Bill Clinton on Howard Dean

[Hep]

This is my last day of posting until the new year, if then. Frankly, I don't get a whole lot out of this forum anymore, and probably won't until the beginning of 2005. But I thought I'd offer up a quote from Bill Clinton on Dr. Howard Dean:

"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."

[Killarney]

1. Link?

I'd love to read the whole story. That's quite a compliment from Clinton.

[Rose Siding]

7. link

http://clinton6.nara.gov/1997/11/1997-11-12-president-remarks-at-democratic-governors-reception.html

another snip>
We got $24 billion for children's health; that's good. What's step two? The governors have to design a program that works. And I promise you every governor with any sense in this country without regard to party is going to wonder what Howard Dean is going to do with the money because they know that Vermont has done the best job of expanding health care coverage for children. So it matters who the governor is.

[KaraokeKarlton]

13. Here is the full text of the speech...

It shows quite clearly that Clinton is quite fond of Dean.

http://clinton6.nara.gov/1997/11/1997-11-12-president-remarks-at-democratic-governors-reception.html

[caledesi]

55. Is there a vid? eom

[WiseMen]

41. Have You Heard Clinton and these Governor conferences before??

Nothing in this "toast" means anything more than Wes Clark's
complements of the Bush cabinet a little while ago.

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hippo_Tron]

58. I agree with Clinton 100% if we all did have Dean's fire...

We would absolutely control congress.

[XNASA]

2. Got a link there, Hep?

When and where did WJC say this? I need a little context to go with my coffee.

[curse10]

5. He said it quite a while ago

Don't know exactly when. Dean supporters have been using this as a sig line for ages.

[Hep]

10. It'd be a lot more odd

if supporters of someone else used it, now, wouldn't it?

[LiberalBushFan]

3. NOT an endorsement

you should at least have given the year for that quote (long long ago)

[Hep]

11. While you have a point

I should note that my leaving out the date was intentional, a commentary on how few of the "critics" care about the date when using Dean quotes and quotes about Dean.

Of course, I wasn't very clear about that...

[Padraig18]

4. What a lovely quote!

Thanks! :hi:

[KaraokeKarlton]

6. That's my signature line

It's such a great quote that the second I saw it a couple of weeks ago I made it my signature. :D

[CMT]

8. Hep, take a breather but do come back

and hopefully in Jan. 2004. Dean supporters need your contribution. Don't let the anti-Dean posts get you down. Remember too that if Dean is nominated or clinches the nomination early all the sniping against him will come to an end according to DU rules.

[Le Taz Hot]

43. I have strong doubts about the, CMT

It reminds me very much of the psychotic Clinton haters. I see no difference between their dilusional rhetoric and that of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, ad nauseum. My guess is that they'll either vote third party or not vote at all.

[TrueAmerican]

9. Yes, I agree with Clinton. Dean would make a fine congressman

for Vermont.

[Hep]

15. Why exactly?

I mean, what about Clinton's comments led you to conclude that which you concluded?

Perhaps a deeper desire to let us all know exactly how you feel about Dean, as if we have the attention spans of dogs?

For the record, you should have said Dog Catcher.

[HFishbine]

12. Hep

2005? Really? We need you.

[Hep]

16. Not here you don't

I'm advocating to all Dean supporters to take 2004 off of DU. There's nothing here for us.

[dave29]

19. Hep

we must continue to fight the good fight, and you are one of the best on the frontlines. Stick around, I and several hundred others have got your back :)

[HFishbine]

28. I understand

DU is not the place to campaign for Dean -- better on the ground. I'll be out there too, just down I-85 from you. Keep that in mind.

[LuminousX]

34. I have a similar view, but I'm sticking it out until after the primaries

if things don't tighten up before the convention, I'll be a ghost here and spend more energy and effort elsewhere.

[dave29]

14. Link - and more from the speech - Democratic Gov. Association

http://clinton6.nara.gov/1997/11/1997-11-12-president-remarks-at-democratic-governors-reception.html

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. (Applause.) 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. And I very much appreciate what he said about what we've tried to do here in Washington.

snip

But in addition to my affection for Governor Dean and my gratitude to the people of Vermont for voting for Bill Clinton and Al Gore twice by big margins -- (applause) -- and my desire to help members of my party, I want -- I think it's very important that you understand that even though sometimes I get the feeling around here many people don't remember that the governors or the mayors or the county officials, for that matter, are really out there doing a lot of things -- the governors are especially important for the strategy that I'm pursuing for America to succeed.

