A few thoughts on Clinton I and the prospect of Clinton II:
I had a feeling we would never get rid of him. When watching the inaugural ceremonies in 2001, when Bill Clinton lingered, and lingered, and lingered a bit longer, I knew that not only would he not go away, but that the media wouldn't let him. This week the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy celebrated its ten year anniversary and the woman who coined the phrase looks poised to return with Bill Clinton to the White House. Considering how reluctant they were to leave it, it is no surprise they are fighting so hard to return. What remains to be seen is whether or not the public is ready for Clinton II.For those who have forgotten, Bill Clinton made the tackiest of departures.
He sucked up the final moments of his presidency by delivering a 1000 word speech using the words "I" or "me" 56 times and instead of a single goodbye, embarked on a full-fledged goodbye tour. I guess that's what you do when you are convinced you are a rock star. Jonah Goldberg writing at the time described the way Clinton "tried to deprive the new president the limelight" by quoting Mayor Daley. "In the past, they shook hands, the (former) president went to a helicopter, and that was it. This was different. He had a rally at the airport, a rally in New York and a rally at his home. It was really different, really unusual," Daley said. "That's his style. He wanted two or three more parties." Goldberg went on to quote Bill Clinton from the airport rally: "You see that sign there, 'Please Don't Go'? I left the White House, but I'm still here. We're not going anywhere."
Read the full column at Townhall.



Comments (30)
"They're back." [Poltergeis... (Below threshold)1. Posted by kevino | January 25, 2008 3:10 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
"They're back." [Poltergeist voice]
1. Posted by kevino | January 25, 2008 3:10 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 15:10
2. Posted by tj | January 25, 2008 3:24 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
bill,just like bad heartburn,keeps coming back.
2. Posted by tj | January 25, 2008 3:24 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 15:24
3. Posted by John F Not Kerry | January 25, 2008 3:58 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Of all the things I hate about the way Bill Clinton did things, one of the worst things he gave us was the endless campaign. From the moment he won in '92 he was campaigning for '96, and when he left he started the campaign for Hillary. Despite whatever faults you may find in W, that cettainly isn't one of them. When he leaves (despitre what the Dem Undergrounders think) next January, I can't imagine that we will see him in public very much, and he will not comment much on his successor either. He is a man with class, quite the opposite of his predecessor and tagalong scheming wife.
3. Posted by John F Not Kerry | January 25, 2008 3:58 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 15:58
4. Posted by JLawson | January 25, 2008 4:07 PM | Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Too Bad Seuss isn't around. He wrote a book called "Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now?!" - Supposedly about Nixon, according to Wikipedia.
If only Clinton WOULD go away. I really detest the 4-year long campaign cycle, and the assumption that just because HE was President, his WIFE deserves to be President also, and if he's JUST IN OUR FACE enough, we'll realize it and vote for her!
Hell, at this point I wouldn't care if she was a Republican pushing the Fair Tax, I'd vote for her opponent out of sheer spite.
4. Posted by JLawson | January 25, 2008 4:07 PM |
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 16:07
5. Posted by Charles Bannerman | January 25, 2008 4:27 PM | Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
The real reason the Clinton's want to go back to the White House is that they forgot to take a few pieces of furniture when they left before. Not onlt are the Clintons corrupt, they are thieves too.
Chuck
5. Posted by Charles Bannerman | January 25, 2008 4:27 PM |
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 16:27
6. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 4:30 PM | Score: -7 (7 votes cast)
"When he leaves.. next January, I can't imagine that we will see him in public very much..."
Not with a legacy like this.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/23/the-legacy-of-bushs-presidency/
6. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 4:30 PM |
Score: -7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 16:30
7. Posted by Piso Mojado | January 25, 2008 4:53 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
I'm sure we can count on asswipes like Barney to keep bringing up his BDS here every week after Bush is gone.
7. Posted by Piso Mojado | January 25, 2008 4:53 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 16:53
8. Posted by SPQR | January 25, 2008 5:00 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Barney, it would help a lot if you didn't read incoherent pieces like that, it just makes you look as incoherent as ... well as you have been so often.
8. Posted by SPQR | January 25, 2008 5:00 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 17:00
9. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 5:04 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
"Not onlt are the Clintons corrupt, they are thieves too."
I read the White House was vandalized when Bush won in 2000, that a bunch of computers were messed with as well. Here is one link, I can't find the others with more details.
9. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 5:04 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 17:04
10. Posted by Adrian Browne | January 25, 2008 5:20 PM | Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
We're at war, we need to rally round the presidents no matter who they are.
10. Posted by Adrian Browne | January 25, 2008 5:20 PM |
Score: -1 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 17:20
11. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 5:23 PM | Score: -5 (7 votes cast)
"I read the White House was vandalized when Bush won in 2000.."
Just more Bush BS!
WASHINGTON -- The General Services Administration has found that the White House vandalism flap earlier this year was a flop.
The agency concluded that departing members of the Clinton administration had not trashed the place during the presidential transition, as unidentified aides to President Bush and other critics had insisted.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0518-04.htm
"The condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy," according to a GSA statement.
11. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 5:23 PM |
Score: -5 (7 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 17:23
12. Posted by SPQR | January 25, 2008 5:30 PM | Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
That's hilarious, Barney, you took the Bush administration's word for something.
12. Posted by SPQR | January 25, 2008 5:30 PM |
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 17:30
13. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 5:31 PM | Score: -5 (7 votes cast)
Hillary will be President because:
a) Bush was a complete failure
b) Actual "a" is enough
So, you can thank Bush and all of Bush's supporters, enablers and apologists for eight more years of Clinton rule.
13. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 5:31 PM |
Score: -5 (7 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 17:31
14. Posted by marc | January 25, 2008 5:43 PM | Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Baghdadbarney - "Hillary will be President because: a) Bush was a complete failure b) Actual "a" is enough
And "a" disqualifies Obama or Edwards? How so oh great election Oracle?
14. Posted by marc | January 25, 2008 5:43 PM |
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 17:43
15. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 6:28 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
"Just more Bush BS!"
Bush BS? The funniest quote in your source is,
"Because of President Clinton, this was one of the smoothest transitions in the history of the presidency," he said. "This was nothing more than just lies."
Dimpled Chad was not available for comment. While it's true that a lot of news is a result of overblown tabloid sources, given the maturity level of some of the "progressives" on this board, I wouldn't put it past some of the Clinton staffers to stoop so low.
Algore, with his "gracious" sore loser recounts, was the fuel that brought about so much bitterness from the Party Of the People.
15. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 6:28 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 18:28
16. Posted by marc | January 25, 2008 7:18 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
"Because of President Clinton, this was one of the smoothest transitions in the history of the presidency,"
Yeah right! If you call leaving NO PLAN to fight OBL or al-Qaida a smooth transition.
"U.S. spy agencies, which were overseen by Tenet, lacked a comprehensive strategic plan to counter Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11. The inspector general concluded that Tenet "by virtue of his position, bears ultimate responsibility for the fact that no such strategic plan was ever created."
The CIA's analysis of al-Qaida before Sept. 2001 was lacking. No comprehensive report focusing on bin Laden was written after 1993, and no comprehensive report laying out the threats of 2001 was assembled. "A number of important issues were covered insufficiently or not at all," the report found."
16. Posted by marc | January 25, 2008 7:18 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 19:18
17. Posted by SPQR | January 25, 2008 8:19 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Barney, your analysis of the G.W. Bush presidency is just as simplistic, vapid and lacking in substance as one would expect from you.
17. Posted by SPQR | January 25, 2008 8:19 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 20:19
18. Posted by shrillprotestationsliberalmedia | January 25, 2008 9:34 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Take it easy, Barney. Every mouthbeating low-tooth-per-capita (>-)30 per-center will do their best to forget a few things as well.
Starting here.
18. Posted by shrillprotestationsliberalmedia | January 25, 2008 9:34 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 21:34
19. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 9:53 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Liberal trolls here truly have no shame. The white liberals cannot bring themselves to vote for Obama in the Dem primary and they blame Bush for making Hillary the Dem nominee? This is a parody.
19. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 9:53 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 21:53
20. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:05 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
ThinkProgress is a Clinton front group just like MediaLiars, Barney 's favorite source. With supporters like Barney, no wonder they can enable the corrupt Clinton to smear Obama. Where are the white liberals in the Dem party?
20. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:05 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 22:05
21. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:14 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
BTW, Some of our trolls have been shilling for Clinton up to this post.
