Big Dawg Clinton: Use 'em or Lose 'em?

After Saturday's whuppin' in South Carolina, will the Hillary campaign finally snap the muzzle down on Bill? Or has Big Dawg strayed completely out of control?

No question that as much as Slick Willie boosted Hill's campaign in New Hampshire and Nevada, he went a mound of dung too far in South Carolina. His shameful rampage against Obama, the latest episode coming in his implication that the Hillary's chief rival, started ticking off not only the political and media elites, but it also set off a ground-level backlash that directly contributed to Saturday's lopsided results.

The more Bill barked, the greater the number of voters who started reaching for the pepper spray.

I claim no special insight into the Hillary campaign. I can only pass along the sweaty beads of info that trickle out. Just as many people inside the campaign tell me that coordination between Bill and Hill couldn't be tighter and more closely calibrated as tell me the complete opposite: that Bill's in veritable political heat, that his verbal rutting is beyond anyone's control.

Clinton, or better said, the Clintons were expected to lose South Carolina but not by the crushing 2 to 1 margin that resulted. It was expected that Hillary would win more votes among white men than Obama. But not just by the meager single points in the final tally.

The definitive chapter in the Democratic primary now opens and will most likely culminate during the 22 state showdown on February 5. Until Saturday's crushing defeat in South Carolina, Clinton -with superior organization and institutional firewalls--was heavily favored in Super Tuesday mega-states of California, New York and New Jersey. Some of that confidence went up in smoke in the aftermath of Saturday's Palmetto State Massacre.

Hillary's handlers must now calculate quite precisely just how much more Bill Clinton should be deployed in these crucial next two weeks. Or how much he should be muzzled. Or if they even have a say in the matter.

Bill Clinton was, surely, a president who enjoyed great popularity. But also great scorn.

Use 'em, or lose 'em?

Comments

[noodlesoup]

I can't for the life of me figure out why any progressive would want the Clintons back on office for a third term; other than an awesome economy (which I admit I benefited from) the eight years of the Bill & Hillary co-presidency resulted in decidedly anti-liberal policies. Rather than looking back at the past with rose-colored glasses maybe we need to remind ourselves of what was going on back then:

* Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act - The federal death penalty was expanded to some 60 different offenses.

* Communications Decency Act - Criminalized "indecent, but not obscene" speech.

* Telecom Reform Act - Eliminated major ownership restrictions for radio and television groups.

* Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act - Limited welfare funds to no more than 24 consecutive months and no more than 60 months over a lifetime.

* Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) - Had a tremendous impact on the law of Habeas Corpus in the United States by limiting the power of federal judges to grant relief

* Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) - Allowed states and the Federal government to refuse recognition of same-sex marriages. Bill Clinton's pre-signing statement on DOMA, "I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages and this legislation is consistent with that position."

* Waco Siege - A month long fiasco that ended with the deaths of more than 80 men, women, and children. This was the deadliest government action taken against American citizens on U.S. soil since the Civil War.

* Extraordinary Rendition - Clinton authorized the kidnapping and transport of persons to foreign countries to be tortured. Refer to the ACLU Fact Sheet on Extraordinary Rendition at: aclu.org/s­afefree/ex­traordinar­yrendition­/22203res2­0051206.ht­ml

* Regardless of how your feel about Bill "getting a little" on the side, the way he humiliated Monica and tossed her under the bus by calling her a liar wasn't gentlemanly particularly when you consider the fact that Monica adored and idolized Bill.

* Controversial pardons and commutations signed on final day in office.

* And more...

[wizoz]

Bill Clinton obviously has a self destructive streak. The voters are soft between Hillary and Barack. In New Hamshire, Hillary's tear swayed them. In South Carolina, the Billary attacks swayed them. This I blame on the media. How many hours were spent on these irrelevant issues instead of focusing on educating the public on the canidates' nuanced differences

[larry278]

To garble an old Farsi proverb, "A fit has hit the Shan. Get out of the way. pronto.". The subprime loan bubble broke a few days ago. While Slick Willy & W live in bubbles now, it would be a good idea to get out of the bubbles before they get blown into eye of the shit storm (S Fla weather term) caused by the subprime bubble breaking. Willy & W will be killed before their bubbles reach the eye of the hurricane caused by the subprime bubble breaking. To reuse a S Fla weather term: "It's a real shit storm.". Willy won't need a muzzle when he gets killed by the shit storm. As for the fate of W & Co when their bubbles hit the eye of the hurriane/shit storm- the US Constitution is said to take care of replacing dead presidents.
Don't wait for it to get to the US Supreme Court. The Chief Justice & the Consertive Justices also live in bubbles that will break & kill them to as the prevailing wind blows their bubbles into the shit storm. The surviving Justices who stayed on the ground might have an emergency hearing & render an enforcable decision in hours or minutes of the emergency hearing is called & begins. That's a real possibility. But don't count on it.

