April 23, 2017

I decided after all to read "Shattered."

I'm 16% of the way into the book that goes "Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign." (I know the percent because I'm reading it on Kindle (in combination with the "whispersync'd" audio version, useful when walking around).)

I just wanted to quote 3 things:

1. At the 5% mark, the unholy mess: "The campaign was an unholy* mess, fraught with tangled lines of authority, petty jealousies, distorted priorities, and no sense of greater purpose. No one was in charge, and no one had figured out how to make the campaign about something bigger than Hillary. Muscatine felt that the speech said nothing because it tried to say too much."

2. At the 9% mark, Huma, the croc-filled moat: "[Huma Abedin] had the final say on where Hillary went and who had access to her. Rather than just being a gatekeeper, Abedin took on the role of channeling Hillary for the rest of the campaign... That made her indispensable to both the candidate and the rest of the team... But many feared speaking their minds around her. She couldn’t be counted on to relay constructive criticism to Hillary without pointing a finger at the critic. If Hillary was a candidate often isolated from her formal campaign — and she was — Abedin was the croc-filled moat encircling her. The Royal Huma Guard made it harder for Hillary’s senior- and midlevel aides to get time with the candidate, and that made it impossible to really know the woman they were selling."

3. At the 14% mark, the Brianna/Bianna screwup: "In May [2015], as Bernie was starting to campaign in earnest and it was becoming clear that the press wouldn’t let the e-mail story go, Hillary’s aides began planning her first national television interview of the campaign, a chance to strike back at the widely held perception that she was hiding from the press. Palmieri asked Abedin to find out which newscaster Hillary would prefer, and the answer that came back was 'Brianna.' That meant CNN’s Brianna Keilar, and Palmieri worked to set up a live interview on CNN. Only it turned out that Hillary had said 'Bianna'— as in Bianna Golodryga of Yahoo! News, the wife of former Clinton administration economic aide Peter Orszag. By the time the mistake was realized, it was too late to pull back. Hillary went through with the interview on July 7, and it was a disaster." Here's what her own people perceived as a disaster:



___________________

* The use of the word "unholy" to just mean awful or dreadful interested me. I wondered how long that completely nonreligious application of the religious-seeming word had been around. The OED finds the first published use in a letter written by Charles Dickens in 1842: "I am reminded of my promise to see to the Pantomime, and am called out at this unholy hour." A similar word is "ungodly," first recorded in the nonreligious meaning in a story by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Olalla" (1887)(whole text here):
I went to bed early, wearied with day-long restlessness, but the poisonous nature of the wind, and its ungodly and unintermittent uproar, would not suffer me to sleep. I lay there and tossed, my nerves and senses on the stretch. At times I would doze, dream horribly, and wake again; and these snatches of oblivion confused me as to time. But it must have been late on in the night, when I was suddenly startled by an outbreak of pitiable and hateful cries. I leaped from my bed, supposing I had dreamed; but the cries still continued to fill the house, cries of pain, I thought, but certainly of rage also, and so savage and discordant that they shocked the heart. It was no illusion; some living thing, some lunatic or some wild animal, was being foully tortured...

140 comments:

Earnest Prole said...

We got Trump because someone in Clinton's camp confused Brianna and Bianna?

MAJMike said...

Heh! The DemCong got all the smart ones.

cf said...

Earnest Prole: if that is so, Thank God for Huma's careless brevity.

AmPowerBlog said...

Shattered, "my brain's been battered..."

George M. Spencer said...

"At the end of the day," she says at about three minutes in, "voters sort it all out."

They sure do.

God smiles on fools, drunkards, and the United States of America, as the old French saying goes.

Kevin said...

"At the 14% mark, the Brianna/Bianna screwup."

Yes, Clinton's server was such a "nothingburger" that it couldn't withstand anything but the most pro-HIllary media encounters.

Big Mike said...

How could any self-respecting person work for that campaign? Probably they didn't. Left with second and third raters, the campaign was doomed. Breaks my widdle heart.

Michael K said...

"God smiles on fools, drunkards, and the United States of America, as the old French saying goes."

von Bismarck.

Who also said, "The Balkans are not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier."

He had a way with words.

Drago said...

Lefties and "lifelong republicans" hardest hit.

Whirred Whacks said...


I also am very much enjoying SHATTERED.

Although SHATTERED is a political book focusing on the Clinton 2015-16 run for president, I believe that it is destined to be a cautionary BUSINESS book outlining the things in her campaign that startups and expansions should avoid. A few examples of "no-no's" to watch out for:

1) inability to articulate a compelling reason for being
2) Bloated, in-fighting staff
3) Pervasive arrogance
4) Over-reliance on bad data rather than people on the ground
5) Aloof top management (HRC)
6) Inability to be candid about ongoing problems

If you are a startup and do any these things, chances are good your business will not be successful.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

The sad thing is that nobody really questions that if she had got Bianna, it would have been a puff-ball interview. And then extrapolates that half the reportariat is either married to democratic operatives or are (obstensibly) former democratic operatives..

FleetUSA said...

Always someone else's fault

buwaya said...

