Why Did So Many People Hate Bill Clinton? An Exchange Among Conservatives

History News Network ^ | July 25, 2005 | By David Horowitz, Paul Gottfried, Larry Schweikart and Gene Kizer

[johnny7]

In a recent essay in the NYT Book Review of John F. Harris's The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House, Alan Ehrenhalt speculated about the reasons Clinton was so disliked. This sparked a rigorous debate on Richard Jensen's list, ConservativeNet. Below, a sampling of opinion.

Alan Ehrenhalt's Review

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.

[bvw]

Clinton was no "brilliant politician"! His vote totals for President were under 50%. He was impeached, his party lost the Senate and House under his tenure, his policies were a ruination, he is a disgraced man. That is not "brilliance" -- it is at best "carnival huksterism"! He is notorious, not famous.

[trenton1776]

I didn't despise Clinton because of his cheap behavior or his adolescent ways.

To me, it was obvious that he was the tool of those who want to destroy, by the normal method of lies and deceit, those characteristics in our population that make us Americans - and that make Americans different from most peoples in the world.

Add to that the fact that he proved that almost 50% of the population would go along - either through ignorance or longing for the New America. This proved to the left that their strategy could indeed work and has led to them redoubling their efforts. The Ellsworth Toohey's of the left are today the stars in Hollywood and the news media. Their success with Clinton has just emboldened them.

[Tribune7]

The passion of the Clinton haters is a phenomenon without equal in recent American politics.

Where has this guy been?

It is not based on any specific policies that Clinton promoted or implemented during his years in office. It is almost entirely personal.

If the media was honest about Clinton's character he never would have been elected. He was caught in lies from day 1 and he was never held accountable for them by those institutions that would be expected too.

Further, he took campaign contributions from the Communist Chinese in exchange for missile technology.

Further, he treated the lives of U.S. military personnel cheaply -- Somilia, getting a B.J. while lobbying for support for military action etc.

Further, we was incompetent in foreign policy which most conservatives understood long for 9/11.

Further, he did not believe laws and principles -- upon which he campaigned -- did not apply to him, sexual harrassment, Paula Jones, "the most ethcial administration in history", Wall Street greed.

I could be here all day. Needless to say Jimmy Carter was a worse president but I don't despise him.

[HIDEK6]

But many defended his indiscretions by pointing to the past presidents.

I never understood how this absolved his transgressions.

Childish.

When I was 4 I learned that what another kid's mom let him do had nothing to do with what I was allowed to do.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Well, he was "brilliant" enough to get himself elected twice, circumstances be d@mned.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not supporting the guy one iota. I just agree with Horowitz' analysis of the skewed perceptions between the left and the right and how they generally view Clinton vs Bush. I didn't vote for him.

And I certainly won't be voting for his wife, though I hear she's 'The Smartest Woman in the World!' ;)

[sandydipper]

I hate Bill Clinton - it started when I learned that he would aspire to be the leader of a military that he despised and ridiculed. The hatred grew as Bill and Hill reaped cash rewards for defrauding a savings and loan at tax payer expense. The grand finale was the disgust heaped on me by his sexual miscreant use of the White House.

Bill Clinton would do anything to put a nickle in his pocket including selling America's secrets. He is the lowest form of life on this planet.

[LADY J]

"Clinton was no "brilliant politician"! His vote totals for President were under 50%. He was impeached, his party lost the Senate and House under his tenure, his policies were a ruination, he is a disgraced man. That is not "brilliance" -- it is at best "carnival huksterism"! He is notorious, not famous."

They also called him a brilliant speaker. I have no clue how anyone could come to that conclusion.

What has disappointed me the most is the way the Bush family has overlooked all the pathetic things this despicable man and his wife did to our country - and they treat him as someone who deserves respect!!

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

In the last 2-3 years, I have come to the realization that JC was a much worse President than WJC. And he managed it in only 4 years.

