Clinton and Spelling Collide

I can't get much going right now. Don't know how long the recovery process will take, but for the moment, posting is going to be light.

On Presidential Legacies

Opinion: Bush and Clinton take opposite approaches to legacy - CNN.com:

Former President George W. Bush briefly jumped back into the national conversation Tuesday night with his interview on "The Tonight Show." Bush told host Jay Leno that "I don't miss the spotlight" and that he was thoroughly enjoying his post-presidential life. On Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton is in the news as he receives a Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama...

Pay Attention, Stupid Liberals!

The so-called Democrats with CDS have already swarmed several sites, threatening everyone over supportin' another trianglulatin' Clinton-- yes, complete with fake Southernisms and rancid hillbilly, redneck swipes. (Obama is just so cool, dontcha know?). If you want a Democrat in the White House, Clinton is a sure thing. Anyone else is a maybe. So please go crawl up Nader's dress.

The Clinton vs. Warren fantasy: Why progressives shouldn’t get distracted - Salon.com:

Let me be clear: I’m Ready for Hillary – and for Elizabeth Warren, too. I think a 2016 Democratic presidential primary process that featured both women would be epic. I don’t expect to see it, but I don’t think it’s a disastrous prospect, a terrific idea or impossible. It’s November 2013. Almost anything can happen.

What interests me right now is the outsize reaction to Noam Scheiber’s New Republic piece on Warren as “Hillary’s nightmare.” It makes me think about something I realized back when disgruntled progressives were (briefly) making fretful noises about needing to find someone to challenge President Obama in a primary. Progressives are just way too invested in using the primary process every four years to get the country to take big leaps forward that probably could be better pursued in other ways...

Bill Gives Political Lesson

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Prof. Clinton explains the far right - The Washington Post:

...Yet those inspired by passionate belief — people, Clinton says, with “steam coming out of their ears” — do have one important virtue: “They will show up and vote.” Offering a quick political science lecture about who votes when, Clinton explained that “in the non-presidential years, a whole different America shows up than in the presidential years.” The lesson to moderates and progressives: “You’ve got to care as much about this election as you did about the election in 2012...”

The Ghost Of A Drunk Talks Clinton

Here we go again-- the Clinton haters oozing from their toxic hidey-holes. The only candidate I would consider supporing over SOS Clinton is Sen. Warren, and I'll bet I have plenty of company there. I would love to see a whole raft of reform implemented, including such things as the end of the Drug War and the legalization of marijuana, a reining in of the quasi military police forces operating in urban areas, full and increasing funding for all reasonable social programs and etc. In other words, improving the quality of life for everyone, not just the rich. I can trust that Clinton could at least get some of that through what will still be a Congress, if not controlled by, certainly heavily influenced by Little Kochs and their paid teabagging whores. She can politick. Who else do the Democrats have that is that capable?

To defeat the Tea Party, the left needs bolder leader than Hillary - Salon.com:

...I’ll conclude with the words of the always blunt Christopher Hitchens, “Indifferent to truth, willing to use police-state tactics and vulgar libels against inconvenient witnesses, hopeless on health care, and flippant and fast and loose with national security: The case against Hillary Clinton for president is open-and-shut.”

Wisdom From Bill

B. Clinton: Hillary's next campaign would be different:

...The former president added: "The main thing you can't do, the great trick in any human endeavor, including politics, is you must learn the lessons of your mistakes and your failures without becoming a general who fights the last war, because every new encounter will be shaped by different forces..."

"Freedom's Just Another Word For Not Enough To Eat"

Krugman rages.Free to Be Hungry - NYTimes.com:

...Hence the war on food stamps, which House Republicans have just voted to cut sharply even while voting to increase farm subsidies...

Floating Clintons

Hillary Clinton’s Two Decades in the Political Spotlight -- New York Magazine:

...There’s a weightlessness about Hillary Clinton these days. She’s in midair, launched from the State Department toward … what? For the first time since 1992, unencumbered by the demands of a national political campaign or public office, she is saddled only with expectations about what she’s going to do next. And she is clearly enjoying it...

Clinton Has Solid Lead

Opinion: For 2016, Hillary Clinton's big lead; GOP's big zero - CNN.com:

...Tough and experienced, Clinton is now positioned as a candidate who rivals Obama's 2007 surge. She will also be positioned as the candidate of the 51%, compelling to women of all ages and even possibly competitive among Republican women in this incarnation...

Clinton's Knee

How Obama is Setting the Stage for Hillary in 2016 - The Daily Beast:

...Five years ago, Hillary Clinton sparked controversy by remarking that Martin Luther King's dream only became a reality when Lyndon Johnson forced the Civil Rights bill of 1964 through Congress. "It took a president to get it done." Obama supporters seized on Clinton's words as a slight against Martin Luther King. A political cycle later, progressive Democrats may feel new respect for LBJ's ability to get things done.

Peter Beinart's analysis of the cultural moment is astute. But be careful about over-predicting big sweeping new political changes. Democrats tried that in 2008. And what they'll be looking for in their next leader will be much less the ability to touch the nation's heart, and much more the ability to apply the knee to her Republican opponents' groins.

