Clinton Urges Party to Follow McAuliffe

[truthpusher]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_re_us/democrats_1

Clinton Urges Party to Follow McAuliffe

WASHINGTON - Former President Clinton (news - web sites) told Democrats Thursday night it won't take any special magic for them to win the White House again.


AP Photo

"All that has to happen is you have to have a clear vision, a plan for the future, good campaign tactics and fight like the devil," said Clinton. "We need to brand ourselves better. There were too many people who didn't know why we were Democrats except that we were against President Bush (news - web sites)'s policies."

(snip)

"He got us out of debt, modernized our technology and fund raising and kept us energized in good times and bad," Clinton said of his friend.

"The best way we can honor all that Terry has done and help (apparent new chairman) Howard Dean (news - web sites) do what he needs to do," said Kerry, "is invest in our future and continue building from the grass roots on up."

complete story:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_re_us/democrats_1

[toddzilla]

1. spoken like the true DINO he is..

[Zhade]

29. Hmmm. No Clinton fan, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree with him.

I mean, he inflates the guy's accomplishments a bit much - he was no great shakes - but the rest is more or less okay.

What am I missing?

[Voltaire99]

30. Exactly. Shame on Clinton.

McAuliffe was a corporate shill, nothing more. His legacy is a Democratic Party battered and defeated, down on its knees wondering if it needs more Jesus and war-cheering to win.

Clinton holds out an illusory hope. There will be no easy return to power, and he's in part to blame: he gave us Bush not merely with his blowjobs but by abetting the rise of right wing politics with his contributions to welfare reform, the police state and a belligerent "internationalism". Lewinsky was just the icing, so to speak, on the cake.

And now what a sad, pointless man he's become in retirement--an ornament on the tree of nationalism, and a mute in the face of the wanton rule of the Bushies who is likelier to be seen chuckling in photo ops with the elder Bush than he is to be heard condemning the fascism to which we are now enthralled. The sooner Clinton fades away, the sooner the party can try to crawl back from the wreckage.

[OzarkDem]

35. Read again

Its not what Clinton said.

[Califooyah Operative]

32. care to elaborate? nt

[KittyWampus]

38. Ah,DU'ers Take The Mediawhores Bait Yet Again. And Demonstrate

any ability to REALLY read and think critically.

sigh

[jrthin]

2. Follow him where?

Over the cliff.

[latteromden]

3. Beat me to it. Why should we follow McAuliffe? What did he ever do for us?

We've done better, we can do better, we WILL do better.

[KittyWampus]

39. He Modernized The Infrastructure. Which, Unless You Want To Be A

group of pols parading as clowns, is important.

[Zenlitened]

4. What a lame headline by the Associated Press.

Apparently, it's a reference to a paragraph in the story:

Both Clinton and Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 presidential nominee, urged Democrats to build on McAuliffe's work.

But people are misinterpreting it, as if Clinton is asking us to follow McAuliffe's leadership or something.

Golly, major media garbling the message when Democrats are involved. Shocking! :D

[Fridays Child]

10. Misleading, in the extreme. Intentional? Who knows.

I do know that the repukes are scared of Dean. They always have been. And they will do everything they can to sow dissension in the Democratic Party.

[renaissanceguy]

45. Conservative media bias.

Perhaps they should look at a dictionary. To build upon something that already exists is not to keep it the same.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14744291

[napi21]

5. I admit I didn't read the whole speach, but where does it say follow?

I think that the clip you showed by Clinton was right. We didn't do a good job of stating why we were Dems, and didn't fight hard enough.

Kerry's response (snip) was his usual non comitted. That was his problem during the election. Too much trying to stay out of the line of fire! Damn it, John, say what you believe!!!!

[bluestateguy]

6. McAuliffe did everything well except for one thing

Deliver election victories.

I waited and waited for him to tender his resignation after the 2002 midterm elections. That resignation never came.

[SnoopDog]

7. I think this is telling us that Dean...

is truly the person we should be following...

They are obviously afraid of Dean because he is a real Democrat.

[applegrove]

8. Foreign trade used to be a Liberal thing - because liberals were

Foreign trade used to be a Liberal thing - because liberals were open to the world. It used to be that the conservatives were the ones who hated foreign trade.

We cannot as liberals pretend we hate the market-place or ignore the laws of economics (well the wee parts they have figured out and can sort of use in their favor). Fact is - if you make any income above and beyond what you could make if you grew food on your front lawn - you are in a marketplace. It is the trades and 'cash' that creates wealth over and above subsistence. And give us our middle class. Without the market - there is no middle class.

