A different question might be: what did Clinton achieve that was progressive? (*Apart from* just keeping Republicans out of the WH for 8 years: not a small achievement, and one reason, I think, why Tad and I like him so).
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 20:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 29 May 2004 07:43 (nineteen years ago) link
Judged against Dubya, he's a half-step behind FDR.
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 29 May 2004 07:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Pack Yr Romantic Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 29 May 2004 07:52 (nineteen years ago) link
How on earth would you know that?
For wasting so many years of his presidency on scandal management, because he couldn't keep his penis in his pants, DUD.
For marring a strong 8 year span of Democratic presidency by not keeping his penis in his pants, DUD.
For fueling the 'culture wars', DUD.
What a waste of talent (his and anyone who worked for him).
― Debito (Debito), Saturday, 29 May 2004 07:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 29 May 2004 08:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Saturday, 29 May 2004 09:37 (nineteen years ago) link
I think we did not have them in the UK.
― the bellefox, Saturday, 29 May 2004 12:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Debito (Debito), Saturday, 29 May 2004 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 29 May 2004 18:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Saturday, 29 May 2004 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― 696, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:43 (sixteen years ago) link
― and what, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:52 (sixteen years ago) link
― gff, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:59 (sixteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 11 May 2007 20:01 (sixteen years ago) link
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 11 May 2007 20:34 (sixteen years ago) link
― Uptoeleven, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:14 (sixteen years ago) link
― JW, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:24 (sixteen years ago) link
― gershy, Sunday, 13 May 2007 19:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Cockburn:
The Clintons have always excited passions disproportionate to their very modest talents as creative politicians. Looking back across the Nineties at the frenzied Republican onslaughts on the couple, one can only wag one's head in bemusement at the Right's hysteria. Why did they consume so much energy in savaging a pair who had learned conclusively from their earlier upsets in Arkansas that you don't get ahead by offending the powerful, starting with the timber and chicken barons who controlled that backward and impoverished state?
To be fair on Bill and Hillary, beyond some ritual freshets of campaign rhetoric in primary season they have never advertised themselves as anything other than reliable guardians of the basic Business Round Table agenda that defines the programmatic vision of 99.9 per cent of all American politicians....
No one has yet written particularly well about the Clintons, probably because the appropriate tone--Mencken's comic savagery--was devalued by Bill's assailants on the right. Obsessed by Bush, the liberals cannot see Clinton for the light-weight scoundrel he was and have reinvented his terms in the White House as a golden age, whose possible sequel under the aegis of President Hillary Clinton they eagerly await.
http://counterpunch.org/cockburn09292007.html
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 20:40 (sixteen years ago) link
had to check the date on that
― gff, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 20:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Alex Cockburn doesn't like the clintons, part 235
― kingfish, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 20:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Cockpunch
― milo z, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 20:48 (sixteen years ago) link
the Clintons WERE tailor-made for Mencken though.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 21:28 (sixteen years ago) link
timber and chicken barons
I know what career I want to get into. "I am a very prestigious chicken and timber baron. Carriage driver, take me to the Clintons' so they can polish my shoes."
― Abbott, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:20 (sixteen years ago) link
the last time i read mencken's obit of william jennings bryan i sort of wished mencken had lived in a different era so he could've written the exact same thing - only about someone else. bryan was really a great man compared to the shitheads we get these days.
― J.D., Wednesday, 3 October 2007 05:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Dud: "There's nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."
Everything else pretty classic.
― roxymuzak, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 05:34 (sixteen years ago) link
oh, just classic. from an irish/european perspective, the question looks a little silly.
― darraghmac, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:00 (sixteen years ago) link
But wasn't this said in the context of Tim McVeigh & the Turner Diaries and Newt wanting to drown Social Security in a bathtub? After all, if you hate the Constitution but love "The Country" then you are at least a dipshit nationalist and probably a proponent of the Unitary Executive--an American Fascist.
― mulla atari, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:08 (sixteen years ago) link
The quote works if by "government" he means "system of government" rather than "current administration"
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:12 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.gopunditgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/clintonrage.jpg
"AH KNOW WHAT I SAID. Y'ALL ARE JUST SITTIN' THERE SMIRKIN"
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:15 (sixteen years ago) link
But that was Chris Wallace, whose father obv. did not whip enough.
― mulla atari, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
COCKBURN: POLITICIANS CORRUPT
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:24 (sixteen years ago) link
especially the ones Good Dems come over
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Good Dems = people for whom it is more important to wrest control away from the current administration than to look smart
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Everything sure is gonna change forever on 1.20.09, YUP YUP
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:50 (sixteen years ago) link
Lots of shit still being wrong = everything stays exactly the same, yup yup yup
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 14:54 (sixteen years ago) link
"My dislike for him stemmed from his discrediting of something precious to me: the alliance between the anti-war and civil rights movements of which he’d been a vestigial member in the 1960s, and which was my formative politics. The way he cashed that in, lied about whether he was a draft-dodger; the way he smarmily pretended to be more in favour of civil rights than he had been at the time, the way he cheapened everything. He was nothing but a cynical, self-seeking, ambitious thug, and the realisation that this would be the closest that my class of ’68 would get to the top job gave me a terrible sickening feeling."
