I Miss Bill

By: The Grey Havens
Published On: 6/29/2008 11:00:53 PM

"kiss my ass"?

It's been kind of a tough time for the best President of the last 20 years.

Before the beginning of the 2008 campaign, Bill Clinton's reputation was experiencing a well-deserved resurrection.  After 8 years of Bush  incompetence, arrogance and corruption, the American people were looking back to the Clinton era as a beacon of peace, prosperity, and achievement.  A lie about oral sex paled in comparison to an orchestrated campaign of lies that caused the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and came with a $3 Trillion price tag, not to mention untold thousands of dead Iraqi citizens.  

The simple mantra "I Miss Bill" appeared on bumper stickers and posters.  It became the vernacular shorthand which contrasted the disastrous age of Bush's callow conservatism against the even-handed competence of Bill's brilliant and inspiring Democratic rule.

The Clinton Global Initiative focused governments and businesses on the critical issues of poverty and disease in the developing world.  Whispers of Bill the Supreme Court Justice, or Bill the Secretary General of the United Nations abounded.

But when Hillary Clinton's "In it to win it." campaign was challenged by the new man from HOPE, Barack Obama, Bill's resurrection fell apart.  

It's not worth recounting here, because we've all lived through the brutal primary season and we've all moved on.  All of us, that is, except for Bill, himself.  Apparently, he is so bruised from this season that he is telling his close confidantes that if Barack Obama wants his help, then Obama will need to "kiss my ass".
This is disappointing and clearly not constructive.   It divides the party and puts a loser's face on what can and should be the transcendent achievement of Hillary and all of her supporters.  

As Democrats, we fight for our beliefs, battle things out during primaries and come together to fight for our beliefs when the time comes to defeat the forces of ignorance, hatred, and greed which now control the Republican party.  

No one is hurt more by this than Bill Clinton himself.  It sullies his reputation, his standing and his ability to stand up with the growing legions of devoted Democrats to lead the nation.

Where's the brave, proud, heroic, visionary who led our party through a decade of prosperity?  Has he really been replaced by this broken shell?  Where's the man who made a generation of young voters hum "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow", when we could have been marching with the conservative movement back across their bridge to the 18th century?  Where's the Bill Clinton I love so much?

Where's our beloved Bubba, the comeback kid?  I never thought he really left us, but now, more than ever, I truly do miss Bill.


Comments



let me respond as I did on Big Orange (teacherken - 6/30/2008 7:12:45 AM)
when I first read about this set of remarks. I offered an immediate visceral reaction, with a followup comment since the first was not in my usual tone:
he can bend over and kiss his own ass goodbye

as far as any future role in the party if this is his attitude.  

The world does not revolve around him.   And Obama doe not need him to win, although his willing strong support could make an important difference down ballot.

And quite obviously Bill is not the brilliant political strategist he thought he was, since he was a major part of torpedoing his wife's campaign, starting with his insistence on recycling his political advisers like the incompetent Mark Penn.

Tell him that if he wants a mouth on any part of his anatomy, if that is his attitude, let him perform whatever acts he wants on himself.

That was the original, this was the followup:

and let me add - I don't get this irritated

or vulgar all that often.  I can be pretty forgiving, but I have had it with this guy's self-absorption.

I agree with you, he has done a pretty good job of destroying his reputation by how he has acted ruing this cycle, and this partiuclar remark is for me the final straw.

Peace



Leave Barack alone! (TheGreenMiles - 6/30/2008 8:55:20 AM)
Oh, poor poor Obama. Here goes Big Bad Bill again, pushing him around! What a bully. Why won't he stop being so mean to poor ineffectual knobby-kneed Barack?

You sound like the Leave Britney Alone guy. You can't freak out every time a washed-up politician says something bad about Barack (or every time a British newspaper cites anonymous third-party sources with an out-of-context quote fragment). Let Bill wander further out to pasture where he can't hurt anybody.

Save it for McCain.  



You can see my salvos at McCain (The Grey Havens - 6/30/2008 10:55:09 AM)
here, here, here, here and here's one that's really under your bailiwick.

The irony of your Britany metaphor is pretty strong, too.  Considering that I've essentially pointed to her as an emblem of the pervasive lie that is conservatism.

Most importantly, this post is really about how much I respect and appreciate Bill, the political hero of my youth.  he and other Obama holdouts really need to take a serious look at what they're doing.  It's not constructive.



With supporters like this (aznew - 6/30/2008 1:37:06 PM)
who needs enemies?

