"Bill Clinton, Eternal Campaigner. . grabbing political 3rd rail and refusing to let go."

[Divernan]

SOURCE: April 12, 2016 edition of The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/bill-clinton-eternal-campaigner?mbid=nl_160412_daily&CNDID=39888463&spMailingID=8779437&spUserID=MTE3ODE0ODk0MjQ1S0&spJobID=901396464&spReportId=OTAxMzk2NDY0S0

Former President Clinton apparently was not expecting, when he appeared last week at a campaign event in Philadelphia on behalf of his wife, the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to be confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters over the consequences, intended and not, of one of his Administration’s signature bills—the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Clinton, his voice raised, wanted protesters to believe that it was thanks to this bill that the nation’s crime rate went down, police forces became more diverse, and a federal assault-weapons ban became law, at least until the ban expired, a decade later; he was able recite a fusillade of statistics without it always being clear where they came from or what, exactly, they referred to. The shouting, Clinton’s finger-wagging replies, and the reluctance to accept what others were saying provided a fascinating glimpse of a group with a deeply felt point of view and of a major political figure repeatedly, even stubbornly, grabbing a political third rail and refusing to let go. For all that, as a political actor, he never broke character, never stopped trying to connect, reminding witnesses of his enormous talent as a campaigner, as well as his potentially volatile role in his wife’s race for the Presidency.

Last week’s confrontation must have been especially hard for Bill Clinton, who loves to speak, hold forth, speak some more, and further explain—none of which is possible when you can’t be heard and you don’t listen. What must have made it harder was listening to his wife’s challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders, whose supporters include Spike Lee and Harry Belafonte, say that “the President owes the American people an apology for trying to defend what is indefensible.” Clinton later said that he was “almost” ready to apologize for the angry tenor of the occasion, which, after all, was intended to bolster black support for his wife generally, and specifically in the now-competitive April 19th New York primary. However much he is helping or harming his wife’s campaign, he’s visibly enjoying his work (on Sunday, he spoke at three Harlem churches), even if his enthusiasm sometimes pushes him over the rhetorical line. His encounter with Black Lives Matter protesters, though, did not help the campaign at all.

Clinton did not exactly reprise his “Sister Souljah moment,” of 1992, when, as the Democratic candidate for President, he offended some supporters (and won many others) by comparing a rap singer’s remarks to the views of the Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. It was, rather, more of an anti-Souljah episode, showing impatience and irritation with people whose views he seemed unable to acknowledge. It was, above all, a case of the present confronting the past—modern awareness confronting yesterday’s mistakes, such as Hillary Clinton’s use of the term “superpredator” to refer to some of the juvenile criminals who would be most affected by the crime bill’s harsh sentencing provisions. The former President did not say much about how the legislation led to a very bad outcome—the imprisonment of African-Americans, in alarming numbers, for nonviolent crimes.

[ReRe]

1. I don't know how much....

.... of an asset Bill Clinton is to Hillary at this point. I think Bill is over the hill. He's looking a bit frail these days. Did anyone else notice that? He was caught off guard last week when he was taking up for Hillary. And it didn't necessarily have anything to do with Black Lives Matter. It was that he did not expect the people attending to be so informed on events of the past. People are becoming more informed because of the internet. 24 years ago when he & Hill came into office, the internet wasn't fully on it's feet yet. Look at all that's happened since then & on social media.

[Betty Karlson]

2. Bill and Hill are BOTH over the hill. And as usual, they're the last to read the writing on the wall

see also:

gay rights
NAFTA
TPP
TTIP
Iraq War
Libya
for-profit prisons
mass incarceration

and so on...

[ReRe]

3. IOW...

... the status quo. Agreed.

[global1]

4. I'm Certainly 'Over The Hill'....

and Bill too.

[ReRe]

6. Hey...

... some who know me might think I am a bit "over-the-hill" too, but by damn my mind and fingers still work. Now there are days I don't get around too good, days I stay in bed all day! But my cheeks aren't hollowing out like Bill's. He just didn't look healthy to me.

