Patterico's Pontifications

4/22/2008

Bill Clinton is Easy

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 2:29 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Not the way you’re thinking. Apparently it’s easy to get Bill Clinton off-message:

“Former President Bill Clinton had a testy encounter Tuesday with reporters who questioned his remarks in a radio interview in which he accused Barack Obama’s campaign of unfairly playing the race card on him.

“You always follow me around and play these little games,” Clinton shot back at an ABC News reporter who questioned him about a phone interview with Philadelphia public radio station WHYY.

On Monday, an audibly irritated Clinton railed against the Obama campaign for what he described as an effort to twist comments made in South Carolina on Jan. 26, the Palmetto State’s presidential primary election day.

In the remarks that sparked the furor, Clinton compared Obama’s campaign to that of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.

“Jesse Jackson won in South Carolina twice in ‘84 and’88, and he ran a good campaign, and Senator Obama has run a good campaign. He has run a good campaign everywhere. He’s got a good — He is a good candidate with a good organization,” Clinton said.

Obama supporters said the remarks were meant to belittle Obama by comparing him with a black candidate whose appeal was more narrow. Obama called the remarks hallmarks of the politics of racism.

Asked Monday if he regretted the comment, Clinton responded: “No, I think that they played the race card on me, and we now know from memos in the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along.

“Do I regret saying it? No. Do I regret that it was used that way? I certainly do. But you’ve really got to go some (distance) to portray me as a racist,” Clinton said, adding that he has an office in Harlem, and Jackson told him personally he was not offended.

“I called him and asked him if he found anything offensive. And he just laughed and he said, ‘Of course I don’t. We all know what’s going on,’ ” Clinton said.”

Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant not involved in either campaign, agrees it’s easy to get Bill off-message because ex-Presidents are more uninhibited than candidates and their spouses:

“When you’re president and particularly when you’re ex-president, you feel very uninhibited saying things,” said Devine. “People listen to you and your words are really taken seriously.”

“[Bill Clinton] is just not constrained like most people in campaigns are,” said Devine. “And when the attention is at a fever pitch any little thing that you say will be amplified.”

Ed Rollins thinks Bill should go to Little Rock and be quiet until the race is over but I disagree. I think Bill should talk and talk and talk.

— DRJ

10 Responses to “Bill Clinton is Easy”

  1. And whaddya know, Blowjob Bill today denies saying what he said yesterday about Obama playing the race card. Too bad it’s on tape.

    daleyrocks (906622)

  2. I think Bill should talk and talk and talk.

    Me too. And I don’t blame Barack I-Wish-I-Had-A-Polish-Middle-Name Obama getting upset. Who would want to be compared to Jesse Jackson? Seriously. In truth, Billy is more like Jackson than Barack Where-Have-All-The-Flowers-Gone Obama is.

    nk (35ac33)

  3. Daleyrocks – relax, man. Bill’s just trying to get into Geraldine Ferraro’s pants.

    Apogee (366e8b)

  4. “Poor Bill, he can’t he’p it, he was born….(use your own imagination)….”
    and a big thank you to Ma Richards.

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  5. The spirit of Howard Cosell, the first prominent person caught lying about a public statement that was recorded on tape, lives on.

    And I second DRJ’s call: Talk, Bill. Keep on talkin’.

    I remember watching that game where an excited Cosell, in reference to a black player who was making a spectacular play, said, “Look at that little monkey go!” I believed then, and now, that Howard meant only to describe the man’s athletic prowess, and that there wasn’t a single racist thought in his head when he said it. Unfortunately, he made things worse with his denial, and the petering out of his career began at that moment.

    Bill Clinton could learn from that example, but his arrogance and sense of entitlement (“I’m an elder statesman; my words are holy writ and I piss champagne”) won’t allow him to accede to the wisdom that surely must be knockin’ against his noggin.

    Missed It By THAT Much (b15b75)

  6. I saw something online yesterday about a doc stating Bill’s CABG caused brain damage and everyone knows it happens all the time.I’ve heard of it in people who had massive MI’s and underwent the surgery while hemodynamically unstable.But for the ‘routinepatient who’s brain damged”.I find this as persuasive asRep patrick Kennedy,complaining the Ambien fucked him up.This seems a ploy to avoid personal responsibility for hios utterances.
    AAnd Patrick,how did the NY bar not discipline Susan Thomason years ago when claiming her MS wqas the reason she couldn’t remember things re’ Hillary.Wouldn’t happen in medicine

    corwin (6cd6b3)

  7. “I called [Jesse Jackson] and asked him if he found anything offensive. And he just laughed and he said, ‘Of course I don’t. We all know what’s going on,’ ” Clinton said.”

    We need to file this away in our memory banks for the next time that Jackson (or Clinton or Obama for that matter) cries racism over some minor quote. It can be known as the “We all know what is going on” principle.

    JVW (835f28)

  8. corwin, I think it’s true, actually. I’ve seen it in a couple different places over the years, long before the election season. Patients have complained for years they have trouble thinking clearly afterward. That was my father’s experience after his bypass.

    Eric (09e4ab)

  9. Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant not involved in either campaign, agrees it’s easy to get Bill off-message because ex-Presidents are more uninhibited than candidates and their spouses.

    Yeah, right. Funny how this only seems to be a problem with our Democratic ex-presidents. As in 100% of our current Democratic ex-presidents.

    Republicans seem to be entirely immune to post-presidential inhibition loss. Even Nixon stayed home and kept his damn mouth shut.

    Glen Wishard (02562c)

  10. YOU CAN TELL WHEN BILL CLINTON IS LYING BECUASE HIS LIPS ARE MOVING SQUAWK SQUAWK

    krazy kagu (85eb6b)


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