-H-H-HUG ME!!!
Posted on 03/10/2005 10:47:27 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
Bill Clinton enjoyed a round of golf yesterday with his old rival turned new buddy, the first President George Bush, in the odd couple's latest outing in front of the cameras.
Such a joint appearance would once have looked like a stuffy piece of presidential protocol. For years Mr Clinton was all but the devil incarnate to diehard Republicans after he upset Mr Bush's bid for re-election in 1992.
But the atmosphere of the old presidents' club and the pair's recruitment by the White House to be America's co-chief fund raisers for the victims of the Asian tsunami, has forged an intriguing bond.
Yes, they were mismatched, Mr Bush senior conceded recently. But despite their rivalry on the campaign trail, he went on, they had never been hostile.
In a rare public and even Clintonian display of sentiment from an essentially private man, he added: "Maybe I'm the father he never had". Mr Clinton's father died in a car accident a few months before the future president was born.
Mr Clinton too has been the model of courtesy, regularly deferring to his predecessor's extra 22 years of experience, even though, as a two-term president, he technically trumps Mr Bush.
To the bemusement of his enemies on the Right, on the government 757 jetting across Asia, Mr Clinton insisted on ceding the only bed to his elder travelling companion and sleeping on the floor.
"He was very considerate of the old guy. That's me," Mr Bush told the Houston Chronicle. "I mean, like the room on the plane. There was every reason in the world he should have had equal time if not priority, but he insisted. That's a tiny little thing that meant a lot to me."
Democrat and Republican, liberal womanising baby-boomer and old-fashioned, blue-blooded conservative, ostensibly the heads of America's two most powerful political families have little in common.
But their rapport has blossomed since they exchanged warm words at the opening of Mr Clinton's presidential library last November.
At the same time, in a sign that America is not as polarised as the recent election suggested, relations between Mr Clinton and George Bush the younger are positively cordial.
However, as Mr Clinton and the elder Bush headed off with Greg Norman to a Florida golf course yesterday to raise money for the tsunami victims, the first voices were heard suggesting that the love-in had risky repercussions for the Republicans.
Mr Clinton's wife, Hillary, a senator for New York, could be a powerful Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2008. As Mr Clinton undergoes an operation today, to remove scar tissue from last year's quadruple heart bypass, the Clinton family can be guaranteed yet more high profile and heart-warming coverage.
No way we take WI or PA or NH.
There will also be no Jeb in FLA in 08 to pull things over the line.
We did NOTHING to end the bussed in philly fraud or WA fraud or madison fraud.
It would not be hard for hillary to pick off either fla or ohio. In the case of FLA you have New yorkers moving there in droves and voting in both states.
In the case of Ohio you have manufacturing loses.
No way ANYONE gets in the way of Evita and just like the right got behind W (even buchannon) the moveon people will be fawning over evita.
Dang it. The guys becoming less of a political divider as time goes on. But that's alright. That only means history can judge his failures sooner.
All I remember of it was that Elder Bush just seemd to play dead...gave it up without a fight.
"significant flood of arousal-gappers who will flock to her on the basis of gender identity alone"
That's what scares me about Hillary in '08--suburban women voters (and I am a woman).
You are so right. Bush Sr. gives legitimacy to Clinton.
And I think she evil on a level not often talked about. B Clinton would not use the military because he was afraid of breaking things and killing people (africa, kosovo etc).
Hillary! has seen the success W has had and she is likely to gut the military through social programs AND over extend it on risky missions if she thinks success would make her look 'tough'
Hillary! would likely get MORE people killed in a war and the media would not even report the deaths....
IMO, Clinton looks just as old as Bush, the Elder. Rush is right, the heart surgery MAY have changed Ole Bill. 'Sides now they're just people, not rivals.
Wisconsin has been trending R, just like Iowa. NH is an R State, look at Gregg and Sununu, Jr, Kerry won because he was from Mass. Pennslyvania has elected Santorum twice, and could go that way if the fraud fom Philly could be kept in check. Florida is trending R, after the Blue Dog Dems keep dying off.
Minnesota is next.
Clinton looks terrible. He might not live to '08, and Hillary would get the sympathy vote.
NH is blue. The libs tax themselves into oblivion in Mass and then infest their next host.
Sanatation is in big trouble. He was FOR increasing the min wage!
"Keep in mind that Wisconsin and New Hampshire went Blue by less than 30,000"
i love how the MSM never mentions that just OH OH OH
lame
NH went blue by about 9000 and that was more than likely due to Massholes who have summer homes up here and took advantage of same day registration
Wisconsin was voter fraud
They worked on that hard in 2004. They absolutely slaughtered Bush in OH with the foreign trade/outsourcing issue. Kerry, for a variety of reasons, couldn't sell that message with quite enough people, although he did better than Gore in the previous cycle.
GWB turned the tables in FL, doing better there in '04 than in '00, but again, it's a close thing. If we lose either one, we lose.
Can Hillary! do it in '08? As a liberal NY Senator, one of the liberal northeastern politicians the 'Rats have floated in a couple of elections, Kerry in '04 and Dukakis in '88, she probably can't. But Hillary! won't run as a northeast liberal. She'll masquerade as a centrist, like Bill Clinton did, touting her Midwestern roots (growing up in IL) and southern connection (living in Arkansas all those years). Will it work? Like I said, it will probably be a very close thing.
"NH is blue"
NH is more a flip flopper state
it was only a 9k vote margin and that was probably due to Kerry being from Mass and the mass immigrants plus same day registration made voting easy for summer home folks to vote
Me? I'd be afraid of catching VD from Bubba and Hoof-and-Mouth from Teddy-Boy. Best to stay a gazillion miles away from them disease-carriers.
I am optimistic too. But I would be even more optimistic if:
1 Hillary was discredited
2 Bush passed private accounts. Then every cab driver gets into the market and likely owns stock. All of a sudden EVERYONE would be for GDP growth and less gov spending. We also would not have to spend too much time on commonsense measures like developing domestic oil.
3 We get out of the WTO and promote bi-lateral with countries on mutually beneficial terms.
And how do you expect that trend to reverse?
We were fortunate that Bush was able to flip a couple of states his way (NM, IA) to make up that difference and then some. That may work okay with states that have smaller electoral totals. We can't afford to gamble with larger states. Lose one of those and we're done.
True, that applies to the 'Rats as well, but the bigger states that we in play in 2004 (PA, MI) are unlikely to flip because of recent trends and the local dynamics. For example, the Republicans held out a lot of hope in 2004 (as best I remember it being discussed in FR anyway) for flipping NJ, and it turned out to be a fool's errand. The 'Rats seem to be holding more cards in terms of keeping what they've got. We need to keep the pressure on to hold the close states we have now, because those will be the keys to victory.
I hope that's true for Minnesota. After the Wellstone funerally it started to seem to go slowly towards the red, however, that impression is countered by the increasing insanity, hostility, and violence on the left.
well the next election won't have a New Englander on the Dem side unless they are incredibly stupid. Also the legislature up here is rectifying the same day registration fiasco. With any luck passions of the Dim side will have ebbed and we can flip back to a Red State
that being said i was VERY disappointed when NH went Blue. Live Free or Die apparently died voting for that socialist scumbag Kerry
If Romney is on the R ticket i would say a good chance he could take NH without much of a problem
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