Not a natural leader or politician.
A good leader makes sure the staff is delivering.
An effective leader does not hide behind gatekeepers.
A natural polutician, like her husband, collects his own information and comes to his own conclusions using his own political judgement; she seems to have hired people for that.

The difference in media accessibility between Hilary and Trump was incredible. Thats the natural politician in Trump and not in Hilary. She wouldnt even try to acquire the knack through practice. Trump could deal with any interviewer, it seems with zero prep (and I suppose it often showed), but even with errors he made it up with volume and a confident air.

Hilary seems to have been incapable or extremely fearful of interviews. If she had done hundreds, like Trump, I think she would have done better. Yes, I know of the idea that the more she got her voice and personality out there the worse she did, but I think a lot of that was just lack of practice.

That said, you have to distrust a lot of this sort of testimony. Much of it is likely to be self serving blame deflection.

Original Mike said...

"and it was becoming clear that the press wouldn’t let the e-mail story go, ..."

The fucking (sorry, but it makes me soooo mad) press DID let the story go that Hillary, OUR Secretary of State, hid her work from us and Oh, by the way, let our rivals read material that she, as OUR (not her's, God Damn It, but OUR agent) was duty bound to hold secret.

Fuckers.

buwaya said...

Heh, the "press" avoided the email story as best it could, but the leaks of this and that kept bringing it back.

Ann Althouse said...

""At the end of the day," she says at about three minutes in, "voters sort it all out."/They sure do."

Ha ha. That was my thought exactly.

buwaya said...

One outfit that probably doesn't get enough credit is Judicial Watch, which did a great deal to keep the Clinton email issue in the news. Of course, they arent Wikileaks or Russians.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

...it was becoming clear that the press wouldn’t let the e-mail story go,..
as they should have, because they are the pro-D hack press, after all. Come on-- Let it go already! Do the Clinton dirty work and ignore all their crimes like loyal high paid dirty Clintonopolous press peons. *good doggie*
Clinton crimes are a big nothing. Ignore them, damn it!

Greg Hlatky said...

Think of the life of a Clinton aide. Every day, another foreign donor to shake down, another witness to suborn, another payoff to make, more lies to spew. And now? All for nothing.

And when they go to meet their Maker and explain what they did with the life He gave them, all they'll be able to say is, "I was a bagman for the Clinton family."

David said...

Remember who was in charge of all this. Or not in charge, which was the problem. Hillary Clinton was and is a mediocre talent with integrity problems. This was ALL her responsibility.

YoungHegelian said...

So, as we're all finding out, the Clinton campaign was every bit as incompetent & messed up as we here & many conservatives were saying all along.

I keep checking my email for either apologies from the Clinton acolytes (of which, interestingly enough, there were few to none here) or an offer from a cable news channel to be a news analyst. Nothing's come in yet, but I'll keep all y'all posted when it does.

TWW said...

I'm all confused. Picked up my copy today and it turns out to be an unauthorized biography of the Rolling Stones. Roughly the same story though, except for the sex.

Michael K said...

Hillary Clinton was and is a mediocre talent with integrity problems. This was ALL her responsibility.

I also think she is ill, probably with Parkinson's.

Bill doesn't look all that good, either.

DKWalser said...

Hilary seems to have been incapable or extremely fearful of interviews. If she had done hundreds, like Trump, I think she would have done better. Yes, I know of the idea that the more she got her voice and personality out there the worse she did, but I think a lot of that was just lack of practice.

The reason she lacked practice is that she'd never spent any time in the minor leagues. Her husband honed his craft running for the U.S. House (lost) and then Arkansas Attorney General (won), before running for and winning the Arkansas governorship. By the time he'd run for president, Bill had been interviewed hundreds of times by both friendly and unfriendly members of the media. Hillary's first run for office was for the U.S. Senate -- after she'd served in the White House and expected, and received, deferential treatment from the press. Had she spent more time in the trenches earlier in her career, she probably would have beaten Trump.

Laslo Spatula said...

The autopsy is interesting, but it seems to imply if things were just done differently Hillary would've won.

Perhaps.

But "no one had figured out how to make the campaign about something bigger than Hillary."

What message could she have adorned herself with that would've got more voters? What Big Purpose could she lay claim to that encompassed enough people?

Perhaps she could've donned the skin of the defeated Bernie Sanders like Ed Gein on a moonlit night to get the Youth to come out, but that would risk many of the middle-class voters who don't lean that far left: some people get on the train, some people get off.

She couldn't have a theme 'bigger than Hillary' because the only thing that ties together her various positions and counter-positions is that they all came from Hillary: you can try to jigsaw the pieces together, but even if you can, there is no resulting bigger picture to the puzzle.

At some point she was going to bump against the wall of people who would Never Never Vote For Her.

We are at a point where a President will not be elected that can't summon up a Cult of Personality. The media can show all loose ends; they can no longer hide all loose ends. People see the loose ends and figure they need to go with The Biggest Person. The one who Owns The Oxygen In The Room.

Hillary was too small for the Room.

Cue Norma Desmond.

I am Laslo.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary hid from a press who was in-the-tank for her. She wanted some insider D-no-name from pro-D hack Yahoo news? That is funny. Hillary didn't think the rest of the in-the-tank media were in-the-tank enough? That is funny.

