Bill Clinton and the bloggers

[whometense]

Not sure how I feel about this overall; it makes me a little queasy. What do you all think?

Bill Scher: http://www.liberaloasis.com/2006/09/president_clinton_meets_with_b.php

The meeting was very casual and much of it off-the-record, but a transcript of the on-the-record portion should be available in a day or two.

Clinton has been getting into blogs over the past year or so. His aides have been including blog posts in his packet of daily news clips.

In particular, he was very impressed at how liberal bloggers were able to strip the legitimacy off of ABC's crockudrama "Path to 9/11," getting the facts out so quickly that even some conservatives felt they had little option but to concur.

And he dismissed criticism of liberal bloggers as counterproductive extremists.

This is a healthy development: for someone of Clinton's stature to recognize that blogs are more than potential ATMs to be talked down to, but can positively shape political discourse and create a more hospitable environment for Democrats to thrive.

Of course, he is not the first prominent Democrat to engage the blogosphere. But some of the outreach to date has felt more like "base maintenance" than two-way dialogue.

[TayTay]

1. Recognition of what is

Clinton is dealing with reality. This is a very new medium and it is being 'explored' by a lot of people. We shall see what happens.

[Mass]

2. I saw talkleft.com post this morning (as referenced by Eric on toughenough

It seems clear that Bill has started campaigning for Hill. My first reaction was: "why was Hillary not there?". But Peter Daou being there leaves no doubt about what it is about: pandering at important bloggers hoping there would mellow in their views concerning his wife.

What surprises me is that Bill Scher is falling for that. Clinton did not say anything notable: he said nice things to bloggers about bloggers. Duh. What were they expecting: that Bill tells them they are useless?

This said, nothing wrong in Bill talking to bloggers. He is recognizing the phenomena and it is important.

[whometense]

5. I saw it the same way.

A major league flatterer is hard at work.

The articles I read all seemed to indicate that the bloggers were entranced. It actually reminded me of all the gushing over Warner after Yearly Kos.

I swear it's not envy. Honest. It does seem, though, that some of the major bloggers are susceptible to this kind of attention.

[karynnj]

8. I hope it will have as little impact as it seems to have had for Warner

I hear less about Warner now than 6 months ago.

[whometense]

10. I know,

me too. :-)

[beachmom]

11. Well, unless it's to make Allen look bad!!

Check out this local Virginia story, about how Warner is totally kicking Allen's ass as a potential presidential candidate:

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=110857&ran=33767

The prospect of U.S. Sen. George Allen running for president in 2008 is losing its appeal to Virginia voters, a new poll shows.

Forty-nine percent said he shouldn't run and 37 percent said he should, according to a survey of 625 registered voters conducted Sept. 5 through Thursday. Asked whether they would consider voting for Allen for president, 52 percent said "no " and 39 percent said "yes."

The results are another indication of Allen's ebbing popularity in the wake of what was widely perceived as a racial slur that he uttered last month in the midst of his bid for re-election to the Senate.

OTOH:

In contrast, the poll showed Virginians encouraging former Gov. Mark Warner's presidential ambitions. Fifty-four percent said the Democrat should seek the White House in 2008, 23 percent said he should not. Asked whether they would consider casting their presidential vote for Warner, 56 percent said "yes" and 30 percent said "no."

Warner has been out of office since January and has toured the nation giving speeches and raising money for his national political action committee. Like Allen, however, he has not declared an intention to run for president.



I just loved this article!! Dems are running stronger in Virginia than the GOP favorite, and this is a RED STATE.

[karynnj]

7. If you see the article in this month's New Yorker

it would be even clearer. I had to use all my strength NOT to throw the magazine on the floor after reading page after page of America's favorite egotist speaking. He twice in sepearte parts of the interview described himself as a winner and really really knocked Kerry and Gore - as losers.

With Kerry, he said that he should have challanged Bush to a debate over what each did in Vietnam - which would have ended the SBVT - except Kerry DID do that in April and Bush ignored it. Clinton clearly is either being dishonest or he has no idea that Kerry didn't face the 1992 media.

He also ignores that his Bush had an approval rating almost 10 points lower than Kerry's or that the fact that Perot slammed Bush before imploding. The exit polls looking at how the Perot voters would have voter for don't tell the entire story - there were also those additional people who were for Perot before he pulled out who migrated to mostly Clinton and stayed when Perot re-entered the race. There was a point when BC was third out of 3. His first campaign had crisis after crisis - the war room was necessary because there were so many little things coming out. (His I did smoke marijuana but didn't inhale - was in many ways worse than Kerry's more explanable I voted for it ... ,; the snark letter sent to the man who had gone out of his way to get BC into ROTC did not show a good person.) The media showed his rallies growing in people and spirit - they hid Kerry's. Kerry had to be letter perfect or the media used it against him, unlike the love they showed Clinton.

