“Well, I'm here. He's not,” the former First Lady triumphantly shot back. To which Mr Obama responded, almost ruefully: “OK. Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes.”
both of them you dumbsh!t!!! was there ever any doubt???
Posted on 01/23/2008 6:10:31 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Enough Clinton Incorporated
The ageing pitbull sinking his teeth into Barack Obama needs to be restrained
Gerard Baker
The Democratic presidential primary contest has provided yet more proof, if any were needed, of the validity of Churchill's old quip that, while members of the other political party may be your opposition, your enemies are definitely on your own side.
In South Carolina this week, the two leading Democratic candidates squared off in what was by far the most testy and unpleasant series of exchanges of the whole presidential campaign so far. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton spat accusations back and forth about the arcana of their various policy proposals and traded nastier gibes about who had been the bigger hypocrite in taking money from evil corporations while claiming to stand up for the little guy.
Then Mr Obama tried to shift the conversation to one of the many distortions by the Clinton team of things he had said on the campaign trail. Specifically he accused Mrs Clinton of misrepresenting some mildly positive remarks he made last week about Ronald Reagan.
“I did not mention (Reagan's) name,” Mrs Clinton said.
“Your husband did,” said Mr Obama
“Well, I'm here. He's not,” the former First Lady triumphantly shot back.
To which Mr Obama responded, almost ruefully: “OK. Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes.”
It was a moment that captured not only the rapidly intensifying rancour of the Democratic race but the essence of what this presidential election is actually about.
If anyone ever doubted that the Hillary Clinton campaign was nothing less than a full-scale restoration of a political dynasty, the past two weeks will have surely disabused them.
Sixteen years ago, when her husband Bill first ran for president, he and his wife offered the US a famous bargain - “two for the price of one”. If they elected Bill, not only would they get the smart, roguish Rhodes scholar with the Southern drawl and the twinkling eyes. They would get, too, the cool, intellectually sharp, disciplined lawyer and policy wonk in her own right: Hillary - to many, the better half.
At the time the promise was regarded as a bit of a gaffe, a feminist leap too far for a country that liked its First Ladies to fuss about the gentler side of presidential labour - arranging seating plans for state dinners and espousing good, non-partisan causes such as tackling drug abuse and adult illiteracy. In their public rhetoric, at least, the Clintons dropped the idea.
But in office the plan went operational. Not only was Hillary a central figure in political decision-making, she was part of a symbiotic, co-dependent political relationship. Whenever Bill got into some scrape it was his wife's willingness to forgive - and go on the offensive against their political enemies - that saved his skin.
In her sharply insightful book, For Love of Politics, Sally Bedell Smith dissects the Clinton relationship, and says it is less like a traditional marriage and more like a vast and successful corporation that dominates the business of American politics. For eight years Bill was the President and Chief Executive Officer while Hillary was the top manager. When he left office, Hillary moved up to the CEO's suite and Bill took over as non-executive chairman. Now, the country is being invited to accept another takeover offer from Clinton Incorporated.
And so when the upstart young black senator from Illinois attempted to lead something of a shareholders' revolt against the proposal, he met the full force of the Clintons' wrath. Bill Clinton has been unleashed on the Obama candidacy like an ageing but still ferocious pitbull let loose on an elegant but slightly diffident Great Dane.
Starting when Mrs Clinton was at her low point just before the New Hampshire primary, the former President has sunk his teeth into the Obama hide and never let go. He dismissed Mr Obama's patently true claim that he had been the only candidate to firmly oppose the Iraq war from the start as “the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen”. In Nevada last week he virtually accused Mr Obama of rigging the vote in the Democratic caucuses there. And it was indeed, as Mrs Clinton gleefully pointed out in that South Carolina debate, her husband who has been accusing Mr Obama of the mortal Democratic sin of saying nice things about Ronald Reagan.
The spectacle has been unprecedented. When George W.Bush ran for president in 2000, his father, former President George H.W.Bush, who had himself been mauled by the Clintons in 1992, pointedly stayed out of the campaign. That might simply owe more to better breeding in the Brahmin Bushes from New England than you find in the dysfunctional family of street-brawling strivers from Arkansas. But it also true proof of how much is at stake for both Clintons this time.
Now you can think - as many Democrats do - that a return to the Clinton years is precisely what a battered and disillusioned America needs today. You can believe - as many independents do - that after seven years of a presidency that has done more to deplete America's strength and global standing than any in the past 30 years that it might not be so bad to venture back to those heady days when all anyone worried about was how to distribute the peace dividend and what to do with the budget surplus.
But Bill Clinton's behaviour these past couple of weeks ought by now to be flashing warning signs for American voters. It is not just that his egregious interventions in the campaign have revived the near certain prospect of a demoralising replay of the stomach-churning bitterness and vicious partisanship of the 1990s - not all of which was the Clintons' fault.
It is that, if nothing else, the history of America, from its very founding, has been a history of the struggle to constrain the appetites of powerful men - and occasionally women. It was this fear of the monarchical tendency that persuaded Americans more than 50 years ago to limit presidents to two terms in office.
By cleverly reincorporating themselves as a political institution in their own right, the Clintons are offering an extra-constitutional detour around this impediment. Her husband's evident role in his family's restoration should give any reasonable American pause when considering the virtues of Mrs Clinton's own claim to the presidency.