You write:

his post is really about how much I respect and appreciate Bill, the political hero of my youth.  he and other Obama holdouts really need to take a serious look at what they're doing.  It's not constructive.

This is disingenuous, at best. With all due respect, WJC made some mistakes this past primary, and probably said some stuff that ought not to have been said.

But to be fair, Obama and his supporters treated President Clinton quite badly. In many ways, they attempted to minimize the presidency of Bill Clinton asa campaign tactic against Hillary. Well, okay, perhaps Hillary brought that on.

But worst of all, some of Bill Clinton's statements were utterly distorted in order to create the slanderous charge against him that he was a racist. I am speaking here of the "fairy-tale" statement.

That attack bothered me at the time, and I can understand why WJC may still smarting from that.

So perhaps all President Clinton is "doing" is reacting as a normal human being. Give the guy a break.

Now, that all said, I also agree with TGH that this sort of thing is not productive, and I hope the former great Democratic President and the soon-to-be great Democratic president find a way to proceed. But quite honestly, I think the ball is in Obama's court.



Obama has never treated Bill Clinton (Lowell - 6/30/2008 1:48:56 PM)
with anything but respect.  He was very gracious to Hillary and to Bill at the Unity event.  He's encouraged his supporters to help Hillary with her campaign debt. Seems like he's doing everything he can, but obviously he's not going to kiss anyone's hind quarters.


I agree with you, though, that the "fairy tale" (Lowell - 6/30/2008 1:57:22 PM)
remarks were way overblown.  If Bill Clinton's a racist, then I'm a right-wing Republican.


Perhaps "badly" overstated it (aznew - 6/30/2008 2:19:19 PM)
Obama's remarks regarding Ronald Reagan and Republicans being the party of ideas have been picked over here, and I'm not looking to refight the battle.

But I think the remarks were a pointed attempt to sacrifice Bill's record as president on the alter of superficial bipartisanship. I disagreed with the statements at the time.

Anyway, at least with respect to Obama personally, that was what I was referring to here, and I think I overstated my case.

And I agree that since it became apparent that he was goign to win the nomination, Obama has been very respectful and done everything reasonable to win support of both Clinton's in the wake of a tough primary fight.



OMG (Ben - 6/30/2008 11:07:25 AM)
I wanted to respond to this last night, but couldn't come up with anything pithy enough.

But comparing TGH to the Leave Britney Alone guy- NAILED IT!



That wasn't the point at all. (Lowell - 6/30/2008 11:14:23 AM)
The point is that Bill Clinton is on the verge of harming his OWN legacy and his OWN place in the Democratic Party.  Also, I believe that it would be a big loss if the Democrats' last two-term president were put "out to pasture where he can't hurt anybody."  To the contrary, we need Bill Clinton IN the pasture, helping to elect Barack Obama and other Democrats this fall.  He can still do a tremendous amount of good for the Democratic Party, for the country, and for the planet.  


We are our own worst enemies (Teddy - 6/30/2008 1:06:05 PM)
at times.  The scent of victory for Democrats is bringing out all the petty divisions and disagreements in our big tent. Enough, already! I agree, Lowell, let's put this aside for later discussion if need be, and move on united, to a crushing victory over the real enemy, those neoconservatives who have highjacked conservatism, our Constitution, our very American experiment in governing ourselves.  


Agreed. (Lowell - 6/30/2008 1:12:18 PM)
Just keep thinking about one thing: A Scalia/Alito/Thomas-style Supreme Court for the rest of your life. Motivated yet? :)


Anybody know context of that scowling picture? (Quizzical - 6/30/2008 6:00:19 PM)
I've been trying to figure out where that picture came from, and the context.  My best guess is that he pulled that face when he was talking about the "swiftboating" of John Kerry and also Max Cleland, but I could be wrong.


Can't Understand Bill Clinton Loyalist (ub40fan - 6/30/2008 9:45:34 PM)
.... he's a very flawed person ethically and morally. Flip the Bush coin and Bill Clinton is on the other side. Of course nobody died over Bill Clinton's bad decisions, gee.... what a relief!

But like most of America I'm happy to know that the party and and country are headed in a very different direction with new leadership and a renewed hope.

Nothing is to be gained bashing Bill Clinton (though the Brits love this political soap opera) .... and Hillary has a chance to restart anew (for aznew). I will say Hillary did her professional best to promote Unity in Unity and for that deserves some support.

The Clintons need to take a very long break.... Obama doesn't really need them as much as they want their $10 Million personal debt covered. Pay them off and let 'em vacation on Martha's Vineyard.