We got $24 billion for children's health; that's good. What's step two? The governors have to design a program that works. And I promise you every governor with any sense in this country without regard to party is going to wonder what Howard Dean is going to do with the money because they know that Vermont has done the best job of expanding health care coverage for children. So it matters who the governor is.

[molly]

17. That was in 1997 - 6 years ago?

got any more recent Clinton opinions about Dean? Or, any candidate?

[dave29]

18. I thought things people said six - 10 years ago

are what they believe now. At least that's what everybody has been trying to say about Dean for the last 6 months.

[Hep]

20. No one seems to have problems with 8 year old quotes

when criticizing Dean, so why the issue with a 6 year old quote praising him?

[slinkerwink]

57. exactly!

[AP]

59. If only Dean were the same person he was 6 or 8 years ago...

It's funny that you're using a quote of Clinton complementing Dean for doing what he said he was going to do. That's half the problem with Dean now, and it's why people bring up quotes of his from the mid 90s. He's says he is a person who's vastly different from the person he was back then.

[quinnox]

21. Clark is Clinton's boy

He isn't gonna endorse Dean. No matter how much Dean followers would pray for it. Dean will end up a minor footnote, and go the way of another former Trippi candidate, Jerry Brown. (coincidentally, he used the slogan, "Take our country back" too)

[Hep]

23. PRay for it?

Nice. I still love how the way some people feel about us Dean supporters as people just pours out of their posts. Praying for a Clinton endorsement? If I prayed, I'd pray for Clark, Kerry, Gep, and Lieberman to act like men. But that's just me.

[molly]

27. Clark, Kerry, Gep and Lieberman aren't men?

could have fooled me.

[Hep]

30. Reading for comprehension

I didn't say they aren't men. I said they don't act like it.

[molly]

31. Sorry!

how would you like them to act?

[Hep]

32. Ummm

like men. See I said that like three posts ago.

[LuminousX]

35. LOL!

[deutsey]

38. They are DEVO

.

[dave29]

24. I don't pray for a Clinton endorsement

since he has said he will sit out the primaries. However, you can't just "dismiss" Clinton's appraisal of Howard Dean while he was Governor. Clinton made a similar comment about Dean at the Harkin Steak Fry "Nobody has been better on Health Care than Howard Dean" is I believe the quote.

Clark may be Clinton's "boy", but that doesn't mean Clinton thinks ill of Howard Dean, or his accomplishments.

[Hep]

26. This, a point sadly lost on this board

Clark may be Clinton's "boy", but that doesn't mean Clinton thinks ill of Howard Dean, or his accomplishments.

You don't have to hate my guy just because you don't support him. Pass it on.

[Freddie Stubbs]

29. Clinton hasn't endorsed Clark yet

Although he may be talking him up behind the scenes, he hasn't been willing tho throw his weight behind Clark's candidacy in public. I don't think that he wants to take the risk of backing a candidate that is not a sure winner.

[Jerseycoa]

48. And he shouldn't

Not because of the "not a sure winner" swipe, but because he is the party's leader and will not take sides in the primary, as tradition indicates. Same as for President Carter and should have been for "President Gore." I have not heard Bill Clinton be anything but supportive of all Democratic candidates. And I have no trouble believing he admires Howard Dean, particularly because the Dean campaign is one for the books. Nobody can deny it, and we can all as Democrats be proud of it.

However, nobody knows if Clinton talks up Clark behind the scenes. All we know is they are fellow Arkansans and Rhodes Scholars, Clark did a great job for the Clinton Administration, Clinton awarded Clark the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and they admire each other as public servants. But when it comes to politics, our Bill's not really a sentimental fellow.

What Bill Clinton will do is fight to the death for the nominee to take the White House, whether it's Clark or Dean or anybody else. Whether he works behind the scenes to push the nomination, and for whom, will depend on nothing other than who he believes has the best shot at beating George W. Bush. And this is as it should be.


