Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'The Survivor': Measuring His Success
New York Times Sunday Book Review ^ | June 12, 2005 | ALAN EHRENHALT

Posted on 06/11/2005 11:00:40 AM PDT by Che Chihuahua

MILLIONS of Americans despise Bill Clinton. They have done so since he became a presence in national politics in the early 1990's, and they continue to do so today, more than four years after his retirement from public office.

The passion of the Clinton haters is a phenomenon without equal in recent American politics. It is not based on any specific policies that Clinton promoted or implemented during his years in office. It is almost entirely personal. In its persistence and intensity, it goes far beyond anything that comparable numbers of people have felt about Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan or either of the presidents Bush. It surpasses even the liberals' longstanding detestation of Richard Nixon. The only political obsession comparable to it in the past century is the hatred that a significant minority of Americans felt for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In this respect the phenomenon is all the more puzzling. Roosevelt made enormous and sometimes reckless changes in the American government and economy, and when his critics loathed him for it, he loathed them back. ''They are unanimous in their hate for me'' he said of them in his 1936 re-election campaign, ''and I welcome their hatred.'' Clinton, on the other hand, was a centrist who undertook no dramatic transformations of society or government and, what was more, showed himself to be an instinctive conciliator who believed in compromise almost to a fault.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: americahate; billclinton; clintonhaters; domestic; hatred; impeachedx42; obesession; policy; presidents; reckless; reform; roosevelt; tax; welfare
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-23 last
To: unlearner
No. The author has it backwards - Clinton's personality is very likable. He is a great speaker, he is smart and charismatic. That I hate the guy is not personal; it is due to the evil he has done.

You sir are correct!
How can this author be so stupid as to not know why the people who hate BC actually hate him?...after writing a book even.

The answer is he's promoting BC's agenda and looking for explanations to cast aspersions on those he himself sees as "Clinton haters."

Notice how the libs want to cast their political opposition as irrational, hate filled zealots. This irresistable definition of those who oppose you doesn't wash when put beside the real facts.

Look, Bill Clinton is a narcissist, a likable enough guy crippled by a wicked personality disorder, whose character brought reproach upon the Office of President.

End of story.

21 posted on 06/11/2005 7:16:45 PM PDT by ThirstyMan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Che Chihuahua
...showed himself to be an instinctive conciliator who believed in compromise almost to a fault.

Indeed he did - SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Bill Clinton's excesses brought him impeachement......and now this....."But as often happens, a legitimate debate among analysts was misused by many during the 1990s to either try to inflate the Chinese threat or to downplay it or ignore it for political reasons. This latter group was lead -- not by some "close-knit fraternity" of analysts out to fool the government -- but by Bill Clinton himself. Clinton went so far as to declare certain collection activities against China as "off-limits" and also put certain topics off-limits as well. In practice that meant, while we knew what was going on, we were not allowed to say some things, or to officially report certain obvious conclusions"

22 posted on 06/12/2005 7:36:48 AM PDT by yoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yoe

Clinton is the absolute worst US president in history and that's saying a lot when you consider that Harding, Carter, FDR, and LBJ are in the running for that "honor."


23 posted on 06/12/2005 6:51:07 PM PDT by Che Chihuahua (Is an alcoholic that is responsible for a vehicular homicide fit to serve in the Senate?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-23 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson