MotherJones Blog: Bill Clinton to Continue Attacking Obama '08 for Acting Like Clinton '92

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Bill Clinton to Continue Attacking Obama '08 for Acting Like Clinton '92

Patrick Healy writes in the New York Times that the Clintons feel the Bill-as-attack-dog strategy ("sphincter-like") is working, and needs to be continued.

Advisers to Sen. Hillary Clinton have concluded that Bill Clinton's aggressive politicking against Sen. Barack Obama is resonating with voters, and they intend to keep him on the campaign trail in a major role after the South Carolina primary.

The Clinton team has decided that the benefits of having Bill Clinton challenge Obama so forcefully, over Iraq and Obama's record and statements, are worth the trade-offs of potentially overshadowing Hillary Clinton at times, undermining his reputation as a statesman and raising the question among voters about whether they are putting him in the White House as much as her.

Much more after the jump...

...Bill Clinton has shown as much ability as his wife -- or even more -- to stir public and media skepticism about Obama's position on Iraq and his message of nonpartisan leadership, Clinton advisers say.

Bill Clinton is purposely trying to play bad cop against Obama, a senator from Illinois, and is keenly aware that a flash of anger or annoyance will draw even more media and public attention to his arguments, campaign officials say.

According to Healy, we can look forward to Bill continuing the act in California, New York, and other later primaries. E.J. Dionne explains how cynical this all is in the New Republic.

Ronald Reagan, Clinton said [in 1991], deserved credit for winning the Cold War. He praised Reagan's "rhetoric in defense of freedom" and his role in "advancing the idea that communism could be rolled back."... Clinton was careful to add that the Reagan military program included "a lot of wasted money and unnecessary expenditure," but the signal had been sent: Clinton was willing to move beyond "the brain-dead politics in both parties," as he so often put it.

His apostasy was widely noticed. The Memphis Commercial Appeal praised Clinton two days later for daring to "set himself apart from the pack of contenders for the Democratic nomination by saying something nice about Ronald Reagan."

...I have been thinking about that episode ever since Hillary Clinton's campaign started unloading on Barack Obama for making statements about Reagan that were, if anything, more measured than Bill Clinton's 1991 comments... Obama's not particularly original insight was a central premise of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. Clinton argued over and over that Democrats could not win without new ideas of their own...

That's why the Clintons' assault on Obama is so depressing. In many ways, Obama is running the 2008 version of the 1992 Clinton campaign. You have the feeling that if Bill Clinton did not have another candidate in this contest, he'd be advising Obama and cheering him on.

Years of decrying the politics of personal destruction and now this...

Comments

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Posted by: luv that edwards on 01/25/08 at 9:44 AM Respond

Bill attacks Obama...Obama cries...the press sympathizes...and I'm not one bit depressed, 'cause Hillary can kick both their ....

Posted by: silverlucie on 01/25/08 at 10:00 AM Respond

bill is pulling a W here. short term political gain without thought of the long term consequences. really sad.

Posted by: dj spellchecka on 01/25/08 at 10:05 AM Respond

If Bill Clinton were managing Obama's campaign, he'd advise Obama to set forth some kind of program for how this country can emerge from the jam it's in at pressent. He'd advise him that criticism comes with the territory of being a politician, and to complain that *all* criticism is somehow "racist" plays into the hands of demagogues and irresponsible reporters and editors.

Posted by: elizabeth bauersox on 01/25/08 at 10:26 AM Respond

The reason that President Clinton can attack Obama on his comments about Reagan is not just that he praised Regan, but that he overlooks the entire Clinton Presidency.

Obama said that the Republicians had the ideas for the past 15 years. Clinton was president for 8 of those years, and he ran on the concept that he had new ideas to challange the GOP.

By overlooking the ideas of the Clinton years, he not only praised Reagan but also quielty critized President Clinton.

In addition, Clinton's praises of Reagan were about specific policy issues and not the over all concept that the GOP had all the ideas.

Obama is running as Clinton '92 in '08 without admiting that Clinton '92 is his true insperation.

Posted by: Gideon Davis on 01/25/08 at 10:59 AM Respond

I'm a lifelong Democrat who will steadfastly refuse to vote for any Cinton in any election. The Clintons are just mean, nasty people. The anger against them is real.

Posted by: Dave on 01/25/08 at 11:18 AM Respond

Bill Clinton is doing Hillary no favor. If she can't win election on her own, then perhaps she needs to look for another job.

Posted by: Tom Edgar on 01/25/08 at 11:27 AM Respond

This is so wretched, the 1st Black President's wife, vs. a real black Muslim...and the stupid Americans are eating it up.

Posted by: Daniel on 01/25/08 at 11:27 AM Respond

Daniel,

Before calling others stupid, you might want to check your own at the door. Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim. And if he were, so what? This is America and you do not have to be a Christian to run for office. American Muslims can be just as patriotic, and during these time maybe even more patriotic, than some of the so-called Christians out there showing their intolerance. America IS NOT a Christian nation. No matter how much you want it to be, how much you say it is or how much you distort history, America is still a pluristic society built on a secular government where the people get to choose their religion.

Deal with it.

Posted by: Matthew on 01/25/08 at 11:43 AM Respond

Hillary…Change? Well, considering that they are playing politics as usual, you can see how much change you will get. Hopefully, America will smart up. I am hopeful, but not confident.
Thanks to Luv That Edwards for the Osama comments. So classy. Always helps Obama when idiots like you do that.

Posted by: kirkbrew` on 01/25/08 at 12:27 PM Respond

Off your meds again?

Posted by: Larry McD on 01/25/08 at 12:45 PM Respond

Sorry, that should read....

Oh, Luv That Edwards -

Off your meds again!

Posted by: Larry McD on 01/25/08 at 12:47 PM Respond

On a more serious note, Mr. Davis, Bill Clinton's ideas were almost exclusively Republican Lite ideas just as Bill himself was. The DLC owes much more to "mainstream" Republicans than to any Democratic tradition.

The two movements that changed the shape of American governance were Ronald Reagan and the Contract with America. I'm the first to say that both were unmitigated disasters but to deny their importance is is a folly beyond madness. And to deny that Bill Clinton's policies from N.A.F.T.A. thru Welfare "Reform" were recycled Republicanism is to live with the crocodiles in Denial.

Posted by: Larry McD on 01/25/08 at 12:55 PM Respond

Hey Matt, thanks. BTW, I am not a xrisjin and do not believe in Jesus.

Posted by: Daniel on 01/25/08 at 1:57 PM Respond

Kerry and Leahy know. I'll NOT support Bill's wife. He's ruined her for me. I'll vote for no one before I vote for her. And, I had voted for Clinton twice but that was before he started this disgusting campaign. Shame on him!

Posted by: Gale on 01/25/08 at 2:45 PM Respond

NEWS FLASH !

Hillary Was AGAINST the Civil Rights Act of 1964

While a Republican and “Goldwater Girl”

according to a recent news article by Robert Novak. Check it out.

If this is true, how can I believe what she says ever?

Posted by: Voice of Reason on 01/25/08 at 5:19 PM Respond

Creating more manufacturing
jobs is the key to controlling the recession.
How will Obama create new
manufacturing jobs all in
the good old U.S.A.?

Posted by: denise on 01/26/08 at 10:53 AM Respond