Running Will Get You Shot In NC

Man seeking help after North Carolina car crash shot by police | Reuters:

An unarmed man who was shot dead after running toward police officers in Charlotte, North Caroline, may have been just trying to get help after crashing his car, police said...

Update: here.

107 Year Old Shot

It's an AP article, so you get no words. Here: SWAT officers kill man, 107, in standoff | The News Star | thenewsstar.com.Potentially relevant: here.

Clinton Tougher Than O Sez Furhead

Trump: Hillary Tougher for GOP to Beat Than Obama:

Donald Trump warned Iowa Republicans in a speech Saturday night that Hillary Clinton would be a tough candidate to beat in the 2016 presidential election.

"Hillary is going to be tougher to beat" than Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, Trump said, and he urged Republicans to choose "the right person, the perfect person" at their next convention, ABC News reported...

Keeping Clinton's Pledge

Enough subsidizing CEOs’ insane salaries! - Salon.com:

...What’s less well-known is that you and I and other taxpayers are subsidizing this sky-high executive compensation. That’s because corporations deduct it from their income taxes, causing the rest of us to pay more in taxes to make up the difference.

This tax subsidy to corporate executives from the rest of us ought to be one of the first tax expenditures to go, when and if Congress turns to reforming the tax code.

We almost got there 20 years ago. When he was campaigning for the presidency, Bill Clinton promised that if elected he’d end the deductibility of executive pay in excess of $1 million...

SOS Clinton Honored

Hillary Clinton Named Liberty Medal Recipient, Ceremony Set For September 10:

Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose lifelong public service career includes turns as secretary of state, presidential candidate, senator and first lady, is the recipient of the 2013 Liberty Medal...

Clinton Gets Endorsement

Missouri Sen. McCaskill backs Clinton for president in '16 - First Read:

She's not a presidential candidate yet but Hillary Clinton is already starting to pile up the endorsements.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill Tuesday added her support to a growing roster of Democratic activists pushing the former secretary of state to make another bid for the White House in 2016. The nudge gives Clinton a marquee, swing-state backer and could be an early glimpse at a major source of support for any potential campaign -- Democratic women in the U.S. Senate...

Bill Flogs O?

Notice the source before you get too excited.

EXCLUSIVE: Obama was pushed by Clintons into endorsement of Hillary in 2016: book - NYPOST.com:

...According to two people who attended that meeting in Chappaqua, Bill Clinton then went on a rant against Obama.

“I’ve heard more from Bush, asking for my advice, than I’ve heard from Obama,” my sources quoted Clinton as saying. “I have no relationship with the president — none whatsoever. Obama doesn’t know how to be president. He doesn’t know how the world works. He’s incompetent. He’s an amateur!”...

Comment Of The Day: Clinton v. Bush Edition

The Silver Fox’s Pink Slip - NYTimes.com: Connie Boyd
Denver

NYT Pick

Comparing the Bushes and the Clintons is ridiculous. Hillary came from a middle-class background. Bill came from nothing. Neither benefitted from the kind of dynastic wealth and connections that both George Bushes inherited as their birthright. The Clintons worked hard for what they've achieved; W had everything handed to him on a silver platter. His lazy, privileged, spoiled-brat narcissism and sense of entitlement had a lot to do with the fact that he was one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. In that respect especially, the contrast between him and Bill Clinton is stark.

In reply to Diana Moses
April 28, 2013 at 10:03 a.m.
Recommended72

HRC Is Back

Hillary Clinton returns to public stage as 2016 watch begins - latimes.com

Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to the public stage Tuesday night for the opening scene in what many expect to be a carefully plotted performance concluding with another presidential try...

Oh, and do the world and the DemocratIC Party a favor, don't call her "Hillary" unless you know her personally. She deserves the same courtesy as any male, hence my monicker for her: HRC.

The Silence Of The Liberals

DC’s quest to silence Elizabeth Warren - Salon.com

...No, what’s important here is what Politico actually got right in its story: namely, that the assumption in Washington is, indeed, that silence is a virtue – that, in other words, the best thing for a newly elected liberal senator to do is shut her mouth, go along to get along, play by the club’s rules and not make any waves. Summing up that Beltway conventional wisdom, Politico writes that only by “flying under the radar” can a liberal “star” like Warren develop a “reputation as a serious legislator...”

An update on a rather key personal point of view:

Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses Hapless Bank Regulators At First Hearing (VIDEO) 

...A Warren constituent, open-Internet activist Aaron Swartz, recently committed suicide after being hounded by federal prosecutors who reportedly said they wanted to "make an example" of him. Warren had met and said she admired Swartz and, after he died, expressed her concern by attending his memorial in Washington.

The financial regulators can blame, at least in part, Wall Street lobbyists (along with outgoing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Senate Republicans) for their embarrassing turn at the hearing. Warren would have been on the panel herself representing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, instead of a sitting senator, if her nomination to head the agency hadn't been thwarted in 2011.