Please read the article and pass it on to EVERY Hillary thread!!
It’s so hard being a woman. They want to keep me down (sniff,sniff). dems buy it wholesale. Vote for me idiot. (sniff,sniff)
The Klintoons are so funny. Hillary anounces that she will be cutting back on her time in South Caroline. Then she fails to mention that Attack Dog Bill will fill in the void.
Watch the Ed Schultz video linked on Drudge. I don’t often agree with Schultz, but he tears Bill a new one.
“Well, I'm here. He's not,” the former First Lady triumphantly shot back. To which Mr Obama responded, almost ruefully: “OK. Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes.”
both of them you dumbsh!t!!! was there ever any doubt???
ClintonInx is a vicious ambitious power hungry machine. Let the buyer beware.
he wants everyone listening to know
I had to marvel that between the second and third those two dolts couldn’t figure out the true issue (and why Fox insisted on referring to the incident as ‘crying without tears’). Were the tears real? If not, was the crying fake? If the crying was fake, shouldn’t that help you form an opinion about the candidate?
Let’s face it, there were no tears because the crying was fake. She pretended to cry right before a primary to sucker stupid women who ‘feel’ rather than think into voting for her. However, I do believe this was also orchestrated with a huge bus-them-in campaign to ensure she’d win — all of this in an effort to try to create the illusion that women finally supported her and to start some momentum.
I pray the womyn vote that goes for Hillary isn’t strong enough to push her over the top, if she’s the candidate.
Hillary will do everything she can to turn this country into the U.S.S.A.
You mean "the dysfunctional street-brawling strivers from Arkansas" are what America needs?
Anyone who did is an idiot. It isn't just BJ Billy's noxious face that proves it, either. Take a look at Hil's team - Begala, Blumenthal, Carville - and try not to have a stomach-lurching flashback to the days when they and their media allies ruled and plundered - sorry, "led" - the country. I see BJ's up for a cool $20 mil payout. What a surprise.
The author makes the customary pieties concerning U.S. international reputation, but a look at the nature of the international scene indicates otherwise. A nascent victory in Iraq, a steady pushback of the Taliban and al Qaeda to their Pakistan redoubts, new governments in several European capitals and a renewed sense of urgency concerning both demography and terrorist subversion there - none of this was the case in 2001, when last such people seemed to seriously consider the matter. The halcyon days of the Clinton regime led directly to the security and foreign policy mess that faced Bush during his first term. That the Clintons have gotten off scot-free for making that mess is a testament to just how formidable their support in the media was and remains.
I am more convinced than ever that Clinton will lie, cheat, back-stab and steam-roller her way to the nomination. If the Republicans present another incarnation of Bob Dole to the voting public we'd better batten down the hatches for four, and possibly eight, miserable years of opposition to damage that may take decades to undo if it can be undone at all. Hil's job and theirs will be to see that it can't be.
“They want to keep me down (sniff,sniff).”
Her new theme song can be Lesley Gore’s 60’s or 70’s hit “It’s My Party” where the lyrics went: “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to. You would cry too if it happened to you.”
We will see and hear more and more of him and his attacks, more lies, more finger pointing and shaking, and, of course, constant attempts to steal the center stage. The Republican candidate will have to be ready with the calmest demeanor, sharp quips and wit and indisputable facts. I just hope whoever wins the Republican primary has the "kahoonas" to confront the Clintons at every step of the way without showing a bit of weakness or the traditional GOP "keep your mouth shut, and be a better man" approach. Even Jesus argued with the devil and told him to get behind Him. Our candidate needs to be able to stand up to the task of winning the sound-bite/slam dunk approach of the Clintons.
And be prepared: What tactic the Clintons always employ is to always claim that they are being attacked. They put on their greatest manipulative acts and charm when they try to convince people they are being attacked. But they really love the fight - and actually geode people into it. Then, on cue, they play the "victim," and utilize their childish whining and phony tears to elicit sympathy.
They are always predictable. Whoever runs against them needs to have a serious lesson in dealing with narcissists and what to expect. Narcissists never change, they are constantly the same. And the Clintons are text-book classic.
Have we forgotten Alamogirl’s gigabytes of Klinton krimes ?
Smellary trashing the travel office staff with blatantly false charges ?
Hiring a bar bouncer to paw through classified FBI files for political blackmail material ?
Bilking oldsters in Whitewater while making hundreds of thousands in cattle futures ?
Her “best buddy” committing suicide with a gun that wasn’t his in Fort Marcy Park ?
Her hubby selling nuclear secrets to the communist chinese for kampaign kash ?
And on and on and on !!!!
Both of the scum should be in prison for life instead of on a national stage spewing venom.
I may dislike Obama’s politics, but if Smellary isn’t a demon from hell in the flesh we sure know what one would be like.
Someone needs to tell the Clintons when they act in such a way as to indicate that they think Hitlery is the “inevitable coronee” that they should - JUST WAIT A DERN MINUTE !
Well put.
Link?
What a Clinton D!ckS@cker this Baker fool is. CLINTON depleted America's strength and global standing and there was NEVER a budget surplus.
Don’t know how to do it....but the thread is called Coal gate
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