I'd have to agree. Clinton was corrupt, but Carter was incompetent and naive to the point he was discussing nuclear war with Amy, gave away the Panama Canal, foisted radical Islamofascism on us by selling out the Shah in order for the mullahs to take power in Iran, coddling dictators from Yasser Arafat to Kim Il Jung, and doing his level best to drive this country into the ground, which he would have succeeded in doing if not for Ronald Reagan in 1980.

[dg62]

The generational thing rings true for me. Clinton really does represent that....what with the flowery new age feel good rhetoric on the facade while unleashing unbridled destructive self-interest under the surface.

[Kay Syrah]

I think this probably captures what you mean.

[CT]

Unlike GW Bush, the disaffection and disqust for Bill Clinton was real. It did not need mainstream media as a megaphone. However, by the time Clinton did escape office, he had created a new and even more powerful alternative media - talk radio.

It was easy to despise Clinton - both of them. They represent, then and today, the caricature of a scheming and cynical politician. However, with the Clinton's one gets that and more. They also have a blind lust for power. At any cost.

Most annoying thing about the Clintons: media avoidance of anything or almost anything unfavorable to them. For instance, suspect criminal activities were reported as personal 'attacks' on them. Actual scandals were the result of others they knew. And some, like the transferrance of national security secrets, just were ignored.

Living with the Clintons in charge for 8 years was like living with your nation under assault on a daily basis. And so many of us here, while not knowing what Clinton's abuses would eventually bring, could only shake our heads on the afternoon of September 11, 2001.

[MAWG]

I hate his stinkin putrid guts!And as for his fat,ugly Commie wife I'd like to lijzxcfd gwretekj@#$^*(%^ her !!!

[McGavin999]

Perhaps we disliked him because his cowardice at Mogodishu made us a target for terrorists. I knew, the day I saw them dragging a naked American soldier in the street and we did NOTHING, that we would become a target for every third rate power on the planet. Of course, I had no way of knowing it wouldn't be a state that would challange us, but a bunch of religious thugs. But I knew then we were in for trouble.

[from occupied ga]

I think this probably captures what you mean.

Some of it on the attitude side, but by no means all, and nothing on the ideology side :-)

[ctdonath2]

Asking the question about Bill is an academic curiosity.
Asking the question about Hillary is to predict and prepare for the next 4 years.

Anyone care to answer the far more relevant second question?

[massgopguy]

Bill Clinton used the office of the presidency of the United States of America to pick up chicks.

[Reaganghost]

"Why Did So Many People Hate Bill Clinton?"

1. Clinton could not tell the truth about anything, ever.
2. Clinton transferred our national security to China in exchange for China funding his campaign for re-election. Most traitors end up being hated.
3. Clinton is an unconvicted traitor, and deserves the benefit of the doubt under our system of not being guilty until proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
4. In Clinton's case the "beyond a reasonable doubt" is only marginally semantic if you are willing to examine the evidence.

[KC_Conspirator]

There were times that I hated Klinton. He was a liar through and through. And you are right, his administration was a lost opportunity. While he had great communication skill and a media helping him, he was masturbating in the Lincoln bedroom.

Klinton's minions were worse almost. They were the true leftist ideologue who set this country up for 911, although Klinton bears ultimate responsibility.

However, after 4-5 years and a serious War on Terror, I see that Klinton will be remembered for the Lewinsky scandal and he has no one but himself to blame.

[from occupied ga]

Bill Clinton used the office of the presidency of the United States of America to pick up chicks.

In the grand Democrat tradition of J F Kennedy, but if that's all he did he wouldn't be such a jerk, Kennedy lowered taxes; ol' slick gave us the highest tax increase ever.

[cloud8]

The impeached POS is not some kind of loveable old scoundrel who conned his way into 8 years in the White House with an uncanny knack for lying, a throng of sycophants to spin his every misstep, a trail of felonies leading back to Arkansas, a wife more cold-blooded and ambitious than Lady Macbeth, and an insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement. He sold out our country to the Chicoms.

I will loathe, hate and dispise clinton until he is roasting in hell.