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May 21, 2013
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Calling Dr. ClintonPosted on Feb 14, 2010
When word went out that Bill Clinton was hospitalized, the prospect that he was in danger made me wish that President Barack Obama had spent more time learning lessons that only Clinton can teach. Yes, Clinton put his presidency at risk over a sex scandal, and his infuriating moments around the 2008 South Carolina primary disheartened even his most loyal supporters. But Clinton remains one of the most talented politicians in our history, and it’s not simply because he feels people’s pain or speaks so well that you sit in your driveway to hear the rest of his speech when he’s on the car radio. Above all, he understands how hard it is to be a progressive politician at this time in history. He appreciates how difficult it is to construct a durable Democratic majority. And he knows how focused Republicans get on regaining power whenever they find themselves on the outside. And so before we got the happy word that Clinton was OK, I realized what a great loss it would be if he and Obama were deprived of a chance to spend significant time together comparing crises and problems. When you look at Obama’s political troubles after a year in office, it’s remarkable how much they have in common with those Clinton faced at the same juncture of his presidency. Advertisement Both sought to occupy the middle ground of American politics. Both believed that they could win over Republicans. Both were sure they could govern differently. During an interview with Obama back in the fall of 2007, I was struck by just how much he sounded like Clinton when he spoke of the importance of wringing “the excesses of the ’60s” out of the Democratic Party. Then, unprompted, Obama added that “Bill Clinton deserves some credit for breaking with some of those dogmas in the Democratic Party.” Remember, Obama was running against Hillary Clinton at the time. But Republicans (and in retrospect you can say this was shrewd politics) understood in 1994, as they do in 2010, that allowing these talented icon smashers to govern differently and draw in members of their own party would be fatal to a GOP comeback. So in Clinton’s case, Republicans voted to a person against his economic recovery plan that—combined with President George H.W. Bush’s deficit-reduction moves—put the nation on the road to budget surpluses. Remember those? And then they killed Clinton’s health care plan. Under Obama, Republicans have used precisely the same tactics without facing any criticism for a lack of originality. Obama’s stimulus bill got three Republican votes in the Senate, none in the House, and GOP lawmakers rail against it even as they claim credit for projects financed by a bill they opposed. And Republicans are doing all they can to make sure that Health Care 2.0 is ruined by the same political viruses that infected Health Care 1.0 under Clinton. Confronting the highly disciplined Republicans, Obama and Clinton both had to rely on a Democratic Party whose ranks, especially in the Senate, include a lot of people ready to abandon the battlefield at the first sign of bad poll numbers. And they share a major weakness: Both believe so devoutly in their capacity to convert adversaries and to get lions and lambs to lie down together that they spend more energy trying to win over their enemies than in rallying their friends. This leaves them helpless when the lions continue to devour the lambs. I am pleased that after the scary tidings, Bill Clinton is doing well. And it may turn out to be providential that he burst into the news at precisely this point. It’s hard to escape the sense that a young and promising Democratic president is too closely replaying the opening act of another young and promising Democratic president—and that Republicans need only recite the same lines they came up with 16 years ago. Obama needs to rewrite the script. And as a script doctor, Bill Clinton has no equal. E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com. © 2010, Washington Post Writers Group New and Improved CommentsIf you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy. |
By MarthaA, February 17, 2010 at 6:12 pm Link to this comment
The Republican EXTREMISTS are preparing to live in China, just ask Rupert Murdoch.
Report thisBy igelle elias terhemen, February 17, 2010 at 7:39 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Let the Republicans understand that in their attempt to frustrate Clinton and Obama there are equally frustrating the future of Great AMERICA at the time China is doing all to lead the economy of the world.
Report thisAmericans be they lambs or lions should come to gather and sleep in a dream world of thy KINGDOM COME and improve the future of the whole world before going back to the lamb, lion fight over power position and measures to survive Clinton and Obama have vision for America and the world lets rally behind them be you Republican or Developing AFRICA like Standing Cameroon.
By MarthaA, February 16, 2010 at 7:13 pm Link to this comment
The last thing President Obama needs is DLC President Clinton telling him how to be Republican Lite. It would be good for the populace of the nation if President Clinton would bow completely out of politics.
Report thisBy ofersince72, February 16, 2010 at 6:09 pm Link to this comment
Wait a minute, I didn’t know he was a docter!!
Report thisHe is everything the Dems want him to be at any time.
By Thong-girl, February 16, 2010 at 8:34 am Link to this comment
I can guarantee you that there are no tricks in Mr. Clinton’s bag that Obama can’t learn in any sleazy titty bar along the backroads of America. Maybe he can learn how to screw Americans out of $100 million when he leaves office. How these degenerates receive the acclaim they do from the Demo-losers is almost as funny as how right wing losers think they are doing the right thing in castigating Obama. What a worthless lot the whole Congress brings.
Report thisBy RdV, February 16, 2010 at 8:32 am Link to this comment
Great post Samson.
Report thisObama apologists are also inclined to blame those who elected Obama for not “making him do it” as FDR famously instructed, but I wonder how constantly denying or apologizing for Obama “makes him do it”.
By Samson, February 16, 2010 at 12:05 am Link to this comment
Do you notice that for all the ranting, the Dem propagandists like Inherit the Wind manage to never give any big areas where Obama and Clinton are really any different from Bush, Bush and Reagan?
Maybe its the wars? Nope, Iraq war is still going strong. Obama has Bush’s policy of promising a pull out at some vague future date in place, along with the same 130,000 or thousand troops that were there all along. And if you listen closely, you can hear that now they are saying that the magical Iraqi elections, which look suspiciously like Chicago elections, may not be the great milestone/turning point that they are supposed to me, and that this might effect the promises of future withdrawals.
Of course, we’ve escalated the Afghan war by some 50,000 thousand new troops there. And we’ve expanded that war into Pakistan with our drone strikes and using the Pak government as a proxy army.
Of course we are still saber-rattling towards Iran, and threatening a new war there. And we are still grand supporters of every Israeli war-crime, and promising to raise the tax-payer dollars we give them to pay for these crimes.
Of course, Gitmo isn’t closed, and the US still runs an extensive overseas prison system.
We did make a minor technical change in how we torture. We went back to the Clinton policy of torture where he ‘rendition’ someone to another country and let them torture them.
We’ve had a coup to overthrow a democratically elected President in Honduras. With Obama threatening more of the same and attacking the legit democracies that have emerged in the region.
And of course,the Pentagon budget, the ‘intelligence’ budget, and the ‘homeland security’ budgets all just keep going up.
Obama’s jobs program is the classic Reagan program of giving tax breaks to businesses. Although, I guess we should be happy that he doesn’t just hand over the entire treasury to all businesses the way he does for his wall street buddies.
Obama’s health care plan is the health care enrichment act of 2010. Entirely focuses on guaranteed profits for all the ‘leaders’ who got the private meeting in the White House to map all of this out.
So ... why is it that when I start thinking about it, I can go on and on and on about all the ways in which Obama and Bush are the same, yet, the Democrats amongst us only want to criticize us for daring to point this out ... and seem incapable of providing any similarly extensive list of the great improvements and changes we’ve seen because we elected Obama and the Democrats?
Report thisBy Samson, February 15, 2010 at 11:54 pm Link to this comment
The hillarious part is that someone thinks Clinton is a progressive. Did this guy sleep through the whole Clinton presidency?
Clinton and Obama are both very similar in that both regularly lied to the left and to the American people, then did nothing but service their big campaign contributors once the con-job worked and they got elected.
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The people have to realize that whenever you vote for candidates that have millions of corporate dollars in their accounts, then those politicians are already bought off. They will not be on your side if elected. Instead, they use the millions of corporate dollars to lie their rears off to con people into voting for them.
This ends when people start voting for politicians who actually will represent their interests instead of the interests of their contributors. There’s usually one or more on every ballot. Just gotta look past the crooked D’s and the crooked R’s to find them.
We can solve this problem this fall. All we have to do is to want to.
As for this article, I almost wish I’d paid for the paper. Then I could at least use it to wrap fish. Bout all its worth. Actually, considering what a giant pile of doo-doo this article is, that’s probably cruel to the fish.
Report thisBy Warren Metzler, February 15, 2010 at 6:48 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I recognize that most of the other posters have objected to EJ’s
Report thisassessment. But I want to express what was Bill’s major problem,
because until it is realized we will see more and more like him in the
future. He was obsessed with being important, being liked by large
groups of people. He choose to have politics be the way he gained
fame. He is a total prostitute, able proclaim mutually opposite points of
view with great apparent enthusiasm for both. He has no moral
character; no capacity to discover what really works in any situation,
and refuse achieve less than that what works; and as a result can
repeatedly lie through his teeth, without being personally bothered by
any one lie. The claim that “is” can have several different meanings is
an excellent example. He is actually in favor of nothing, other than his
own self-aggrandizement, so will never deliver on anything that has
substance. HIllary is just like him; appearing different only because as a
woman she expresses these personality traits in a different manner.