On edit: inserted "should have been for"

[demnan]

22. Why all the nastiness?

Look you guys, Dean will probably get the nomination. Don't be sore losers because that's what it amounts to. Childish behavior that is really unbecoming. Hep I don't blame you for leaving. Between the Dean haters and the Dean diefiers this board has become like a school yard brawl.

[Hep]

25. It's not the arguing

It's how some people are willing to throw all rules of logic, of decency, of integrity right out the window. People are so mean spirited here that I don't think they even remember who they used to be as people.

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. Riiiiight!

That quote is 6 years old. A LOT has happened since then. WHY did you leave the date off? Maybe because it would have made the quote irrelevant? We know who Clinton supports and it isn't Dean. :eyes:

[Hep]

36. Explained already

Read the thread, please. I left out the date on purpose. To illustrate how the Dean bashers will jump on the fact that this is an old quote while their entire arguments against Dean stem from older quotes than this.

Thanks for helping out in that regard, BTW.

[in_cog_ni_to]

37. Maybe you missed it,

but Clinton isn't a candidate. Remember? Dean IS. Big difference. :eyes:

[Hep]

39. Big difference?

I don't even know what you think you're differentiating between. I never suggested Clinton is a candidate. Exactly what did you not get about my post?

[in_cog_ni_to]

50. I get your post.

Here read it again. Maybe you forgot what you typed.I left out the date on purpose. To illustrate how the Dean bashers will jump on the fact that this is an old quote while their entire arguments against Dean stem from older quotes than this.

Now, I assumed that you were saying that we WONDERFUL Dean bashers would attack the Clinton quote because it was so old yet We Wonderful Dean bashers use quotes older than that one against Dean. Am I wrong? I'm thinking of that particularly NASTY Dean quote about the "people on welfare have no self-esteem and that is why they aren't out trying to find a job" (paraphrased).....Dean quotes used against Dean himself.

The BIG DIFFERENCE is... CLINTON is not a candidate......so what HE said 6 years ago about Dean, doesn't matter in this campaign. A LOT has happened in the last 6 years and we all now know who Clinton supports. However, the nasty remarks from Dr. Dean about welfare recipients is VERY relevant to the campaign. Dean is a candidate and his old quotes will and do matter. NOW do you understand? People use Dean quotes against Dean and you posted an OLD Clinton quote to make your point. Now THAT didn't make sense. However, I do see a lot of "Clark bashers" who like to use old Clark quotes a lot.

If you think Dean bashers are bad for using old quotes....just wait, honey. You ain't seen nothin' yet. Wait 'til KKKRove gets his team of researchers working on digging up dirt on Dean...whew! It's not gonna be pretty. The "welfare" quote is mild compared to what's to come. JMCPO

I also went to the Gephardt web site you posted and frankly, I see nothing wrong with Gep using Dean's words against him. Those are the things that campaigns are made of. Those are the things Dean has made stump speeches about. If you can't use quotes from when he was Governor, you're going back to his Doctor days for crying out loud. THAT would make for interesting political quotes. :eyes:

[Hep]

52. I love how

the dean bashers insinuate that they're not as bad as Karl Rove is going to be. As if that's something for them to aspire to. Good luck with that!

[TorchTheWitch]

44. for the record

I left out the date on purpose. To illustrate how the Dean bashers will jump on the fact that this is an old quote while their entire arguments against Dean stem from older quotes than this.

I haven't seen any arguments against Dean using quotes that old. Care to give an example of what that's all about? The only ones I've seen or ever used were ones during his current campaign.

Now if a quote was used that came from his time as governor, what's the problem with that? The guy IS running on his record as governor after all. There's been plenty of things said about Clark that go back years and years that have to do with his record in the military. I didn't see you jumping in and complaining that those quotes were too old to be relevant, and I don't recall seeing any Clark supporters dismissing them because of their age either.

[Hep]

45. For those who just joined us

Check out deanfacts.com, a website organized by Gephardt for President containing quotes from a decade ago. Then, just hang out here.

Just because you haven'tseen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

You should make note that Dean isn't running on his record as governor. He's running on his platform. Intelligent people will note that a governors record might differ in many regards from his policies without taking away credibility.