CNN was Hillary Clinton Campaign headquarters.

Original Mike said...

"Perhaps she could've donned the skin of the defeated Bernie Sanders like Ed Gein on a moonlit night to get the Youth to come out,..."

Ooooh, an Ed Gein reference. Well played.

David said...

She could not come up with a reason "bigger than Hillary" because she does not see anything else as "bigger than Hillary."

tcrosse said...

In a drawer somewhere is the typescript of the book the authors wrote in the common expectation that Hillary would have (gag, choke) won. By all accounts her 2008 campaign was a similar clusterfuck.
It turns out we faced a choice between two of the most awful people in America, because the Democrats rigged their nomination and the Republicans didn't rig theirs.

The Godfather said...

THAT was a tough interview? Chelsea would have asked tougher questions.

I hope the Russians didn't pay too much to fix the election. Much more than a ruble, they were robbed.

robother said...

"...how to make the campaign about something bigger than Hillary"? Bill Clinton. He's bigger than Hillary.

Maybe she should've run as Lurleen Wallace, a thinly disguised circumvention of the Constitutional 2 term limit.

Gk1 said...

This is all fine and well but I want to hear about how drunk and out of control Hillary was on election night and how she was in no condition to give a concession speech. There were some stories that filtered out on that evening but everything has gone radio quiet since that evening. I heard the book doesn't even cover the election evening?

Original Mike said...

"I hope the Russians didn't pay too much to fix the election."

The twelve year old that phished Podesta was paid off in baseball cards.

David Begley said...

"Only it turned out that Hillary had said 'Bianna'— as in Bianna Golodryga of Yahoo! News."

The smartest people in the room? Incompetents.

MD Greene said...

At this point, what difference does it make?

cubanbob said...

Thanks Ann for doing the dirty work for us. All the same, the Democrats just don't get it. Hillary could have won every single vote cast in each of the states she won and that would not have changed the outcome. They have to get it into their heads that they can't win if they are counting on winning by amassing a coalition of minority groups and alienating the majority. Trump was smart enough to figure this out. He ran a campaign to win enough votes to win a majority in the majority of the states. The Democrats offered the voters two choices, an old Communist and an old criminal. In retrospect when the push given to the Democrats by the media is stripped out any of the Republicans could have won if the followed Trump's strategy but Trump is the one who just didn't give a crap to play the game the way the Left wanted it played. The Democrats and their propaganda organs went to a lot of trouble and effort to help Trump become the Republican nominee on the theory he was the one Republican they couldn't lose to. And then they did.

Earnest Prole said...

Speaking of dumb excuses, Nate Silver is back feuding with the New York Times over who’s to blame for Trump’s election.

rhhardin said...

Smattered.

Original Mike said...

"A similar word is "ungodly," "

My father liked to say "at an ungodly hour", to mean really early in the morning. As a chlld my thought was, "I bet God gets up really early".

James K said...

"I know of the idea that the more she got her voice and personality out there the worse she did, but I think a lot of that was just lack of practice."

All the practice in the world wasn't going to make her likable, or any less obviously deficient ethically. It's not as though her high-handedness was some flexible thing like what she ate for dinner that she could have changed. It's who she is.

YoungHegelian said...

@AprilApple,

Hillary hid from a press who was in-the-tank for her. She wanted some insider D-no-name from pro-D hack Yahoo news? That is funny. Hillary didn't think the rest of the in-the-tank media were in-the-tank enough? That is funny.

Oh, it was worse. Much worse.

After HRC lost the election, the press in their foolishness interviewed David Brock, the head of HRC's super PAC. The campaign kept Brock out of the limelight during the election quite deliberately. But now those bonds were loosed, and he went to town, calling the press out as "animals" who should have been treated as such. Here is the link.

The press, of course, took it all in stride. After all, who ever expects a pimp to stop bitch slapping his whores once he starts?

urbane legend said...

TWW said...
I'm all confused. Picked up my copy today and it turns out to be an unauthorized biography of the Rolling Stones. Roughly the same story though, except for the sex.

I expect sex in a Rolling Stones biography. The last thing I want to read about is anybody weird enough to have sex with Hillary.

Comanche Voter said...

Time to haul out the old Dennis Miller line (after hearing her screeching somewhere on the campaign trail in 2008), "She sounds like my first ex wife."

But yes she could have done a better job had she had a little prep early in her career. Say running for City Clerk in Hot Springs Arkansas. That would have helped.

madAsHell said...

I'm sure the book is full of delicious schadenfreude which I would enjoy, but I've always thought of such books as being so much speculation.

I figured Ed Gein was a Martin Short character, but that's not the case at all.

Greg Hlatky said...

So, what does America's Politico think of this?

Bill Peschel said...

If Nate Silver truly believes "one thing" (Comey) threw the election to Hillary, he has an infantile grasp of the multifaceted political process and how people make decisions.

There were a dozen aspects of Hillary's message, campaign, investigations into and Trump's presence that Americans glommed onto.

Let me explain it this way.

