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Down, Boy Clinton
American Spectator ^
| 05/05/03
| The Prowler
Posted on 05/04/2003 10:02:17 PM PDT by Pokey78
Stung by his increasingly diminished stature with the public, former President Bill Clinton is mounting an offensive that may cause greater damage to his party than he believes.
Clinton has been appearing on college campuses and speaking to business groups, but the enthusiasm he once took for granted from the crowds is not as evident.
"He's noticing that there aren't as many standing ovations. The cheers aren't as loud," says a former adviser in Washington. "He also feels penned in. He wanted to criticize Bush for Iraq, but he saw the backlash others were feeling and couldn't bring himself to do it. He wants to be respected."
The Clinton Library, which continues to suffer from slow fundraising, has mounted a $100,000 public relations mailing to donors and the media highlighting Clinton's achievements in office. The timing of the mailing, on the heels of George W. Bush again peaking in popularity, was suspicious. But a Clinton Foundation staffer in Little Rock said the Clinton tip sheet has been in the works for several months as part of a six-month drive to raise the money to keep the library's opening on schedule. "We're due to open next year, and this is a big push time for us. We need the money," says the staffer.
Clinton apparently expected that the University of Arkansas seminar series on his presidency would garner greater media coverage, as would his ideas on the direction of the country. According to the Clinton adviser in Washington, it was the former president's people who leaked word that he had been secretly meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Iraq. But those staffers left out Clinton's meetings and conversations with German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac.
"You know it's going to be about image with Clinton," says the former adviser. "In the end, he really doesn't care about Bush on policy. It bugs him that Bush is more popular, more respected in many ways than he is."
And it's that desire to stay one up on the Republican that may drive him to damage his party. Clinton is said by some advisers to be seriously considering pressing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his wife, to dip her toe in the presidential waters. This, despite the fact that she has previously insisted she would not run, and lingering doubts about her national appeal beyond the far-left.
"If she undertakes a national campaign of some kind, he's back in the game in a way he isn't now," says another former adviser in New York. "He'd be a focus of the attention again."
Senator Clinton garnered some attention for her firebrand attack on the Bush administration last week in a fundraising appearance in Connecticut. That speech, and several others scheduled for the month of May, are intended to measure whether a national campaign of any kind is possible this late in the presidential sweepstakes.
"It would probably be difficult for her to mount anything like a presidential campaign," says the former staffer in New York. "But she could kind of shadow the other candidates, make appearances, fundraise for her PAC and the like to gauge the level of enthusiasm. Any attention she gets for any extended period of time washes over Bill, too, which is what he craves."
Democratic National Committee staff say any attempt by the Clintons to step into national politics now would spell disaster for the party. "We're just starting to emerge from the malaise we had with his exit," says a DNC staffer. "Our bases are getting energized by the candidates we have. The party is feeling its oats. To draw attention away from the people who have been working at it for six months isn't going to help."
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: turass
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To: RichInOC
Look, this is totally IMPOSSIBLE and something neither of the Clintons can do with impunity. Even THEY knew this, re Bill's running for third term. Stop being a bloody political naif !
To: Pokey78
"You know it's going to be about image with Clinton," says the former adviser.
"In the end, he really doesn't care about Bush on policy.
It bugs him that Bush is more popular, more respected in many ways than he is." Q ERTY6 utter failure BUMP
62
posted on
05/05/2003 12:58:54 AM PDT
by
Mia T
(SCUM (Stop Clintons' Undermining Machinations))
To: jla
63
posted on
05/05/2003 1:02:22 AM PDT
by
Mia T
(SCUM (Stop Clintons' Undermining Machinations))
To: Pokey78; All
My latest file of "links to a million more links"--
64
posted on
05/05/2003 1:29:12 AM PDT
by
backhoe
(A nuke for every Kook ( NK, Iraq, Iran, Pak, India... )- what a Clinton "legacy...")
To: Pokey78
Can you say NARCISSIST? What a shameless little man.
To: nopardons
Since when have the Klintons ever let the Constitution or any other law get in their way?
