"Now if you don’t believe we can all grow together again, if you don't believe we're ever going to grow again, if you believe it's more important to re-litigate the past, there may be many reasons that you don't want to support her. But if you believe we can all rise together, if you believe we've finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that where we were practicing trickle-down economics with no regulation in Washington, which is what caused the crash, then you should vote for her. Because she's the only person who basically has good ideas, will tell you how she's going to pay for them, can be commander-in-chief, and is a proven change maker with Republicans and Democrats and Independents alike."How do you make a mistake like that? It can't be that he forgot it's 2016 and delusionally believed he was back in 2008, because "and the 7 years before that" would have to refer to his own presidency. And putting the 7 years before the 8 years is hopelessly mixed up, since GWB served a full 8 years, and the 7 must refer to the unfinished term that is Obama's. Bill is clearly talking about 2 presidential terms there, so it seems hard to figure out how he isn't lambasting Obama. But I'm going to assume he meant to say that Obama, in his 7 years, has got us to the point where we are past the the awful legacy of the preceding 8 years.
Bill is just a little tired. People misspeak. It's not that big a deal. He's not running for President. And he's not insulting Obama. It's not like Bill and Hillary behind the scenes talk about how awful Obama is, and Bill let it slip. But maybe you think it's funny to imagine that.
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74 comments:
Clinton told the truth, for once.
Any modestly informed person who is not a Dem operative would agree that Obama has been a terrible president.
"Bill is just a little tired. People misspeak. It's not that big a deal. He's not running for President. And his not insulting Obama. "
I'm trying to think of the last time a conservative made a verbal screwup that profound and was given the benefit of the doubt like that. I'm failing completely.
Didn't Bill Clinton sign the bill that repealed Glass Steagull?
As a lame duck, I might add.
It's not like Bill and Hillary behind the scenes talk about how awful Obama is, and Bill let it slip.
Oh no..of course not. to be honest I doubt Bill and Hillary actually spend much time talking to each other. At this point, what is there left to say?
It's called a Kinsley gaffe Althouse, and I suspect that that is exactly what it was.
Bill must know that Hillary has basically repudiated his entire legacy of centrism, but she still wants his votes, so there's something.
The economy hasn't performed well since Clinton. That's a fact, he knows it and he's crowing about it. Bush II was a spectacular failure. Obama is just mediocre. So there it is.
Defense of reactive and planned parenthood. Premature evacuation and abandoning friends and allies. Progressive wars without consensus. Million man exodus from nations destabilized by social justice movements. Recycled and created terrorist organizations. Regime changes on impulse. Arming cartels to ostensibly accelerate the mass exodus from Central America and as leverage to curtail Americans' rights. Extrajudicial killings. Selective exclusion. Class diversity schemes. Devaluation of capital and labor. To name a few.
Clinton has recovered his mind. While many others have lost theirs.
Democrats talked about how bad the Great Depression was even though Franklin Roosevelt was President through most of it.
Bill is getting a little senile, I think. Maybe he really did inhale.
Plus, those prepubescent girls might have taken a lot out of him.
Obama is just mediocre. So there it is.
Mediocre from a very low starting point. It's like he was given a huge head start, and yet still nothing happened.
"It's not like Bill and Hillary behind the scenes talk about how awful Obama is, and Bill let it slip. But maybe you think it's funny to imagine that."
Hmmm...I could be wrong but seems like Althouse is slipping in the slow knife here, well-deservedly hoisting Bill on his own petard.
Already, conservatives of all stripes are nervously falling to their knees, praying that Bill does not croak until AFTER the general election.
If he goes tits up before November, women will massively give Hillary a "sympathy" vote to put her over the top.
Because that's how women roll.
Wasn't it Jack Nicholson in a screen role as writer, who described how he developed his female characters?
"I think of a man, then I take away reason and responsibility."
The real failure of Bush was Hastert as Speaker. He is a crook.
