Bill Clinton Said What?
27 September 2009 8:24 pm by Taylor Marsh
William Jefferson Clinton seldom misreads the political tea leaves. But a couple of things he said on “Meet the Press” Sunday, as far as I’m concerned, went well wide of the mark. That is unless he believes playing his audience actually works these days. WJC is anything but stupid so that’s not it. He’s simply the eternal optimist. After all, given what he’s faced and where he stands today, why shouldn’t he be?
WJC made the incredible assessment that the right wing is “not as strong” today as it was back during his presidency, while simultaneously saying it’s “as virulent as it was.” It’s weaker, but still extremely infectious, malignant, or poisonous (using the definition of virulent)?
MR. GREGORY: Your wife famously talked about the vast right wing conspiracy targeting you. As you look at this opposition on the right to President Obama, is it still there?
PRES. CLINTON: Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It’s not as strong as it was, because America’s changed demographically, but it’s as virulent as it was. I mean, they’re saying things about him–you know, it’s like when they accused me of murder and all that stuff they did. …
There is no evidence of this whatsoever.
That’s not to say that what WJC faced was less dangerous, which it was not; after all he was impeached. But today there are more moving pieces than ever before. Fox News Channel, plus right wing radio with it’s traditional base can whip up quite a frenzy over just about anything, just like in the 1990s. Former President Clinton would have been correct, however, if he’d said that people are wiser to their tactics than they were in the 1990s. On that, perhaps, you can surmise they’re “not as strong,” but not because they have less power, but because people know they’re tricks. That’s not what Clinton was saying.
But even if it was it’s not correct. If he’d been right we’d never have had Sarah Palin’s “death panels” squeal hijack Pres. Obama’s message putting him behind the 8 ball so that a media blitz out of the ’90s, the full Ginsberg as it’s known, wouldn’t have been necessary. The continuing delay on health care is due directly to the right raising a ruckus, which has gotten Democrats in a real bind that they haven’t figured a way out of yet.
The multiple bailouts have also revitalized and galvanized the right (and many others, too).
That some of Obama’s biggest obstacles are inside the Democratic Party is another angle WJC missed completely, the Blue Dogs being just one element.
Then there was this:
He–but it’s not really good for the Republicans and the country, what’s going on now. I mean, they may be hurting President Obama. They can take his numbers down, they can run his opposition up. But fundamentally, he and his team have a positive agenda for America. Their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail, and that’s not a prescription for a good America. We actually need a credible debate about what’s the right balance between continuing to expand the economy through stimulus and beginning to move back to fiscal balance. We need a credible debate about what’s the best way to get to universal coverage.
This is classic Clinton. The idealist on parade. It’s also pure propaganda, with a dash of wishful thinking. Something Pres. Obama appreciated, but again, there is no proof that most people believe it at this point, especially on the financial side.
The right and many others who have moved away from Pres. Obama do not believe “he and his team have a positive agenda for America.” Clinton is dead on, however, when he says Obama’s opponents’ only “agenda seems to be wanting him to fail.” But Clinton ignores what he knows all too well: Republicans do not care if Obama and the Democrats have answers for the country or whether their push back against Democratic goals are good for the country. As someone who experience the right’s wrath, Clinton knows an “agenda… wanting (a Democratic president) to fail” can have the desired outcome the Republicans want. Again, see where the right pushed the health care debate.
Former President Clinton then does something wholly infuriating. He butters up Olympia Snowe.
Now, the one Republican who’s come up with a good idea is Senator Snowe. She deserves a lot of credit for saying when we did this Medicare prescription drug bill, instead of giving the government the power to negotiate for lower prices we gave the drug companies a chance to offer them, but we held the power in reserve. And if there was any state in America where there was no competition, you could do it. So let’s do that for health care. That’s a good idea. That’s, that’s the kind of debate the country needs, and I hope that the Republicans will come forward with it. These…
Ugh.
Then Gregory, who seemed to be pushing one right wing talking point after another through the entire interview, asks about a repeat of ‘94 in 2010.
MR. GREGORY: But do you worry about a repeat of ‘94 politically?
PRES. CLINTON: It, it–there’s no way they can make it that bad, for several reasons. Number one, the country is more diverse and more interested in positive action. Number two, they’ve seen this movie before, because they had eight years under President Bush when the Republicans finally had the whole government, and they know the results were bad. And number three, the Democrats haven’t taken on the gun lobby like I did, and they took 15 out of our members out. So I don’t think it’ll be–whatever happens, it’ll be manageable for the president.
The country may indeed by “more interested in positive action”, with a health care win for Obama possibly having the immediate impact of dissolving the right’s power, this progress making a difference for some. But what WJC misses completely is the mood of the activist wing of the Democratic Party, which cannot be mollified by just any health care bill so Obama and congressional Democrats can say they got something done on the subject.
The globe trotting Clinton of today, even as he engages with new media on several levels, is far away from the white hot heat people are feeling about the direction of the current agenda. Just look at the big donor syndrome, with money dropping off a cliff for Democrats, which the Washington Post recently covered.
Mr. Clinton doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. His big money games are now global. That his wife’s boss is Barack Obama also didn’t lend itself to candor, plus the fact that WJC is a good former president. But on some things his global role prohibits him from reading the Democratic pulse correctly or even if he does talking about it candidly. But let’s all hope his idealism catches fire. Soon.