You could hate Hillary because
...of her rapist husband
...of Libya
...the press is protecting her
...she can't tell you why you should vote for her
...you hate Obama
...you love Obama and she isn't him
...she collapsed on video after the 9/11 service
...she continually needs assistance down steps
...you don't like political dynasties in general
...her campaign manager was named "Mook"
...she dresses like your elderly grandmother in Miami trying to look hip
...because not one banker went to jail over the housing bubble
...you didn't hear her speak in your swing state
...you heard her speak in your swing state

Hillary Clinton was a target-rich environment.

Saint Croix said...

The Huma Single White Female thing is psychotic!

Dr. Evil and Mini-Me

Saint Croix said...

Chelsea shows up and Huma bites her

George M. Spencer said...

Michael K....

The fools and drunkards quote really does date to early 1700s France...

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/there_is_a_providence_that_protects_idiots_drunkards_children_and_the_unite

and here

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Otto_von_Bismarck#Special_Providence

Saint Croix said...

I am the Hillary clone!

Not you, bitch

Roughcoat said...

The most common variant of the quote concerning God's relationship with the United States is as follows: "God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America." But there are many variants. Bismarck never uttered it nor any version of it; it is misattributed to him. It seems that the original version from which all others follow was spoken, or written, in 1849 by José Francisco Correia da Serra, a Portuguese clergyman and traveler to the United States, aka "the Abbot Correia, who made reference to a "special providence over the United States and little children.” But even this is disputed.

Saint Croix said...

I'm all confused. Picked up my copy today and it turns out to be an unauthorized biography of the Rolling Stones.

Shadooby!

(Google says "Shadoobie" but I am going with a Shaggy/Scooby homage. Hence: Shadooby)

Trump is like Niner 49er triumphant.

Zoinks!

When the comic book version comes out, I'll read that one...

Saint Croix said...

I hope in the last chapter Monica gets her revenge somehow.

Wouldn't it suck when Huma is unmasked, and she's Monica?

Shadoobie

Diogenes of Sinope said...

We got Trump because the dogs wouldn't eat that dog food.

Hillary lost because she is very unlikable and was a bad candidate. All she had to do was not screw up and she'd be president. Hillary couldn't meet even that low hurdle.

Sebastian said...

"Hillary was a candidate often isolated from her formal campaign." Funny stuff. May have to read the book. There's no Freude like Schadenfreude. Especially with so much Schade to go around.

Michael K said...

"how she was in no condition to give a concession speech. "

I've read a story about her throwing something through the TV screen. She does seem to throw things.

Roughcoat and St George, Thanks. I've never heard that version. I always thought it was Bismarck.

Bob Boyd said...

But it must have been just after dawn, when I was suddenly startled by the outbreak of a high-pitched and hateful whine. I leaped from my bed, supposing I had dreamed; but the whine still continued to fill the house, a two-cycle, I thought, but certainly a small, internal combustion engine, and so savage and discordant that it shocked the heart. It was no illusion; some living thing, some lunatic or landscaper, was blowing leaves...

Martha said...

That pant suit combo was really unattractive. And Hillary had one in every color of the rainbow.

Nothing about Hillary! was/is attractive.

TerriW said...

Roughcoat:

Because I am a nerd of a certain age, my first association jumps to: "Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise."

Yancey Ward said...

Brianna/Bianna story is hilarious, but mainly because of who Bianna is. I am surprised she didn't request that the interviewer be Chelsea, but doing so is probably more dangerous because she knows all the weaknesses and might go off-script.

Bay Area Guy said...

God Bless you, Althouse for reading this book and reporting on it to your faithful commentariat. The mere fact this book exists fills me with indescribable warmth and joy. Schadenfreude or whatever that word means doesn't even come close!

Hillary was an atrocious candidate, obsessed with acquiring power for power's sake. Glad her political career is over.

wild chicken said...

I am at 65%. Shitty writing isn't it? Lol. Still, I'm reading. I voted for Trump, but as a woman of a certain age I sympathize with Hill, and would have a beer with her anytime.

Had I her life it would have come down the same. Saved me the trouble of trying.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"I'm all confused. Picked up my copy today and it turns out to be an unauthorized biography of the Rolling Stones. Roughly the same story though, except for the sex."

Huma as Spanish Tony? Can't wait to read that one in five years when HRC has slipped this mortal coil. I'm sure the Left is going to ooze all over it.

bwebster said...

I've read it all the way through. Regardless of what some may think of the writing (I thought it was serviceable), as a work of American political literature, it's priceless. It's an unvarnished look at the inside of the Clinton campaign from two authors who are clearly liberal and clearly sympathetic to Hillary. As such, it is far more damning that the typical disgruntled insider kiss-and-tell book.

My three big takeaways were:

-- HRC and her staff could never really articulate why she was running and why people should vote for her.

-- the internal politics, power struggles, and game playing within the HRC campaign resembled Game of Thrones without actual knives.

-- ultimately, the HRC campaign was based on an analytical model that said HRC could win with minorities and college educated whites. They did win those groups, but they weren't enough.

I recommend it for anyone who wants to see presidential politics as she is done. ..bruce..

Professional lady said...

I did not want to vote for Trump. I only did it because I did not want the criminal/incompetent Hillary to be president. I was truly amazed that Trump won.

bagoh20 said...

