Hillary Clinton's 2008 slaps still sting President Obama

[NewThinkingChance40]

“Friendship” was the main course during Hillary Clinton’s lunch with President Barack Obama this week, according to an Obama spokesman, but no one could have blamed Clinton for ordering a small side of I-told-you-so.
Much of the bombastic campaign rhetoric from 2008 — think “3 a.m. call” — proved as ephemeral as the thousands of half-melted “Hillary” candy bars Clinton’s staff handed out on Super Tuesday five years ago.

But some of Clinton’s most memorable ‘08 shots at Obama have had resonance far beyond the short shelf life of the standard campaign hit parade: her mockery of his vow to transform Washington in his own image, her cry of “elitism” and her skepticism about his managerial chops echo today in the form of GOP attacks and the lingering doubts of some in his own party.
(PHOTOS: The Clinton-Obama relationship)

Clinton’s campaign attacks on Obama may have been an exaggerated version of reality, but in retrospect they were illuminating, in the way a hand grenade provides a flash of light before going boom.

Former Clinton staffers didn’t want to be within a mile of this story. (“I’m hanging up now,” said one top ’08 campaign aide cheerfully before the line went dead.) But several more intrepid ex-aides pointed to one quote in particular: a Clinton broadside delivered in Toledo, Ohio, on Feb. 24, 2008, that represented her most stinging attack on Obama’s core hope-and-change message.
“I could stand up here and say: let’s just get everybody together, let’s get unified,” Clinton said, voice dripping with contempt long since discarded.

“The sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know that we should do the right thing, and the world would be perfect,” Clinton added. “Maybe I’ve just lived a little long, but I have no illusions about how hard this will be. You are not going to wave a magic wand…”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-2008-campaign-95035.html#ixzz2aiQT2GCl

[bigtree]

1. politico can go fuck themselves

. . . one big turd pile of an article you've got there.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. WTF?

The RW politico should understand that the next Presidential election isn't for another 3 years. Time to get out of campaign mode and move onto something else. But then they would lose their purpose in life, so they try to stir up some shit to give themselves relevance on a slow summer news day.

[NewThinkingChance40]

4. They are grasping at straws

The sad part is that the right has this idea that they can win by just attacking the left non-stop. They have no new ideas, and only "change" their views to pander to voters. The GOP will fall and be replaced because they are the dying party of old white guys with old jim crow ideals.

[LongTomH]

28. I think I said this before: The GOP is taking longer to die than an operatic character!

Or, maybe they're just zombies; I've frequently thought that. They just refuse to lie down, and they keep stinking and rotting.

[blogslut]

3. Golly.

That there Politico sure did win the day!

[brush]

5. Thanks for your concern . . .

are we now supposed to divide up into Hillary and Barack camps?

[NewThinkingChance40]

7. They think so...n-t

[Skidmore]

8. 2008 election was already decided

and Hillary was not a primary candidate then. Also, the President will of be on any future ticket. Point of article is to divide the left. Nothing else. So why post it?

[NewThinkingChance40]

9. To show their idiocy

and the backwards thinking of the right. They want to divide, that is all they do. Partisan politics with no ground to stand on gets nothing productive done.

[Skidmore]

10. A better choice would be to discuss the

obstructionism of the RW and the 19nth century agenda they have for women's health choices and civil rights and to educate those around you on the systmatic steps the right is taking to suppress voting.

[NewThinkingChance40]

12. Noted, I am still new to the site and learning. n-t

[babylonsister]

6. In their dreams. Grasp at straws much? nt

[The Straight Story]

14. I find this a very favorable article to Hillary (if folks read the whole thing)

Especially the 2nd page

Even so, some of those Clinton criticisms have clearly had a major impact on the way Obama has governed and campaigned.

The centerpiece of Obamacare is the individual mandate, which Clinton forcefully advocated during the 2008 campaign and Obama noisily opposed — until he was elected. After Obama declared himself willing to meet with leaders in Iran and North Korea sans preconditions during a mid-2007 debate, Clinton slammed him as “naive” and “irresponsible.”

Obama, incidentally, has made no trips to Tehran or Pyongyang, adopting a hard line with both regimes, after initially offering dialogue on the pre-condition they give up their nuclear weapons programs.

The former first lady genuinely warmed to Obama over the years and both downplay their worst 2008 nasties as time-capsule toss-offs.

“We could never figure out what we were different on. Yeah, we worked at that pretty hard,” Clinton said during a joint “60 Minutes” sitdown with Obama as she left Foggy Bottom earlier this year.

But Clinton, people in her orbit say, has always derived quiet satisfaction from the victor’s growing reliance on the vanquished — as an embattled Obama seeks out her counsel and star power.

“Oh, it’s not lost on her,” said one longtime Clinton associate.
------

In other words, I think they are making Hillary look good for 2016

[BumRushDaShow]

17. It's divisive and 2016 is 3 years away. Tweety's wet dream. nt

[The Straight Story]

18. If you want to see Devisive read the DU Obama/Hillary threads

This is showing her (to some extent) to having known her stuff politically along the way, which speaks to experience.

Good lord, we bash Obama here daily but when Hillary points out his problems it is an issue?

I am no fan of hers, but she was right on some things and I think the article is an attempt to remind people of that before she runs (assuming she does).

I don't get how we here can be introspective as hell about politicians but when someone else does it we get all suspect and don't focus on the key things being said and whether or not they are accurate.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. I was here for that bullshit so why resurrect it?