Iraq was done for valid reasons but the occupation was botched by State. Bush's decision for the "Surge" salvaged it only to see it abandoned by Obama.
The financial crash was brought about by the Democrats' takeover in 2006. Barney Frank has even been quoted saying they would role the dice a little while longer. The CRA was the beginning. Obama and Bernacke have reinflated the bubble with ZIRP but it is weakening.
Bill Clinton is as usual right.
"Hillary called Obama ‘incompetent and feckless’ in boozy rant"
http://nypost.com/2014/06/27/hillary-called-obama-a-joke-at-lunch-with-pals-book/
Wow. What a day.
1) Bill lets loose a Fruedian Slip saying the last eight years sucked
2) Obama validates Communist dictators
3) Elizabeth Warren gets down in the dirt tweeting Trump's a loser
4) Trump brands Warren "The Indian"
5) A Black cop goes viral w complements to Arizona Trump supporters and says the protestors were horrible people
6) Left wing protestors hold Hitler signs outside a Jewish conference insulting all Holocaust victims
"The economy hasn't performed well since Clinton. That's a fact, he knows it and he's crowing about it. Bush II was a spectacular failure. Obama is just mediocre. So there it is."
********************
Are you fricking serious?
Most of the Bush years where marked by prosperity and falling unemployment, down to less than 5%, 5 REAL percent, not the bogus current metric that conveniently excludes people who have given up trying to find work.
Yes, that number spiked when the financial crisis hit the fan, but it's no longer even debatable that the housing crisis was primarily a monster of Democrat making.
Remember Barney Frank? Or Franklin Raines?
Bill had two key things working for him, Baby Boomers reaching peak earnings and dumping big time into 401(k)s and the peace dividend. Something unique to the 90s that had nothing to do with his economic genius. Of course on 9/11 it was wasted.
He's a doddering old fool now. Bring him on.
Bill is clearly talking about 2 presidential terms there, so it seems hard to figure out how he isn't lambasting Obama.
Well, Sanders pretty much says the same thing about the economy being in shambles, doesn't he?
Now that we're still in the primaries & not the general election, Obama is more of a punching bag on the Left than on the Right. That'll change come the general, but not now.
Perhaps I'm giving him too much credit, but I don't think he made a mistake or misspoke. I think he was referring to the "awful legacy of the last eight years" since the 2008 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and subsequent economic collapse. This would cover much of the the final year of the Bush presidency along with the subsequent seven completed years of the Obama presidency. The "seven years before that" refer to the first seven years of the Bush presidency which precede the 2008 collapse.
93 million people are not working. Those are the 50-year old types. That's not good.
As for youngsters, well, the elite Left herded them all into college, and they've racked up $1.2 Trillion in student loan debt -- with dim employment prospects, except for, maybe, Barristas at Starbucks.
So, Yes, that last 8 years have sucked, but because we have a Leftist President, our Leftist brethren can't or won't say it -- except for old Slick Willie!
with dim employment prospects, except for, maybe, Barristas at Starbucks.
And.. they are excited about Tiny House phenomenon.
Bush 2 wasted our surplus on tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. Bush 2 did Iraq and Katrina and a whole bunch of other terrible things. He's a pig.
It's not like Bill and Hillary behind the scenes talk about how awful Obama is, and Bill let it slip.
@Althouse, were you thinking of this link from Instapundit?
@SteveR, at least he didn't screw up.. (on the front that mattered, LOL).
The financial crash was brought about by the Democrats' takeover in 2006. Barney Frank has even been quoted saying they would role the dice a little while longer. The CRA was the beginning. Obama and Bernacke have reinflated the bubble with ZIRP but it is weakening.
