It’s The Clintons, Stupid
Kristol spots a defining moment. Weekly Standard:
The defining moment of the Democratic presidential campaign so far came during the Des Moines Register debate, December 13, at 2:10 P.M. Central time.
Q: Senator Obama, you have Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser, State Department policy director, and Navy secretary, among others, advising you. With relatively little foreign policy experience of your own, how will you rely on so many Clinton advisers and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you’re promising voters?OBAMA: Well, the–you know, I am . . .
CLINTON (interrupting): [cackle] I wanna hear this [more cackling]
OBAMA: Well, Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me, as well.
As are we all. What we are not looking forward to is the prospect of Hillary Clinton in the spotlight, as the Democratic nominee. She might be easier to beat than Barack Obama or John Edwards. She might take positions that are a little less distant from this magazine’s views than Obama or Edwards. But the last few weeks have reminded us–and, we suspect, many other Americans–how little we should want the Clintons back on the center stage of American politics.
Meanwhile, Bill gets nervous. E&P:
NEW YORK In a surprisingly frank interview with Charlie Rose on his PBS show late Friday night, former President Bill Clinton declared that his wife was not only far better prepared to be president than her chief rival Sen. Barack Obama — “it’s not even close” — but that voters who disagreed would be taking a “risk” if they picked the latter.
Repeatedly dismissive of Obama — which could come back to haunt the Clinton campaign — the former president at one point said that voters were, of course, free to pick someone with little experience, even, he said, “a gifted television commentator” who would have just “one year less” experience in national service than Obama. He had earlier pointed out that Obama had started to run for president just one year into his first term in the U.S. Senate.
…
“I guess I’m old fashioned,” he said, in wanting a president who had actually done things for people.
Yeah, but that pretty much leaves the Dems without a candidate.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:16 am on Saturday, December 15, 2007
3 Responses to “It’s The Clintons, Stupid”
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December 15th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Exactly - I have never seen a group of candidates less prepared to run anything.
December 15th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
But the last few weeks have reminded us–and, we suspect, many other Americans–how little we should want the Clintons back on the center stage of American politics.
No truer words. But I’m not pleased by the continual slapfest, because I don’t want the Republicans to think they don’t have to try harder.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Oh, they’re prepared to win, it’s what to do after that they have no idea about.