Bill Clinton In ABC News Interview: "I Am Not A Racist"

Washinton Post:

Former president Bill Clinton has been trying to keep his political opinions in check in order to turn back to his international work.

Still, he got a little testy in an interview Sunday with ABC's Kate Snow, telling her he is "not a racist" even as he avoided delving into specifics about what happened in the Democratic presidential primary. The interview, taped in a quick stop in Liberia, will air Monday on "Good Morning America."

Read the whole story: Washinton Post

Comments

[aquarharris688]

The MSM is at it again! They show snippets so they can push their point of view. Read the interview
here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=5506458

[exmun]

Whether he is a racist is a matter of degrees. Frankly who knows? What is clear is that he doesn't like Barack Obama in the least. The guy has given two interviews and can barely reference Senator Obama by name. Clinton refers to Obama by "he." WTH?! "I am not a racist.... he hit us hard.... we hit him hard." Come the hell on Bill. The convention is approaching in less then 30 days and you can't even speak the nominee's name. You refer to him in the third person? What a sore Loser with a capital "L."

He has proven over and over that this campaign was about HIM. He could usher in a third Clinton term. That's what has his jockey shorts riding up. And given how petulant he has behaved I'm glad that his wife didn't make it to the White House. There is room only for one president and frankly with Hillary and Bill both in the White House there would have been a power struggle to the nation's detriment. Thank God for the Democratic electorate.

[08politicaljunkie]

Just because you see and group people according to the color of their skin doesn't make you a bad person. Just because you assign or attribute certain traits or characteristics to specific groups of people according to the color of their skin doesn't make you a bad person.

Bill, I, personally, do not believe you intended to denigrate an entire American ethnicity; you only wanted to belittle your wife's opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination -- which is understandable. You only wanted to light a fire under the butt's of those complacent "hard working White Americans" and make sure they voted -- for your wife.

But the way you went about it is why you're pleading to the entire globe now -- and especially to those in Liberia whose skin tone is darker than Obama's.

I do not believe you harbor any ill will to People of Color. However, I do believe you will pander to and exploit anyone, whether they're Red, Black, Brown, Yellow, Pink, Grey, or White, for power and the green.

Does that mean you're racist?

[WFV]

Ya know, I just saw the clip of him saying this on TV. I had only read it previously, but seeing and hearing it was pretty interesting.

The look on his face and tone of his voice were just like something I heard him say he didn't do in the past.

He may not literally be a racist, but he screwed up big time, and he knows it. He also knows there's no way he is going to get the chance to do it again.

[GrainOSand]

It is really a question of standards -- low versus high. Is another human being's (Barack Obama) worth and value fair game for degradation to win a political prize (not based on facts but application of an individual attacker’s personal frailty filter as expressed in their foaming-at­-the-mouth ambition). Some may see such marginalization of humanity as discretionary, par for the course, heat-of-the-battle, all-is-fai­r-in-love-­war-and-po­litics tactics that are forgivable or negligible in a political process, but that is such a low standard by which to judge how any of us would want to be treated. The suggested course, the recommended standard, is utilizing ones' own mirror of value and worth concerning how to treat others and it is further suggested, that do unto others as you would have them do…becomes the guiding practice, the moral compass on this point. That is one of the bedrock standards of the highest virtue and quality.

It is really a question of standards, whether Bill Clinton’s actions and words can be deemed to have had a racial color or tinge to them. Surely, the Archie Bunker character (love to Mr. O’ Connor) would not have demurred concerning Mr. Clinton’s standard approach to the politics of respecting (or disrespecting) your opponent. Surely, such as he was in that choir for which Bill’s statements were crafted to have maximum political effect?

[gala1]

If you read nothing else about this election, you need to read this. Twice:

http://www.lynettelong.com/my_weblog/2008/07/bamboozling-the.html

The second time, read it in sections and take notes. So you can start contemplating why what went down and what didn't.

bill Clinton would do well to use this article for the outline of the book we'll all be buying in January.
Unfortunately at the start of four more years of GOP mismanagement.
Thanks to the actions of the Obamabots who foisted an unelectable candidate onto the ticket. And now you'll know why that happened.

It's not enough that Karl Rove, bagman for Cheney, has put us onto a war where we are paying for both sides. Now he is controlling the election from both sides.
And the press is letting that happen.

But we need to start asking the media why it hasn't reported ever on how Obama is buying up superdelegates with political contributions to their own campaigns.

You can foist Obama onto the ticket, but you can't get us to vote for him-- essentially what Karl Rove has master-planned all along.
If there is one thing Rove knows to the very last atom, it's his kind of voters and just how many.

-gala1

[aquarharris688]

Are you a fool? It's normal to contribute to other political candidates' campaigns.

