Bill Clinton: Hillary-McCain Would Be "Most Civilized Election In American History"

Bill Clinton just staged a passionate defense of his wife here, after a voter asked how Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton could unite this country when it is so split, politically and racially, and when she is such a polarizing figure.

The question unleashed an attack against the Republicans and an unusual assertion that Mr. Clinton had somehow escaped those attacks (has he forgotten so quickly?); he said he understood the right-wing bullies because he grew up with them. And he said that when they "didn't have me to kick around anymore," they went after his wife...

... He also said that Mrs. Clinton had worked with Republicans, including Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

And then he painted this scene: "She and John McCain are very close," he said. "They always laugh that if they wound up being the nominees of their party, it would be the most civilized election in American history and they're afraid they'd put the voters to sleep because they like and respect each other."

Read the full article here.

Comments

[Give Peace A Chance]

Bill will say and do anything for a third term.

[peachfuzz]

wtf is he smoking?

[SCharb]

Yes, McCain loves Hillary. Which is why he keeps bashing her earmark for a million-dollar Woodstock museum, calls her a communist, and accuses her of advocating surrender, etc. What a civil campaign!

Is everybody watching the same election here?

[hippybaby1970]

off topic, yes but i can't help myself. i keep hearing that the clinton presidential library resembles a trailer...­sure enough it really does resemble a glorified double-wide.

[anghiari]

WHY is Bill Clinton courting such intense publicity, inevitably much of it negative?
Is he crazy? Crazy like a fox.
He has two goals and is achieving them both spectacularly.
First, he wants to be the same kind of lightning rod for Hillary that she was for him during his run for the presidency.
In the days before Iowa and leading up to New Hampshire, Hillary was the prime topic of political discussion.
She took shots for misusing Bill's record and trying to adopt it as her own, for minimizing King's contribution to civil rights, for crying, for attacking her opponents, and for changing her campaign style to become more likeable.
Now, she rarely gets hit anymore. They're hitting Bill instead.
The other method behind his madness is that Bill wants to suck up all the oxygen in the room and dominate the coverage of the Democratic contest. By doing so, he cuts Obama out of the news, pushes him off the front page, and usurps the headlines.
His tactics now are reminiscent of those he used to black out John Kerry during the lead-up to the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
By scheduling book signings and speeches in Boston, he effectively took the coverage away from the prospective Democratic nominee, a man who would have eclipsed Hillary's presidential ambitions had he won the election.
Ultimately, the Clintons are playing a game of jujitsu with Obama, using his own strength against him.
By challenging Obama for the black vote - by promising to go door to door in South Carolina in minority neighborhoods, for example - Bill is highlighting the question: Will Obama carry the black vote? Of course, he will. He leads, 4 to 1, among African-Americans now.
But by making that the central question, Obama's South Carolina victory will be hailed as proof that he won the African-American vote. Such block voting will trigger the white backlash Sen. Clinton needs to win.

[ObamaSeeChange]

Maybe they could run on the same ticket together except neither one of them will get the nomination of their party.

[MartinEdwinAndersen]

BREAKING NEWS:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com
/washingto­n/2008/01/­tony.html?­cid=986555
66#comments

Rezko co-defendant donated to Clinton supporter Rendell
Tony Rezko ... popped up prominently into the national political discussion only this week when during a heated exchange in a South Carolina Democratic debate Hillary Clinton accused Barack Obama of having been lawyer for the "slum landlord" Rezko. ...

But big as the country is, its politics is also a small world. So when former Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell endorsed Clinton earlier this week, some folks wondered if Rezko had helped Rendell. Sure enough, the New York Times found that when Rendell was also head of the Democratic National Committee in 2000, Rezko delivered $15,000 to the national party.

Although there is no known direct Rezko donation to Rendell, a review of the governor''s campaign finance reports by The Times'' intrepid campaign finance expert Dan Morain does reveal a definite connection. Back in September of 2005 Rendell took $1,000 from Ali D. Ata of Lemont, Ill.

Now who, you might ask, is Ali D. Ata? He turns out to be a Rezko co-defendant in one of the federal indictments pending in Chicago. The government alleges that in February 2004, Ata, then executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, signed a letter that helped Rezko fraudulently obtain a multi-million dollar loan. ...

--Andrew Malcolm

[AgathaX]

Hillary was more or less civilized this time, so long as she was inevitable. Then the voting started and she was losing. And she cried. Then, when the tear was wiped away she and Bill reached way down deep and ratcheted up the lying.

And now, they're smiling and trying to act like everything they've done is just the most normal thing in the world, and, gosh, they didn't mean anything by it. After all, everybody does it. And so long as we can convince ourselves that everyone does it, anything in the world is okay. Isn't that part of the Bush administration justification for torture, I mean enhanced interview techniques?

I don't want to vote for a Republican, but I'd take McCain over Hills any day.

[Lisette]

Boy Bill are you delusional?
What will you say when Hillary looses, because the Republicans will bury both of you sleazes.
And contrary to what you hear on the news Americans loathe you and Hillary.

[najablah]

Talk about a "fairy tale"... the thought of the GOP or Clintons running a clean campaign is a total joke.

[Gayrove]

"Most civilized?" I thought Billie Clinton had been a Rhodes scholar. How could he come up with a howler like that?
What, Wendell Wilkie vs FDR was not as civilized a bout as a McCain vs Mrs. Clinton would be? Give us a break!
You want civilized? John Edwards is a civilized southern gentleman. Mrs. Clinton, like her husband, is an Arkansas seeker after realization of her maximum personal potential, while McCain is just a poor lost man anxious for the love of Bush or anyone else, to make up for his imprisonment experiences while doing his DUTY.

[doug108]

Yep, she's the candidate of change alright.

I'm SICK AND TIRED of being civilized with an enemy that lost its civility a long time ago. I'm sick of the rolling over. I don't care if Hillary and McCain have been best buddies since elementary school, I WANT TO SEE A DEMOCRAT WITH SOME TEETH. I want to see a Democrat who strikes the fear of death into the Republican Party. I want to see a Democratic Party that knows how to knock the other side down, step on its throat, and finish the job.

What are we being asked to accept here? Two years of an ineffectual Congress, a warm and fuzzy campaign, then the presidency being taken over by another corporate crony who'll just pick up where the last one left off?

I'm not ready for the balm of Bill Clinton. I want a fight.

[IkeChicago]

Why can't Bill keep his big mouth shut, here he is trying to pick both the Republican and the Democratic candidate. I've never seen this happen in any election.

[MA]

Yeah! McCrazy could pick Loserman for VP and Hill could pick Pelosi and there'd be one big love-in!

[123xyz]

Hillary likes and respects a warmonger like McCain, thanks Bill, I'll keep that in mind when I cast my vote.