Posted on 06/08/2008 12:52:50 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Campaign May Leave Blot on Clinton Legacy By JOHN M. BRODER and ROBIN TONER
WASHINGTON Bill and Hillary Clinton have stirred virulent passions in their nearly two decades in the national spotlight. They have been known as many things, good and bad brilliant policy analysts, manipulators of facts and friends, tireless campaigners, skillful political tacticians, monumentally self-absorbed baby boomers. But most of all they were known as winners.
Until now.
While the Clintons will almost certainly play a continuing role in the nations political life, and Mrs. Clinton could yet emerge as this years vice presidential nominee, a major chapter in their vertiginous public biography was closed when Mrs. Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Senator Barack Obama over the weekend. Their complicated legacy is all the more complicated now.
Mrs. Clinton, who survived public humiliation as first lady and then easily won two Senate races in New York, entered the 2008 Democratic presidential primary as the odds-on favorite because of money, connections and celebrity. But through a series of blunders and the appearance of a once-in-a-lifetime opponent, Mrs. Clinton saw the prize slip through her grasp despite a valiant personal effort that lasted through the final contests in South Dakota and Montana.
Both Clintons often seemed out of touch with the political times cautious when they should have been bold, negative when they should have been inspirational. Exquisitely attuned to the political winds in 1992, they watched Mr. Obama almost effortlessly ride the wave in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What legacy??? is this a joke?
Fixed it. It ain't over until it's over. Ask Big Brown.
Shillary won NY because the NYC Dem machine annointed her. She can’t win heads up since she’s a fat shrewish lesbo in a black crusty pantsuit.
After this election is over, saying anything but platitudes about the Noble actions of the Clinton's attempt to help slay the evil Republicans will be considered mean spirited.
Hurt their legacy? Yeah, right!
Bubba simply showed his true colors.
Many of us saw, and mistrusted, both Clintoons way back in 1992 with their “twofer” presidency. It’s hilarious to see the dems finally seeing them as they really are, instead of the king and queen they thought they were.
Don't worry, no one will ever notice another blot on the ol' legacy!
Oh, I’m sure Bubba has added a splat or two himself in the meantime.
Yeah, this article really brought a tear to my eye.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
[has in many ways hurt their legacy......] Exactly how does one make a pile of excrement stink even more?
Well, there was the blot on the blue dress, now another blot on the legacy.
What exactly is Bill Clinton’s legacy, anyway? Seriously, what lasting or historic achievements took place from Jan. 20, 1993 to Jan. 20, 2001? Were there any events of historic note, or did he just mark time in the White House? Will history look to the Clinton presidency as significant in any way?
Clinton campaign legacy, a smear on a blot, wrapped in a stained blue dress.
No, yes, and no.
Hillary won the NY senate seat because some other, more qualified, candidates were pressured to ‘step aside.’
“Campaign May Leave Blot on Clinton Legacy”
Seriously....do these people even partially understand the enormity of what’s just happened here?
The winds blowing at Obama’s back are practically gale force 5 at this point. No one’s seen anything like his candidacy in a couple of generations. It’s truly a once in a lifetime phenomenon.
We don’t call him the Obamessiah for nothing. His campaign has reached nearly biblical proportions, and he’s almost worshiped as a god by his followers. Obama has become a living saint, the anointed one, the savior. The secular Left has finally found the Moses who can lead their Mother Gaia, materialistic, socialistic religion, and “take them higher.”
Think about what’s just happened with Hillary Clinton’s concession in the presidential race. The Clintons have been, for twenty years, the undisputed Emperor and Empress of the Democrat party. Hillary had a 20 point lead over the Democrat field of candidates when she entered the race. The presidency was hers by design (and manufacture). It was locked. A certainty. She was going to be the next president.
Then something happened that neither the Clintons, or anyone in the Democrat party could have predicted. A relative newcomer - a rookie, and a black man(!) from Chicago took the momentum away from her. He gathered steam and support, week after week, until, to everyone’s shock and amazement, he knocked the Clintons off their thrones.