With Gore - all that needs be said is that it says something that a person who was a known drunk unti he was 40 could run on a theme of "bringing honor back to the WH". I assume Bill knows that no one in all his years of service had ever questioned Gore's honor. We lost 2000 because of Clinton.

As to the blogs, that should be interesting. One thing that amused me when Kerry first posted was the way some bloggers almost patronizingly explained to the Senator the customs of the blogosphere. Senator Kerry seems to have used his diaries mostly as they wanted - unlike nearly every other politician. He made them 2 way - as he clearly read (likely the best responses culled by staff) and responded. The fact is the blog more than other media is an equalizer - a nobody can speak to a Senator or ex-President. (I was too intimidated to post the first few times Kerry posted - I wish some DKos bloggers had felt the same.)The question may be could BC do that.

On one hand, he was willing to speak about anything as President - even (inappropriately) answering the MTV question of Briefs or Boxers. On the other, I wonder how he would respond to disagreement or questions. It will be interesting to see.

[whometense]

9. I haven't read the New Yorker article yet.

Maybe now I won't read it at all.

When it comes to Bill Clinton, my mantra is, "must not bash dems, must not bash dems..." Too bad he doesn't live by the same rule.

[TayTay]

12. Really.

Guess that means that the gloves are off on all sides.

Goody, goody.

[fedupinBushcountry]

14. I was watching the Levee documentary tonight

on HBO and Al Sharpton brought something up about how Clinton didn't speak out after Babs Bush made that demeaning response of the people in New Orleans. Clinton was right there and he said nothing. I guess his friendship with the Bushies means more to him.

I'm sorry but I have never been a big fan of Clinton,there is something about him that makes me not fully trust him. To me Clinton is for Clinton, that smooth talk of his just rubs me wrong. I didn't vote for him, because I was not inspired by him and no one from his campaign knocked at my door or made a call to get my vote.

[ProSense]

17. Not really sure

how Hillary Clinton would manage to pull this off since she is up for re-election this year. She'd have to begin campaigning immediately after being re-elected. It would be different if the presidential election was in 2010.

[beachmom]

3. I think Bill should be humbled by the blogosphere

With all this talk of how "fast" Bill was in response to attacks in '92, the liberal blogosphere was lightening speed fast on his behalf this past week. They reacted faster than Clinton, and did an incredible amount of research and activism completely on its own. Things have sped up considerably since '04 -- the Swift Boat Liars saga did have its effect in that there are now more people than ever on the blogosphere at the ready to defend Dems.

I think Bill would really score some points if he expressed his grattitude in no uncertain terms to the bloggers. Anything less than that shows he's taking us all for granted.

And, IMO, Bill certainly does not equal Hillary. I feel no qualms defending his record, and just don't associate these actions with Hillary. He may be a threat to Hillary's candidacy, you know, because it's next to impossible for him to stay on the sidelines. He oftentimes undermines her as the "star". BTW, at my local Dem breakfast I went to, they mentioned the PT9/11 problem, and how mad Clinton was. Somebody yelled out "which Clinton", and I tell you there was a tone to her voice that was not that nice. Even in red Virginia, Hillary is just not that popular among Dems. (For the record, I have seen one Hillary '08 bumper sticker in my church's parking lot)

[wisteria]

4. he could be useful. I just don't want to see him use us to advance his

wife's political career.

[Democrafty]

6. I'm glad he did this.

It's about time the Clintons looked beyond the insulation of their political machine, if for just one afternoon.

[ProSense]

16. Yes, especially after

a few from the Clinton camp tried to marginalize bloggers. Remember the atmosphere when Daou signed on with Hillary.

[beachmom]

13. Interesting -- Dauo now being blamed for the lack of diversity

of bloggers at that meeting:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/16/223758/524

[MH1]

15. Good catch - this is important.

I found the comments on the linked post at Republic of T really interesting, too.

http://www.republicoft.com/2006/09/13/write-your-own-caption-24/

[kerrygoddess]

18. A few thoughts

It makes sense that Peter organized this and it can be seen as a thank you meeting with the bloggers who went to bat for him over the Path to 9/11.

That said, Peter is always thinking. Peter is the online communications director for Hillary, who is contemplating running in 08, so this can be seen another way also.

It makes me quesy too, Whometense and leads me to think that Kerry bloggers need to get better organized.