It was an election about change in direction and character. Hillary more than any other possible candidate was incapable of being the leader of any such thing. There was no credible argument for continuing on with government as it has been any longer, and Hillary seemed to represent the symbol of worn-out misdirected resources and a stagnation permeated with corruption that she uniquely exemplified with her actions. It's amazing that she got as many votes as she did, but I give Trump credit for that. He really forced a lot of people to vote for her who really didn't want to.

Seeing the secrecy, dishonesty, and dysfunction of her campaign shows us how much we dodged a bullet.

Michael K said...

We should have (I did) learned about Hillary from "Unlimited Access."

She has not changed.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

YoungH-

Basically, Brock thinks Hillary should be treated like Kim Jong Un.

Matt Sablan said...

"We got Trump because someone in Clinton's camp confused Brianna and Bianna?"

-- Setting up an interview is not that easy of a thing. I'm to believe layers and layers of people working this, no one reviewed it before it was already approved and signed?

In some ways, apparently, Clinton was the most hands-on micromanager ever.

In other ways, apparently, she gave her crew enough rope to hang themselves.

southcentralpa said...

I saw the "crocodile-filled moat" (couldn't just have alligators? this is America, after all) and initially mis-read "midlevel" as "medieval"...

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"shadoobie"

lol

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

That moat was filled with something.

YoungHegelian said...

@AprilA,

Basically, Brock thinks Hillary should be treated like Kim Jong Un.

Well, she really was looking forward after the election to taking her enemies out with an anti-aircraft gun.

gpm said...

Tracy Lord, Katharine Hepburn's character in The Philadelphia Story, referred to herself as "an unholy mess of a girl" near the end of the movie.

--gpm

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

It is hard for me to see how this book or any book will add much of anything to the facts that were plain enough from watching her during the debates. She is not likable, along most of the normal dimensions of likability. A subset of professional white women like her, or at least admire her, often quite passionately, but overall she only appeals to a small minority of US citizens. You can't teach likability and you can't sell its absence.

Someone with the exact same policies as Clinton and the likability of Obama beats Trump fairly easily. Presidential elections are more like elections for Prom Queen than a rational assessment for where the country should go. No way Clinton could win an election for Prom Queen for that matter.

Matt Sablan said...

"Presidential elections are more like elections for Prom Queen than a rational assessment for where the country should go."

-- I'll take "Things no one said about Obama's Elections for $800."

whitney said...

I might end up reading the book mostly because the excerpts​ I read give me so much pleasure. I'd probably end up giggling through the whole thing

bagoh20 said...

"Basically, Brock thinks Hillary should be treated like Kim Jong Un."

They have a lot in common besides wardrobe.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Matthew Sablan said...
"Things no one said about Obama's Elections for $800."


George W. Bush was a cheerleader before his coronation. Empty headed loser then ran country into ground.

Big Mike said...

Barack Hussein Obama was a mindless dolt before his coronation. Empty headed loser then ran country into ground.

Fixed it for you, ARM. No, don't thank me. I don't mind helping out the mentally handicapped.

Matt Sablan said...

You may want to tune your keyboard ARM. It seems to only have one note.

Known Unknown said...

Ain't you hungry for success, success, success, success
Does it matter? (shattered)
Does it matter?*

Ah look at me
I'm shattered
I'm shattered
Look at me, I'm a shattered, yeah (shattered)

*- What difference, at this point, does it make?

Matt Sablan said...

Honestly though, let's not let another thread get squirreled by the "CONSERVATIVES SUCK!!!" refrain.

I honestly don't believe a staff could be this incompetent about getting an interview set up. How many mistakes had to be made to pull this fiasco off?

Michael K said...

I don't know what is going on with ARM. He seems to be all about personal insults these days. I assume it's TDS but he used to make better arguments.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

No, no, let's never discuss the debacle that was the Bush presidency. That would be beyond the pale. Still widely considered the least successful presidency in modern times. Trump was adamant on that point.


khesanh0802 said...

The video is proof that Hillary was a scary candidate. It gave me the willies, I had to turn it off.

Thanks again Ann for sacrificing yourself by reading something awful so we don't have to.

Humperdink said...

"No way Clinton could win an election for Prom Queen for that matter."

And to think Chelsea is being fitted for her prom gown as we speak. Just the thought hurts my eyes.

Rusty said...

Why all the bitterness ARM?
The lightbringer made Bush look competent and honorable in comparison.

Original Mike said...

"No, no, let's never discuss the debacle that was the Bush presidency."

How can you belittle the mastermind of 9/11?

Big Mike said...

@Rusty, bullseye on your first shot.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Original Mike said...
How can you belittle the mastermind of 9/11?


Ask Trump. He did a bang-up job. Genuinely funny.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Big Mike said...
@Rusty, bullseye on your first shot.


God this is sad. A support group for the losers who voted for Bush, twice.

glenn said...

When you finish reading "Shattered" take a shower. Don't forget to scrub hard.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

khesanh0802 said...
The video is proof that Hillary was a scary candidate. It gave me the willies, I had to turn it off."

Yes. Imagine having to look and listen to that harridan for 4 years.

And imagine her SCOTUS picks.

I remain happy that I voted for Trump.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"God this is sad. A support group for the losers who voted for Bush, twice."

