Posted on 12/04/2002 8:27:34 AM PST by GulliverSwift
NEW YORK (AP) - In his first major speech since the midterm elections, former President Clinton (news - web sites) said the Democratic Party needs to communicate clear, fresh ideas on the economy and national security if it wants to recover from election losses.
Clinton's remarks came during a speech Tuesday to the Democratic Leadership Council, a national network that Clinton helped found in the 1980s to steer the party toward a more centrist image.
He reflected on the mood of the party back then to look ahead to the party's next step.
"We had a strategy rooted in new ideas ... we didn't have to wake up the morning after the election and wonder what it was we were going to do," Clinton said. "We knew what we wanted to do, and we set about doing it."
He suggested the party draft unified plans on national security and reviving the economy — issues on which he said Democrats floundered in their campaigns this year. Republicans increased their narrow margin of control in the House and took back the Senate in the November elections.
"Democrats have to have ideas to win," Clinton said. "Republicans will always have more money, more powerful interest groups, the fervor of right-wing emotion."
The Democratic Leadership Council's ideology of a "third way" between the traditional left and right is credited with propelling Clinton to the presidency in 1992.
The audience of about 200 people at New York University chuckled after Clinton quoted his own 1991 remark about the struggling party:
"`I've read all the people who say the Democratic party is dead, but I respectfully disagree' — I said that on May 6, 1991. I believed it then, and I believe it today," Clinton said.
Much of the party's weakness now, he said, can be blamed on Democrats' failure to stand up for each other when they are attacked by other politicians and "extreme right-wing elements in the media."
"We have to be firm and clear and strong and positive and prepared to defend our positions and those who are brave enough to stick their necks out," he said.
Clinton said the party's national security plan should emphasize action like going after terrorists and planning for specific types of attacks — tasks he said should take priority even over weapons inspections in Iraq.
"Al-Qaida should be our top priority," Clinton said. "Iraq is important, but the terror network is more urgent in terms of its threat to our security."
He said Democrats this year failed to highlight the idea that putting together the newly formed homeland security department should take a backseat to other national security issues.
"We didn't say it in the last election, and if we had, it would have made a difference in some of these races," Clinton said.
Meanwhile, the party's economic plan should stimulate in the short run while being responsible for the long term, he said. It also should include a balance of corporate accountability.
"What we need to do is say, 'What we're after is the abuses, but we want to hold up the entrepreneurial giant that made this economy grow in the 1990s,'" the two-term president said. "We can do it in a balanced way that 90 percent of the American people will approve of and will generate a lot of support for the Democratic party."
Most of this corporate scandal stuff ocurred during his administration, with Xlinton leading the way by example.
Much of the party's weakness now, he said, can be blamed on Democrats' failure to stand up for each other when they are attacked by other politicians and "extreme right-wing elements in the media."
That's the problem with Demmies. For decades, they haven't had to speak coherently and powerfully, because they were never challenged in the media. Now the party is facing a little opposition from some conservative sources. But even though they make up a very small fraction of the media, Demons fall apart, because they're not even used to that much criticism.
I wonder who was under the desk when he thought of this one.
"Yeah, Monica, stand up."
Shouldn't the RICO statutes kick in here somewhere?
Seems like the same mindless attacks are being made by all the usual suspects...
Didn't clinton, in another venue, concede that the democrats 'had' the 'mainstream media' while conservatives dominated many of the newer media modes such as FOX News and the internet?
Is this a case of clinton playing fast and loose with his own previous version of the truth, to suit what he judges to be the audience's expectations, or has he been smoking so much di-no-mite rope that the details are starting to fuzz up a bit?
That's what you say, but what you guys do indicates that the entrepreneurs and the employers of this country are the avowed, declared enemies of the Democratic Party.
No, it was Ross Perot's "third party" that siphoned votes from Bush Sr. that put Der Slickmeister in the White House. After that, no matter how hard we tried, we were not able to "propel" him out.
It is difficult for us to comprehend, but it is important to understand that most leftists are SO FAR to the left that even a lot of the media that we could label as "liberal", they label as "extreme right wing."
If the DummyRATS would just sit down and shut up, we could retire this thing.
True, until an Iraqi nuke goes off in Harlem. Then, Iraq would be most important; but we'd have done too little too late.
Just like your attention to Al-Quaida, Mr. President: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE.
Putz.
I strongly encourage the Democrats to gravitate towards your former President....then, the Democratic Party will be dead.
One thing is obvious. The Clinton and their mafia have come through the election clean. They will now be running the show.
The democrooks keep this hellspawn as their spokesman because if any one of them objected,...they'd wind up, uh...."dead".
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.