To: PeoplesRepublicOfWashington
When Bill didn't run for a THIRD term ! Now stop being an hysteric.
To: river rat
Be quick, rat, I'm right behind. [Sixes are secured]
Per Adua Ad Astra -- Brian
68
posted on
05/05/2003 2:09:18 AM PDT
by
Brian Allen
( Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God - Thomas Jefferson)
To: Brian Allen
According to the Clinton adviser in Washington, it was the former president's people who leaked word that he had been secretly meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Iraq. But those staffers left out Clinton's meetings and conversations with German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac.Axis of Weasels bump.
69
posted on
05/05/2003 4:07:32 AM PDT
by
mewzilla
To: Pokey78
"You know it's going to be about image with Clinton," says the former adviser... "If she undertakes... "He'd be a focus of the attention again."...Any attention she gets for any extended period of time washes over Bill, too,which is what he craves." Son of a gun. There really are Democrats who understand clinton.
70
posted on
05/05/2003 4:22:22 AM PDT
by
libertylover
(Grateful to all who have served.)
To: breakem
I looked up narcisism in the dictionary and there was a picture of Clinton. Funny, there's also a pic of him in the definition of reprobate.
To: jla
He'll implode...sooner or later. ` I hope he EXplodes...and takes out his bride, too!
To: sweetliberty; Budge; MeeknMing
"In the end, he really doesn't care about Bush on policy. It bugs him that Bush is more popular, more respected in many ways than he is." MEMO TO BILL: GO AWAY!
73
posted on
05/05/2003 4:40:06 AM PDT
by
nicmarlo
To: Pokey78
BClinton did leave a legacy, and that legacy will be impacting this Nation for decades, generations.
We have no idea yet the total extent of the harm x42's administration has done to this Nation. His recent speeches about the decline of America and America eventually becoming a third-rate power, etc., show his intents and interests were not in making America the Greatest Nation, but in helping reduce it to a level with the Third World.
We will be counting the cost for years to come, and it could become even more expensive than the devastation (economically and body count) than the morning of 9-11 was.
74
posted on
05/05/2003 4:41:31 AM PDT
by
TomGuy
To: Pokey78
And now we know..the REST of the story!
75
posted on
05/05/2003 4:46:33 AM PDT
by
ewing
To: Pokey78
How is it that the meetings with the frencha and germans did not get ANY mention on Drudge? Did it go completely under the radar? Was it hidden by even the RINO press at Fox?
76
posted on
05/05/2003 4:48:36 AM PDT
by
q_an_a
To: Pokey78
Stung by his increasingly diminished stature with the public, former President Bill Clinton is mounting an offensive that may cause greater damage to his party than he believesThe Democratic Party has is obsessed with the idea of self distruction by bouying itself the the more radical elements of American society and driving away its longtime stable base. Bring it on!
77
posted on
05/05/2003 4:55:49 AM PDT
by
oyez
(Is this a great country or what?)
To: Mia T
The scariest part of this story is that the Toon seems to be pressing the Red Queen to run in 2004..
78
posted on
05/05/2003 4:59:44 AM PDT
by
ewing
To: Pokey78
"In the end, he really doesn't care about Bush on policy. It bugs him that Bush is more popular, more respected in many every way than he is."
79
posted on
05/05/2003 5:07:07 AM PDT
by
Centaur
(Never practice moderation to excess.)
To: jla
I have predicted sooner or later that Klinton will eventually attack another woman in a hotel room, somewhere in Europe. I can just see a attractive '20ish year old woman leaving a hospital with a throng of reporters waiting outside. She will have a black eye and a lump on the side of her head from some punches. "Yes, Bill did it!" will be the headline on all newspaper front pages from London to Moscow.
Of course Klinton will have already jumped on a private jet and head home to avoid any possibility of arrest or police inquiry. Hillary will declare it a right wing "set up".
But sooner or later this is bound to happen, its in the cards.
80
posted on
05/05/2003 5:14:52 AM PDT
by
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