Not as sad as the losers who voted for ManBearPig (who is probably happy now he lost Florida, as it gave him the opportunity to line his pockets handsomely with money taken from leftist suckers and stooges) and Mr. Ed, aka "Just a Gigolo" who went on to an undistinguished career at State.

I'm hardly a Bush fangirl, but when I think of the mediocre twits who ran against, I don't regret voting for him at all.

Rusty said...

ARM
Your bitter. It's understandable.Your face is smeated with shit, but your convinced it's chocolate.

MikeR said...

"Still widely considered the least successful presidency in modern times." First, do no harm. Mr. Obama was very successful in doing a lot more harm. Certainly domestically. In foreign policy, hard to compare them, both Pres. Bush and Pres. Obama made a royal mess.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

ARM of course does what he always does when faced with a thread that highlights Democrats Behaving Badly - he switches the subject to Republicans.

I can understand why he can't bear to think about the horrific burning shitpile that was the Democrat presidential campaign in 2016, but really, "let's talk about Dubya!" is really too transparent....

Gospace said...

AprilApple said...
...it was becoming clear that the press wouldn’t let the e-mail story go,..


And by the press I hope no one means the mainstream media. The only people who knew or know about the email scandal are those who rely on the internet for news and information. I don't watch any television, so I don't know what went on there. But in my local newspapers, any of the few mentions of the email always started with something similar to "Republicans claim..." or "Republicans accuse...". Never any mention of facts, like the fact that conducting official government business on a non-government email account is a violation of multiple laws. That by itself is the smoking gun in front of their noses that the MSM and FBI director Comey couldn't see.

traditionalguy said...

Unholy contrasts with holy. Holy simply means the presence of god's power and glory. So Hillary's groupies were saying Hillary is god, and where she has power and glory is a holy place, and where she lacks power and glory we are in an unholy place.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Donald J. Trump said...

"Obviously the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,"

"George Bush made a mistake. Obviously we can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq,They lied, they said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none and they knew that there were none."

"certainly, the war in Iraq was a disaster. We went into Iraq, we lost thousands of lives, we lost trillions of dollars, $2 trillion.

"But there were no weapons of mass destruction. Chuck, the war in Iraq was a disaster. We end up with absolutely nothing. Iran is taking over Iraq as we sit here right now. It was a disastrous decision, the war in Iraq."

"The World Trade Center came down during [Bush's] reign."

“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,"

“Blame him, or don't blame him, but he was President. The World Trade Center came down during his reign."

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

AReasonableMan said...
No, no, let's never discuss the debacle that was the Bush presidency."

Well, not discussing it in a thread that is all about Hillary seems reasonable to me. After all, Dubya's been out of the WH now since 2009. Hillary lost a bit over 5 months ago, despite Obama's endorsement (I understand that leftists actually think Obama was successful. He was certainly successful when it came to helping to elect Republicans.)

So - you know, Hillary's defeat is a bit more timely.

I understand that you pine for the days when Obama blamed Bush for everything, but really, it's time to move on, isn't it?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

exiledonmainstreet said...
ARM of course


Moron, someone else brought up Obama, I simply played along. Nothing Trumps a Bush card when it comes to playing 'worst president evah'.

Whatever happened to that nice pederast apologist, Milo?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Whatever happened to that nice pederast apologist, Milo?

4/23/17, 10:10 PM

You seem confused. I know you're obsessed with the man, but that was yesterday's thread.

Are there any other completely irrelevant topics you wish to discuss?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Donald J. Trump said...

"How did he keep us safe, when the World Trade Center, during his time in office, came down? I was there. I lost many, many friends in that tragedy. That was the worst tragedy in the history of this country, worse than Pearl Harbor, because they attacked civilians. They attacked people in office buildings."

"CHUCK TODD: You believe he could have prevented this?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, according to-- according to, if you go back, you will see the C.I.A. and other agencies had information that bad things were going to happen and yes, the answer is he should have known. Absolutely, they should have known, they should have known something."

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

exiledonmainstreet said...
You seem confused.


As an apologist for pederast apologists, I thought you might be still in touch.

traditionalguy said...

IMO Shattered is a breath of fresh air by revealing as much about the Clinton Bubble as it does reveal. The Campaign was confused and with no direction or purpose except to continue the massive Clinton Con for money.

I accept that it probably covers up and smooths out many more raw Hillary screw ups, in hopes that the authors live long enough to spend some of the money they earned.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Moron, someone else brought up Obama, I simply played along. Nothing Trumps a Bush card when it comes to playing 'worst president evah'."

Is President Teleprompter still hiding out on Richard Branson's yacht (sans wife and kids) or has he reemerged to shower us with his great wisdom, for example on how to handle Syria or North Korea? 'Cause he really did a bang up job there!

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

As an apologist for pederast apologists, I thought you might be still in touch.

4/23/17, 10:15 PM

You seem to have a rather unhealthy obsession with Milo. You also enjoy repeatedly telling lies, which is why you're a liberal.

Original Mike said...

ARM seems to let Trump do his thinking for him.

James K said...

" if you go back, you will see the C.I.A. and other agencies had information that bad things were going to happen and yes, the answer is he should have known."

