Clinton: There Won't Be A Repeat Of '94 Elections (VIDEO)

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Bill Clinton predicted on Sunday that Democrats in Congress would avoid the political bloodbath during the 2010 elections that they witnessed during the first mid-term elections under his presidency.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," the former president sought to calm the concerns of many within his own party that current political trends and electoral history foreshadow massive losses in the House and the Senate.

"There's no way they can make it that bad," Clinton said, when asked if he was worried about a repeat of the '94 elections, in which Republicans took over the House for the first time in 40 years.

"Number one," Clinton explained, "the country is more diverse and more interested in positive action. Number two, they've seen this movie before, because they had eight years under President Bush when the Republicans finally had the whole government, and they know the results were bad. And--[laughing]--number three, the Democrats haven't taken on the gun lobby like I did, and they took 15 of our members out. So I don't think-- it'll be, whatever happens, it'll be manageable for the president."

All of which was not to suggest that Clinton was dismissing the GOP's capacity for exacting political blood. At another point in his interview, the former president - whose legacy was, in part, defined by the loss of Congress in '94 - smarted that the so-called "vast right wing conspiracy" still exists and has its eyes set on the current White House.

"Oh, you bet," said Clinton. "Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was, because America has changed demographically. But it's as virulent as it was. I mean, they're saying things about him. You know, it's like when they accused me of murder, and all that stuff they did. ... But ... it's not really good for the Republicans and the country, what's going on now. I mean, they may be hurting President Obama. They can take his numbers down. They can run his opposition up. But, fundamentally, he and his team have a positive agenda for America. Their agenda seems to be wanting him to fail." ...

As for the 2010 elections, the current construct in House of Representatives - in which a substantial chunk of the 256 Democrats hail from traditionally conservative districts - does portend for significant (but, perhaps, not heavy) losses in the 2010 elections.

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Comments

[jazzman]

The right wing and Republicans have become nihilists. They offer no solutions and spend all of their energy just trying to tear down anything the opposition does. The Republican Party platform consists of being the black hole of politics, sucking all of the positive energy out of the body politic. They have absolutely nothing to offer.

[hhayden]

Ignoring conservative ideas does not mean they do not exist. Your mascot should be the ostrich. . What Obama is doing to this country needs being rejected. Since he can't give up American autonomy to the United Nations, he is trying to give it up the the G-20 countries.

[Lucy0808]

It isn't a question of ignoring conservative ideas. That isn't what this is about. However, we are arguing about willful ignorance by many who wear the conservative clothing. I for one am astonished at the lies and poorly educated people that call themselves conservatives. These people are often good people that are lost not just in ideology, but are lost in ignorance. You can disagree about policies and philosophy, but lies and hypocracy worn on people's shirt cuffs is annoying.

Your party leadership ignores and calls lies regarding global climate change. They are not only ignorant, they are irresponsible on such a vast scale, it is mind-boggling.

40% of your party doesn't believe our President is legally our President.

Your party is filled with people who are willfully ignorant and deny evolution, a proven scientific theory.

Your party leadership support torture and breaking the laws of our nation and our treaties.

I could go on and on. The educated and professional classes are not in the Republican party. It is the reactionary faction that are willfully blind with their heads in the ground.

[jazzman]

This is just a blinding flash of the obvious. The right wing is highly organized, highly financed, and well coordinated.

[Clearing-Brush]

Republicans are kings when it comes to politics and court jesters when it comes to governing. Watch the filth flow in the campaign gutters.

[zendem1]

And they know how to stay on message

[miriamfl]

Even when the message is wrong and h@tefull

[hhayden]

A month or so you guys were saying the republicans were in disarray and would be out of power for generations, if not forever. Make up your mind.

[Elbrando]

Regarding the debate about mandate below. Presidential elections come not dow to popular votes but electoral votes. Obama had 365 electoral votes, McCain 173. This means that Obama had about 68% of the electoral college and McCain had about 32%. That is an overwhelming victory and that is a mandate.

Obama had a better spread in the electoral college than Bush had in his elections combined (Bush vs. Gore was 271-266 and Bush vs. Kerry was 286-252, Difference is 5+34=39 Obama's 192). Bush claimed to have a mandate in both elections and he practically tied.

Elections matter and Obama has plenty of capital from the previous one. He needs to spend more of it.

[Lemmy]

He's been spending everything he has and yet "health care reform" (dems plan to tax one group to pay for entitlements) has not yet passed.

[PWM]

There is nothing wrong with taxing the rich as they benefit big time from government contracts and in some cases, handups.

[uknowhowicm]

say something we don't know...like a list of them and their campaign contributors

[somsoc]

The rethugs have proven themselves to be fabricators without a plan for the people only concern for the the pockets of the corporations and the aristocracy. If the American voters have not learned that lesson yet, then we, as a nation, are less educated than I ever thought.

