June 28, 2008

"Bill said Obama would have to quote kiss my ass close quote, if he wants his support."

Bill Clinton is still pretty upset about things. (Via Memeorandum.)
[T]he former president's rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence....

[One] source said that the former president has kept his distance because he still does not believe Mr Obama can win the election....

It has long been known that Mr Clinton is angry at the way his own reputation was tarnished during the primary battle when several of his comments were interpreted as racist.

But his lingering fury has shocked his friends.... "He's been angry for a while. But everyone thought he would get over it. He hasn't. I've spoken to a couple of people who he's been in contact with and he is mad as hell.

"He's saying he's not going to reach out, that Obama has to come to him. One person told me that Bill said Obama would have to quote kiss my ass close quote, if he wants his support....

"Bill Clinton knows the party will unite behind Obama, but he is telling people he doesn't believe Obama can win round voting groups, especially working-class whites, in the swing states," the strategist said.
Well, that's all very juicy... but isn't it interesting that we're hearing this just as Hillary and Obama are making their big public show of unity?

38 comments:

Host with the Most said...

Bill is actually right on this one.

Obama's New Theme Song:

Flip flop, he was taking a stand,
Out upon the campaign trail,
Scratching his head, just relaxing in the chair,
Thinking every thing was alright.

Well he got out of the chair, put his feet on the floor,
Strapped his halo on and he opened the door,
Flip flop, he jumped back in the chair,
How was he to know what his aids had said.

He was a twisting and revising, moving towards the middle,
Of his previous words, he didn’t give a diddle


The above courtesy of commenter "Fritz" on Don Surber's blog

Bissage said...

When Barack Obama and Bill Clinton embrace it will be in front of the cameras and it will pull bigger numbers than the tearful reunion of Krusty the Clown and Sideshow Mel.

Send in the clowns.

Host with the Most said...

By the way, Professor Althouse,
your constant effort at parsing Obama's language betrays your glowing admiration for his lawyerly qualities of the use so very many words to say the equivalent of nothing that can ever be used to pin him down.

George M. Spencer said...

Obama's strategy was to paint him as a hot-head and a racist no matter what he said.

He had to convince black voters that he, not Clinton, was the real black guy and more level-headed.

The word 'fairytale?' Clearly code for racist.

Clinton defends himself in someone's home movie? He's furious, out-of-control, raging, hormonal!

Jake said...

I see a divorce coming within 4 months

garage mahal said...

If there is one thing we just know in our hearts to be true is a article in a London paper with an unnamed "party strategist", "the Democrat", and "campaign insiders".

Bill Clinton is mad! Joe Klein says his behaviour is shocking! [if true].

Discuss!

KLDAVIS said...

Ah, so Bill wants a 'Jesse Jackson' apology...

rhhardin said...

Obama invented the look into the future, making lip biting obsolete with women. Bill is stuck.

Meade said...

Formerly: The President of the United States of America

From now on: The Kiss My Ass Guy

Ken said...

Obama supporters are learning what Republicans have known for two decades. Bill Clinton is all about Bill Clinton. Nothing else matters. It will probably be fifteen years before they discover this is true of Obama too.

former law student said...

Great picture of Bill on the DT site. I haven't seen any human being over the age of three make such a tantrum face.

Bill needs to spend some quality time relaxing at Hef's place.

dick said...

This is the same bit that Al Sharpton pulled on Algore and Hillary in 2000 if they wanted his support. Nothing new here at all.

Sharpton said Algore and Hillary had to come to him in person and ask for his support or he would not give it. They both showed up all contrite and begging his support. Typical of the LLL dem pols.

AST said...

It all goes to show that Bill will always occupy one level of Hell below that occupied by Barack, who will never kiss any part of his anatomy, but both will be in the zone reserved for liars.

Obama was better when he was spouting platitudes and didn't have to try to keep in sync with his party.

Anonymous said...

Actually that's pretty refined of Slick Willie. There are more graphic ways to convey the same action. H Clinton is already engaged in the process, and it isn't pretty.

"Pucker up now, Hil. This one's for the feminists. No, wait a second. Michelle's gone to get the camera."

Larry Sheldon said...

"Well, that's all very juicy... but isn't it interesting that we're hearing this just as Hillary and Obama are making their big public show of unity?"

I'm amazed that we are hearing about it at all.

BJK said...

even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence....

So, having "under the table" relations with an intern in the Oval Office, and impeachment....that didn't damage his reputation.

Refusing to pay fealty to Lord Obama, that's bad for a man's legacy.

Mortimer Brezny said...

So, the first black Presidential nominee has to kiss a white Southerner's ass in order to win the election...? No, Bill, you aren't racist at all.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Bissage:

Sideshow Mel? Nah does not sound right - it is Sideshow Bob (aka that actor who plays Fraser Crane).

I'm Full of Soup said...

This just in...Mortimer can find a racist under every rock.

The Drill SGT said...

Obama supporters are learning what Republicans have known for two decades. Bill Clinton is all about Bill Clinton. Nothing else matters. It will probably be fifteen years before they discover this is true of Obama too.

I'm going to take an opposing view on this one. Bill and half the Democratic party discovered what it is like to be painted as racist when you challenge the opponent's positions on issues.

- Call somebody inexperienced, that's a code word for racist
- call somebody wrong, that's a code wode for racist
- call somebody a flip flopper, that is a code word for racist.
- win the white vote, you have to be racist, course the other guy won even more of the black vote, but in that case, he is post-racial

The primary campaign demostrated how disfunctional democratic victim politics really is.

