Bill Clinton: Classic or Dud?

He's out of touch, which is why we haven't seen him much on the campaign trail

he's clearly not well

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/135553/bill-clinton-took-part-dnc-speech-memoir

Bill did his job with that speech to the convention about Hillary. You don't have to like his approach to politics to know he is a master of bringing people along to the mindset he wants them to adopt. His mastery of the tools of rhetoric and oratory are evident to anyone who understands those tools.

Lots of backlash from Muslim Americans on Twitter about the 'if you are Muslim and love America and freedom we want you to stay here' comments as well.

Yeah that was slippery and gross as well, same as the statement about African Americans but worse

this is not his era. he is a 70 year old center-right politician from arkansas.

It felt like he was making these really awkward attempts to signal center-right leaning voters that he has their concerns at heart while also sort of sounding like he was taking the liberal position, and it didn't seem to me like it was working in either direction.

is it just me or is "change maker" a really clunky and awful phrase to keep using in a speech?

Not just you. I felt the same way, strongly.

he was trying to shake loose the perception of her as the "establishment" candidate

Saying she's "one of the best change makers" makes me picture her at a cash register deftly flipping through bills and tossing out coins.

she would be rad at that i am sure, if overqualified

"agent of change" would have been 10x more clunky

changeling

Why is "she makes change" a good theme at all for tying together all these otherwise somewhat disparate stories?

yeah i was really surprised "changemaker" was like the headline noun.

changeifyer

maybe could have just said she changes things and done a huge long list of achievements built around repeating the word "change", until everyone just started chanting "change", "change", "change" for a while then eventually stopped.

Should just had John Waite run out and tear the roof down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsL-3fNOt0I

She's a getter doner. Get r done.

It just came off kind of like he was saying that young African Americans should help make the cops feel safer.

― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Tuesday, July 26, 2016 11:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It came off to me like he knows exactly how the media works and knew that if he didn't acknowledge police murders that's all people would be talking about today.

yep

Not everyone appreciated the former president’s lingering over his early attraction to the 23-year-old Hillary Rodham. Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC host,called it “shocking and rude,” and suggested it diminished Mrs. Clinton’s many accomplishments.

“It was a controversial way to start, honestly, talking about the girl, a girl, leading with this long story about him being attracted to an unnamed girl and thinking about whether he was starting something he couldn’t finish, building her whole political story, for the whole first half of the speech around her marriage to him,” Ms. Maddow said.

But Mr. Clinton clearly wanted to tell Mrs. Clinton’s story through the lens of their courtship and 40-year marriage.

This was an audacious strategy, given that their marriage is one of the most complicated and contentious in modern politics. One of his fiercest declarations — “she will never quit when the going gets tough, she will never quit on you” — could not help but conjure up his history of infidelities. In doing so, he humanized a marriage that has baffled many Americans while also reminding people of his philandering and her compromises.

the hilliad will go down near the top all-time in the annals of first gentlemen nomination speeches i would bet. i didn't know he still had it in him, and judging by those shaking hands there may not be much left. but you go billy boy!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-bill-clintons-nearly-18-million-job-as-honorary-chancellor-of-a-for-profit-college/2016/09/05/8496db42-655b-11e6-be4e-23fc4d4d12b4_story.html

poor guy, clearly not well

I've admittedly been feeling a particular kind of disillusioned rage about Bill Clinton lately that can come only from realizing that your parents' basis for loving a politician, and presenting him to you as a great and benevolent figure, boiled down to being of the same generation, being in awe of his charisma, and sharing an enjoyment of Fleetwood Mac. This hollow, opportunistic fucking rapist is the political hero of my parents' generation and it just speaks to how empty our politics got in the past several decades.

tbh he probably only liked one Fleetwood Mac tune

Not going to stan for this education factory mogul but the article says his company "has purchased financially struggling colleges and vocational schools and improved management while boosting profits through expanding enrollment." Which doesn't exactly make him Snidely Whiplash?

"Laureate’s campuses are fully accredited and offer graduating students valid diplomas. Compared with other universities, including its for-profit competitors, Laureate has a relatively low percentage of students who default on their loans, seen as an indicator of student financial success after graduation. A 2012 Senate report on for-profit colleges said that Laureate’s flagship U.S. school, Walden University, was the best of 30 campuses studied and that students there generally 'fared well.'"

Annnnd soooo... ??

Hang on are these reporters insinuating that a corporation has secured a Big Name to sit on their board act as honorary chancellor do next to nothing in order to boost its profile???

Laureate have their issues but they are not egregiously awful. The main problems are one-size-fits-all education programmes and limited teacher engagement. They're better than some others in the sector. Getting Clinton in to sprinkle stardust on generic factory learning is probably more undignified than corrupt - particularly in comparison to Blair advising dictators on post-massacre reputation management.

A corporation whose revenue is mostly international getting the husband of the secretary of state to sit on the board though -- their main gig is taking over colleges in Latin America.

when Clinton went to Azerbaijan to set up bent megabucks mineral deals and sprinkle some of that stardust on crooked despot Aliyev, Hilary was abusing her position. I know it is probably old but I just find it incredible how shamelessly bent they are and how they keep getting away with it.