[Divernan]

5. The internet/social media are having a massive impact on this primary.

and there's not a damn thing either Clinton or her campaign machine can do about it.

It's just fantastic. Word goes out on the net that Bernie's holding a rally and repeatedly, across the nation, on a few days' notice over 10,000 people show up!

[Skwmom]

7. I think it was a Sister-Souljah moment attending to win the support of certain voters.

The tone, the demeanor, the finger wagging, and calling them girls. Bill Clinton was in Pennsylvania and he knew exactly what he was doing. Hillary Clinton has also wagged her finger at BLM this election cycle. What an amazing coincidence from two people whose whole campaign is scripted.

[jfern]

9. Yup, Hillary needs the votes of "hard working white people" again

[Kokonoe]

8. It is always around Pennsylvania, that every Clinton campaign breaks

for the "hard working white people vote". Not a surprise really.

[Divernan]

10. 2016 shaping up as year of the outsider candidate in PA. Too bad for Hill!

Y'all have probably heard my homestate of Pennsylvania described as blue on either side and red in the middle? That's because we have traditionally blue/Dem cities of Phillie and Pittsburgh bookending the state, with a red conservative center. The heavier Democratic population of the state (about one million more Dems than Republicans) can carry the state for the Dems, if the Dems get out the vote. The last couple of elections the old, creaking Democratic state machine has abysmally failed to get out the vote.

Well, the largest paper in the state, the Phillie Inquirer, and as of yesterday, the 2nd largest, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have both endorsed the outsider/non 3rd way candidate in the the Dem. primary for the U.S. Senate.

That would be former 3 star admiral/U.S. Congressman Joe Sestak. After defeating party-switching Arlen Specter in the 2010 Dem. primary, he very narrowly (2 %) lost to uber conservative Pat Toomey. The thing is the DSCC, entirely without precedent, pumped about $1 million into backing Specter in the primary, and gave not one fucking cent to Sestak for the general election. Sestak was outspent four to one, and in a year when the GOP was sweeping congressional races nationwide, lost by only 2 percent.

This election, with Sestak leading the Clinton-endorsing, never held elected office in her life, ethically censured by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for pushing state contracts to the employers of her lobbyist husband, pro-fracking, endorsed by Emily's List, Katie McGinty - but I digress - with Sestak leading his hand-picked Dem. establishment opponent by 16 points in the polls, yet AGAIN the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee has prematurely ejaculated $1.5 MILLION into Pennsylvania's Democratic primary to buy ads for Sestak's opponent. One of the first ads has already been called out as a lie by state media. It charged Sestak with voting on a bill which was NOT EVEN INTRODUCED UNTIL 2 YEARS AFTER HE LEFT CONGRESS!

So, in today's Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette editorial endorsing Sestak, the closing paragraph states:
If this is truly the year of the political outsider, the Democrats’ best bet for the U.S. Senate is Joe Sestak, who has earned the Post-Gazette endorsement.
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2016/04/13/Joe-Sestak-for-the-Dems-He-d-be-the-toughest-challenger-to-Pat-Toomey/stories/201604300027

Sestak committed 6 years ago to running again and has been actively campaigning for years. The Dem. establishment at the state and national level loathe him - not because he's brilliant (graduated 2nd in his class at Annapolis, & Ph.D. from Harvard), got elected & re-elected to a House of Rep. seat from a district that had been Republican since the Civil War, was the highest ranking military officer ever elected to Congress, was named by Steny Hoyer as the most productive Congressman in his freshman class, held assignments as a military advisor to the Pentagon & Bill Clinton - no, they loathe him and would rather lose the seat to Toomey because Sestak did not drop out of that 2010 Senate race as ordered to by Bill Clinton & the Dem. establishment, and they know he will not vote as ordered by the Third Way Dems. In the grand tradition of the vitriolic Clinton revenge/enemies list, Joe Sestak is likely in the top ten.