You forget that part of the financial meltdown was due to Bill Clinton loading up Fannie and Freddie with Dem party loyalists, who drove them to lend to marginal borrowers, utilizing the CRA as a whip. Even when the Bush Administration tried to rein in this borrowing, they couldn't do anything, thanks to Frank, as well as these Dem loyalists who were the ones in charge of lending through those two quasi-govt. entities. Just ask yourself why Jamie Gorelick, one of the people most personally responsible for the attacks on 9/11/01, thanks to her "Wall", was making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, on the board of one of these entities. The answer is that Bill Clinton put her, and the rest of that fetid crew, into those entities, giving them a nice sinecure until the Dems could again retake the Presidency.
@SteveR, at least he didn't screw up.. (on the front that mattered, LOL).
Well he lost the House in '94 and it wasn't run by Boehner. So that cooled his jets a bit.
Bill Clinton, as usual undermines Hillary while trying to prop her up. He should just stay home and play with the grandchild like a good grandpa.
George W. Bush "did" Katrina? What the fuck does that even mean?
It depends on what the meaning of awful is.
George W. Bush "did" Katrina? What the fuck does that even mean?
You know, like BHO did the BP oil spill.
Exactly, SteveR.
SteveR, at least Obama got something from the psychopaths at BP. That's a good thing. The Tea Party jerks were actually apologizing to BP! Also, your hero's dad, Bush 1, got nothing for the people of Alaska. But the dudes at Exxon were close friends, so no big deal?
Bill Clinton has become so senile he can't remember who he raped.
Sad.
I am Laslo.
"And he's not insulting Obama." Huh? Equating O and W is the ultimate Dem insult. It's Bill still trying to turn the tables on O for '08. A bit brash: they still need O to neutralize the FBI. We'll see how it plays out.
Main thing wrong here is to suggest Hillary! has "ideas."
"at least Obama got something from the psychopaths at BP" Yeah, it's just a damn shame W got nothin' from that chick Katrina.
He's not running for President.
No, he's just one of the most influential people working to elect someone who would automatically give him a title in her administration, an office, and a staff. And he'd be the only former president ever to hold that position, so it would be an unprecedented combination, and there's no telling how much power he'd exercise in that role.
"Bill Clinton has become so senile he can't remember who he raped."
From what I have read, rapists and serial murderers LOVE to relive their moments of criminal sex. Sniff stolen panties, go back to that place in the woods: you know -- Good Times.
Now Bill Clinton is lost, because all the Hotel Rooms start to look the same.
And he can't remember where he hid the panties.
I am Laslo.
There are many words in our language to describe the executives at BP, but anyone who chooses "psychopath" is himself a little unstable.
"You forget that part of the financial meltdown was due to Bill Clinton loading up Fannie and Freddie with Dem party loyalists, "
No, but I was trying to avoid long comments so you-know-who can read them without a headache.
""Bill Clinton has become so senile he can't remember who he raped."
No but he would like another try at that little room off the oval office.
Nu, so what else is new? Democrats have never had a very secure grip on the fact that Bush stopped being president in 2009.
@Spiro Pappas
You going off topic is not good debate form. The freaking Exxon Valdez? Relevance matters.
Maybe Bill has always thought it would be best if his legacy ended with him.
Or Bill had a brain fart and accidentally gave us a preview of what Hillary!'s spiel is going to be after she gets the nomination packed away and starts on the general election campaign.
Headline from the Cruel Neutrality Bulletin: Obama criticized, speaker insane.
When Bill Clinton was president my economic fortunes nose dived. I work in construction. The advances were in banking, bad mortgage loans and the dot com bubble. During the Bush presidency I did very well. Companies had confidence that he at least understood the basic principles of capitalism and didn't hate private business, especially small business. The moment it became clear that Obama was going to win my customer's stopped any expansion and stopped doing basic maintenance. Walk into any post office, check out the function of the doors and closers. It was explained to me that the decision was made that any injuries to customers were a risk worth taking as opposed to repair and maintenance.
It's the STD's Michael K.
Of course he's insulting Obama. It's curious how brazen he is about it . Trump must have them more worried than I thought.