― and what, Friday, 25 April 2008 20:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Ah, Hitch.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 25 April 2008 20:38 (sixteen years ago) link
It's the only thing in that interview which didn't chilll me to the bone.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 25 April 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link
what interview
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 25 April 2008 20:48 (sixteen years ago) link
prospect mag interview
― and what, Friday, 25 April 2008 20:52 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10157
well that was depressing
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 25 April 2008 22:08 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm not sure what that even *was*
― Other, Friday, 25 April 2008 22:10 (sixteen years ago) link
― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Wednesday, 3 December 2008 21:41 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^ reminiscent
no way is clinton the smartest pres since jefferson
― J.D., Wednesday, 3 December 2008 22:07 (fifteen years ago) link
main similarity is they both banged the hired help
not sure what qualifies Jefferson as "smartest" to be honest.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 22:08 (fifteen years ago) link
He had some novel political ideas he cribbed from Montesquieu and the Greeks, was the ideal generalist, was our best president-as-writer until Lincoln, and served great wine at dinner. That's enough.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 3 December 2008 22:13 (fifteen years ago) link
truly a renaissance man
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 July 2019 18:42 (four years ago) link
"and nuke people" was the guy who came after him, to be fair
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 8 July 2019 19:08 (four years ago) link
the development vs the use
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 July 2019 19:09 (four years ago) link
i tend to think Roosevelt would've used it as well
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 July 2019 19:10 (four years ago) link
the actual Progressive movement gave us eugenics and prohibition. nukes seem very progressive in that sense
― Vape Store (crüt), Monday, 8 July 2019 19:27 (four years ago) link
there's a lot of debate over how much perot affected the outcome of that election but i think it's fair to assume bush wouldn't have done as badly (at least) without him in the race.
I think there's consensus, though, that Clinton would have won with or without Perot. If you throw Perot's 19,743,821 votes back into the mix, Clinton would have only needed a little over 35% of them to win the popular vote.
Which doesn't, admittedly, take into account: 1) the electoral college, 2) how Perot affected the debates (quite a lot, at least one of them), and 3) the fact that Perot hated Bush and zeroed in on him the whole way.
But I assume Clinton would have won a plurality of Perot's votes--who were mostly, as I remember it, people angry at Bush for breaking his tax pledge and various other things--making at least the first point moot.
― clemenza, Monday, 8 July 2019 19:28 (four years ago) link
Perot's spoiler effect was essentially nil - he ended up drawing support evenly from each candidate.
― One Eye Open, Monday, 8 July 2019 19:40 (four years ago) link
Everyone would have used nukes
― Frederik B, Monday, 8 July 2019 19:46 (four years ago) link
Not long after Clinton unpacked his things in Chappaqua, his successor was presiding over a sputtering economy, increased poverty, and yawning deficits.
I feel like there was an important historical event that's being elided there... can't quite put my finger on it....
― One Eye Open, Monday, 8 July 2019 19:47 (four years ago) link
For whatever it's worth, in 1996 when Perot's votes dropped from 19% to 8% - the Republican vote went from 37% to 40%, Clinton's vote went from 43% to 49%.
― Screamin' Jay Gould (The Yellow Kid), Monday, 8 July 2019 19:47 (four years ago) link
^^^ exactly
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ross-perot-myth/
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 8 July 2019 20:07 (four years ago) link
maybe he'll end up in prison. that'd be p cool.
― A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will), Monday, 8 July 2019 21:08 (four years ago) link
A friend and I were talking about the convention yesterday: going to take a wild guess that WJC is kept well hidden from view this year.
― clemenza, Thursday, 23 January 2020 02:43 (four years ago) link
and what of Lucretia?
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 23 January 2020 03:33 (four years ago) link
there might be a video tribute to Epstein and Weinstein if Biden's the nominee, ya never know
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 23 January 2020 03:38 (four years ago) link
The woman from the bombastic Blood, Sweat & Tears song? I don't know.
― clemenza, Thursday, 23 January 2020 03:38 (four years ago) link
Bombastic Rodham
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 23 January 2020 03:47 (four years ago) link
Don't forget the time his spouse met personally with Putin at his private compound before taking $500,000 for a speech to Renaissance Capital in Moscow. Oh, wait, that was the Clintons. https://t.co/NMwY76eJF5— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 23, 2020
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 23 January 2020 12:51 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/YsfBoQf.png
― calstars, Saturday, 25 April 2020 03:24 (four years ago) link
I see how this is generated -https://www.kapwing.com/explore/bill-clinton-album-challenge-meme-template
- but where does it originate? Did he pose with actual LPs originally - when, and what were they?
― the pinefox, Saturday, 25 April 2020 10:38 (four years ago) link
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bill-clinton-swagAccording to this the original is a photoshop to begin with (from an onion piece from 1999!) so no, he never posed with any records
― Microbes oft teem (wins), Saturday, 25 April 2020 10:42 (four years ago) link
In the onion article they are all Joan Jett lps
The image definitely has that janky onion photoshop feel
― calstars, Saturday, 25 April 2020 10:51 (four years ago) link
Yes. In fact I originally thought it was fake - thanks for confirmation.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 25 April 2020 11:06 (four years ago) link