Today's NYT has a story on the fast-declining appeal of the Clinton brand. Folks just don't much care to turn out to hear ol' Slick speak. Here in Dallas yesterday -- a place where Barack Obama packed a downtown arena to the rafters last week -- the former president and Democratic Party rock star struggled with turnout:
"You agree we need more jobs?" Mr. Clinton asked a crowd of about 200 people gathered Tuesday morning near an early-voting station at Dallas' Grauwyler Park as he campaigned on behalf of his wife.
[snip]
"Who's the most ready to be the president of the United States? Hillary," he told about 300 people outside Dallas' Samuell-Grand Recreation Center, another early-voting location. "This is not experience vs. change. This is about whether you've been a change-maker."
Looks like a failed oldies act to me. Meanwhile, in Collin County, which is literally the most Republican county in perhaps the reddest state in the Union, early voting in the Democratic primary is through the roof. An editor who covers Collin told me yesterday he almost thought the figures were a typo when he read them. "Something is going on out there," he said. (Texas, by the way, allows crossover voting; his implication was that Republicans are taking Democratic ballots to vote for Obama).
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
I am from Collin County. I have a hard time believing that Republicans there are turning out to vote for Obama. It could be independents or libs who usually don't bother to even vote.
Sex Scandals?
Unlike the Republicans, who would never run someone who's cheated on his wife.
Impeachment?
Blaming the Bill Clinton for his impeachment is somewhat akin to blaming JFK for his assassination.
War in Serbia/Kosovo?
Yeah, because stopping ethnic cleansing? Way way worse than invading a place and causing it to start. (And by any standard of the Iraq war, Kosovo was an amazing success.)
China?
Yes, Clinton stupidly listened to much to the right-wing DLC for foreign policy and continued what the right had started. Thank goodness Bush fixed out China policy. (Remind me what he did again?)
Clinton was probably our nation's most intellectually and morally bankrupt leader. It's pretty hard to top Clinton.
I'm going to assume that "It's" was actually short for "It was" instead of "It is", and while I don't agree that it would have been that hard to be worse than Clinton, I will freely admit that Bush has gone well beyond the call of duty there.
Now, the Clintons are socialists and were communists when young. Socialism and Communism don't work, which is why the Soviet Union collapsed and China is trying to phase out references to Mao in their textbooks. Europe's economic growth is stagnating under the mass of taxes and regulations imposed on them.
Whereas our economy is flying off into the sunset. Or at least started that way, then caught on fire and crashed into the ocean because Bush filled our gas tank with sugar water instead of gas.
Incidentally, no one but you is buying that socialist/communist stuff.
Clinton had nothing to do with the prosperity of the 90s. Regan before him laid the foundations that made the tech boom so great.
The tech boom did not cause the prosperity of the 90s. The fact we actually had a functioning economy caused the prosperity of the 90s.
Andrew, perhaps you hate the Clintons for what you believe are good reasons. Allow the possibility that you may also be blinded by your hatred of them, just as some of my liberal friends are blinded by their hatred of George W. Bush.
The Clinton "brand" may be out of favor at present, but I don't believe that the Clinton legacy will be confined to the Lewinsky sex scandal. I believe, for all their flaws, the Clintons are good people who genuinely want to do good.
And I've seen no evidence to suggest that they were socialists or communists in their youth. Being part of the "New Left" doesn't qualify.
Pretty much what those other people said. Reality's phone number is listed. Get in touch sometime.
Unless there are landslide victories for the senator from New York next week, historians will trace the Clinton's mutual decline and fall to Bill Clinton's brutal Shermanesque campaign, rampaging through South Carolina on his wife's ostensible behalf.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.