Clinton speaks on how to win in '04

[Blue_Roses]

When Sylvia Plachy and I walked into Bill Clinton's Harlem office around 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 8, the former president was courteous to me, but he was more interested in telling Sylvia -- who, aside from being a world-renowned photographer, is the mother of Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody -- that he'd enjoyed The Pianist, but he'd also recently rented and loved Oxygen, a 1999 thriller in which Brody played a kidnapper. How Clinton pulled that one out we didn't ask; we just took it as a quick reminder that there is such a thing as a president with broad intellectual and cultural interests, and got down to business.

--snip--

The bulk of his time now is devoted to his book and to the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, which delivers medicines to sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. But there's always time for politics. The Clinton on display here is combative, and he has some surprising things to say about how this election's crop of Democrats needs to do more than just ape what he did in 1992. But let him tell it.

--snip-

Michael Tomasky I'd like to begin by talking about the historical moment. Karl Rove wants to create a realignment along the lines of that which coalesced around the New Deal. This realignment would undo a lot of the work of the last 60 years, including, of course, a lot of your work. Do you think we're at such a turning point?
Bill Clinton I do think it's a very important moment. Essentially, Karl Rove's politics are a combination of efforts by the increasingly conservative Republican Party

--snip--

http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/10/tomasky-m.html

[Blue_Roses]

1. and this is my favorite

line out of the whole piece!

"...we've got to fight. And we gotta look like we're havin' a good time doing it."


:kick:

[Gman]

2. Remember the bus tour after the '92 convention

and Bill and Al throwing around the football having fun on the road? It works. People like happy people having fun. People like a party.

[Blue_Roses]

3. those indeed were the days

n/t

[JHB]

12. "If I can't dance...

...it's not my revolution"

---- Emma Goldman

[Blue_Roses]

14. who the hell is that

at the end of your post?

[JHB]

16. Emma Goldman

Early 20th Century radical for workers' and womens' rights. The photo is from when she was imprisoned for protesting WW1.

She was a radical for her day, but she was fighting for many of the things we took for granted after the New Deal and civil rights movements -- things which the Republicans are trying to return to the status quo of Goldman's day.

Read more at:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/

A quote relevant to these times:
It does not require much wisdom to trace every war back to a similar cause. Let us take our own Spanish-American war, supposedly a great and patriotic event in the history of the United States. How our hearts burned with indignation against the atrocious Spaniards! True, our indignation did not flare up spontaneously. It was nurtured by months of newspaper agitation, and long after Butcher Weyler had killed off many noble Cubans and outraged many Cuban women. Still, in justice to the American Nation be it said, it did grow indignant and was willing to fight, and that it fought bravely. But when the smoke was over, the dead buried, and the cost of the war came back to the people in an increase in the price of commodities and rentHthat is, when we sobered up from our patriotic spree it suddenly dawned on us that the cause of the Spanish-American war was the consideration of the price of sugar; or, to be more explicit, that the lives, blood, and money of the American people were used to protect the interests of American capitalists, which were threatened by the Spanish government. That this is not an exaggeration, but is based on absolute facts and figures, is best proven by the attitude of the American government to Cuban labor. When Cuba was firmly in the clutches of the United States, the very soldiers sent to liberate Cuba were ordered to shoot Cuban workingmen during the great cigarmakers' strike, which took place shortly after the war.
http://www.connix.com/~harry/emma.htm

[andym]

4. Sage advice

Everyone interested in the coming election should read this.

[Blue_Roses]

6. but by the looks of it

their not.

[onebigbadwulf]

5. I'm sorry

A jar of mayonaise will be able to beat Bush in 04

You won't need money, airtime, or a strategy.

The only thing you will need is one name on the ballot next to Bush's.


You can expect 300-600 more troops dead by then and all the PNAC, WMD, and OIL lies finally exposed.

[Blue_Roses]

7. I would love to believe that to be

true however, I live in the south and these people LOVE bush. They think he can do no wrong. We CANNOT be nonchalant about this and think that just because things are so horribly bad now in the US and with our foreign policy that it will turn for our favor. It does give us alot to work with, but we are going up against a group who is in it to win as well--ruthless means and believe me, you ain't seen nothing yet.

