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Clinton's Depressing Assault on Obama
Washington Post Writers Group ^ | January 25, 2008 | E. J. Dionne

Posted on 01/25/2008 8:31:29 AM PST by george76

It was a remarkable moment: A young, free-thinking presidential hopeful named Bill Clinton sat down with reporters and editors at The Washington Post in October 1991 and started saying things most Democrats wouldn't allow to pass their lips.

Ronald Reagan, Clinton said, deserved credit for winning the Cold War. He praised Reagan's "rhetoric in defense of freedom" and his role in "advancing the idea that communism could be rolled back."

"The idea that we were going to stand firm and reaffirm our containment strategy, and ...

the signal had been sent: Clinton was willing to move beyond "the brain-dead politics in both parties," as he so often put it.

I have been thinking about that episode ever since Hillary Clinton's campaign started unloading on Barack Obama for making statements about Reagan that were, if anything, more measured than Bill Clinton's 1991 comments. Obama simply acknowledged Reagan's long-term impact on politics, and the fact that conservatives once constituted the camp producing new ideas, flawed though they were.

Obama's not particularly original insight was a central premise of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. Clinton argued over and over that Democrats could not win without new ideas of their own. To reread Clinton's "New Covenant" speeches from back then is to be reminded of how electrifying it was to hear a politician who was willing to break new ground.

That's why the Clintons' assault on Obama is so depressing. ...

The worst thing about all this is what both Clintons are doing to their own legacy ...

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


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barack; barackobama; billary; billclinton; clinton; conspiringclintons; ejdionne; hillary; hitlery; obama; sc2008; wickedhillary
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The worst...best... thing about all this is what both Clintons are doing to their own legacy ...

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1 posted on 01/25/2008 8:31:30 AM PST by george76
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To: george76
Huh? I am feeling rather chipper.
2 posted on 01/25/2008 8:39:06 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper (Hunter's endorsement makes Huckabee the last credible candidate on FR)
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To: george76

There is no such thing as a Clinton legacy. Clinton was a liar, a rapist, a murderer, a cocaine dealer and a corrupt and treasonous president. Any Clinton legacy is fiction created by the MSM.


3 posted on 01/25/2008 8:43:49 AM PST by detective
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To: george76

clintins are afraid and jealous.

They are old, stale, musty and repeat the same old things

Obama and his wife are young, new, fresh and look to the future with hope and change. They also have two young daughters and want the best for them. They would be a bright and shiny addition to the White House with their young family. clintins would just continue to tarnish everything in there that they touch.

Nope, we need fresh faces and hopeful familes like the Obamas. :)


4 posted on 01/25/2008 8:46:38 AM PST by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done more for this country than any of us will ever fully realize.)
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To: cubreporter
we need fresh faces and hopeful familes like the Obamas

Like we need the plague!
5 posted on 01/25/2008 8:48:31 AM PST by Beckwith (Dhimmicrats and the liberal media have chosen sides -- Islamofascism)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

” the Clintons are playing a game of jujitsu with Obama, using his own strength against him.

By challenging Obama for the black vote - by promising to go door to door in South Carolina in minority neighborhoods, for example - Bill is highlighting the question: Will Obama carry the black vote? Of course, he will. He leads, 4 to 1, among African-Americans now.

But by making that the central question, Obama’s South Carolina victory will be hailed as proof that he won the African-American vote. Such block voting will trigger the white backlash Sen. Clinton needs to win.

Once whites see blacks voting en masse for a black man, they will figure that it is a racial game and line up for Hillary. Already, she carries white voters by 2 to 1.

The Clintons can well afford to lose South Carolina as long as the election is not seen as a bellwether of how the South will vote but as an indication of how African-Americans will go.

It’s a small price to pay for the racial polarization they need to win.”


6 posted on 01/25/2008 8:49:18 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76
Clinton was willing to move beyond "the brain-dead politics in both parties," as he so often put it.

It's a shame E.J. is not free-thinking. If he were, he might realize that the entire Decadent Left, including its Political Machine (the Democrat Party) and its Propaganda Machine (the Mainstream Newsmedia) (!), is brain-dead.

The Left is brain-dead.

Western Civilization is infected with the deadly disease of Decadence--manifested as the Left--which, if the likes of E.J. have their way, will leave Western Civilization more than just brain-dead.

7 posted on 01/25/2008 8:50:50 AM PST by Savage Beast ("History is not just cruel. It is witty." ~Charles Krauthammer)
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To: george76

This AND the picture of the Clintons with the SLUMLORD REZKO might actually put a little chinck in their armor.


