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The Clintons

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Desert_Rocket, Jan 28, 2008.

  1. Major

    Major Member

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    Why doesn't this apply to Clinton also? She claims to have been making change for the past 35 years. She has no major legislation of note in 8 years in the Senate. In her time as first lady, she was most involved in two major initiatives: health care reform, which failed miserably, and fundraising, which led to a bunch of scandals. Why does she get a pass on experience or how she will accomplish things? She has less time in elective office and has no executive experience.

    Why isn't anyone else asked how they will get their proposals passed?
     
  2. thumbs

    thumbs Member

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    They are just switching roles. Hillary was the openly vicious one when Bill was running. Have a look at this Dick Morris emailer:

    BILL CLINTON'S TEMPER NEGATIVELY AFFECTS HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN

    By DICK MORRIS

    Published on FoxNews.com on January 25, 2008.


    Unfortunately, I’ve seen it all before.

    That picture of the seething, red-faced former president of the United States shaking his finger at members of the press who dare to question his wife’s slimy campaign tactics, is all too familiar to those who have worked closely with him in the past.

    Like Janus, the two-faced Roman god, there are always been two distinct personalities in Bill Clinton. That charming, smiling gentleman seen in public is too often eclipsed in private by his negative twin evidenced in the eruption of a furious, unexpected, and uncontrollable rage, often accompanied by loud cursing and occasionally, even physical violence. It’s not a pretty picture.

    I’ve been at the other end of that anger too many times and I was always amazed at the suddenness and intensity of his fury.

    Early one Sunday morning, he woke me up at my Connecticut home screaming into the phone, “have you seen the Washington Post?” Blearily, I said no that I wasn’t in Washington (it was in the pre-Internet days). Apparently, the paper’s lead article had our poll and focus group questions about his character and image.

    “Who did you tell?” “Who did you tell?” he shrieked. I assured him that I never spoke to the press.

    “Well, who DID you speak to?” he screeched.

    “I only spoke to George [Stephanopopous] and Rahm [Emmanuel],” (his two closest aides).

    That set him off even more. He yelled even louder: “You ONLY told George and Rahm! You ONLY told George and Rahm! Why didn’t you just send out a f-ing press release. Don’t you understand that you can’t tell those two anything that you don’t want to see on the front page of the Washington Post? They leak everything!

    He kept screaming about how he couldn’t keep anything confidential because everyone who worked for him leaked. Then he slammed the phone down.

    I was shaken.

    The phone conversation recalled an even more difficult encounter with his temper.

    Many years earlier, in 1990, he seriously overstepped his boundaries with me during one of his blind rages and permanently changed our relationship.

    It was during his last gubernatorial race and he was falling behind in the polls. When we met at the governor’s mansion, it was close to midnight. Hillary and Gloria Cabe, his campaign manager at the time, were at the meeting with Bill and me. I had left Connecticut after oral surgery that morning to arrive in time for a 6 p.m. meeting. My mouth was killing me, but I avoided taking any pain killers to be alert for the strategy session. The meeting was changed several times because Bill had decided to do the Nightline Show. He finally arrived back to the mansion in a foul mood. Even though he was a teetotaler, I wondered if he had been drinking.

    When he learned of his decline in the polls, he immediately blamed me, accusing me of spending too much time with other clients. Yelling and screaming, he escalated his charges, refusing to listen to me tell him that his latest ad had not been on television yet when the poll was completed. He kept ranting.

    Finally, I had enough. I stood up and said I was leaving, quitting the campaign. I grabbed my coat and headed out of the mansion. As I crossed the foyer, I suddenly fell to the ground, tackled by Bill Clinton. I saw his large fist coming at me. Hillary was trying to get between us, yelling “Bill, Bill, stop it. Think about what you are doing. Bill, stop it!”

    Bill got up and I walked out the door. Hillary ran after me. She tried to calm me and asked me to walk around the grounds of the Mansion with her. “He only does this to people he loves,” she told me. (I’ll leave that one for the psychologists.)

    When the story appeared in the media in 1992 , probably leaked by a fellow political consultant I had confided in that night, I called Hillary to warn her that the press was on to the fight. Her advice: Deny that it ever happened. I never did that, but I refused to comment.

    Years later, when I was writing my book, Behind the Oval Offi ce, I sent the galleys to Bill. He marked up a few areas where he had questions or comments. Then he called me and said “I never did actually hit you.” He asked me to change the text and tone down the story.