For such a long time Liberals have ignored the market and think they are not important - but who hurts the most in a recession? The poor, the unemployed, etc. etc. This does not mean that you run around kissing Supply-Siders and their trickle down bullshit. Supply-siders will take you back to 1634 if you let them (cerfs were just getting free - but only when the merchants needed them - otherwise known as apartheid). But we have to educate ourselves instead of simply denying that the market is a part of us.

The market - a part of human beings lives since 17690 BC!

If the GOP-nazis manage to separate Liberals from the core human reliance on the market - they have done a number on Democrats indeed. They have separated you from yourself - which is how a sociopath will kill you - so they can take over your broken soul and have you follow or die for them. Sophie is Sophie's Choice had to choose between the lives of her two kids - those Nazis knew what they were doing when then made that character (a mother) pick one over the other child (it ended her humanity).

Don't let the seething monsters in the GOP make you choose between the Market and Yourself. They are both a part of you. Bill Clinton knows this and so does anybody else who is serious about leading the biggest market economy in the world.

Don't let them separate you from yourself. Market (with regulations to control the behavior of corporations and individuals) is important and a very Liberal thing.

Market = Middle Class

Unregulated Market = Rich & Poor

No Market = Subsistence farmer (think Africa)

[98geoduck]

14. Agree, but Clinton did let corporate interest take control of politics

while he had the power to reverse the spiral that has occurred over the last 3 decades. Deregulation is pretty much in opposition of "Fair" trade. That is something I wish Dems would make a "Point" of. Now we've got a whole lot of Dems in office beholden to corporate special interest
and it can be used fairly by repugs as ammunition to tear any down.

[applegrove]

28. Yes there is much too much special interest money - they need

Yes there is much too much special interest money - they need to offer equal time on television etc. Otherwise the corporation will control the people in the democracy and not the other way around. The "nanny government" will wipe the asses of the corporations with regulations that favour them (intellectual property laws, harder bankruptcy laws, etc.).

[KittyWampus]

40. "While He Had The Power" Did Clinton Have A Magic Wand?

and NO, his penis is not the answer.

[applegrove]

48. No Wand. Clinton did good things - and then wasted a whole **** load

No Wand. Clinton did good things - and then wasted a whole **** load of time by falling into the trap he should have known was coming. But then nobody ever took anything away from him for having strayed before. So we got to witness the man grow up - while in Office. Who really cares except that it wasted precious time.

Would have been great if he had been able to do a really good health plan. But he did do wonders. And closing your eyes to emerging markets is a very 'unliberal' way to be. The market gives us everything. The 3rd way is the way of the future. You coast across oceans and make money in emerging markets (while they emerge) all the while putting a tight rein on your horse (the corporation). And you prepare and encourage and monitor changes in your country. And you ease the worst hit workers.

And you watch as the poorest of the poor get a chance to compete in the world markets too. And people move away from subsistence farming and into market economies where they make a little more than what they eat. And then a whole lot more than what they eat. And then they are middle class - just like us. And then even more phenomenal growth takes place in other countries. And more opportunity opens up for the small business in the USA. And there will be much, much more to go around. So you get extra careful with the environment and you put windmills up everywhere.

But you do not reshape your country into a machine that wipes the butt of corporations and the rich. That just reeks. And the whole world is watching and taking a big step back from America. The elites prayed on the fears and naivety of certain Americans about all the changes in world. Predatory & unregulated corporations are not the face America needs to show the world. Cause in 40 years, India, China, Brazil and Russia will have economies that are together 10 times greater than that of the current Western nations do today. And they will treat America - as America deserves to be treated.

I think Clinton will be up and about and healthier in a year or so. Around the time that Bush finally implodes. And Clinton will be a voice and a leader and an international American hero for decades to come. And his legacy will be what America's friends in the world remember. And this Bush thing will all just be an unfortunate and expensive nightmare.

[n2mark]

9. Don't get me wrong

I think highly of Clinton, but his advice to the Dems should be to keep their pants zipped.

[KittyWampus]

41. Because If They Do It's Not Like The Character Assasines Won't Find

soemthing else or fabricate something else to crucify Democrats.

What was that Swift Vet thing all about?

[sonicx]

11. Fuck AP and their dishonest headlines...

Both Clinton and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), the 2004 presidential nominee, urged Democrats to build on McAuliffe's work.

"The best way we can honor all that Terry has done and help (apparent new chairman) Howard Dean (news - web sites) do what he needs to do," said Kerry, "is invest in our future and continue building from the grass roots on up."

That does not reflect the headline. They are trying to make it look like Clinton made an anti-Dean statement. He did not.

[Liberal Veteran]

12. Um, hello? McAuliffe presided over stunning losses in the last few years.

Isn't there a name for trying the same thing over and over and expectig a different result?

