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Chris Matthews can’t help but get his Clinton hate on, even if it means some peculiarly revisionist history. He asked his “Matthews Meter” (a group of 12 regular talking heads on his show) whether Bill helped or hurt Hillary Clinton’s fall from the presumptive Democratic candidate to trying to find a way to slow down the Obama momentum. Naturally, the Big Dog hurt his wife’s chances, according to the talking heads. Cynthia Tucker makes a good point that we didn’t get to see the gregarious, inspirational Bill Clinton of his own campaign, but the angry, protective husband, which didn’t help Hillary Clinton at all. But when Matthews brings up Al Gore, who purposefully distanced himself from Clinton during his own run for the presidency as proof that Bill’s Midas touch is tarnished, that’s just more than a little silly.
My own take on Hillary Clinton’s campaign has little to do with Bill or his input. First and foremost, the whole notion that the person who was at the top of the polls going into the primary season had the edge going out ignores history completely. John Kerry wasn’t at the top of the polls, nor was Bill Clinton. They emerged after some strong wins in early states, just like Obama. And Clinton herself has not run a smart campaign, due I suspect more to her advisors like Mark Penn than her husband. On NOW on PBS, campaign strategist Joe Trippi (most recently of the Edwards campaign) contrasts the top down organization of Clinton campaign to the bottom up focus of the Obama campaign.
No Trackbacks To “The Chris Matthews Show: Did Bill Clinton hurt Hillary Clinton’s Campaign?“
The Clintons promised us National Healthcare. They sold us out to the healthcare corporations. They will do it again if they get elected.
On Oct 25 2004, on the stump for Kerry, Bill Clinton had this to say about Candidates of Fear and Hope:
“Now one of Clinton’s laws of politics is this:
If one candidate is trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to get you to think; if one candidate is appealing to your hopes and the other one is appealing to your fears, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope”.
YouTube video here
This was the man we admired and I miss him.
That video about sums it up. This is why Obama is winning by large margins.
I don’t understand why so much of the media is still on autopilot in attacking the Clintons. My God, does anyone remember those years compared to the last seven? They were like heaven on Earth. The GOP operatives like Drudge have literally re-written history and brainwashed an entire population with talking points and propaganda that now seem permanent. I’m stunned every time I hear an Obama supporter use the terms “Billary” or “Hitlery” among others.
It’s the blowjob, stupid.
Yeah, Chris Matthews is the ONLY person in the media questioning Bill’s high-profile role. Sure. This is about Matthews and not a legitimate point of discussion. Come on.
I honestly cannot feature how or why either Clinton would want to have another thing more to do with politics,given the indescribable,almost inhuman hatred leveled at both of them without respite since they first set foot in Washington.
As a Canadian I recognize them(by the standards of my country)as mainstream Right leaning Moderates who would never,ever be made to account for their so called “Liberal” ideology.They would both no doubt be members of Canada’s national Liberal Party,which in point of fact practices “small C” Conservative politics.Canada’s national N.D.P (New Democratic Party)is much more Left Wing.
Of course Bill hurt her campaign. Also her campaign was run poorly. No matter what Matthews says. He will get one right once in a while. Not often though. Remember he picked Giuliani and Hill to go all the way a long time ago. Bill fucked up her campaign and there was nothing she could do about it. Thank god. And an Obama only comes around once in a long time. Her bad luck and shitty personality.
Campaigns run better when you have a good candidate…. Not everyone can sell snow to Eskimos.
Dave @ 4:
And the right are fools as well. Those years were just as good for the right if not better. Their hatred is blind and they have shot themselves in the foot. Bill was way too far to the right for me but I liked him because they hated him so much. Now they have McCain or Huckleberry or Romney or Giuliani. All of whom they hate as much as they hate Clinton. Hahahahahhahahhahahhahahahahahhahahahahahaah
The media’s hate for the Clintons and love for Obama is the difference in the campaign.
No more, no less!
You hit the mark when you refer to the “the top down organization of the Clinton campaign” as a major reason for her difficulties. Unfortunately, it would probably also be the way she would govern.
Her problems have little to do with gender or for that matter her husband. She’s smart as hell, likeable, knows the government inside and out, but she’s neither an effective nor inspiring leader. The answer might be that simple.
No. The media did. Anyone who can’t see this election is being completely controlled by the media needs to wake up.
I was just talking about this with friends the other night. Of course hindsight is twenty-twenty, but just having Bill in the background with no exposure would have been much better for Hillary, and of course his faux pas didn’t help either.
The media & Oprah!
Good old Chris. Just like the rest of the media, He’s only talking about the election. What about Bush and is cronies? Hariette Myers and Bolton? These talkin heads are slaves to corporate masters. They will let Bush and his entirely corrupt adminstartion a free pass. While the middle class suffers. God save us all!
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
The media is controlling an election? You sound like Rush Limbaugh.
Clinton lost me when she made the preposterous allegations of plagiarism.
After that kneecapping, if Clinton is able to win (steal) the nomination, I wouldn’t vote for her if Bush was literally up for a third term….(and I am a progressive, and I think bush should have long ago been impeached and thrown in jail)
I am counting on OH and TX to shut this down.
Dave @ 4:
Exactly
Chuck @ 17:
Yes it is. The difference between Rush and Me is he doesn’t come out and say both sides are on the receiving end of it. And the fact he’s a total ass and I’m not.
Chuck @ 17:
Chuck, the media has been very instrumental in selecting the candidates. Remember John Edwards, Dennis Kucinih and Chris Dobbs during the earlier debates and the camera hardly ever panned on them. They knew who they wanted as candidates.
ohio progressive @ 18:
Vote Progressive then if you can’t support the Dems.
Ys he did hurt her campaign but not by his being in it but by his negativity. If he would have stayed positive and never talked about Obama they would have done much better.
I thought the most damning eveidence of Bill’s contribution to Hillary’s difficulties was the Intrade betting line. If you look at the trends from the beginning to now, they take a sharp drop immediately AFTER the South Carolina primary.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/.....Feb22.html
I agree with Joe Trippi that the internet driven, “bottom up” structure that he used with Dean, and that has been perfected here in Obama’s campaign is probably the next transformation of American politics. (which is a great thing as long as we can keep Net Nutrality, it means we have the chance for our “democracy” to actually be something that involves the will “of the people”) but, I’m not sure it wasn’t helped by the “fairy tale” comment, and the Jesse Jackson reference. There was something essentialy perverted about his going out of his way to demean Obama (it reminded me of the pejoritive “boy” that I grew up hearing everywhere) that seemed to attack the essence of the Democratic party. I think the soul of the party can be summed up in one word: FAIRNESS. And there is something really UNFAIR about Bill Clinton, “America’s first black president” calling Obama “boy”. Really unfair.
So unfair, it made him a Republican, (and not Eisenhower, Reagan, or even Bush) it turned him into the cheapest of conservative low lifes, like Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and Strom Thurmond, and even George C. Wallace Jr.)
You can be a president, or a campaign strategist, but not both. The two are mutually exclusive.
The best years of our lives was when the Clinton’s were in the Whitehouse, thats when Matthews got his break too, how soon we forget… Bill was right when he said it was a roll of the dice to elect Obama and it was people like Matthews that made that statement into something else… How sad that the public can be that easily misled….
Hillary lost me when she said she will continue to take money from lobbyists because they represent people too!
There you have it folks. Proof positive that EVERYTHING is Bill Clinton’s fault. Thanks for that insightful report. Next up, how GH’s affect bodily functions.
Bill totally caused me not to vote for Hillary.
Roket @ 27:
Yip. It’s Clintons Fault!!!!! time again.
I don’t think Bill hurt Hillary but it was made to appear that way by every talking head in the media. His whole to do about the “fairy tale” was taken out of context and spread around as if Obama’s chances to run were a fairy tale rather than the full clip showed of Bill talking about Obama’s changes on his Iraq stance. Then there was the to do when he told the media girl off at CNN and of course no one in the medai would dare stand to have anyone say they were biased so there goes another phony story about an angry Bill to boost their own egos. Then there were the comment about Jesse Jackson winning in South Carolina and that was made to be racist sounding yet CNN had the exact same comments on TV and their website the week earlier since I both heard and read them long before Bill’s comments were reported on. Have I missed any other phony stories they have made up ? This whole campaign has been the most biased I have ever watched going on in your country ever. I don’t even know if I could count on one hand the number of times something unfavorable has been said about Obama but I would need a football team of both hands and feet to count the negativity towards Hillary. They praise Obama’s every breath, despise Hillary’s every move, and totally ignored John Edwards. Now you tell me the media has not decided that Obama is the chosen democratic one? They seem to be pushing him just like they did George Bush who was going to ride into Washington on his Texas steed and set a new tone and be totally bipartisan because he also didn’t like the ways things worked. Rather than the nice guy you want to have a beer with, the mantra has changed to Obama being compared to the second coming of JFK, RFK and MLK. I am sorry, but nobody except the originals are that good.
Bystander @ 25:
Ah, yes… roll the Dice… our you could choose to shove your money into Hillary’s empty slot machine…
Lets see the past roughly 37 years we’ve had five Cons and two Dems.
Nixon-Ford-Reagan-Bush Sr-Bush Jr
Carter-Clinton
Rumor has it Hillary is making a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live tonight! She mysteriously and quietly flew out of Dallas today with no reporters and everyone mum - the plane had a “due east” heading. Gee Oh Gee, whereever could she be going just hours before a certain live telecast?? It certainly ain’t Rhode Island!
L.A. Confidential @ 32:
That would be six Cons and Carter.
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
When you find you’re parroting the same lines that limbaugh and hannity are using, only arguing the opposite, maybe it’s time for a cold shower…..face it, you are just as crazy and irrational as them….
this “media stole the election” stuff is pretty funny….
Yup, it’s true - Hillary’s last ditch effort is SNL! Check this out…
Wait, while she’s hamming it up, who’s answering that ringing phone……?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....89384.html
Roket @ 27:
WRong– everything is the media’s fault. And you needn’t thank me for that insightful and original report.
If the press didn’t hate her so much, hillary would have won on super tuesday, as she predicted, as she deserves.
GonzoD @ 11:
horseshit
the media didnt force clinton to make his jackson remarks
the media didnt make hillary’s campaign think it didnt have to plan past super tuesday
the media didnt tell hillary to try and use the picture of obama in a turban as evidence that he may be muslim
hillary has run a poor campaign….she has been unable to gain traction with the youth vote, and she hasnt done much to excite the electorate
blaming the media is a wingnut ploy
ohio progressive @ 35:
If you have any doubts, you should be checking to see if your vote was counted in 2004 and 2006.
Billy Bob @ 34:
You decide for yourself what has had a more negative impact on the nation. Fourteen trillion dollars in debt accumulated by the systemic waste, fraud, abuse, graft, and corruption of the Reagan Bush Regime. Or the blow job that Monica Lewinsky gave Clinton.
Bystander @ 25:
What is sad is living in the past and believing that Hillary is running an upstanding, honorable campaign. Thanks to Mark Penn, they have beed duped into believing that they must win at any cost, which fits nicely with their entitlement mentality. Thanks for your service, but the public doesn;t owe them anything. They can earn legitimate respect just like everyone else does.
Today, there was an article in the Wall St Journal saying the Clinton campaign wants to delay the results of the TX caucuses until the next morning because they feel it will damage their chances to win. Funny how they didn’t have any objection to that when Bill won there in the 90″s. And they want the DNC to certify the delegates in FL and MI despite the fact that their respective state parties intentionally disregarded DNC primary date rules. They seem to think that the rules apply to everyone but them. Welcome to Republican lite.
Maybe Bill hurt Hillary’s campaign, but unbeknownst to him, and in light of Hillary’s new 3AM be afraid-be very afraid phone call ad, he helped Obama.
This from 2004:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGW38Zy4bJo
foreigner @ 30:
bill’s jackson remarks were made as a nonsequitor answer to a question about the campaign….
they were what they were, an attempt to demean the obama candidacy
still not sure why clinton supporters dont get that
and lest we forget, bill clinton’s first 2 year misteps led to the loss of both the senate and the house, and his inability to keep his pants on for a few years led to bush being in the wh
Hillary’s campaign would certainly like you to believe that it is Bill’s fault. Enough with the excuses. Hillary is losing because she is a terrible candidate who ran an incompetent campaign.
She has two things going for her: gender and name recognition. Take those away and she is just an ineffective senator responsible for enormous policy screw ups and cowardly votes in support of a bad war.
She is an inveterate liar of poor character… and THAT is why she is going to lose.
I was a Feingold supporter, but Obama is a much better choice than Hillary.
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
I don’t know LA. Seems to be a pile of people on the blogs that do not like Hillary. Is it all because of the media, or are bloggers better informed? Guess that depends on your opinion of it. In my opinion? I have never seen a better informed bunch like on C&L and it’s quite obvious from the posts here, more would vote for Obama than Hillary.