A good summary of a hero of the Left: Bill Clinton
The most frustrating aspect of all of this is that Bill and Hillary Clinton should have been relegated to the ash heap of history a long time ago. Their behavior while in the White House was nothing short of disgraceful. Forget Monica for a minute. How about the White House coffee fundraisers, pimping out the Lincoln bedroom, savagely attacking women who credibly accused the president of harassment, all the while complaining about the politics of personal destruction. I voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. When nobody, and I mean nobody, in the Democratic Party stood up to these two, before, during and after his impeachment, I knew I could never again support a Democrat.
21. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:14 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 22:14
22. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:16 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
So, you can thank Bush and all of Bush's supporters, enablers and apologists for eight more years of Clinton rule.
-----------------------------------
Is this dumb or dishonest? Bush made the dems vote for Hillary to be a senator in NY? Bush made the dems vote for Hillary in Dem primary? Is this a parody?
22. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:16 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 22:16
23. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 10:44 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
"Every mouthbeating low-tooth-per-capita (>-)30 per-center will do their best to forget a few things as well."
Wow, a genuine, nonsensical stat to back up an incongruent source video!
Why forget when it's so much easier to remember?
Clinton's failure to grasp the opportunity to unravel increasingly organized extremists, coupled with Berger's assessments of their potential to directly threaten the U.S., represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures in American history.
23. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 10:44 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 22:44
24. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:57 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
So, you can thank Bush and all of Bush's supporters, enablers and apologists for eight more years of Clinton rule.
-----------------------------------
Or I may read it wrong. Barney may be saying that the Dems just love the Clinton corruption (and killing of American women/children at Waco, the womanizing, the selling of military technology to China, the Norman Hsu/Rekco money connection, the selling out of national security ...) and their racist smear of Obama so much that they are going to elect them to be their candidate and then Bill and Hillary will go on to win the WH again.
24. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 10:57 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 22:57
25. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 11:04 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
"The white liberals cannot bring themselves to vote for Obama in the Dem primary " lovie
lovie shows his ignorance once again. In the only primary that has counted the results were:
Clinton 39%
Obama 36%
Lovie, do you want to guess what the black population in NH is? How about 2%, so how did Obama get 36% of the votes in NH? How did Obama win in IA where the percentage of blacks is less than 2%?
Ignorance is bliss!
25. Posted by BarneyG2000 | January 25, 2008 11:04 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 23:04
26. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 11:09 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
But "Clinton rule" is just an oxymoron that can't help but cancel itself out, even if she managed to take office. Bill took charge of very little when he was CIC, now he wants to do a repeat performance as the First Husband.
26. Posted by LaMedusa | January 25, 2008 11:09 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 23:09
27. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 11:13 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
The black supports Obama. The Hispanics supports Hillary. If white liberals don't vote for Hillary, how will she become the president of the US in the next 8 years?
27. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 11:13 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 23:13
28. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 11:14 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Barcommie,
You claim that Hillary will win. The black supports Obama. The Hispanics supports Hillary. If white liberals don't vote for Hillary, how will she become the president of the US in the next 8 years?
28. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 11:14 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 23:14
29. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 11:20 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
BTW, as I mentioned before. Given the known corruption of the Clintons and their constant rhetoric of affirmative action and racism, I expected at least 80% of white liberals would have voted for Obama. Or you simply tried to point out that liberals talk one way but act another way.
29. Posted by LoveAmerica, Immigrant | January 25, 2008 11:20 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 23:20
30. Posted by Jim Addison | January 25, 2008 11:55 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
The Clintons love the campaign - and for good reason: they are better at it than anyone in recent memory. Who else could play the tearful victim while giving the knife in the back of their opponents an extra twist - and get away with it?
Hillary may have difficulty in the general election. Her negatives are higher than any potential nominee of a major party I can remember, and she is over eight years removed from reasons for it. Those who have forgotten will be reminded in due course, and her negatives will rise further.
Democratic Primaries aren't the general election, though, and she commands loyalty from an experienced and effective national organization. She will be tough to beat there.
~~~~~~~~
Love America, Immigrant #22 ~ He is both dumb AND dishonest. We have learned this through past annoyances.
.
30. Posted by Jim Addison | January 25, 2008 11:55 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 25, 2008 23:55