You really have to appreciate the absolute depth and breadth of control and power that the Clintons have wielded over the Democrat party these last twenty years to understand what a remarkable accomplishment this is. It’s historic, and it has turned Washington politics upside down.
Obama has actually carried out a coup’ de gras against the most hardened and dangerous political machine of the last half century, and (so far) lived to tell the tale.
In so doing, he’s also stripped the Clintons of their air cover. He has gained the allegiance of almost all of the most powerful Democrat politicians, to the most entrenched Democrat bureaucrats, to party operatives, to the liberal mainstream press, to liberal opinion makers, down to the liberal Democrat base. They’ve almost all switched loyalties to Obama now.
The Clintons are now left with virtually no protection against justice. In time, they will pay for their many crimes against the state.
See, you can’t just go dethroning the King and Queen, then leave them to peacefully retire. No - if you want to live, you had better put them in the grave as well. You have to know that unless you do that, they will quietly gain strength, then come back to kill you in your sleep.
Expect some serious fireworks to come out of the ongoing campaign finance case against Hillary Clinton. There are enough crimes in that one case to put her away for 20 years. And even that won’t be the end of it. Expect to see expose’ after expose’ on the Clintons hit the newsstands in the coming months. The mudslinging and character assassinations haven’t even started yet, but they will. The new regime has got to drive a stake through their beating heart, if they’re going to make this stick.
Too many people in Washington circles understand the stakes, and know that they’re going to be targeted by the Clintons if they don’t go after them with everything they’ve got. There’s a war going on just under the surface, and boy is it deadly.
Any honest reporter/editor would have called the Clintons out long ago.
Only because the Clintons aren't creating problems for Americans in general, and Republicans in particular, has the "press" abandoned them.
There are many other candidates who fell into that trap.
Well said ............. FRegards
I heard that is a myth, that GWHB would have lost anyway.
That’s GHWB..., aka Bush 41.
oh, nevermind.
Heck, while you’re askin’, ask Ron Brown.
If there's ever been an understatement, like calling Napoleon a significant French general of the late eighteenth century, that's it. The DemonRats are like a bunch of evil, spoiled children who've been anticipating the greatest Christmas present in the whole world even since 2006. They've divided themselves into two warring camps fighting over that present. If McCain wins the election, they will go for each other's throats in a white hot orgy of frustrated desire, with each group having compelling arguments against the other, essentially the ones mentioned in the quote. Hence, there will be no chance for the Witch to get the 2012 nomination if Obama loses because she will be correctly viewed as having irreversibly flushed the Messiah into a political septic tank, an utterly unforgivable sin. Indeed, this disruption of the DemonRat party is one of the best things to come from a McCain victory, and probably the largest reason why I've decided to hold my nose and support him.
That's a mighty big "IF".
McCain --- the frail, the bumbling, the uninspiring, the back-stabber, the meandering, the ancient, the under-funded, the bland, the mealy-mouthed, the "right-winger", the sell-out, the strange, is up against ::: The Obamessiah!, the Bringer of Hope!, Change! and Light!
Explain please, how McCain is supposed to beat THAT, when most of his base dislikes him?
Please ~ put your efforts into pressuring the RNC to accept a replacement nominee for John McCain. We need someone who can galvanize our base and pull off what will likely be a miracle this November.
The NYT global edition (the International Herald Tribune) still has the original title.
“I, I, I, Me, Me, Me”
Like Hillary’s concession speech, Clinton’s are all about them.
Their legacy? Self-indulgence.
In 1992, Clinton won with 43% of the popular vote. In other words, 57% of the voters voted AGAINST Clinton for President.
In 1996, Clinton won re-election with 49% of the popular vote. 51% of the voters voted AGAINST Clinton for President.
For a detailed breakdown of each election, see Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
By the way, here is a little trivia quiz you can try on your Democrat friends. In 2004, Bush won with just under 51% of the popular vote. Can you name the last three Democrat Presidents who won with MORE than 51% of the popular vote? [Hint, only two were in the 20th Century.]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.