At some level Bill is reacting to the fact that his victim (Hillary) was turned into a white oppressor by a greater victim... it wasn't an enjoyable experience for him

Anonymous said...

I have come to the conclusion that Obama is dangerous because he is willing to enslave us all to Washington DC in order elevate himself to the status of "a great man."

His insistence that he'll give us everything we need through government programs is as false as it is alarming.

Did you ever wonder how it is that politicians have managed to get between us and most of everything we need to live?

Do you think it was by accident?

If we let politicians have their way, I think they will eventually "help us" to the point where we have to pass by them or their program get to EVERYTHING we need: food, energy, education, jobs, and health care. I think that kind of purpose and drive is in their DNA – the desire to be necessary and to control.

I would propose that the most efficient and certain way to root out "special interests" and lobbyists, as Obama says he wants to do, is to weaken the federal government - to abolish the single point of corruption, Washington DC.

But Obama wants to pull more power to Washington DC.

Anne, you support Obama, how do you answer that?

How do you reconcile the fact that the more power and money the federal government has (health care, energy, school funding, and on and on) the more it becomes a single point of influence for lobbyists and "special interests".

In engineering, we call that a single point of failure. Why would we want to design a nation that has a single point of failure and corruptibility?

Wouldn't it be a better if we had 50 points of failure, or how about even more than that? That is a better design. That thwarts “special interests” because they have too many points they have to line up to get their way.

What say ye, Anne, “supporter of Obama”? How do you answer?

Unknown said...

Why is that interesting? We all know that Bill and Hillary's marriage is a fake one (FOX News told me so), so of course they can have completely opposite opinions and approaches to Obama.

rcocean said...

Actually, Bill's reaction is pretty much what you'd expect. At bottom Clinton's a stone age Alpha male who could never accept another man as an equal. Clinton always has to be top dog, and when he isn't he's one angry Mofu.

That's why he is/was always flying into rages. That's why he's always surrounded himself with women and wimps like George S and Bob Reich. His cabinet never had one man of stature. And h
he treated metrosexual Gore like crap. And he never had strong father figure, another key indicator of the alpha male/mama's boy.

Most men dislike Clinton and always have. He never got a majority of the male vote. He's now a has been, and Obama should keep driving the hoop and ignore him.

John Stodder said...

Who would vote against Obama because Bill is pissed at him?

Damn few.

Hillary supporters. They'll follow Hillary's lead, not Bill's.

Republicans? Like some of the posts above indicate, they're feeling like "finally, you guys get it."

Independents? They've seen Clinton basically decompensate over the past year. The typical nonpartisan sees tabloid headlines suggesting his health is poor and figures it's all just premature senility.

Black voters? Clinton was then, Obama is now.

The liberal media? Likewise.

His ass is going to be hanging out there for a long time, with nobody kissing it but a few misguided interns.

Peter V. Bella said...

"and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence."


What reputation? Uncle Festus' reputation is the biggest fairy tale I have ever seen. It is right up there with Hillary's thirty years of public service.

Just goes to show, you can take the hillbilly outta the holler, but you can't take the holler outta the hillbilly. Low class white trash is all he is.

AllenS said...

The Clintons are not nice people. Never have been. Never will. I hope Barack punches Bill in the mouth.

Roger Sweeny said...

As a number of commenters have suggested, this may partly be trying to build up negotiating strength.

If you (Obama) want a deal and "insiders" say that Bill doesn't, you're likely to give him more than if the insiders are saying, "he wants a deal just as much as you do."

Meade said...

John Stodder said...
"His ass is going to be hanging out there for a long time, with nobody kissing it but a few misguided interns."

Army of ass kissers.

Bissage said...

Hey, is that Amanda Marcotte with the nice Dick Cheneys?

Dick Chenies?!?!

Aaaaah . . . jugs.

I'm Full of Soup said...

AllenS:

I bet that would be the first real fistfight either of them was ever in.

ballyfager said...

So let him wallow in his own bile. Bill Clinton is like Oakland. There is no there there.

He spent his whole life trying to improve himself from the outside in, rather than the inside out. Doesn't work.

And the most delicious thing of all is that there is nothing than anyone can say or do to him that is worse than the circumstance he is in, having to BE Bill Clinton every day.

Kansas City said...

Anyone who thinks that Bill and Hillary Clinton want Obama to be president of the United States (before Hillary) is dreaming.

BJM said...

>believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.

That horse bolted the barn in 1997.

Clinton became a caricature of himself at his worse during this election cycle.

Jim Howard said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kansas City said...

The media always exaggerates the abilities of politicians and polical operatives, in part because the system produces one of two campaigns a winner and, regardless of whether it is warranted or not, the media declares the winner to be brilliant. Bill Clinton was declared a genius politician because of his success. This time he is a fool who has lost his touch.

On a similar issue, as pointed out at Real Clear Politics some time back, the "great" Clinton political machine lost the nomination for one reason - it somehow failed to find the publicly available video tapes of Reverand Wright prior to the Iowa caucus.

Unknown said...

Well, that's all very juicy... but isn't it interesting that we're hearing this just as Hillary and Obama are making their big public show of unity?

Well this is interesting but not surprising to me----Bill and Hillary take opposing sides all the time. They are a divided front and that way all the bases are covered. Hillary can kiss up to Obama while Bill disses him. Two for the price of one.

Roger J. said...

does anybody really care about Bill Clinton anymore?

The Exalted said...

anonymously sourced nonsense

think