[foreffectivegovernment]

WASHINGTON -- When Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, she said she'd found a candidate who "gives us a reason to believe again."
Obama believed in her, too, donating $10,000 from his political action committee to her 2006 campaign. She received nothing from New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's PAC.
McCaskill is among the nearly 800 superdelegates who will have a big say in who heads the Democratic ticket this fall. While she said the PAC contributions to her campaign coffers didn't influence her choice, a study by the Center for Responsive Politics concludes that campaign contributions have become a fairly reliable predictor of whose side a superdelegate will take.
If that's the case, it's good news for Obama. Since 2005, his PAC has donated $710,900 to superdelegates' campaign funds, more than three times as much as Clinton's PAC. Her PAC distributed $236,100 to their campaign funds during the three-year period.
It is not uncommon for elected officials with large campaign coffers to contribute to other candidates' campaigns.
The study found that the presidential candidate who gave more money to the superdelegates received their endorsements 82 percent of the time. That's based on a review of elected officials who are serving as superdelegates and who endorsed a candidate as of Feb. 25.

[foreffectivegovernment]

gala1: Thanks for the link.
This is the E-mail from RepublicansforObama that was referred to in the article. Rush's "Operation Chaos" was reverse psychology by the Republicans.

http://www.thecityedition.com/Pages/Archive/Winter08/EmailAppeal.html?q=node/358

Republicans have used "strategic voting", i.e. cross-voting. to select both the Republican and Democratic candidates for years in local and national elections. The superdelegates were supposed to be the Democratic "failsafe" but their votes were purchased instead by the Obama PAC.

[notthistime]

Bill Clinton is not a racist and most of the AA community knows that. We are disappointed in the decison made by Clinton's campaign to use bad judgement by trying to intimidate voters by using racial scare tactics.

I don't think he needs to explain this over and over again. We know the Clintons are not racist at all they just made a bad call because they wanted to win.

[foreffectivegovernment]

Racism and Sexism entered the Presidential Primaries of 2008 when a Black man and a White woman were introduced as candidates for the Presidency by the Democratic Party. Ageism entered the Presidential Primaries of 2008 when a 70 year old joined as the Republican candidate for the Presidency by the Republican Party.
If all the candidates were the same color, sex, and age and the only difference was their policies, the nomination and election process would be very boring and even fewer citizens would vote. No single person, including Bill Clinton, can be blamed for the situation we find ourselves in at this time. We all have a collective responsibility for this mess and should not blame anyone but ourselves.
Choose the candidate you think has the experience, ability, and desire to remedy the current situation and leave the others alone. Love and hate are emotions that can lead to making the wrong decision in all situations.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

And Nixon said, "I am not a crook. Your President is not a crook".

[terraprieto]

Just when I thought Obama might do a surprise, BIG, game-changing pick of Hillary for VP, Bill opens his mouth again.

Hillary obviously knows that it is in her interest to help Obama and the Democratic Party to win big in the fall, and she is acting accordingly. Why doesn't she tell Bill to get with the program? Or, why doesn't Bill do as she asks?

No way can Hillary be the VP if she can't persuade Bill to act in the Democrats and her own interests.

[WFV]

That depends on what your definition of "a" is.....right?

[rhanw4560]

I am not sure if Bill Clinton is a racist, however, his comments about Senator Barack Obama during the South Carolina primary were unwarranted and unflattering from such a seasoned and well liked ex-president. We expected much more than that from him. His language was befitting of a racist, therefore, the conclusion was drawn that he is a racist. Bill Clinton stated several things in this campaign that were quite shocking to the African-American community by and large. He was held in high favor among most of us. He has since lost a lot of that for he showed a side that we never got a chance to see previously. If not for anything else I am thankful that I was able to see the real Bill and Hillary this year. My opinion, like many of my friends and family have changed in regard to them both.

[NotMcCain]

What's a racist, Bill?

Racist or not, there's no doubt to me that he's shown himself to be "racially insensitive". Beyond that, he obviously won't accept or consider anything he does or says to be wrong.

The Bill Clinton CRITICS must always be wrong.

That's how you wind up not only looking like a racist (whether you are or not), but also like an arrogant, narcissistic a**.

[daddigrace]

That's right! No one cares if Bill Clinton is a racist or not, and that's his big problem. He just can't stand not having a spotlight on him, so he needs something to rail about.

[AllaboutME]

Leave black people alone.

William Jefferson Clinton, then a student at Georgetown University, sent a postcard to his grandmother (whom he addresses as "Mammaw") in a nursing home in Hope, Arkansas, a 'racially insensitive' postcard (see what we can do with these politically correct arrows?) where we can see a black man 'polishing' a watermelon...

[Ramirez]

Democrats eating their own.

It's the natural legacy of identity politics.