    At the request of the president of the United States, I did.

    After that Sunday morning phone conversation about the Washington Post story, I wrote the president a letter telling him how upsetting I found his tantrums and saying that I couldn’t work with him any longer if that’s the way it was going to be. He seemed shocked that his volcanic outbursts caused personal pain. But he knew that I was serious and wrote me a nice note apologizing and the outbursts ceased.

    Until, during the 1996 Republican convention, I called him in Wyoming, where he was on vacation. That was never his happiest time, and apparently, he was upset because his favorite golf driver, given him by the King of Morocco, had broken. (He once told me it to ok seven strokes off his game). He started screaming at me that he was on vacation and did not want to talk about the convention. Again, he was so loud that Eileen heard him across the room.

    I hung up on him and went to sleep. A half hour later, Eileen answered a midnight call. A voice told her that the president of the United States was calling for Dick Morris. She told the caller that I was sleeping. Two minutes later, the phone rang again. “Miss, this is a call from the president of the United States.” Again, she told the caller that I was asleep. “The president wants to speak to Mr. Morris right now, please.” “I’m sorry, tell the president that he’s not available right now.” When the phone rang again a few minutes later, it woke me up. It was the president, calling to apologize and to talk about the convention.

    Most of Bill’s tantrums were behind closed doors. But during Hillary’s presidential campaign, we’ve seen the real Bill boiling with rage.

    But don’t think that he can’t stage blowing his top when he thinks it will be strategically useful. If you have any doubts, just remember another red-faced finger-pointing performance when he said “I want to say something to the American people. I want you to listen. I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.”

    Bill’s tantrums are causing the press to focus on him and not Hillary. That’s what he wants. No more questions about her experience, her ethics, her flip-flops. Now it's all about Bill.
     
  3. A_3PO

    A_3PO Member

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    If she wins the nomination, there is a lot of exposure that will come out against the Clintons. The Republicans will bring up all of that and more. I read a piece yesterday that leads me to believe it's possible the GOP is being quiet right now because they want Hillary to win. There is a mountain of stuff on them from Bill's time in office and since 2000 that is very potent ammunition.

    Don't you remember when Clinton machine-gunned Bob Dole in the late spring/early summer of 1996? It literally blew everybody away, including Dole, whose poll numbers dropped like a rock afterwards. If I remember correctly, Bill privately apologized to Dole shortly thereafter (because he realized Dole wasn't a viable opponent and the blast was totally unnecessary).
     
  4. El_Conquistador

    El_Conquistador King of the D&D, The Legend, #1 Ranking

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    Umm... do you mean the 2 out of 5 states that he won thus far in the democratic primaries? So the hard core, left-wing lunatic fringe democratic voters that actually vote in primaries or participate in cauci in 5 states = "America". Heck, one of those states was majority black voters who voted for him 5 out of 6... Not exactly representative of "America"....
     
  5. mc mark

    mc mark Member

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    Sort of like how you discount vets when it suits you; nice to see you blow off 10% of the states of this country.

    typical jorge
     
  6. Baqui99

    Baqui99 Member

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    Bill is acting childish with all the annoying attacks on Obama. It's getting annoying and he's just about pissed away all the goodwill he had with a lot of his former supporters. I've lost a ton of respect for Bill, and wish he would just go away and instead focus on hooking up with fat chicks.
     
  7. rhadamanthus

    rhadamanthus Member

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    "The political mind is a strange mixture of vanity and timidity, of an obsequious attitude at one time and a delusion of grandeur at another time, of the most selfish preferment combined with the most sacrificing patriotism. The political mind is the product of men in public life who have been twice spoiled. They have been spoiled with praise and they have been spoiled with abuse. With them nothing is natural, everything is artificial."

    -Calvin Coolidge
     
  8. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    You can say what you want about the Clintons personality and personal failings but overall the Clinton Admin. did a good job. Its true they got lucky on having the internet boom and the US faced no major foriegn threat but when it counted they made some good decisions. The 1993 budget was the last budget where a serious attempt was made at fiscal discipline which laid the foundation for surpluses and low interest rates based on sound economics and not just panic, later on. The appointments of officials like Robert Rubin, Cohen, and James Witt look like all stars compared to the not ready for the big time appointments of the current Admin.. Heck even Alberto Gonzales isn't even worthy of carrying Janet Reno's sports bra.
     

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