It hasn't even begun to get dirty.

[Flaming Meaux]

8. In the real world, that might be true.

but this is Bizarro World, and although the jar of mayonnaise might be able to beat Bush at chess, it's behind in the polls by ten points. Bush's staying power defies explanation, but the $200,000,000 he plans to spend on next year's campaign might help.

The best I can come up with is that most Bush voters are even stupider than a jar or Miracle Whip.

[_Wayne_]

9. You underestimate American stupidity

All those things you mention, PNAC, WMD, OIL, are already exposed. Nobody gives a good goddam here in the South. Regardless of what happens, Bush will win the Southern States, except for Florida.

[mandyky]

10. What I wanna know -

(boy I'm even begining to talk like HD) - is why Bill did not speak like this at the event with Bob Dole the other night at the Kennedy Center (see CSpan archives if you missed it). He made it sound like we are not in an emergency with shrub and crew at the wheel. I almost fell off my chair, and was very disappointed in his answer. I even forget the question but it was toward the end of the forum, maybe in his closing comments. He made it sound like no big deal to fix what idiot boy has done to the country.

[Blue_Roses]

11. are you referring to the question he was asked about

hope and how he could give us hope?

[NoKingGeorge]

13. Hope . Thank you President Clinton

Just reading the article, knowing that intellectual honesty exists. Knowing that we still have true Patriots amongst us. This is leadership. This is the art of Statesman.
We have to assure that there is voter turnout. Do whatever it takes to have turnout.
I guess I have been reading so many screwed up illogical spewings from the cabal and seeing a barely coherent idiot suffer through charades ,that I am encourged when I read the observations of a true Statesman. Thank You ,Mr.President

[Blue_Roses]

15. I know

he is inspiring. When he was C-SPAN the other night the commentator mentioned how Clinton was asked to speak the country after 9-11 to calm the fears of the country and it did--for me anyway. When Bush speaks, I just get an upset stomach. He does nothing to calm my fears, cause I know that everything he says is based on lies for his own agenda.

[wyldwolf]

17. What? What? Clinton's DLC!

We have to purge those like him from the party! People like him are why we are losing.<sarcasm off>

Actually, great piece. I wish we had more like him.

[proud patriot]

18. Whoop There It Is .....

B-) BIG DOG

[maggrwaggr]

19. "we shouldn't whine .... Their job is to beat us. Our job is to beat them"

this is a big part of the success of Bill Clinton.

He was always a very positive presence.

So was Reagan. Reagan was an idiot, but he was positive.

I've seen in the business that I'm in that people can be utterly incompetent, but if they're positive, they don't have to be competent.

The quandary: how do you expose the republicans for the lying theiving murdering criminals they are .... and remain positive?

My solution: You have people who aren't running be the negative ones. The people running for office should always be positive.

The republicans have this down. That's how they use Rush and Hannity and Coulter.

I guess they have leadership right now. And we don't.

I wish Clinton could run again. I didn't even like him that much but he makes Bush look like the evil stupid ogre that he is.

[Blue_Roses]

20. regarding

how you expose the repubs for the lying theives that they are...I've always heard if you give a guy enough noose he will hang himself and if you don't like that one...the LOVE of money is the root of all evil...in other words, what goes around does come back around. I believe karma is fair. The bigger the crime the longer it takes to come around, BUT when it finally does, hang on for dear life.

I've often wondered why Clinton never got in their face with all the crap they did to him. Time after time he let their crap slide. I also often wonder if he would have just stood up to them in the beginning and say, "yes, I've had an affair and fuck-off" would we be in this mess we are in today. He let the rwingers go way to far and take control when he really held the cards.

I really like the guy, always have and even though I thought the saying, "I'll always believe in a place called Hope," was alittle hokey it wouldn't bother me a bit now.

[Tatiana]

21. Amazing.

Amazing words from an amazing President. He makes more than a lot of sense.

[TacticalPeek]

22. Kick.