Rodney

I mean, why is he that important? Things moved on.

I'm off this week and I was watching Fox News this AM and there's a discussion about whether Bill Clinton is giving John Kerry advice or help, because they talk together from time to time. And the moderator asked the question whether Bill Clinton's support would help or hurt John Kerrey.

And the Democratic interviewee, Al Gore's former campaign manager, said he didn't think Clinton's support made any difference one way or the other because people move on and Bill Clinton is old news (though very astute politically).

But the Republican interviewee, I think former research director for the Republican National Committe, just ripped into -- CLINTON, not Kerry. She said that the Clintons do well at the cost of everyone around them; anybody close to them suffers, including Democrats, and Kerry might suffer the same fate. Just about came out and said the Clintons are plotting for Kerry to fail so they can run Hilary in 2008. Went on and on about how Clinton accomplished basically nothing in the '90s, and if he did it was all because of the Republican Congress. On and on -- the Democrat was openly giggling at her by the time she was done ranting about Clinton. She hardly said anything about Kerry.

Clinton is not president anymore. Hilary's in the Senate, but that's it. They're not a factor in the current presidential race. So why are there Republicans still willing to rant on and on about Clinton? He may have lied about having sex, but jeez, who hasn't? There are plenty of more important lies around these days to deal with.

So what is this? One reason for anger is fear: are Republicans afraid that Clintonism will come back in '08 with Hillary? Is this anger just a way of discrediting a Democratic presidency and thus giving all credit for good things to the GOP administrations before and after it? Or do people just get crazy mad about sex?

I mean, you're all well and truly entitlted to your opinions about Bill Clinton; but like i said, what I'm really amazed at is how much some people profess to hate him. I mean, I always opposed Reagan and greatly disliked much of what he did. But I didn't hate him. What's with Clinton hatred?

djtestudo

They know that in 2008, Hillary Clinton WILL be running for president.

I don't know what there is to be scared of, because as long as the Republicans run a decent candidate like Colin Powell, Condaleeza Rice, John McCain, or the reanimated corpse of Chester A. Arthur, Hillary will lose.

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ARTelevision

Personally, I was very pleased at the kind of respect and appreciation given to our 42nd President and his wife, the former First Lady and Junior Senator from New York, at today's portrait unveiling.

I think a large dose of this sort of thing is needed to heal a sorely dysfunctional political dialog that both sides all to often engage in.

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seretogis

It's funny how awful Dubya makes Kerry and his Bush-hating bandwagon look everytime that the news plays a clip of Dubya praising the Clintons as a President and as parents.

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cthulu23

Bush and Kerry are political opponents...they are expected to critcise each other. Let's not pretend that John Kerry's reputation hasn't been savaged since he became the frontunner. There have been baseless allegations of adultery with an intern, doctored pictures of him commingling with Jane Fonda and, strangely enough, attacks on his military record (3 purple hearts, a bronze star and a silver star) and "elite" background (they were both members of Skull and Bones).

I believe that the late Chairman Mao said that "revolution is not a tea party." Neither is American presidential politics.

Dwayne

When Clinton Lied no One Died. Republicans have this habbit of never forgetting what democrats have done. I would also like to say that anyone under Bush suffers. Atleast with Clinton there wasnt all this sensless violence.

assilem

I feel about Bill Clinton like a lot of people feel about Ronald Reagan. I hate Bill Clinton the president but I think he was a pretty smart funny guy and I would have loved to have a beer with him.

Clinton will help fuck this up for Kerry if he is not careful though. He's got a book coming out and the media loves him. He could gobble up all the lime light and leave Kerry sitting in the dark. Believe it or not most people in this country don't follow politics and have no idea who John Kerry is. That's bad thing when you got Billy boy out there hooting it up.

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Superbelt

Clinton is already deferring to Kerry. He is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention but he will not schedule any book signings or interviews in the period surrounding that to help keep the limelight on Kerry and use himself to bolster Kerry's chances only.

Gore screwed up by distancing himself from Clinton. Clinton is well loved. He had impossibly high job approval ratings even though his personal ratings were taking a dive over the impeachment. Clinton is an asset to any presidential candidate when used properly.

assilem

Yeah, but I think the media loves Clinton too much. It will be the media that does the damage. Not necessarily Clinton himself. Open a Time magazine or even USA Today, they are all running pieces on Clinton and his book and they are bound to keep it up. They can't help themselves.

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Boo

I wouldn't vote for her.... ever. I do believe that she has a HUGE chance of winning against ANY opponent. HUGE. This would depend the presidents performance and political party 2004-2008 also.


Art, if you gotta have a spelling error, this is a choice place. ROFLMAO!

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ARTelevision

-heh

...hrmmm...

respectfully corrected, thanks.

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cthulu23

It's probably a little early to predict Hillary in 2008. If Kerry wins then he will definitely get the nod in '08.

The_Dunedan

"When Clinton lied, nobody died!"
Yeah, tell that to the 80-odd people he and Jihad Janet roasted alive at Mt. Carmel, Texas.
Or how about the huge swaths of the Balkans that have been rendered uninhabitable by NATO bombing with DU-tipped munitions and cluster-bombs?
Or the Iraqis -Clinton- killed with similar bombardments?
And how about that Sudanese aspirin factory? You know, the one that isn't there anymore, courtesy of 5 Tomahawk cruise-missles?
And while we're on the subject, let's talk about the 90-odd people close to the Clintons who died under mysterious circumstances, most of them just before they were supposed to testify at Whitewater, or some other politically inconveniant public act.

I detest Bush as much as any man alive. But Bill and Hill were no better; still cut from the same murderous, treasonous cloth.

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--Strange Famous, advocating the use of falsified charges in order to shut people up.

Bill O'Rights

90-odd people?
Names, dates, places, circumstances, relationship? From a credible source, please. I find that one a little hard to swallow.

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mml

My feelings are that there are multiple generations that grew up with Republicans in the White House. From 1969 through 1992 there were only 4 years where there was not a Republican in the White House.
They developed a sense of entitlement (much like the Dems feelings about Congress, and how upset they are that they not longer have a strangle hold on it.) about the Presidency. Bill Clinton came out of nowhere and confounded the Republicans for 8 years. Add to this that he has been glib, relatively unrepentant, enormously popular and stole many of thier ideas, and you get a great recipe for hatred. (once again similar to how Dems feel about Gingrich and his take over of the House).

On a side note, I agree with Art that it was nice to see Bush and Clinton show some class at the unveiling of the portraits, but sadly it wont last. The most amazing thing was that Terry McAuliffe(DNC Chair) and Ed Gillespie(RNC Chair) were together, laughing and joking about the event and apparently enjoying themselves on CNN. Later they verbally sliced each other and their candidates to pieces. Oh well.

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MSD

The "Clinton Body Count" is complete and utter bullshit. I could not classify belief to the contrary as anything other than delusional. It's been debunked time and time again, yet the debunking sees no media attention to balance out the crap spewed by right-wing radio hosts who see Clinton as the Antichrist.

In case you haven't seen any sort of debunking, here it is:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/clinton.htm

hammer4all

You've got a point.

Superbelt

Hmm, good snopes link.

'specially the last paragraph.

MSD

I would like to clarify that, aside from the "Clinton Body Count," those are all very valid arguments. What I don't agree with is associating those with "When Clinton lied ..."

Waco was a screwup, the (possible) lies came after it, when government agents denied having accidentally set the fire with hot tear gas cans.

The Balkans, a campaign launched by NATO, not Clinton himself, which involved some clear accusations and evidence of genocide, not lies and crappy intelligence.

The bombing in Iraq was announced a month beforehand, and Clinton explicitly stated that it would occur if thhe inspectors were not allowed back in.

The asprin factory was a big fuck-up. Someone didn't double-check, and pesticide residue showed up as a VX gas precursor. This was an honest mistake, unlike, let's say, the yellowcake uranium scam, which was completely fabricated with no factual basis.

Dwayne

Ok when I said when Clinton lied nobody died, im reffering to the sex scandal that plagued his second term. Yes people died under his administration, every president had some decision that resulted with deaths.