Spiros Pappas said...
SteveR, at least Obama got something from the psychopaths at BP. That's a good thing. The Tea Party jerks were actually apologizing to BP! Also, your hero's dad, Bush 1, got nothing for the people of Alaska. But the dudes at Exxon were close friends, so no big deal?
3/21/16, 7:36 PM"
What brand of weapons grade stupidity pills to you take with your breakfast? You might bother yourself to aquatint yourself with actual facts such as the levy the failed and flooded New Orleans was built during the Clinton Administration. It was the Democrat Mayor and the Democrat Governor of New Orleans who were the legally responsible parties for the evacuation pre and immediate post storm remedial actions. They screwed up, not Bush. As for Iraq it's Obama's doing 100% for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Same for the "Good War" as Obama put it. By the way, with all of the "green"energy frauds perpetrated by Obama's and Hillary's pals, its chump change compared to the Exxon Valdez. So do tell us what brand of WMD stupid pills you take because your stupidity isn't natural.
gbarto said...
Maybe Bill has always thought it would be best if his legacy ended with him.
3/21/16, 8:34 PM"
Interesting point coupled with if she won his style would definitely be cramped. That would explain his passive-aggressive behavior. Still unless he along with his wife have some form of blanket immunity from Obama he needs her to win so the both of them stay out jail. While she is probably the guilty one alone for the email record laws violations and the national security violations it doesn't seem much a stretch that all of the funds he earned and raised for the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State have a graft component which would include him as well.
Bill had two key things working for him, Baby Boomers reaching peak earnings and dumping big time into 401(k)s and the peace dividend.
He had a lot more than that. He had the globally expansive Microsoft - Intel economy.
Althouse on Ruth Marcus and the 'elite media' this morning: "Whoa! That must be the way they talk behind the scenes. The mask slipped."
Althouse on Bill and Clinton Inc now: "It's not like Bill and Hillary behind the scenes talk about how awful Obama is, and Bill let it slip. But maybe you think it's funny to imagine that."
Mind you... these are both about people who speak and make their living with the words our Professor loves to parse and dote over so obsessively.
No... I think the latter is the rare instance of a Clinton caught telling the truth.
Exhaustion is the mother of candidness?
Well, even Reagan got Alzheimers. And he had a normal married sex life.
But Sweet Old Bill cannot remember much of anything since all those mind messing road trips to Orgy island doing the young stuff. He should have stuck to his 20 year olds that gave him forever his place in history as BJ.
He's not insulting Obama. The 8 years is since the 2008 crash, and the seven years is since 2001. He's trying to blame the crash on Bush and push the idea that now we are really poised to recover from the GR.
Factually, it was under Bill Clinton's terms that the banks were let off the Glass-Steagall leash (an initiative of his presidency - not an accident), so he's appealing to low-information voters.
But he wasn't insulting Obama at all. He was trying to refer to the economic pain many still feel by putting the all the blame for it on Republicans, that's all.
It sounds like he is in fact saying the last 8 years of Obama sucked. its funny that he wants to go back to the time when he was president. Since, HE was the one that deregulated the banks. He talks about the lack of regulations. HELLO!!!!!!
I'll actually give Clinton props for doing things that did stimulate the economy. Its just that the dems like to pretend like all the things he did, which they say are responsible for the crash weren't actually done by him. He propped up wall street. He started the credit default swaps. he deregulated the banks. He started pushing the sub prime mortgages.
dwick said...
Althouse on Ruth Marcus and the 'elite media' this morning: "Whoa! That must be the way they talk behind the scenes. The mask slipped."
I suppose that the dems who are not beholden to Obama for their careers, present and future, are aware of the calamity that Obama has been for the democratic party. They hold a distinct minority of state governors offices and state houses. They lost the federal house and senate on Obama's watch. The presidency is all they've got, and there is a good chance that they will lose that in November.