[sasquatch]

13. Fuck McAuliffe, Clinton doesn't want to admit he fucked up when he put-

McAuliffe in the DNC chair position. McAuliffe has done more to damage this party then Karl Rove could've ever dreamed of doing.

[Maccagirl]

19. Yep

McAuliffe was nothing more than a bagman. No vision, no principles, no strategy. Earth to Bill-it's not 1992 anymore.

[elsiesummers]

15. Crappy headline - deliberately divisive.

Clinton is saying Dems need to move forward on the moderniations and Dem party building of McAuliffe. Nothing wrong with this. He's saying build on what McAuliffe has done and continue to move forward.

Nothing but positive energy toward both McAuliffe and Dean from Clinton. The headline is deliberately divisive and unecessarily so.

[OzarkDem]

34. Exactly - wonder who wrote it

I saw nothing in Clinton's remarks that told anyone to follow McAuliffe.

SCLM is working overtime to split Dems. Wish they would work that hard to tell the truth about Bushco.

[William Bloode]

36. Yup,

Thats what i see. Mr. Bill is just being nice to McAuliffe, i mean duh.....this is politics.

[Alenne]

16. Do people actually read the article or just the headline?

The article does not quote Clinton saying that and most of you would have known that if you had just clicked the link.

[progressivebydesign]

27. The point is that the headline is wrong.. it's been like that all week. NT

[n2mark]

17. The reason the pukes don't like Dean

is because he speaks the truth, he is up front and won't take any BS.

[n2mark]

18. and let me add

he is not afraid to throw it right back at them.

[98geoduck]

20. I caught the end of Clinton's speech and the entire McAwful one on C-Span.

Clinton made some good points, but he did appear to be on the defense over liberal values. He definitely looked ragged, and the whole event looked sickly due to lighting and stage backdrop. Terry's speech was OK in the beginning then turned to a ramble of thanks in the end.

If I had to score the event it would be a 4 out of 10. Coincidently the result of the last election.


PS The headline is bizzare

[proudbluestater]

21. I read it as, follow up on what McAwful has built on and improve upon it.

I don't see anything sinister there.

[Tweed]

22. The headline writer should be fired

It probably would have helped if he listened to the speech.

[Oreegone]

23. Spread this Clinton quote around

"I'd also like to say that whatever it is that Howard Dean knows -- or whatever it is that he eats for breakfast every morning -- if I could give it to every other Democratic office holder and would-be office holder, we would immediately become the majority in the Congress and we would have about 35 governors. I have to tell you, I think a big part of it is just producing for people, actually doing what you say you're going to do at election time."
- President Bill Clinton addressing the Democratic Governor’s Association, 12 November 1997

[98geoduck]

25. Nice and Timely find. Too bad the advice wasn't heeded.

[progressivebydesign]

24. Makes me sick to see that headline... He said we need to support DEAN! NT

[w4rma]

26. Devious headline. Very devious headline. Don't let the AP fool you. (nt)

[Califooyah Operative]

31. misleading headline and frame.

I watched the entire event on c-span, full of unity for one another, the same general goals and in support of howard dean. They highlighted some wonderful accomplishments under mculough and during the past 4 years that shouldn't be overlooked.

[cap]

33. terri did some things well and some poorly

terri got the party out of debt and started computerizing it.
terri forgot the grassroots organization and so we have to rebuild from the beginning.

[BiggJawn]

37. McAuliffe failed twice. Time for new ideas and new leadership.

Bill, ya know I love ya, Bubba, but if *I* had fucked-up TWO major projects like your buddy Terry did, i'd be out in the street and my name would be a cuss-word around the shop.

Time for something new. Random Chance KNOWS the only way left for this party is UP.

"... energized in good times and bad," Clinton said of his friend."

Sorry, Bill, but I can't remember when I felt as depleted and crushed as I did on November 3rd. Terry should go fuck himself till he bleeds for that.

[Massachusetts]

42. NO!

I'm going to follow HD!

[Lost4words]

43. I used to like the clintons now I believe they are part to blame

for the mess we are in right now. Democrats in name only, DINOS.

McAuliffe was a total mistake from the start IMO!

[Beer Snob-50]

44. Big Dawg is right in that we should build upon the infrastrue McCauliff

built but we should follow Howard Dean in saying what we stand for and not being ashamed of being democrats.

[natrat]

46. who was the worst dem president in our history? bill clinton

he handed everything to the worst president ever, *ush
why would i listen to much of what he says

[LinuxInsurgent]

47. no thank you...mcauliffe sucked the last time around..

I'm into giving Dean a try...

[Placebo]

49. ANYONE WHO WATCHED CLINTON'S SPEECH KNOWS THE TRUTH

This headline is misleading and false. Clinton repeatedly urged the party to follow Howard Dean. Fucking AP. :grr: