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Bill Clinton goes off on Obama
This is up at HuffPo from Mayhill Fowler (bittergate). She claims to have had her trusty tape recorder going and audio will follow. Bill is characterizing the unflattering Vanity Fair article about his jet set buddies on a widespread media bias for Obama.
"You know he didn't use a single name, cite a single source in all those things he said. It's just slimy. It's part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. It's the most biased press coverage in history. It's another way of helping Obama. They had all these people standing up in this church cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he didn't do anything about it. The first day he said 'Ah, ah, ah well.' Because that's what they do-- he gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain-- maybe I better quit the church. It's all politics. It's all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don't think anything about it."
See the whole thing here
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To be fair, and as a semi-neutral observer, I have noticed that the media is a whole lot "nicer" to Obama than Clinton (although, not in the same way that they're "nice" to McCain). Whether that's bias or Obama just doesn't give them anything to go on, I can't say.
Yeah, Obama got some flak for the Wright thing. What did you expect? That a news-hungry media would pass that up?
June 2, 2008 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought that the "He gets other people to slime her" was a bit much. It's hard to see how they all kiss and make up after this stuff.
June 2, 2008 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's just an old guy venting.
But you have to admit, Obama has some pretty zealous supporters. I mean, after a cursory review of posts here at TPMCafé, you can see plenty of posts along the lines of "Hillary is an awful person," but very few along the lines of "Obama sucks," and those are mostly authored by known trolls anyway.
June 2, 2008 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
While the article is lightly sourced on any actual affairs it certainly shows a solid story about a man who surrounds himself, while traveling, with those living the fast life.
And calling someone a scumbag. Slang for a used condom. That is just pathetic. So go find a bill cave, and take your bimbos with you.
June 2, 2008 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
find a cave Bill.
(I am incapable of writing a coherent sentence at times. And I'm white. Yet I support Obama. Guess demographics don't tell you everything.)
June 2, 2008 10:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Facts are Good writes the best posts.
June 3, 2008 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just don't accept the idea that the media is supposed to be so neutral that they balance everything. Clinton has been running a ridiculous campaign for months now and if the media calls her on that more than they say bad things about the person who is running a better campaign that isn't playing favorites; it's telling the truth.
June 2, 2008 10:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Proof positive Hillary as VP is an impossibility - Bill Clinton hates Obama's guts. The White House would be toxic and Obama would always have to wonder what Hillary and Bill were up to.
June 2, 2008 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
It'd be like tiptoeing around a roommate you'd just been fighting.
June 2, 2008 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I gave up thinking the "Unity Ticket" would fly a long time ago.
I've read the Vanity Fair article, and I can understand why Bill has gone ballistically red in the face and wagged his finger, but I wish he would wag it at the author of the article, and not at Obama.
"...he gets other people to slime her."
Um, I don't think so, but, nice try Bill.
June 2, 2008 9:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yet another example of the Clintonian habit of externalizing blame... but, huh? What did Obama have to do with anything -- at all -- that was mentioned in the article? If you must blame, Bill, blame the press, blame whomever... oh, here's a thought: how about blaming yourself?
June 2, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The author's wife's sister works for the Obama campaign as part of one of his Women's Vote iniatives.
June 2, 2008 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
And is wife is the former spokesperson for Bill, Dee Dee Myers, who has generally been very positive about Hillary in her public appearances during the campaign.
June 2, 2008 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING? CUT THE CRAP, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SENATOR OBAMA YET BILL CLINTON IS RANTING AND RAVING AND TRYING TO BLAME OBAMA FOR SOMETHING HE DID TO HIMSELF. IF HE IS UNABLE TO CONTROL HIMSELF, THEN HE NEEDS TO PUT A LOCK ON HIS ZIPPER AND THESE KINDS OF ARTICLES WOULD NOT BE WRITTEN ABOUT HIM.
MESSAGE TO BILL:
HEY BILL, REMEMBER LAST MONTH WHEN YOU ADVISED OBAMA'S CAMP TO "STOP THE WHINING?" AND "IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN?" WELL NOW IT IS TIME TO TAKE YOUR OWN ADVICE. STOP WHINING AND CALLING PEOPLE NAMES. YOU ARE ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS THAT HILLARY IS NOT GOING TO BE ON THE VP TICKET. THE REPUBS WOULD HAVE A FIELD DAY WITH YOUR SHENANIGANS ALONE. AND, IF YOU PULLED THE SAME STUNT AGAIN AS YOU DID WITH MONICA, THEY CAN'T IMPEACH YOU. THAT WOULD BE FUN FOR OBAMA. THEN TOO, OBAMA WOULD ALWAYS HAVE TO WATCH HIS BACK WITH YOU AROUND AND HIRE FOOD TASTER AND OTHER SUCH SECURITY. HEY...CUT YOUR LOSSES AND GO HOME, BILL, THE DANCE IS OVER.
June 3, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
"slimy"
"attempt to nail"
"biased"
"white racist"
"slime"
"It's all politics"
"maybe I better quit"
Sometimes the words or bits of phrases people use to describe someone else-- or the words they use to describe what they hate about someone else are, on an unconscious level, self-descriptive.
June 2, 2008 9:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just want to let everybody know, for historical reference, that June 2 was the day the Court of Oyer and Terminer convened for the Salem Witch Trials.
I just automatically think of June 2 as Salem Witch Trials Day, in case that ever pops up in conversation and it seems inexplicable or inappropriate to you.
That's just how I remember it's June 2.
So don't freak out or make a big deal out of it if I bring it up.
June 2, 2008 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I never had sexual relations with that woman!!
Once a liar always a liar.
And learn how to masturbate already Bill. Do you really need to screw around. We know you have no control as it relates to going off the handle and showing your false anger but please. Your wife was running for President for God's sake.
June 2, 2008 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's start off with the facts:
Someone (and I apologize for not remembering who) posted this nifty link at TPM today:
http://journalism.org/node/11266
Read it! It shows that this notion about Hillary's so-called unfair media treatment is pure bunk.
Just goes to show: the Clintons are masters of hypnotic persuasion... they will make you doubt your own senses unless you are vigilant with the facts.
June 2, 2008 10:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was commenting on how the media's portrayal of the two candidates appears to me.
And furthermore, I have a hard time believing that a concept as complicated as "media narrative" can be reduced to something as simple as a line graph.
June 3, 2008 12:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I understand. Basically when presented with facts, you would prefer your own emotionally-based world view. Many people are like that.
June 3, 2008 3:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
nuff said! great post clear thinker.
June 3, 2008 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Graph"="Facts", dontcha see? It's *MATH*. Ask Mr. Science, he's smarter than us, he has a MASTERS! In SCIENCE!!!
June 3, 2008 6:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
For some is math; for other is magical thinking.
June 3, 2008 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Go read Purdum's love-a-thon Vanity F piece on Obama 3 months back, and read Perez's post on Daily Howler's problems with your link's supposed analysis of bias.
June 3, 2008 6:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just want to let everybody know, for historical reference, that June 3 was the day the week-long Zoot Suit Riots began, when a mob of 60 from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory beat up everyone perceived to be Hispanic.
I just automatically think of June 3 as Zoot Suit Riot Day, in case that ever pops up in conversation and it seems inexplicable or inappropriate to you.
That's just how I remember it's June 3.
So don't freak out or make a big deal out of it if I bring it up.
June 3, 2008 12:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am no fan of the Clintons at this point, but I find Fowler and her clandestine "trusty recorder" just as sleazy as Bill's comments.
June 3, 2008 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bill must not be viewing CNN with Wolf Blitzer shamelessly carrying water for Hillary on a daily basis. That's real media bias, unlike this fabrication.
June 3, 2008 5:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cynthia McFadden of Nightline did a *Mother Teresa* segment on Clinton's candidacy last night. Both McFadden and Terry Moran have shown shameless bias in favor of Clinton during the primary campaign, along with GSteph and Gibson of course.
June 3, 2008 7:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mayhill Fowler is a scurrilous scumbag. Recording someone without informing them, as she did with Barack in San Francisco, is straight up gutter "journalism" anyway you cut the mustard.
June 3, 2008 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
While I agree it's shady, it does show you Clinton's real feelings about Obama and I think that's important to get out in the public. If she asked him as a reporter he would have walked by her or gave a PC answer that would have told us nothing and he and Hillary along with surrogates would have smiled and pushed for Hillary to be the VP on Obama's ticket.
June 3, 2008 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. However, Fowler, in her self-serving attempt for notoriety, nearly deep-sixed Barack's campaign with her handy, dandy, hidden recorder. "Bittergate" was pure B.S., but she handed it on a silver platter to his opponents, including the Clintons.
She blows with the wind, like the petty hack she is!
June 3, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the media is nicer to anyone it's McCain. Think of how obsessively the Rev. Wrights comments were looped. How many times did you see the sniper fire clips? Now have you seen the Real McCain video (John McCain's You Tube Problem..)? It opens with John McCain talking about how he could walk the streets of Bagdad with no flack jackets, then cuts straight to the video of him walking those streets sporting his flack jacket. Not a peep of this from the media, none of them. This is very analogous to the sniper fire comments only it points to his misrepresenting what is going on in the war right now.
I'd put a link to the video but right now it appears that it isn't available.
June 3, 2008 9:03 PM | Reply | Permalink