It can't help Hillary that Bill looks and seems so old.
Is Bill trying to get Hillary jailed? I mean, he does know that it's only Lynch's "prosecutorial discretion" keeping Hillary out of the clink, right?
I think that Hillary should hope that her husband wasn't dissing her old boss. Barack Obama is famously vindictive, and she needs him to have his AG and DoJ to ignore the likely recommendation for prosecution of her for her various crimes while Sec. of State. The latest guess has been that Obama and Lynch are not about to indict Hillary, regardless of what she may have done during that time, in order to protect his legacy. But, I do think that Obama is vindictive enough to let Hillary flop in the wind, if he believed that her husband had come out against him and was dissing Obama's Presidency.
Actually, I get all kinds of red flags when Bill speaks up for Hillary. Take the line, "... there may be many reasons that you don't want to support her ..." What's that all about? And how about "Because she's the only person who basically has good ideas." Basically? That isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.
I'm not sure if it's dementia setting in or just Bill's lifelong penchant for dsmning with faint praise. But I do get the feeling Bill isn't Hillary's best asset.
Hillary Clinton was Obama's Secretary of State during the first four of those "awful" years! She was part of the problem, not the solution. For Bill Clinton to say this is like the man who murders his parents and then asks for leniency because he's an orphan.
I think he actually says exactly that in private. He thinks everything since his own tenure has been a disaster, and the world made a huge mistake not picking his wife in 2008 and instead going with that uppity black guy who talks smooth. Sure, at least Obama's foreign policy has Hillary's footprint on it, but in the mind of a Clinton you can never blame a Clinton.
"Has Bill Clinton lost his mind?" Did I miss something? Did his dick fall off, or was it removed?
To answer out hostess' original question - I tend to assume that Bill says what he means and means what he says. To my mind, he's still the sharpest political operator of the last 30 years.
Bill has to speak in generalities, because if he doesn't, he risks reminding us that he and Barney Frank were mainly responsible for ballooning the housing market and causing the 2008 crash.
(Barney Frank, if you'll remember, was primarily responsible for leaning on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get them to assume mortgages that banks otherwise wouldn't have touched, not if they wanted to stay in business. By putting taxpayers on the hook for toxic mortgages, he ignited the housing market expansion that eventually would collapse.)
Anne, I'm glad you're a mind reader, but I'm not. I tend to hold everyone accountable for what they say. If they misspoke, they can damn well say so themselves.
Excusing people for what they say when they agree with your politics is an old reporting trick. You excuse your allies their gaffes, and quote "experts" on the meaning of the other sides' gaffes. That's how you bend the narrative.
"Bill is a little tired". Just so. Bill so tired he can't feel our pain.
While it's possible he spoke in error, there is a logical way to interpret what he says - the last 8 years since the 2008 crash and the 7 years prior to that of the Bush economic policies before the events of 2008 swerved policy into TARP, bailouts, low interest rates, etc. Most people probably consider 2008 more of an economic milestone than 2009, which is why it makes sense to say 8 years followed by 7. His basic point remains that things have been off the rails since he left office.
Technically, criticizing the last 8 years hits both administrations and Fed policy during that time without having to specifically criticize Obama - he has wiggle room to get out of this later.
Here are some of the "psychopaths at BP" that B. Obama separated from their money without due process: Legal & General, M&G, Scottish Widows, Threadneedle, Axa, Calpers, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, and Ohio Public Employees Retirement System.
What B. Clinton stated is plainly true, as stated. Race and faction relations in the US are at long-term lows and are not improving. Tens of millions are un- or under-employed or just living on transfer payments (cause yer not unemployed if you stop trying according to BLS). B. Obama built that. It is an awful legacy. Presuming - and it's a good presumption - that the quid pro quo for the timing of resolution of the email "investigation" by B. Obama's DOJ is to not bad-mouth B. Obama, this was a call by Camp Clinton to put up or shut up.
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