I've admittedly been feeling a particular kind of disillusioned rage about Bill Clinton lately that can come only from realizing that your parents' basis for loving a politician, and presenting him to you as a great and benevolent figure, boiled down to being of the same generation, being in awe of his charisma, and sharing an enjoyment of Fleetwood Mac. This hollow, opportunistic fucking rapist is the political hero of my parents' generation and it just speaks to how empty our politics got in the past several decades.

― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Tuesday, September 6, 2016 10:20 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, though i had the exact opposite experience: my parents loathed Clinton, and i never really understood why until fairly recently. so he committed perjury about a blowjob, so what? the real stuff just isn't as sexy... they're shamelessly opportunistic and have made a lot of money for career politicians. politicians don't make a super good living. the thing that stuck with me was the hypocrisy of accepting millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia for the Clinton Foundation.

AND hillary's silencing of bill's mistresses/victims...

Azerbaijan is a much more clear cut example of bad practice imo.

The State Dept has a negligible role in influencing foreign higher education policy AFAIK. Laureate's ability to throw money into investment is the critical factor in why they have been able to expand so rapidly. It hasn't protected them from criticism either.

I detest him and his oleaginous un-charm. I don't care about "liking" or "trusting" presidents, but Obama's coolness and indifference to both things is his best trait as prez.

The thing about the Clinton Foundation is that in order for there to be "corruption" there, there has to be a basis to believe that there's anything being done with the money other than charity. Getting a donation from Saudi Arabia and using it to build schools or buy AIDS medications or whatever doesn't exactly reek. But the info about the foundation is all over the map, even ignoring right wing sources, from the Sunlight Foundation claiming it is a "slush fund" for the Clintons, to other articles saying their percentage of spending on legit charity is relatively high, to claims about boondoggle spending in Haiti going to connected contractors and not actually benefitting anyone.

I think what makes me most uncomfortable with the Clintons is the seemingly constant blurring of the lines between the foundation and global initiative and the Clinton's political activities and their friends' business activities, with so many of the same people of their circle involved with all of the above. For example Huma Abedin simultaneously having a part-time role with Clinton at State while also getting a salary from the Clinton Foundation, working for Douglas Band's consulting company AND working as Hillary Clinton's personal assistant.

yet she wasn't being paid a salary + bennies to stay married to Weiner. Weird.

Obama's coolness and indifference to both things is his best trait as prez.

agreed

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Croc0idVIAAbCMO.jpg

Same for the Gates Foundation. I don't have much of an issue with companies like Laureate offering a commercial alternative to established domestic universities but it gets pretty fishy when corporate charity promotes the privatisation of primary education in the guise of benevolence, like with Bridge.

Xps

he needs a cigarette in his right hand imo

in love with the all black everything w/ white shoes look. been doing that for years myself

yet she wasn't being paid a salary + bennies to stay married to Weiner. Weird.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, September 6, 2016 11:47 AM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

when you have one really bad job, the other jobs seem a little better

that obama photo showed up in my timeline with the caption "listens to Skepta once"

lol i saw "Goes to Berghain once" and "Obama looking like a guy that only texts you after 2am"

@tinyrevolution
It's hard to believe now, but long long ago Bill Clinton was considered to be good at politics

http://nypost.com/2016/10/04/bill-clinton-slams-obamacare-as-craziest-thing-in-the-world/

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a49240/bill-clinton-obamacare/

You beat me to it.

to be honest, he's not entirely wrong. There's a gap where you get fucked pretty hard by lack of subsidy and the price increases of healthcare plans. I'm not sure it effects that many people but it kills me.

Third year in a row of paying $4500ish for zero benefit as a small business owner or ~12% of my take-home each year. Each year I've had a $5500 deductible and used a couple hundred of it. As a small business owner, the idea that it protects me from major health events is questionable - if I'm in the hospital or out of work for more than a few days I'm fucked no matter what. Good luck to the hospital getting me to pay $5500 or $55000. I could save $50/month for an even more useless bronze plan but that seems even more insane.

I think I'm going to roll the dice next year and pay the penalty. It makes more sense to put the excess (3400ish) into a Roth IRA so that I have some 'retirement' savings at the ages where medical issues become more likely.

he is definitely not entirely wrong. He's describing my situation (employer plan costs have skyrocketed on all three fronts -- premiums, co-pays and deductible), and a lot of people I know on exchange plans can't really afford to use them. MY PORTION of my employer plan is now something like $1200/month for my family, with $50/$70 copays and I think a $4000 deductible that I so far have barely touched.

What Bill is doing politically is another question. Maybe he's trying to signal to people fed up with Obamacare, but it's not clear what he's signaling since Hillary is basically campaigning on just tweaking/improving Obamacare.

oh, even Pierce says he's mostly right.

dumb politics tho -- "craziest thing ever" soundbite -- and that's all that matters.