And I don't use quotes from 8 or ten years ago against other candidates. And when I see them, I call them out. Again, just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist. Repeat as necessary.

[Jerseycoa]

51. Go here instead

Check out Dennis the Menace Kucinich by a Dean supporter. And be sure not to miss " a full explanation of Why We Won't Support Kucinich" and scroll down to where Kucinich's childhood poverty is presented as a suitable topic in campaign discourse.

I found the Osama ad against Dean repulsive, but nothing turned my stomach more than this indecent attack on Kucinich. This gets my vote as the lowest play in this primary campaign.

Deanfacts.com is overly polite in comparison.

[Hep]

53. And while you're thinking aout it

Learn the difference between what one person says and what a campaign says. The Dean campaign can't control what website any given Dean supporter might think up, but deanfacts is paid for and provided by the GEPHARDT CAMPAIGN.

If you can't see a difference, well...

[Ripley]

54. This is an anonymous blog. Hardly a Dean sanctioned site.

As for Gep's attacking ads, he used union campaign contributions to fund them.

Big dif.

[Jerseycoa]

56. Do we now know?

That Gephardt is behind the ads? I hadn't heard that. The unions funded the organization making the ads. Were the same funds labor contributions to Gephardt's campaign? If so, I hadn't heard that.

If this is confirmed, then I would say Gephardt smeared Dean with the Osama ad, but not the other ads, and until it is confirmed, Dean is smearing Gephardt with an unfounded charge. Dean supporters here smeared Kerry and Clark, to a lesser degree, with a lot less circumstantial evidence than this, but it's not proven Gephardt had anything to do with it. Pointing to former staff doesn't do it, either, since political ops go from candidate to candidate in election to election.

Has Dean ever denounced the unsanctioned Dean site against Kucinich?

[Hep]

60. You're asking for Dean to denounce a web page about Kookynich?

This after Kucinich hosted an inflammatory web page all his own against Dean? The doctor is out? I wish I could say this was a double standard, but it looks more like a triple or quadruple standard at this point.

[Jerseycoa]

61. I'm saying

If you want Gephardt to denounce a dirty, yet unsanctioned ad that negatively affects Dean, you might as well want Dean to denounce a dirty, unsanctioned "ad" that negatively affects another candidate.

[candy331]

47. Hep ) I am new to the political arena

A once time voter. I hope that you will continue in the fight, DU is a place to view many diferent opinions but they are just that, opinions. I started out reading all the posts and saw that that would be too discouraging. I differ with a lot of them here and so I learned that I needed to be selective in what I will allow myself to read here or I might say to heck with the Democrats and either sit out the election/Independent.

"Hang In There" However you choose to support your candidate.

Dean/Clark supporter

[Terwilliger]

40. we know who Clinton supports? has he endorsed someone?

has he UNDULY INFLUENCED the Democrats??

[Ripley]

46. I might join you in a nice long sabbatical.

You're right, it's hard to get anything out of this forum except rehash, repeat, rehash, repeat, over and over and over again.

And the worst thing is I'm reading some horrendously bigotted and racist nonsense in here.

If their efforts are to make me turn against Dean, what a bunch of losers. All they appear to do on a daily basis is encourage me to support him more and give me a much dimmer view of their candidate. Especially Gephardt and Kerry lately. How anyone could condone that ad is beyond me.

See you, maybe.

[RetroLounge]

49. The freepers couldn't destroy DU

but other Democrats are well on their way to doing it.

But I wouldn't leave. Don't let the fuckers win. Skinner is doing his best to keep the bullshite away, and this new forum is a great step in the right direction. The mods have a full schedule just keeping the freepers out, that the so-called Dems get away with a lot, but that's changing too.

I will be posting a bit less, maybe spending more time in the lounge relaxing. But in real life, more of my time and energy will be spent on feet-on-pavement work for Dr. Dean. So while the bashers sit in their mommy's basements drooling over the latest Dean Bashing Article by ex-Kerry and ex-Gep workers, I'll be helping to sign up voters and passing out Dean literature and working the phone lines, or whatever I can do. and if Dean does not get the Nomination, then I will transfer all thet energy and work to the candidate that does win. ABB, after all.

But 2004 will be More Dean, Less DU.

But I would not leave completely...