[Elbrando]

The Republicans are missing one key ingredient they had in the 1994 election. They tore down and said no to Clinton as much as possible and that was the negative. But then they also had a positive, "The Contract with America" (though it was more like a corporate mafia contract on America). The independants of this country ate that up and swept Newt into office (where he proceeded to have his multiple affairs).

If I were Democrats I would watch for this same ploy. Some sort of propaganda that will amount to the same thing the contract on America amounted to. The Republicans are going to have to show some positives before the next election cycle. If not they could actually lose seats, especially in the Senate where they will be fighting an uphill battle.

[Jaywalkker]

Conspiracies by their very nature are behind the scenes machinations by powerbrokers from all backgrounds. What we're observing looks more like a leaderless, multi-directional attack using any means necessary to portray a political party in a horrible light that's pretty blatant. So how are protests, exaggerations, lies, news circuits, and a multitude of speeches and public appearances a conspiracy?

[JohnHKennedy]

I think that our Congressional Democrats will only avoid a political bloodbath in 2010
IF they show we the Voters that they are actually Fighting To Win For Voters
the Goals that motivated us to work hard to elect them in the first place

Single Payer or a Very Strong Public Option
and
Justice for those in the Bush Administration
that Violated So Many Federal Laws

Especially the Torture Conspiracy
and the WMD Lies
that got over
34,000 US Solders
KILLED & MAIMED
FOR NOTHING!!!!

We and our children and grand children will be paying for the economic damage for decades that the Iraq invasion caused, especially the Five Dollar A Gallon Gasoline that pushed up the price of everything we consume.

It is either time for Justice for Bush and Cheney or payback for Dems in 2010 and 2012.

Get out in the streets in front of your Congressional Representative's District Office and raise hell.

KEEP ASKING ALL POLITICIANS AT ALL PUBLIC EVENTS
"WHY DO YOU SUPPORT TORTURE?"
If they aren't actively calling for enforcement of our Federal Torture Laws, They DO Support Torture and a dual standard of Justice.

SIGN THE PETITION
Demanding prosecution

http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG

.

[somsoc]

Thanks for the web cite, great information.

[Chernynkaya]

Blackwater—another piece of the right-wing conspiracy.

Erik Prince’s beliefs—militarism, right-wing Christianity, and privatization—is the core of Blackwater Worldwide. Even after the scandal over abuses committed by Blackwater in Iraq and elsewhere, it has begun to expand its business into intelligence gathering and a host of other security-related services. Its success is funding some of the country’s most radical conservative political figures.

Eric’s father helped Gary Bauer set up the Christian Right think tank and lobby group Family Research Council (FRC). The Princes also have close ties to James Dobson, who was on the founding board of FRC. Dobson, perhaps the most powerful figure of the Christian Right today, runs Focus on the Family, which has benefited from the Princes’ lavish spending.

Blackwater’s chief operating officer Joseph Schmitz was inspector general (IG) of the Defense Department. Schmitz was responsible for defense contracts. His watch saw the largest increase in military contracting ever. Schmitz resigned in 2005 under pressure for malfeasance.

Another Blackwater figure with ideological underpinnings is Cofer Black, the head of Total Intelligence Solutions and former head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. While at the CIA (where he worked until 2002), Black oversaw the “extraordinary rendition” program in which suspects were kidnapped by the CIA, taken to secret “black sites,” and interrogated with harsh methods that have given rise to accusations of torture.

These people are anathema to American ideals, and IMHO, pose a real threat.

[wdw505]

ok in your opinion

[PWM]

Are you implying the torture of people is ok in some situations?

[zendem1]

No, its not ok. And those arent opinions, thoise are facts.

[WorkerBee63]

This should be front page stuff.

[miriamfl]

For those who are discussing healthcare you should watch SICKO. The same clowns that were against healthcare in the 90s are the same rightwing clowns today, back then they called it Hillarycare. One thing the wrongwingers are good at is consistancy with their h@te and lies and name calling.

[SilenceDoGood1776]

miriam
Now I know why you are wrong so much. Better listen to more news than fictional movies. Who is holding up reform is not republicans, they don't need one repub vote. It is difference in the democratic party causing the blockage.

[Realitylost]

A few Dems, and all the repugs. Your argument doesn't hold up.

[miriamfl]

I am very well informed and a news junky not fox fake news but he makes it very simple for those that watch it to understand that they are repeating the same tr@sh they were spilling back then.

[miriamfl]

Silence, by the way you sound like someone that has not watch SICKO but is calling it fictional and you say you know why I'm wrong so much? The once very prominent Wendell Potter from Cigna who used to fly in their private jets with gold plated silverware has stated many time the Sicko was very accurate and on the money when it came to reporting on the insurance companies and he was on the other side at the time when sicko came out. You are the one that needs to get informed.