That's not blaming Bush, that's blaming the intelligence community. "He should have known" means "The information was there, but not communicated." And as is well known, this was due to massive screwups under Bill Clinton--notably Jamie Gorelick's "wall."

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I'd rather talk about the subject of this thread and the endlessly entertaining fact that the Democrats lost over 1000 seats during the Reign of King Barack. Yes, that's truly the mark of a great president.

Lewis Wetzel said...

I watched the Hillary interview with Kielar.
There was not one second in that interview when you believed you were seeing the "real" Hillary. There was not one word that was an honest reaction to a question, or an attempt to carry on a conversation. Watching the interview was like watching someone on the stand being cross examined, and not because of Keilar. It's been two decades since White Water, but Hillary still blames her unpopularity and reputation for dishonesty and money-grubbing on the right wing. Someone should tell her that 1996 Bill and Hill were more conservative than 2016 Trump.
Contrast that with Trump's interview style:
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c810d7de280a47e88848b0ac74690c83/transcript-ap-interview-trump

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

exiledonmainstreet said...
I'd rather talk about the subject of this thread


Rather than discuss the fact that you are a soulless ghoul who is OK with older men abusing young boys? I can understand how you might think that.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

After Florida senator Marco Rubio said that Bush had "kept us safe," Donald Trump shot back: "How did he keep us safe when the World Trade Center came down?"

"I lost hundreds of friends, the World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush," Trump said. "That is not safe, Marco, that is not safe,"

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Ah, yes, ARM, trying to change the subject again. Really, stop thinking about Milo. I'm starting to think you have a crush on him or something.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger AReasonableMan said...
. . .
Rather than discuss the fact that you are a soulless ghoul who is OK with older men abusing young boys?


If that really bothers you, ARM, perhaps you should condemn older men who actually abuse young boys. People like this guy:
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-32476-terry-bean-arrested-on-charges-of-sex-abuse-of-a-minor.html

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

exiledonmainstreet said...
I'm starting to think you have a crush on him or something.


Soulless ghoul apologist for pederasts tries gay shaming as a tactic. Have you no conscience woman?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Since ARM wants so badly to talk about sexual abuse of minors, how about the progressive Democrat Mayor of Seattle?

"Seattle Mayor Ed Murray on Friday addressed allegations made the day before that he sexually abused a boy in the 1980s, denying the claims while saying he would remain in office.
"I will continue to be mayor of this city," Murray said during a brief press conference. "I will continue to run for re-election."
A 46-year-old Kent man, who filed a lawsuit Thursday and has only been identified as D.H., claimed that Murray "raped and molested" him for several years in exchange for $10 to $20 payments, starting when the man was 15. "

Gee, Milo just talked about having been molested, the Mayor is actually accused of molesting a kid.

And the left is defending him. Of course. Because "it's OK when we do it."

http://www.redstate.com/prevaila/2017/04/11/seattle-mayor-scandal-leftists-predictably-defending/

Lewis Wetzel said...

And then you have Ed Murray, current mayor of Seattle, accused of sexually abusing young boys.
No one seems surprised at the charges.

Lewis Wetzel said...

And then you've got these guys, politically connected dems: http://www.twincities.com/2016/12/27/south-st-paul-teacher-partner-allegedly-abused-8-victims/
You ever hear a saying about "glass houses" ARM?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Then there's this guy:
A Stunning School Sex Scandal the Media Refuse to Notice

"On April 15, Jackson County, Missouri, prosecutors charged James R. Green Jr., 52, with six counts of second-degree statutory sodomy. Green was a teacher and coach at a middle school in the suburban North Kansas City School District. Green’s victim was a sixteen-year-old boy. It appears likely that Green was abusing other boys over a period of at least twelve years in at least two different school districts, and Green’s crime is not the half of it.

I learned about this crime for one reason. In January, I became editor of a new, nonprofit, online publication -- Sentinelksmo.org -- designed to counter the disinformation spread by the overwhelmingly liberal media in Missouri and Kansas. Over the years, people have approached me with stories about regional abuses, and I had an easier time placing those stories nationally than locally. In these two deeply red states, there was no media outlet of consequence halfway friendly to conservative causes. Now there is, the Sentinel.

Our partner in this project, the Kansas Policy Institute, hoped to correct the relentlessly dishonest reporting on Kansas taxes and state spending in general and the Sam Brownback administration in particular. As a resident of Missouri, I wanted to cover both states on a wide range of issues, including sex, crime, and education. To do this I had to track the local media and, in doing so, I hit the trifecta when I stumbled upon the article about Green. The story was covered by the local media, but barely.

Without digging too hard, I discovered that Green was the sixth employee, all male, busted on sex charges with underage students in the last thirteen months in this one suburban school district. At least five of those employees were arrested. The reporting on the sixth was too sketchy to determine. Four of the interactions were heterosexual, two homosexual."

No, let's talk about what Milo said, not about what Democrats actually do!

Because "it's OK when we do it."

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/a_stunning_school_sex_scandal_the_media_refuse_to_notice.html

Lewis Wetzel said...

I think that it is fair to say that homosexuals have culturally normalized sex with underage boys far, far more than heterosexual men have normalized sex with underage girls. Would you agree, ARM?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Not to mention Harvey Milk.