The point being that Barack Obama was elected twice and is not up for re-election. So the article is moot. They apparently seem concerned that the lunatics on their own RW side are so unelectable that in order to distract, they generate meaningless speculation and hypotheticals about something that occurred 5 years ago. That way, no one will look at loons like Cruz or blowhards like AynRand Paul, and attempt some analysis of the zoo they inhabit.

[countingbluecars]

11. This post makes

me nostalgic for the old unrec button.

[FSogol]

16. Agreed. A hearty unrec from me. n/t

[madrchsod]

13. oh my, politico is at it again...

i guess they ran out of juicy gossip so they just made up this shit.

[WI_DEM]

15. What's your purpose in posting this rehash?

[LWolf]

20. I am not now, and never have been,

a fan of HRC. She and Obama were tied for last place on my list of primary contenders in the fall of '07. I don't want to see her on my ballot in '16.

I thought the primary wars here were ridiculously humiliating for the party. I did spend some time pointing out that Obama was no better than HRC, but was stampeded by those who thought he was the second coming. I understood. We were finally seeing the ass end of GWB, and ANYONE would have been better. Obama didn't have the DLC strings attached, regardless of the FACT that his policies were as neoliberal as Clinton's.

The nomination was pretty well wrapped up when my primary finally got here in late May of '08. There was really no point. Obama had my state wrapped up, so I cast a protest vote for HRC, even though I didn't really want her as the nominee, either. I had 2 points which put her ahead of Obama by that time:

1. She's willing to oppose Republicans.
2. She campaigned AGAINST the devastating education reform movement ushered into the national scene by GWB, Miller, and TK, while Obama told us in an interview on FOX news that Republicans got education better than Democrats did.

She was certainly right about the "lets get unified" meme. We needed someone to undo the damage 8 years of Republican policy had accomplished, not make friends with them.

[NewThinkingChance40]

22. Anyone would have been better?

So if McCain would have won, you would be ok with it? Imagine 4 years of his old wrinkly behind

[LWolf]

23. I don't know that he would have been worse.

Not that I have ever, or will ever, want to see a Republican in office.

With McCain in office, though, we would have had a strong opposition to bad policy from Democrats in Congress.

Instead, we got a Congress full of Democrats going along with bad appointments, bad neoliberal policy, and ridiculous pandering to those across the aisle coming from a president because he was a Democrat.

I want my party to adhere to principles, and to fight for them. I want strong, aggressive opposition to rw neoconservative and neoliberal agendas. I'm sick of the "compromise" that keeps moving us further and further away from what we need.

Regardless of who is in power. I expect a D in the WH to REVERSE the damage done by Republicans.

[snooper2]

21. ROFL ROFL ROFL ROFL

Who has an agenda here again?

[Enrique]

24. one of the more pointless articles i've seen in a while

[mattclearing]

25. This just in, from our lead correspondent in Fantasyland... n/t

[AndyA]

26. Post count of 73--seems the intent of posting this was to disrupt

2008 was five years ago. Clinton and Obama have long buried any ill feelings toward each other, it seems to me. President Obama won't be running for President again, and bringing this up at this point serves no purpose.

Couldn't you find an article about Kim Kardashian's latest trauma? Hasn't she broken a nail, or caught her hubby with another woman, or had an argument with her mother/sister/BFF? After all, that's what America really wants to know about.

I would say welcome to DU, but I'm not sure how long you're going to be around.

[NewThinkingChance40]

27. I was trying to participate

So I made a mistake, maybe if you read all the comments you would see I already said that. I move on and be more careful with future posts, doesn't mean you gotta be rude about it. I thought this community was about helping learn and grow on this side of things. You are not doing a great job at it with a response like this.

[AndyA]

29. I'm sorry that you felt my post was rude.

It doesn't read as rude to me, and that wasn't my intention when I wrote it.

My suggestion would have been to start a conversation about the article from the point of view of why is this news at this point in time? And why is it? What is the point?

Then a discussion could have taken place about the article, without people feeling like you are endorsing what the author is saying.

DU is indeed about learning--it's one of the best places to learn about things. There are some incredibly wonderful, helpful people here as well.

I'm sure you understand that there are lots of people out there who intend to disrupt DU, and not be a contributing member with good intentions. Low post counts and non-star members are two of the things that often stand out. My apologies if your intent was innocent.

[NewThinkingChance40]

30. It's ok, I have kinda had a rough morning and

let my temper get the best of me. I should have stated in the post that I wanted to discuss how ridiculous the article was. I was chuckling to myself while reading it at first.

I am here to make friends and learn. I hope this misunderstanding behind us and have some great discussions in the future.

[AndyA]

31. Absolutely!

[AtomicKitten]

32. KO->HRC: "You are campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican."

n/t

[Beacool]

33. There is truth in the following:

Longtime Clinton adviser James Carville, who was in close touch with the Clinton family during the rocky ’08 primaries, says Obama has come to recognize what Hillary Clinton had already learned during her eight tough years in the White House: Transcendental politics works on a campaign, but not so much when it comes to governing.

“His message was “I can transcend Washington’ — her message was ‘I can bend it, I can cut through it.’ Guess which one turned out to be right?” Carville said.

“I got nothing against the president and his people. Hell, when [Bill] Clinton came to Washington, he believed that stuff too. … But the system in Washington devours everything. It always wins. The power of it is awesome to watch. Hillary understood that [in 2008], and he gets it now.”

True words: "But the system in Washington devours everything. It always wins" Outside the beltway candidates think that they will transform Washington, but it's the other way around, Washington changes them.