[PWM]

Wrong. I am middle age and remember how the Republicans back in Clinton's time killed healthcare reform as they were in the pay of the insurance companies.

[wdw505]

really........i agree with reform just not obama's reform

[miriamfl]

Exactly, you repubs will disagree with any reform that a democrat presents. My husband and I laugh when we hear the repubs criticize the democratic platform and if it was the same plan but a repub was putting it out you would all think it was great. You said it, it's President Obamas reform.

[novowel4me]

If the anybody in the GOP was interested in real healthcare reform it would have happened between 2000 and 2006. If you agree with reform you need to support the reformers.

[dizmo4]

Its over a year before the 2010 elections and everyone is worrying as though they'll occur in a month. This is exactly whats wrong with the political system--blue dogs will look at 2009 polls, get scared and do nothing on Health care reform, financial regulation, climate change, etc.

2009 polls really have no bearing on the 2010 election. If Dems can actually get some of the PResident's agenda through Congress, then they'll be fine.

Its also important to realize that Republicans still face a huge disadvantage in large areas of the country; no republican elected to national office in all of New England. New York has only two republicans in their Congressional delegation. The Republicans aren't going to reverse that anytime soon--that region is far too liberal for the southern-dominated conservative base. The types of Republicans that could get elected would be drummed out of the party by Limbaugh/Beck.

[SilenceDoGood1776]

diz

I think everyone wants some kind of reform to control costs mainly but not gov't control of it.

[Grunty1]

Then you want a contradiction, an impossiblity.

[AnnfromCA]

One other problem with his assessment. People do not particularly like the Dem's agenda, obviously. Healthcare is not popular. Cap-and-Trade won't be acceptable. EFCA is abominable.

The desire for proactive measures is true. However, the wrong players are suiting up, with old ideas that just dip into people's pockets even more, in the name of progress.

Nobody is buying it.

[Chernynkaya]

Right-- only between 60%--70% of the voting public. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

[somsoc]

Ya' Ann at her mor0nic best. She is an avoid misologist and a parrot for Bleck and Limbutt, she ignores the national polls that repeatedly show that when the people understand the facts about the health care reform they favor reform 77% to 14% for a public option, actually for a single payer plan.

EFCA would begin, only begin, to level the field for working men and women in America the Taft-Hartley Act needs to be thrown out and much stronger laws protecting the rights of working men and women to organize need to be put on the books and the misnomered "right to work" laws need to be over turned. But she is likely a silver spooner that has never had to scrimp or get her hands dirty or go without in her life.

[dizmo4]

Health care is popular.

The lies Republicans have spread about what it will entail has caused people to get nervous, which is to be expected. But its a mistake to dismiss the concept of reform as unpopular.

[TaxDayMan]

Health care (tort) reform IS POPULAR! Just NOT ObamaCare!

[wdw505]

some are buying it..........but i agree with you

[somsoc]

Ann, you are such a misologist and a parrot for Bleck and Limbutt, you ignore the national polls that repeatedly show that when the people understand the facts about the health care reform the real reform is favored 77% to 14% for a public option, actually for a single payer plan. EFCA would begin, only begin, to level the field for working men and women in America the Taft-Hartley Act needs to be thrown out and much stronger laws protecting the rights of working men and women to organize need to be put on the books and the misnomered "right to work" laws need to be over turned. But you are likely a silver spooner that has never had to scrimp or get your hands dirty or go without in your life.

[Chernynkaya]

Right-wing figures such as Richard Mellon Scaife and Howard Ahmanson have given hundreds of millions of dollars over several decades to political projects both high (setting up the Heritage Foundation think-tank, the driving engine of the Reagan presidency) and low (bankrolling investigations into President Clinton’s sexual indiscretions and the suicide of the White House insider Vincent Foster).

Ahmanson is a multi-millionaire, a fundamentalist Christian who uses his fortune to promote so-called traditional family values. By way of campaign contributions, Ahmanson has the ability to cajole candidates into backing his right-wing Christian agenda.

Ahmanson is also a chief contributor to the Chalcedon Institute that supports the Christian reconstruction movement. The movement’s philosophy advocates, among other things, “mandating the death penalty for homosexuals and drunkards.”

[TaxDayMan]

And George Soros is NOT doing the same on the left?

[Chernynkaya]

Yes, but to a much smaller degree. And we have only Soros, sadly.

[Mabo]

Nothing new here...still using the scare tactics to retain Democrat power.

[PWM]

No scare tactics needed. The US cannot survive another Republican government.

[nicole473]

co-sign.

I am surprised we are still standing after dubya. oh, wait.........we aren't. we are on our KNEES.

[TaxDayMan]

BUT it can survive "a massive government" defict of $1trillion+, government takover of auto, banking, and health care, etc?