"One of Milk’s victims was a 16-year-old runaway from Maryland named Jack Galen McKinley. As previously mentioned, Milk had a soft spot in his, um, heart for teenage runaways. Motivated by an apparent quid pro quo of prurience, Milk plucked McKinley from the street.

Randy Shilts was a San Francisco Chronicle reporter and close friend to Harvey Milk. Though Shilts died of AIDS in 1994, he remains, even today, one of the most beloved journalists in the “LGBT” community.

Shilts was also Harvey Milk’s biographer. In his glowing book “The Mayor of Castro Street,” he wrote of Milk’s “relationship” with the McKinley boy: ” … Sixteen-year-old McKinley was looking for some kind of father figure. … At 33, Milk was launching a new life, though he could hardly have imagined the unlikely direction toward which his new lover would pull him.”

Awww, ARM, isn't that sweet? Let's put Milk on a postage stamp and make films and movies about his life, because he was offed by the Twinkie guy.

After all, "It's OK when we do it."

Lewis Wetzel said...

FYI, I suppose that this "normalization" of sex with underage boys (or young men) isn't a moral failure. I'm not a bigot. I do not believe this because I am ignorant. Perhaps the attraction of older homosexuals to adolescent boys is simply a result of lesser consequences for the older man. Boys can't get pregnant.
The feds, being so much smarter than normal humans, have now decided that boys can, in fact, have natural, functional female genitalia as well as a functional female reproductive system, but you know what I mean.

Anonymous said...

ARM,

She's in a manic phase.

buwaya said...

Harvey Milk also played footsie with Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple. That whole generation of San Francisco Democrats were swine.

Ref, "Season of the Witch", David Talbot, about the politico-cultural changes in San Francisco in the 1970s, from the Zodiac killer to stolen elections, and how they all fit together.

buwaya said...

One thing missing in "Shattered" is anything about collusion with the DOJ.

Lewis Wetzel said...

DETAILS OF ABUSE

The alleged abuse happened at the married couple’s home, at Babbitt’s family cabin in Crow Wing County, at Minneapolis hotels and at Deyo’s parents’ farm south of Hastings, according to the case file report.

In many instances, Babbitt and Deyo gave their alleged victims alcohol and marijuana. They also bought phones and other devices, encouraging the alleged victims to communicate with them and to watch pornography.
. . .
During its investigation, the Dakota County Electronic Crimes Unit discovered that other boys were videotaped in the bathroom at the couple’s home, footage that was captured by a camera hidden in a bathroom clock.

http://www.twincities.com/2016/12/27/south-st-paul-teacher-partner-allegedly-abused-8-victims/
I lived in Dakota County, 1986-1989.
Unwritten: the abusers were in positions of power. Babbit's father was Dana Babbit, superintendent of the Saint Paul school district in the early 2000s.
ARM, where are you? Where is your righteous anger at these wicked pederasts?

Kirk Parker said...

" Brock thinks Hillary should be treated like Kim Jong Un."

So do I, now that you mention it.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga, let's run that past Dr. Francisco D., shall we?

He's not only more educated and qualified than you, he's smarter by at least 50 IQ points.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga seems rather depressed today, having limited her Big Insight of the Day to "OMG, don't you people know that Jews don't eat pork and there is no pork in Israel!" Of course, even that modest observation was demonstrably wrong, just like everything else she writes and thinks.

tim in vermont said...

So basically, from the excerpts you posted, there is nothing in the book that you could not have surmised if you took the comments of conservative commenters here seriously.

Same as the stuff in the emails.

Same as the ClimateGate emails, which could have been written by the skeptics at the time. They weren't, but they could have been.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

ARM - your prom king ran this nation into the ground. Economically, of course, and his giving birth to the SJW and division based on gender and skin color.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I'll bet you anything ARM voted for Hillary. Point and laugh.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Delivering 400 million on pallets to the Iranian Mullahs - that was the crown jewel of Obama "keeping us safe."


Henry said...

"The campaign was an unholy* mess, fraught with tangled lines of authority, petty jealousies, distorted priorities, and no sense of greater purpose.

The Trump campaign had all of that except for the last item. It did have a sense of greater purpose. Does that make it a holy mess or an unholy method?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

AprilApple said...
I'll bet you anything ARM voted for Hillary. Point and laugh.


Genuinely hard to tell which is the more insanely embittered old bat, April or exiled.

I am giving the nod to Exiled today. She defends an appalling defense of pederasty in a blind state of partisan fervor and then turns on a dime and implies that gay is shameful with a pathetic attempt at gay shaming, again for purposes of partisan hackery. So Exiled gets the award for craziest old bat today.

Kansas City said...

Fascinating to watch it now. Brianna was pretty good and certainly aggressive with respect to subjects. Good work. Hillary was awful, but that is how she is, and most politicians are bad. She is just combines the typical non-answers with an off putting and extra phony personality.

The blame game is a little unfair. Elections are a zero sum game. The winner is overrated and the lose is over criticized. Here, Hillary lost by a combined total of about 69,000 votes in three states. She and her team were incompetent in many respect, but also unlucky, or perhaps more accurately, Trump was lucky.