Dick Morris: 'Clintons Want Bush Re-elected'

NewsMax.com ^ | 5/30/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

The decision by Bill and Hillary Clinton to keep a high profile going into next year's presidential campaign amounts to a "conscious effort" by the former first couple to make sure that no Democrat wins the White House in 2004.

That's the stunning assessment from political strategist Dick Morris, who said Thursday that the Clintons actually want to see Bush re-elected so he can retire just when Mrs. Clinton is ready to run for the White House herself in 2008.

"There is a conscious effort going on by the Clintons to distract attention from the current field of candidates," Morris told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity. "They do not want a Democrat to win in '04."

"They want Bush to be re-elected," the former Clinton adviser explained. "And that way they want Hillary to be able to run for an open seat."

"If Bush lost and a Democrat were elected, then obviously [Hillary] would have to support him in '08," he noted.

"She couldn't run until 2012. She'd be 65 years old and would have been out of office for 12 years. It's kind of hard at that point to keep the bloom on the rose and be able to run."

Morris said that Bill Clinton wants to maintain his role as spokesman for the Democratic Party so he can "trivialize and minimize the Democratic candidates" and thereby keep the Oval Office open for Hillary.

Another indication that the former first couple would like to see their own party defeated in the next presidential election, said Morris, is the fact that "[Clinton's] big fund-raising guns have not signed up with any of these other guys."

Democratic strategist Susan Estrich offered partial support for Morris' theory last week, complaining that the Clintons were actually hurting other Democratic presidential candidates with their high-profile antics.

"The Clintons suck up every bit of the available air," the one-time Dukakis campaign manager observed. "Nothing is left for anyone else. They are big, too big. That's the problem."

"The 2004 candidates need a chance to get some attention," she added. "Could somebody please tell [the Clintons] to shut up?"

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Sen. Hillary Clinton

[Oztrich Boy]

"She couldn't run until 2012. She'd be 65 years old and would have been out of office for 12 years.

I'm confused. Isn't Hillary! currently in some kind of office that she was elected to in 2000. And isn't that in fact the first public office she was ever elected to?

[varon]

The Clinton's are superb strategists,if nothing else.

Most criminals of note are.

[DakotaGator]

Yes they do, and I'm still wondering how either of them could pass a background check, much less an in-depth security clearance for president or senator.

The sad fact is, they aren't subject to a background check.

[harpo11]

So, the Clinton's wish to take credit for the re-election of President Bush, too, in order to plow the road to the WH for the first presidentress, the avaricious conniving self-centered radical socialist Mrs. Clinton.

The country would have to be absolutely near insanity to elect a woman of such low caliber, but if she should by hook and crook manage to be the occupantsuit of the Oval Office, then this country could end up in as bad as shape as California or worse.

Maybe, Clinton's idea of amending the Constitution to allow a president to serve a third, fourth, how about fifth term is not such a bad idea when we could re-elect President Geroge W. Bush so none of the Clintons would ever have the opportunity to disgrace the Office of the Presidency again.

Good thinking Bill, but only if it works against your risky schemes and plotting.

[Mustang]

The notion of the Hildebeast seeking her return to the White House seems to many a future re-reel & replay of the final moments from the "Manchurian Candidate"...at least Angela Lansbury's character sat & fell, next to her man.

What's next..."Et Tu, Brutus Slickus Willie"...do these bores have no shame?...I know, silly question.

Mustang sends from "Malpaso News"

[Quix]

I don't think she's sufficiently slick or even quite sufficiently evil to be the AC.

I do think her megalomaniacal arrogance would blind her to the possibility of losing in 2004.

She's plenty evil to be utterly destructive to the US OF A.

Prayer and taking every opportunity to work for her denial of any further elected stage to pontificate and destroy from seems very important, to me.

[jagrmeister]

Many of his predictions are accurate, some are not. Unlike most partisans here, Morris is not out of touch with America- he is closer to them than most because he studies polls closely and can discern subtelties in them that shift opinion one way or another. You may not like the idea of polling but it is an accurate way of getting the broad swath of political opinion- too often partisans don't appreciate how the mainstream thinks. They make far too many assumptions about how they feel and what they know.

[nana4bush]

I fear all this talk & speculation coming from first one person and then another like a drumbeat is part of the battle plan to soften the hearts & minds of the sheeple to the POSSIBILITY of Hillary presidency. So when she does decide to announce, everyone will be used to the idea of a woman president. And she will have sold that vision to the public & they will accept her as their candidate.

I pray God will thwart whatever schemes she may be plotting.

[paulklenk]

"She couldn't run until 2012. She'd be 65 years old and would have been out of office for 12 years. It's kind of hard at that point to keep the bloom on the rose and be able to run."

What bloom? What rose? A more appropriate metaphor might be, to "keep the stink in the stinkweed."

[areafiftyone]

This is exactly what I have been saying all along. The Clintons want the field wide open when the Beast runs in 2008!

[Consort]

She's ready to hit the campaign trail anytime Bush gets into serious trouble.

[katze]

I didn't know that, and find that disturbing, since the president (and FLOTUS) are undoubtedly given very sensitive information. I guess much of this is taken for granted, if they can find enough stupid people to elect them. Scary, IMO.

[Slyfox]

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Zeppo]

Um, according to the Clintons, they were elected as co-presidents, right?

[Quix]

Thanks.

But I don't think she lies in wait more than moments if she can help it.

She probably has to strike daily if not hourly.

Her power-mongering blood-thirst wouldn't wait any longer than possible for any advantage, any position, any power grab.

IMHO.

[Slyfox]

Well, she is waiting for one thing, and that is to be BEGGED to run by all the other democrats when they realize, after she has successfully gotten her lackeys to run off all the other hopeful contenders, that she is the only one who can 'save' them from the Republicans. She did the same thing when she ran for the Senate. Hillary is using classical sorcery.

[Slyfox]

Hey, maybe it should read "Lying in wait".