Posted on 09/22/2011 6:58:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
If anyone ever believed that the more conservative Bill Clinton really thought the more liberal Barack Obama was prepared to be president in 2008, let them wonder no longer.
Clinton might seem to be in a tight spot, given that his wife works for Obama. But in an interview conducted by Newsmax's CEO, Christopher Ruddy, the former president made it clear that now is neither the time to be increasing taxes nor to be imposing more regulations on businesses and consumers.
Thinking like that from the man who once plummeted to low approval ratings after his first two years of being president is not surprising. Recall that Clinton then turned his political fortunes around in large part by pragmatically embracing some rightward-leaning proposals from a majority-Republican House.
From the open class warfare he's now engaged in, it's plain that President Obama has no intention of following Clinton's example. And after reading the recent interview of him, it's just as plain that Clinton has more knowledge in his little finger than the inexperienced Obama does in his whole body.
This Newsmax interview can be looked upon as a gentle settling of many scores by Clinton with his fellow Democrats, who have led his party into the land of left-wing loons. Clinton also took a strong, if indirect, swipe at his former vice president, Al Gore, when the subject of global warming came up. In short, Clinton said that he himself has decided to dodge the debate over the effort to curb global warming. Why? Because it matters little what the United States does when China still refuses to sign any future agreement on reducing greenhouse gasses.
Now that's obvious enough to most businesspeople, and for that matter to those who closely follow the climate debate. But when Bill Clinton delivers that news in a smack-down, it's the equivalent of him looking at his old "pal" Al and pointing out that he travels in private jets and SUVs -- two items with large "carbon footprints" of their own. (Recall that Gore "dissed" Clinton when Gore ran for president in 2000.)
Let's face it. Bill Clinton thinks that Hillary got a raw deal from both the media and the Democratic National Committee when she ran for president against Obama in '08. And a recent PollPosition survey shows that more Americans say they now would prefer Ms. Clinton to Obama as president. (That is, if they had to have a Democrat in office.)
The Democratic establishment did everything it could to keep Hillary Clinton from winning. For starters, it punished her for the decision by Florida's Republican legislature to move up the date of the '08 Florida presidential primary. Had the DNC allowed the results of the Florida Democratic primary to stand, Ms. Clinton would have surged to a lead in total delegates and Obama likely would have lost momentum.
Also in the Newsmax interview, Bill Clinton gently unloaded on the newest round of Obamanomics. He said Obama's approach to the deficit "is a little bit confusing." Translation: The president has no clue what he is doing.
As for tax increases -- even on millionaires -- Clinton took a swipe at Obama's rather blatant play to stir up class envy. Said Clinton: "We don't have (in the United States) a lot of resentment against people who are successful. We kind of like it, Americans do. It's one of our best characteristics. If we think someone earned their money, we do not resent their success. That's why there's been very little class conflict in American history." In other words, pitting the rest of America against the so called "wealthy" is a dumb idea that could lead to damaging class conflict.
More evidence for my interpretation of Clinton's remarks: He blew off Obama's obsession with tax increases by saying, "I personally don't believe we ought to be raising taxes or cutting spending until we get this economy off the ground." Translation: I don't favor his tax increases, but I'll oppose cuts also, just to appear even-handed.
This amazing interview just kept yielding goodies. There was Clinton suggesting that Obama should pull back from the implementation of new government regulations. "A business can't do five things at once."
And there was his suggestion that the president and Congress should ask corporate America and the banks what it would take to free up the trillions of dollars they are sitting on.
To Clinton critics, yes, he was a Democrat, and a flawed one at that. And yes, he likely will have to water down his remarks or kiss Obama's tail in the next few days because of what he was quoted as saying about the president. But make no mistake. Bill Clinton got his revenge in this interview.
Re: Title
Ewww..
Hmmm...sounds like Clinton is testing the waters and prepping the ground for his wife, Hillary. Sort of, if things get too bad, they might just happen to have to find a candidate who they think has a better chance of winning than Hussein...and oh, my, who would they turn to?
I watched some of that but I just can’t stand to see or listen to him for very long. Whatever he says has very little value to me, even if I might agree with it.
And he looks like death warmed over. He’s only one year older than I am but looks more like 15 to me.
Sheeeyit. Tell me one thing Hitlery would’ve done differently if she was President (gack!).
Why do so many people think that Hillary Clinton would somehow save the Democrat party?
When running in ‘08, she ran a very depressing negative campaign, and this magnified the high negatives she had in the polls.
Before that campaign even got going, she had registered some of the highest negatives ever recorded in presidential polling.
If somehow Hillary runs, it will remind us all why we don’t like the Clintons. All of the Clinton scandals and baggage will come back into prominence. Do they really think that America is ready to vote for Hillary Clinton because man liberal types are upset with Obama? The conservative and more moderate voters are not going to be eager to vote for Hillary instead of Obama. They are going to vote Republican anyway.
But he sure did.
He's had a hard life.
Why does it seem like “Bill Clinton” is in just about every other thread posted lately?
Instead of “spanking” they could have said “swipe”. ;-)
Talk like an inarticulate black person.
Clinton obviously waited until Obama RE-COMMITTED himself to a losing course (a course which further took the wind out of the economic sails) before he gave his opinion.
The Clintons are in on the whole destruction of capitalism thing,
but they know that you have to do it under the covers instead of in broad daylight like 0bama is doing.
His “woodshed talk” is nothing more than the union steward tap on the shoulder with a “hey, buddy, you’re working too fast and making us look bad”.
And, a hard wife.
I can't decide whether she would give a taxpayer funded blank check for endless opulent vacations for her spouse and scores of his "friends."
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