8 posted on 01/25/2008 8:50:50 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion.....The Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Beckwith
Like we need the plague!

We've already got the plague. It's called the Krintongs and Julie McRombee

9 posted on 01/25/2008 8:52:25 AM PST by Revolting cat! (We all need someone we can bleed on...)
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To: george76
The photo is displayed on Drudge!!!

'I DON'T REMEMBER MEETING REZKO' Fri Jan 25 2008 07:40:02 **INTERNET EXCLUSIVE** Photo surfaces of smiling Clintons with Tony Rezko. MORE... Clinton injected the indicted developer's name this week in debate with Obama: 'I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.' Clinton tells NBC 'TODAY' show on Friday: 'I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures. I don't know the man. I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door.' Developing...

10 posted on 01/25/2008 8:55:32 AM PST by danamco
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To: Ann Archy

We are still waiting for Bubba to release the Clinton Library records from his term. He promised us ?

Just like Hillary losing / finding her billing records under her bed years later.


11 posted on 01/25/2008 8:55:59 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76
What has happened to the Almighty Zero....Oprah?

Did she realize Obama was more of a drag on her than she was a boost to him?

Did funny things happen to her personal plane?

12 posted on 01/25/2008 8:56:44 AM PST by N. Theknow (Kennedys: Can't drive, can't fly, can't ski, can't skipper a boat; but they know what's best for us)
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To: danamco

They don’t know Peter Paul either!!!


13 posted on 01/25/2008 8:57:57 AM PST by danamco
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To: N. Theknow; Fred Nerks; Candor7; forkinsocket; jan in Colorado; LucyT

Oprah has been very silent since Iowa ...

Someone may have paid her a visit ?


14 posted on 01/25/2008 9:01:14 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76
The worst...best... thing about all this is what both Clintons are doing to their own legacy ...

. Well, it gets confusing, considering that their "legacy" is pretty awful to start with. It just demonstrates how detached from reality the writer is.


15 posted on 01/25/2008 9:04:16 AM PST by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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To: Lee'sGhost

We know that the Clinton legacy is terrible, so this is as expected.

The liberals are shocked by Bubba’s latest stuff...

” Who knew...? “


16 posted on 01/25/2008 9:07:35 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76
They will be concernerd about this just as long as it takes to destroy the Obama campaign. They we will never hear another word.

What Clinton did to Obama will never be an example of an unfair campaign practice like the 'Willie Horton' ads.

17 posted on 01/25/2008 9:12:18 AM PST by Anti-Bubba182
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To: cubreporter
Barry is just too screwed up to be POTUS. The wife is an ANGRY BLACK WYMIN and that makes me very nervous. Barry lived the white life, and then had an epiphany. NOPE. Not gonna buy that sort of indulgence. He’s damaged goods, starting with his being sent away to his white grandparents at aged nine yrs. Ten minutes on Google will tell anyone all they every wanted to know about Barry and his atheist mother, about his being sent away at aged nine yrs., about his elite HS prep academy where he was know exclusively as “Barry” and where he learned to play the game of racial politics.

How does this “dented can” become a frontrunner for the POSTUS? Answer: There is precious little out there to oppose. Barry has black skin and a white face. Both races are going to react. Does Barry harken to the whites because of his unique situation, or does Barry speak to the blacks solely because of his skin colour? How does one tell a major voting bloc to vote race over consequence, to vote integrity over perception? Ain’t gonna happen, so Barry the Hawaiian is a no go this time around, but don’t forget, ever, that this guy is a major player...next time.

18 posted on 01/25/2008 9:12:59 AM PST by ishabibble (ALL-AMERICAN INFIDEL)
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To: george76
Oprah has been very silent since Iowa ... Someone may have paid her a visit ?

There's a much easier explanation than that: self-interest.

Oprah's a very bright businesswoman. She can see the danger of trying to get in the middle of a fight like this one.

If she took a political stance, there'd be no winning. Her "brand" is that she's a woman's woman. I think she'd lose a lot of her following if she allowed herself to be tarnished by the fact that she'd "gone political."

Yeah, sure, she's an unabashed Democrat, but her attraction isn't really political. To jump into a fight between Obama and Hillary would ruin her image.

19 posted on 01/25/2008 9:13:46 AM PST by r9etb
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To: george76
Like Bill Clinton said after the 1996 election, when Bob Dole asked why he lied about Dole wanting to do away with Medicare,

"Ya gotta do what ya gotta do!"

The Clintons make me ill, but I hope they keep it up. Eventually, they will go too far.

20 posted on 01/25/2008 9:18:17 AM PST by Trust but Verify ( I'm with Mitt!)
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