"He Doesn't Like Obama"

The New Yorker:

The New Yorker profiles the role of Bill Clinton and his rivalry with Barack Obama:

When Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign was launched, in January, 2007, her supporters feared that Bill would overshadow her, as he had when they both spoke at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, a year earlier. Now the constant fear is that he will embarrass her. When he makes news, it is rarely a good day for his spouse. Whether he was publicly comparing Barack Obama's primary victory in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's campaigns in the eighties or privately, and apoplectically, complaining that Bill Richardson broke his word by endorsing Obama, every story has seemed to reinforce an image of Clinton as a sort of ill-tempered coot driven a little mad by Obama's success. "I think this campaign has enraged him," the adviser told me. "He doesn't like Obama." In private conversations, he has been dismissive of his wife's rival. James Clyburn, an African-American congressman from South Carolina, told me that Clinton called him in the middle of the night after Obama won that state's primary and raged at him for fifty minutes. "It's pretty widespread now that African-Americans have lost a whole lot of respect for Bill Clinton," Clyburn said.

Read the whole article.

Read the whole story: The New Yorker

Comments

[sherylsworld]

The Clintons courted the black ace before one was running against one of them. Tell America how you really feel Billary...­.

[hibbiejibbies]

Hillary has proven over and over again that she's a dirty player, not only is she taunting a debate for her own advertising but her and Bill now have really shown their true colors as if to say Hillary is the ONLY candidate for blue-collar voters as opposed to Obama: Dirty, dirty, dirty….

[gwhizz]

"he doesn't like obama"

So?

He's not the only one, believe it or not.

[RThM]

Alright, Hillary, Bill's not alone. He's got you and McCain on his side. Yes, there were three of you on the relay against Obama. Unfortunately, you didn't seem to realize that a sink is a heavy burden to keep passing along. Now swallow your personal feelings of hurt and anger and support the better candidate.

[ann1]

Bill Clinton who?

[inthecolour]

Bill tried to intimidate Obama. It backfired hard.

NOBODY likes a bully. The Clintons are bullies.

[abby4ever]

" The Clintons are bullies."
Sadly, this is one of the truest statements I've ever seen at Huffington. They are bullies, in a classic sense---it is why the party leaders haven't been able to control them. Or even reason with them.

[ajax2]

It should be no mystery why Bill Clinton has lost his connections to the black community. Bill as the astute politician determined early in the campaign, after some stunning Hillary losses, that Hillary would need to play to the GW Bush white vote just to stay afloat (the Rove 51% gambit). His comments, “Hillary is in this race today because of people like you,” he told one white working-class audience. “She’s in it for you and she’s in it because of you. People like you have voted for her in every single state in the country.”

You don't need to be a genius to know that this is race baiting by a desperate man who chose to run Hillary as GW Lite.

[patmancando]

The Rev. Wright was the first one to use race baiting in his Dec. 07 sermon when he said..."Hi­llary doesn't know what it means to be called a N****r". What could be more race baiting than that? When he gave that sermon, which was recorded and distributed to other black churches, Hillary had a majority of the Black vote, based upon the Clinton's history of supporting civil rights and blacks. Sen. Obama could not compete in the primaries if he didn't have the black vote, and that sermon was calculated to turn the black vote away from Hillary to support Obama. If it was not possible for Obama to win the black vote on his merits without trying to destroy the Clintons, then does he deserve to be the nominee? Many Hillary supporters and admirers of Bill do not think so. If he gets the nomination based upon these tactics, and continues to support disenfranchising Florida and Michigan, many Democrats will think his nomination is illegitimate.

[FortuneTeller]

Am I missing the point? Or is there a Point.

One of the reasons that she won Ohio that nobody wrote about is that Ohio has a plant that produces the largest number of solar reflectors in America."
HUH??? Is he refering to Goodyear Aerospace ? Or Wright-Patterson AFB? And this affects the votes how???
One thing I will say is the current banking/mortgage mess we are in is the result of deregulation of the industry..­.after the S&L bank failures of the 80's, the public demanded stricter FDIC oversight. Many of the regs were quietly downgraded or dispensed with during the clinton admin.
This country has had 20 years of the bush/clinton/bush dynasty. Enough!!!

[poco767]

Can't we just make a $3 bill, put his face on it and assure him his legacy is secure, if he just stops talking.

[Aywaller]

Excellent idea!

[marika]

So he doesn't like Obama...to­o bad. He gets lots of free air time but it would be so nice if he could just stop talking and vote for his wife in November.

[scorpioleidy]

Well ... DUH!!!! Is this supposed to be a newsflash or something???!!!!
Slick Willie doesn't like Obama because he reminds him of himself!!! Consider: 1) they're the same astrological sign (Leo), 2) both are wildly ambitious & charismatic, 3) both have that intangible "it" factor (something you can't learn or buy---you're either born with "it" or you're not) and 4) Barack has opened up a huge lead & a can of whoop-A$$ on Hillary Huckabee, and their dreams of returning to the White House are all but over!!!
"Stop The Drama: Vote for Obama"
OBAMA '08

[DebofMD]

Agree!

[maxwellinformed]

LOL Now Bill wants to blame their poorly run campaign on Obama? HillBill should really look in a mirror:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/fairy-tale-jesse-jackson_b_98278.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/02/bills-tirade-in-private-_n_94605.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/30/bill-clinton-tells-democr_n_94134.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/hillary-says-8yearold-b_b_93485.html

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9889.html

[iPolitics]

Bill Clinton is very angry. You were president. You went to study in England to avoid Vietnam. You had a beautiful, safe life. Be thankful Bill. Don't hate a nice guy like Obama. Disagree sure, but hate is just wrong. Break out the race card again, Billy boy

[RRH]

There are many people who dislike Obama and the group is growing. Obama has managed to have surrogates come out and insult Hillary Clinton so he gives the appearance of rising above the frey. I also think Bill Clinton is a husband first and he has a right to defend his wife from all the media bias she had to endure while Obama is called inspiring. He does not inspire the most important voting block, white men, catholics, blue collar middle class and seniors. In November, Obama will not have the block of voters needed to close the deal. I am also confused about Howard Dean's alleged comments, "someone must drop out in June". Dean said the opposite. On all the Sunday talk shows he claimed no one including the media should tell either candidate to drop out. They have both worked hard and will know when it's time to leave. As for President Clinton, I think this man has supported theAfrican Americans more then Obama. He was referred to affectionately as "The first black President", so for some black congressman who call Bill bizzrare are saying that based on race. Not fair! Bill Clinton has a great deal of influence in the Democratic party and has been instrumnetal in elevating many super delegates to their careers. Loyality counts and it counts big!

[AllaboutME]

As for President Clinton, I think this man has supported theAfrican Americans more then Obama.

**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**
You have itthe other way around. It was the African American community that supported Clinton during his impeachment.

I bet you did not know that in 1989, then-Gov. Bill Clinton was sued as one of three top Arkansas officials responsible for the intimidation of black voters in his state as part of a legal action brought under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, .

[neoconscums]

RRH - And there are MANY< MANY people that hate Hillary and the group is growing!

[nellie]

This is the kind of logic that praises people as long as they agree, but when the same people express disagreement, suddenly those same people become evil. It's not that their opinions may be worth considering, though hard to hear, because they come from trusted sources. No no no. Those sources, trusted in the past, suddenly morph into enemies.

The Clintons seem to use this type of logic, too.

[MsLourdes]

With respect to white men, catholics, the blue collar middle class and seniors when faced with the possibility of another four years of disastrous domestic and foreign policy, they will move quickly to support Obama. The country and the world cannot affort Bush redux.

[FullMedia]

A couple of points:

The American demographic is changing, and while Hillary Clinton won in here strongholds of Ohio and Pennsylvania, she did not do well in states that, if your observation was correct, she should have won handily.

Secondly, simply because the press touts a specific phrase or idiom, ie the first black president, that doesn't make it so. And if Bill Clinton had done as much as some think for people of color the country would be quite different today and the concept of "race" being a factor in selecting a President would be essentially moot.

This election season has been one of (and continues to be) "smoke and mirrors" politics. I read that John McCain says that Senator Obama is "insensitive" to poor people. Senator Obama began his career actually working with real authentic poor people on the southside of Chicago while McCain lived between his 8 homes with his wife worth a reported $100 million dollars ...

Smoke and mirrors people ... and I won't even bother mentioning the Bosnia sniper fire ...

[RThM]

I'm not so sure it's accurate to call Ohio and Pennsylvania Clinton "strongholds" just because she won against Obama in the Democratic primary races there.

Can't speak to Ohio, but the one very odd thing I noticed when I had the opportunity to swing through the cities and countryside of central and eastern Pennsylvania the week before the Democratic primary was the almost complete lack of Obama signage. AND, most telling, also Clinton signage.Th­ere were, however, endless little lawn ornaments for Ron Paul mixed through the local names.

It's easy to get distracted by the press's focused feeding frenzy, but think a Clinton win in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, by whatever margin, seems to me to be completely irrelevant to her theoretical performance against McCain in the Fall. In fact, I'm sure she would loose against the Republican candidate then because they tend not to like her, to put it mildly.

Obama, on the other hand, IS liked on both sides and would surely take AWAY moderate Republicans sick of the same-old-same-old from McCain.

[halyscomet]

Bill is both jealous and angry. He simply can't believe that EVEN with his influence, money, and access to more money, his wife has lost to Barack Obama.

He now see the loss as damaging to his legacy as anything else, given the contest was supposed to have been a "cake-walk".

[cinnysmom]

Bill is probably wondering how this freshman senator, with a funny sounding name got this far. Bill had his time in the White House, it's time to move on. This is not the 90's. It's 2008 and time for a change.

[NoRepresentation]

Well of course he doesn't Obama doesn't wear a dress or is married to him. Bill Clinton is a JOKE and the fact that Democrats finally see it is amazing.