[Irons]

Keep the Big Dawg yappin' about Jessie Jackson, that's what I'd do.

Of course, I'm for Obama.

[ariadne1]

face the nation:

i find it interesting, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that hillary clinton can look straight into the camera and innocently proclaim that what we are seeing with our own eyes and hearing with our own ears is not,in fact, the truth.

i voted for bill, i rationalized to myself that his sexual life was his own affair, i railed against the right wing conspiracy... i now believe i was wrong... the clintons are reprehensible, they will do anything to win. they have proved by their behavior that winning, is more important than dividing the country.

this is a truly sad state of affairs.

[blueshift]

Billary is a bridge backward, to the 20th century.

Lose him, Hillary....if you want my vote. Go back to Nevada and get the divorce you should have gotten last week.

Bill in the white house with, um, time on his hands? I will vote for Hillary's opponent, whover that might be. I voted him, but he became smaller and is increasingly so now. As competent as Hillary is (and she IS competent), Bill is a deathwish dem-O-cratic, a millstone weighing down her candidacy.

[misspennylane]

So our choice is the Clintons who will do anything to win and Obama and his koolaid drinkers who think he can have it both ways forever. Once again it sucks.

[vsign]

Try to imagine having as much scorn for Barack Obama as you disclose with Bill Clinton. Then write an article based on that scorn. You might actually do a service to fairness and help keep us from making a bad mistake nominating Obama.

[Halsey]

Does any one else see Bill playing the race card? And I don't mean the White/Black race card..but the more venomous Latino/Black race card.. It's stark and shameless... I am so thoroughly disguested by bill..and whether it's spontaneous or planned..does not matter a twit to me.. any campaign with Hilary..whether is vs. McCain or mittens...will be divisive beyond anything this country has ever...ever seen..

If Hilary gets the nod..we WILL have another 4 years of a republican presidency...only the demos can throw an election like that!

[amberglow]

Bill's a gigantic plus, and he so easily threw Obama off-message that it proved Obama is clearly not ready for primetime if little snipes rattle him that much.

The country likes Bill, and Bill and Hillary are succeeding in driving the media coverage--and the defining of Obama--it's too bad Obama isn't stepping up to the plate as he should. He's the victim now, and victims aren't winners--esp against the GOP.

That said--give me Edwards--both Hillary and Obama are weak candidates.

[PerryWhite]

I'd sure like to be a fly on the wall in the Clinton suite(s) this morning. The language would surely make a sailor blush.

If the Obamas have a cat, they need to find a safe house for it.

[StillAmused]

How in the world could Clinton dare comment offhandedly, AFTER the S.C. results, that Obama had run a good campaign there, as had Jesse Jackson years before? There he was, again "injecting race" into the equation...

Small detail: Obama received nearly 80 PERCENT of the African-American vote!

... ah, but there's a parallel-universe explanation for THAT -- Bill Clinton "drove them" to Obama!

So, uhh... that enormous wave of African-Americans WOULDN'T have gone for Obama on their own? They were "driven" to it? By Bill Clinton?

Who, exactly, is NOW sounding dismissive of the African-American voter and "playing the race card"? The yapping heads know no limits in their practice of self-fulfilling, self-congratulatory journalism... but they'd honed their skills long ago, when they rolled over for the thousand-lie Bush White House and lovingly shepherded us into an immoral, illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Sheesh! The hypocrisy is simply staggering...

[PerryWhite]

I'd sure like to be a fly on the wall in the Clinton suite(s) this morning. The language would surely make a sailor blush.

If the Obamas have a cat, they need to find a safe house for it.

[Unrepentantliberal]

Bill can't help himself. He just talks too much. Poor thing. However, by sticking his nose into all this campaign business, he looks like he's the one running for President, not his wife. That is very, very, bad for her chances to be seen as a person competent and apart on her own with her own talents and capabilities.

She has 35 years of experience doing what? A couple of years as a Senator, yes; but the rest was not as a politician, but being the spouse of a politician. That does not count the same as "Being a President."

Thank you Bill, you may have just torpedoed your wife's presidential chances. That's ok though, she's a pretty good Senator.

[Countess]

This is a very sad spectacle and even sadder is that the Clintons could still win the nomination despite their gutter tactics because of the "super delegates." People of good faith should reject this garbage and move on to something better.