By elisalouisa, February 15, 2010 at 6:28 pm Link to this comment
I agree with most of the posts below, especially by tres. They are all tools used by the power/elite. The talk may be different but they walk the same walk.
Report thisObama has proven that there is no difference.
By Inherit The Wind, February 15, 2010 at 12:09 pm Link to this comment
After viewing these posts is it any WONDER the Democrats can’t get anything done. Give the Re-thugs credit: They got over THEIR circular firing squad some time between the election of 2008 and the inauguration in 2009—Dims keep adding more and more guns to their circle.
It’s tunnel-vision dogmatics like all these posters that think ReaganBushClintonBushObama are all one president. I guess if there were extra-terrestrial beings they couldn’t tell Scarlett Johansson or Johnny Depp from an orangutan! All they’d see are primates—if that.
Report thisBy Hammond Eggs, February 15, 2010 at 11:49 am Link to this comment
But Clinton remains one of the most talented politicians in our history, and it’s not simply because he feels people’s pain or speaks so well that you sit in your driveway to hear the rest of his speech when he’s on the car radio.
Above all, he understands how hard it is to be a progressive politician . . .
Report thisHere is a perfectly beautiful encapsulation of the rotten, fetid sewer called the MSM. E.J. Dionne, of the Dionne Quintuplets, all five being E.J. Dionne himself, can still say with a straight face that Clinton felt our pain. The only pain Clinton felt originated in the area of his crotch. John F. Kennedy named his penis “J.J.” I wonder what Clinton called his. And there was never anything remotely “progressive” about Clinton. Ditto Obama. A well paid hacky-hack like Dionne naturally still believes this. This article is simply another salvo in the Democrats’ desperate Goebbels-blitz to keep you voting for the D’s.
By bozh, February 15, 2010 at 9:20 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
A collumnist usually looks at the world thru a slit and sees just one person, event [usually of very minor import], gaffe, a good deed [helping an old lady across the stret].
And the gossip-politicking-cult worship is on.
I like clinton! Beats me why? Any help here? I don’t like my wife at times also. I don’t like BHO. I ask self, Is it his skin?
OK! enough gossip for now!
From now on i’ll be selling u jigsaw puzzles. But i’ll be sending u a few pieces at the time to whet ur appetite. Just to make it more entertaining, i’ll also include an odd false piece because i know u’d solve the puzzle, anyway. Good luck!
Report thisBy KISS, February 15, 2010 at 6:21 am Link to this comment
Are you daft? I hoped the son-of-a-bitch would die after a lingering illness. Clinton was a husker, a cheat to the Amerikan public. Who cared about his failings as a human, it was the severity of crippling the people he was to lead. His sleight of hand tricks are the same as Obamas, another double dealing shill for Wall street. These two crooks prove how badly we need a 2,3,4, party system and how the repugs and dimmos are so entwined with big business and the people are no more than pawns.
Report thisE.J. Dionne, I wish you would find a different line of work.
By tres, February 15, 2010 at 1:09 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
wow. Clinton’s deregulation is what got us into these man-made crisis. He is just another tool used by the same establishment. Are people seriously believe the two party fights are for real? Clinton, Obama, and who else, are no difference than Bush, Cheney.
Report thisBy idarad, February 14, 2010 at 10:55 pm Link to this comment
I’m not sure if E.J. is still on the same drugs as usual, we keep hoping for a change in prescription. Clinton and Obama both drink from the same fountain, but it is not a progressive fountain. Unless one considers anti-union progressive, or taking the corporate line when it comes to compromise. Obama walks the same road as Clinton, both sold principle to the highest bidder and lowest common denominator. We still have NAFTA and CAFTA and now SHAFTA. Obama, like Clinton is willing to kill innocent people in order to look tough, that’s not progressive. Obama freezes spending on services for the people, but increases spending on the war machine, that is not progressive. No E.J. I think Obama would be better trying to learn from true men of conviction, not the corporatist like Clinton or those he has chosen as handlers.
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