One by One, Angry Liberals Turn Their Backs on Team Clinton
Bill Clinton speaks to a crowd in Independence, Mo., Saturday, on the campaign trail on behalf of his wife. (AP Photo)
Like lovers scorned, Bill Clinton’s longtime liberal supporters are walking out on him, slamming the door behind them and rebuking the 42nd president for his behavior leading up to last weekend’s South Carolina Democratic presidential primary.
Clinton’s base seems to be eroding fast as liberal Democratic stalwarts join up with Barack Obama, whose message of change seems now to apply not only to the Bush administration of the last seven years, but the eight-year Clinton administration that preceded it.
Obama’s biggest “get” was Sen. Ted Kennedy, who abandoned his neutrality in the presidential race and endorsed Obama over Hillary Clinton on Monday. While Obama insists the Massachusetts senator’s endorsement was not a repudiation of anyone, it was clear that Kennedy - along with his niece Caroline Kennedy and son Rep. Patrick Kennedy — had reached beyond the Clintons to pass the mantle of the Democratic party’s liberal wing to Obama.
And while the Kennedys may open the floodgates, they were hardly the first liberals to abandon the Clintons for Obama. In recent weeks the Clintons have watched many of their supporters drift to the young senator from Illinois.
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats’ 2004 presidential candidate, endorsed Obama recently. On Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius climbed aboard, the morning after she delivered the Democrats’ rebuttal speech to President Bush’s State of the Union address.
Even novelist Toni Morrison, who once called Bill Clinton the “first black president,” has come out for Obama.
Liberal criticism of the Clintons has come from inside and outside the Beltway, from former supporters and colleagues. It ranges from the thinly veiled to the blatant:
Robert Reich, former Clinton labor secretary, on his personal blog: “Bill Clinton’s ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former President, his legacy, or his wife’s campaign. Nor are they helping the Democratic party … Now, sadly, we’re witnessing a smear campaign against Obama that employs some of the worst aspects of the old politics.”
Leahy: “He is not helping anyone, and certainly not helping the Democratic Party.” (The Washington Post)
Columnist Nicholas von Hoffman: “By the time Hillary and Bill have finished with Obama the real man may be unrecognizable to voters in Iowa or any place else … If he can wipe enough of the Clintonian slime off himself, Obama may be able to come out from under and explain to the world that sometimes less experience is more and better.” (The Nation)
Columnist/Editor Jonathan Chait: “Am I starting to sound like a Clinton hater? It’s a scary thought. Of course, to conservatives, it’s a delicious thought. The Wall Street Journal published a gloating editorial noting that liberals had suddenly learned “what everyone else already knows about the Clintons.” (By “everyone,” it means Republicans.) It made me wonder: Were the conservatives right about Bill Clinton all along?” (The Los Angeles Times).
Columnist Maureen Dowd: “It’s odd that the first woman with a shot at becoming president is so openly dependent on her husband to drag her over the finish line. She handed over South Carolina to him, knowing that her support here is largely derivative.” (The New York Times)
Columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.: “That’s why the Clintons’ assault on Obama is so depressing. In many ways, Obama is running the 2008 version of the 1992 Clinton campaign. You have the feeling that if Bill Clinton did not have another candidate in this contest, he’d be advising Obama and cheering him on.” (The Washington Post)
San Francisco Chronicle: “One might think a man who struggled with the definition of ‘is’ and wagged his finger while lying on national television would not be in a position to accuse others of ‘fairy tales.’ But humility and statesmanship are nowhere to be found in the Bill Clinton who attacked Sen. Barack Obama in underhanded and unseemly ways.”
Al Sharpton: “But I think that it’s time for him to just be quiet. I think it’s time for him to stop. As one of the most outspoken people in America, there is a time to shut up, and I think that time has come.” (On The View)
Kerry: “I think you had an abuse of the truth … I mean, being an ex-president does not give you license to abuse the truth, and I think that over the last few days it’s been over the top.” (On National Journal radio)
Daschle: “… this backbiting, bitter give-and-take that we’re beginning to see more and more of, especially from the Clinton campaign. It’s wrong. Everybody know it’s wrong and it’s got to stop … It’s not presidential. It’s not in keeping with the image of a former president.”
Ted Kennedy: “With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion.”
Though the Clintons have been staring at a lot of backs recently, it’s not a full-scale rebellion. As Ted, Caroline and Patrick Kennedy endorsed Obama, three other Kennedys endorsed Clinton.
In a newspaper column Tuesday, former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kerry Kennedy wrote:
“We believe that (Hillary Clinton) is the strongest candidate for our party and our country.” They invoked President Kennedy’s ideals and the desire to give voice to the voiceless as they described Hillary Clinton.
The column made no mention of the candidate’s husband.
The Ted Kennedy, Patrick and Caroline endorsements only confirm their desire to keep the Kennedy Clan/Dynasty the “head” of the Democratic party. Camelot is long gone - talk about “old politics.” They accused Hillary of old politics when the internationally well-respected Madeline Albright stood behind her at the podium-it’s the old timers they said. Well, you can’t get any older than Ted Kennedy. If you look at the CNN picture on their webstory 1-28-08, it tells it all. Hillary is smiling and moving forward. Ted and Obama are both looking at Hillary with miserable faces and clearly either scared or jealous as hell. Ted is simply jealous of Bill and Hillary Clinton - it’s the Kennedys v the Clintons. Obama is simply a vehicle being used by Ted and Caroline Kennedy in an attempt to maintain any Kennedy importance that may remain.
Ted Kennedy’s judgment in Chappiquitic lost him the opportunity for the presidential bid-can you trust that judgment? Now he endorses a novice when we are in the middle of a war and on the brink of recession–it seems like that Chappiquitic judgment is resurfacing.
These endorsements are a desperate attempt to remain relevant.
Caroline Kennedy wants to vote for someone like her daddy, unfortunately, the poor girl never knew her daddy. Suddenly she wants to get involved in politics - only in an attempt to keep the Kennedy name alive almost 50 years after the fact.
Ted Kennedy says Obama’s inspirational - that’s wonderful, but the job needs to get done. There’s many people that have great ideas and are inspirational but do nothing about it. Take the would-be-inventor that had a simply great idea. He thought about it and thought about it. Then he was suddenly disappointed because he saw it advertised on TV. His problem is that he did nothing - something akin to voting PRESENT 140 times in the Illinois congress.
Ted and Caroline Kennedy have transparent selfish motives - it has nothing to do with Obama, they simply do not want the Clinton Clan to be more important than the Kennedy Clan. The problem - the welfare of our country hangs in the balance of these selfish personal motives.
Remember to vote for leadership and someone who has plan and works their plan.
Another fact I over looked. She said in this debate that we have to use clean burning coal to cut down the greenhouse gases. If your memory serves you right, it was her husband that made clean burning coal OFF LIMITS in the Western States, and the only other place on Earth that a similar type of coal exists just happen to be a country on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Members of that country just happened to make huge contributions to the Clintons.
Who would have thought that there could be such a coincidence?
After watching just part of tonights debate. I nominate Hillary for an OSCAR, the catagory - - -
Greatest B S performance in this campaign, what a fraud, what a phony. She is a Socialist by action, Democrat by name. I can’t say which is which–it’s too close to call.