CBS NEWS: Analysis: Bill Clinton's Lost Legacy

[angie_love]

"The man crowned as America's first black president for his unprecedented personal connection to the African-American community has abdicated the throne.

By injecting himself into the Democratic primary campaign with a series of inflammatory and negative statements, Bill Clinton may have helped his wife's presidential hopes in the long term but at the cost of his reputation with a group of voters that have long been one of his strongest bases of political support.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama won an overwhelming victory in South Carolina with the support of African American voters who made up 53 percent of the vote, according to CBS News exit polls. Eighty percent of those voters chose Obama."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/26/politics/main3755521.shtml

[FrenchieCat]

1. My husband and I were talking about this, this evening....

He said that Bill Clinton is losing his luster very quickly.

[ursi]

2. the man has always has seemed two be a narcissistic sociopath

today is the anniversary of "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."

I still remember that he lied.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_did_not_have_sexual_relations_with_that_woman

[Auntie Bush]

11. And if you'd been asked as a beloved president in front of the whole world. ..

You'd have blurted out even before you told your wife. "Oh hell, Yes,I had sex with that woman". I'd say he was unfortunately trying to save his presidency and our country and keep us out of the hands of the ReThugs.
Didn't work...but he tried...and he lied.

[Fredda Weinberg]

3. He'll come back to Harlem a hero. Watch and see n/t

[caligirl]

4. In short his ownly loyalty is to himself. He has turned on the AA community for his profits.

Did they ever think he would drop them so fast?

[jasmine621]

5. I think Bill Clinton's legacy was about more than appealing to blacks.

And the MSM does it again.

Long after this election is over, people will still remember how much better off they were during Clinton's two administrations.

[KittyWampus]

7. the divide between rich and poor continued to grow under Clinton. The Democratic Party

almost died.

[KittyWampus]

6. If ANY white POTUS should be termed "1st Black President" it should be Jimmy Carter

[Maribelle]

8. Obama is half white.

The first black president is merely pomp

[Colobo]

12. Are you serious?

[Sparkly]

9. To me, this is exaggerated.

There are always "attacks," overt and covert, implied and blatant, direct and indirect. We saw some very nasty things in '04. But the media loves a story, and especially a story about "Billary" -- and they've twisted things and hyped them in much the same way they obscured Gore's actual words in 2000. Again, I'm not saying negative things weren't said -- they were. They should be rebutted, and Obama has certainly returned negativity with negativity.

But is this really about Bill Clinton?

It was one phrase that began the racial ball rolling. When Bill Clinton referred to Obama's claims of consistent opposition to the war in Iraq as "the biggest fairy tale that I have ever seen," many blacks heard more than policy criticism. They heard a dismissive attack on the first black with a real chance of winning the White House. They heard echoes of racial battles of the past. And they heard it from someone who was supposed to be on their side.

And why did they hear that? Because the media insisted (and much of it still does) that Clinton said Obama's candidacy was a "fairy tale." This is racist, it was claimed, because Clinton was supposedly saying that it's a fairy tale to imagine a black man becoming president. That's simply NOT what he said.

E-mails have surfaced, some traced to Clinton campaign volunteers in Iowa, claiming that Obama is a Muslim. Former Senator Bob Kerrey, on the day he announced his support for Clinton, made sure to make a point about how wonderful he thought it was that Obama's middle name is Hussein. A radio ad in South Carolina sought to portray Obama as a fan of Republican policies in the 1990s.

The emails were completely disgusting and those who sent them were told to resign. If it's a smear to state Obama's middle name, we have a problem. And an ad using Obama's words is hardly out of the bounds of politics, let alone racist, let alone Bill Clinton's doing.

The candidate herself contributed to the furor when she intimated that while Martin Luther King Jr. was a wonderful leader, it took President Johnson to make the Civil Rights Act a reality.

If Obama's words about the "party of ideas" standing up to "conventional wisdom" were taken out of context and used against him, so were Clinton's words about MLK, Johnson, and Kennedy. (Why on earth would ANY Democratic politician in their right mind put down MLK?!)

But it has been Bill Clinton who carried the campaign's attacks in the wake of his wife's Iowa loss. The "fairy tale" comment was followed by the claim that he had personally witnessed attempts at suppressing votes (a topic that touches blacks on a personal level) in Nevada by Obama supporters.

If he did see voter intimidation -- or if he only *claimed* to see it -- why is this racist? If he saw it, should he not have said anything for fear he be branded racist?

Now it's the fact that he said Jesse Jackson won SC (but didn't go on to win the nomination).

We're told he "injected race into the campaign" and that The Clintons "made Obama the black candidate." I'm sorry, but race -- and gender -- were already in the campaign, and Obama is the only black candidate.

I don't believe Bill or Hillary Clinton are racists, and I don't believe they'd consider racist remarks a smart campaign strategy. I think this is another chapter in the narrative about them, and it's not Obama's doing, not their doing, and not our doing.

[EFerrari]

13. I don't think they're deep enough to be racists but their campaign

sure knows how to push the right buttons.

And while I agree with you that the media leaps to form a dominating narrative, their part in that narrative is to poke and prod it in a direction that benefits them. And, they will continue to do that at any cost.

[Auntie Bush]

14. Great analitical post well reasoned out.

It was not their doing. It was the corp media doing!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. Wouldn't it be nice if the news just reported and stopped giving us their F opinions of everything?

I'm so sick and tired of being dictated to what my opinions should or should not be. Just report the F numbers and shut the F up, news! God I hate the corporate media!