Posted on 07/21/2003 10:43:26 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Alerting readers to the then-upcoming Bob Costas interview on HBO with Senator Hillary Clinton, I predicted: "I'd bet Costas won't be as reverential as some other star media figures have been toward her."
I was wrong. The NBC Sports anchor was every bit as sycophantic as Barbara Walters, Katie Couric or Charlie Rose, though as host of a sports and celebrity interview show, I guess he cannot be held to the same journalistic standards.
In the pre-taped interview which led the July 18 On the Record with Bob Costas on HBO, Costas wished for her to impart her wisdom: "How, from where you sit, have you maintained your dignity and how can you be so controlled under circumstances that would be trying for the best of us?"
Costas also wondered: "If you became President, what kind of First Gentleman would Bill Clinton be?"
He claimed she's the victim of attacks about "private and painful matters." In response, Clinton maintained she doesn't pay any attention to such attacks, prompting Costas to wonder: "So even if it doesn't knock you down, do you still feel it? A fighter can take a blow and not go down, but he still feels it."
And the best exchange:
Costas: "What are your best and worst qualities as a politician?"
Clinton: "Probably my worst quality is that I get very passionate about what I think is right..."
Plus, though Bill Clinton attracted less than 50 percent of the vote in 1996, Costas insisted: "Your husband won landslide re- election in 1996."
In between all that, he also reminded her that in high school she was the President of the Fabian Fan Club and asked her to assess Senator Bob Graham's charge that President Bush should be impeached.
I took down most of the questions from Costas in the interview taped in Washington, DC on July 16. The highlights from the 12 minutes or so aired by HBO:
-- "We live in an era where, generally speaking, feelings trump substance in the court of public opinion. Everyone wants their little revelation, their supposed window into someone's emotions. But even as you've been out there discussing these things you don't give people the classic Barbara Walters or Oprah Winfrey moment. How, from where you sit, have you maintained your dignity and how can you be so controlled under circumstances that would be trying for the best of us?"
-- "Your husband won landslide re-election in 1996. He's a capable and charismatic man. He had many accomplishments to his credit, and yet before his second term was over found himself mired in a horrible scandal. And it was flat-out stupid. It was colossally stupid. If people are people objective, regardless of where they sit politically, in a sense this is a tragedy. Does it haunt him, does it haunt you that he squandered at least a portion of his legacy?"
Clinton: "Record of his two terms so overwhelmingly positive....regret politics of personal destruction."
Costas: "He gave them the red meat. Even if they're a group of rapid hounds, he gave them the red meat."
-- "Bob Graham of Florida, who's running for President, says that fudging the facts on Iraq may amount to an impeachable offense. You've been close to both modern impeachment scenarios. As a young lawyer you researched high crimes and misdemeanors that would constitute impeachable offenses for the Watergate committee. And then obviously the situation with your husband. Is Senator Graham over-stating it or might there be something impeachable here?"
-- "If you became President, what kind of First Gentleman would Bill Clinton be?"
-- "I know you have a good sense of humor. I've seen you with Letterman. You have a good sense of humor. But what is it like, leave politics aside, as a human being, what is it like, you're watching TV, you're reading a seemingly unrelated magazine or newspaper story, and you might see a joke or a reference made at your expense, your husband's expense, not about the usual hurly- burly of politics which goes back forever, but about private and painful matters."
Clinton: "Comes with the territory....don't pay much attention."
Costas: "So even if it doesn't knock you down, do you still feel it? A fighter can take a blow and not go down, but he still feels it."
-- "What are your best and worst qualities as a politician?"
Clinton: "Probably my worst quality is that I get very passionate about what I think is right..."
Costas ended by asking about a Yankees versus Cubs World Series, "what do you do then?"
The Web page for On the Record with Bob Costas: http://www.hbo.com/ontherecord
This edition of On the Record with Hillary Clinton will air twice more this week on HB0: Tonight, Monday, at 7pm EDT on HBO East and 7pm EDT on HBO West; and then Wednesday night at 10pm EDT on HBO East, 10pm EDT on HBO West.
Some of former president Bill Clinton's friends are sharing (makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside) recipes for a cookbook for his library, the Associated Press says. Among contributors are Muhammad Ali, Christie Brinkley, Barbra Streisand, and Elizabeth Taylor. The $35 cookbook, published by the Clinton Presidential Foundation, includes recipes from Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
I wonder what other family recipes the Clintons have contributed:
Ah, the Clinton cookbook. The only cookbook where every recipe says to call up your staff and have them cook it for you. And it benefits the Clinton Lie-brary, the only presidential library with Fiction and Non-Fiction sections.
Not surprised. But let's cut p-o-o-o-o-o-r Bob a little slack. She wouldn't let herself be interviewed any other way. I'm sure it was at least partially staged. You know, list of permissable questions, etc. Bob's smart, he doesn't want to be another Vince afterall.
Has she EVER had any other kind?
That she HAS PEOPLE KILLED!!!
How is old Vince doing these days, hmmm Hill?
Thrusting Socialism upon Americans, under the guise of Liberalism---yes,that is one interesting admission Senator.
The shallow shrimp with a big mouth...that's always been Costas' trademark.
What type of mindless gack/blyeeeech of a question is that? I can't stand Bob Costas during Basketball season,but just reading his questions again,they're just ridiculous.I'm sure Bob (who is a shrimp of a human being, btw) gave her handlers a copy of the questions beforehand, just like Letterman does everytime.
Even Bill Maher discredited that poll directly after the interview. He said something along the lines of "every vote came from within the Clinton household.."
Clinton: "Probably my worst quality is that I get very passionate about what I think is right..."
"Oh, and the fact that I’m absolutely perfect in every way sometimes grates on people."
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