Bill's Girlfriend? Obama "Sliming" Hillary?

Let's make a major effort to support Republican congressional candidate Dana Walsh. I am going to put up on every blog (and I have a bunch) an appeal to send a contribution to Ms. Walsh. She's pro-military and running against Cindy Sheehan and Nancy Pelosi, "the witches of the West." I hope a whole lot of people online will feature Dana Walsh at: http://danawalshforcongress.com. Her web site is terrific. It has pics of Sheehan and Pelosi playing huggy-bear with dictators (Chavez and Assad). Please contribute what you can.


"She sounds like she's planning a coalition government. The two of 'us" are going to run this together." (David Gergen of CNN on Hillary Clinton)


Gina Gershon, actress linked romantically in Vanity Fair article to former President Bill Clinton. The article was written by Todd Purdum, who is married to Clinton's former press secretary, Dee Dee Myers. Yikes! Somehow, the Botoxed lips don't work for me. However, a friend in Ambridge said of Bill, "I can't believe it. As he gets older, the girlfriends get better looking."




Bulletin: Tomorrow (Wednesday) I'll talk about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and what lies ahead for her. If I had a crystal ball, I'd predict that -- in 2012 -- Mrs. Clinton would be running for President . . . against Vice-President Sarah Palin. Hey, stranger things haven't happened, I admit, but we paddle along nowadays in uncharted waters. The following are Bill Clinton's comments about how the Obama campaign and its surrogates have been "sliming" (nice word, Bill) his wife.





"The editor of Esquire— he sent us an email yesterday and said it was the single sleaziest piece of journalism he'd seen in decades. He said it made him want to go take a shower and he was embarrassed to be a journalist when he read it."





"You know he [Todd Purdum] didn't use a single name, cite a single source in all those things he said. It's just slimy. It's part of the national media's attempt to nail Hillary for Obama. It's the most biased press coverage in history. It's another way of helping Obama.





"They had all these people standing up in this church [Barack's now-former church, Trinity United] cheering, calling Hillary a white racist, and he didn't do anything about it. The first day he said 'Ah, ah, ah well.' Because that's what they do— he [Obama] gets other people to slime her. So then they saw the movie they thought this is a great ad for John McCain— maybe I better quit the church. It's all politics."





"It's all about the bias of the media for Obama. Don't think anything about it."



Steve adds: I doubt we've heard the last of this. On Dee Dee Myers: Clinton did appoint her press secretary, but decided relatively soon that she wasn't up to the job. I thought she was (and is) a capable PR person. Apparently, she was very hurt by President Bill tossing her under the bus, but she's avoided trashing him.




Do I believe McCain supporters should use Bill Clinton's comments against Obama? I sure do. Mrs. Clinton has portrayed Barack Obama as a man not at all ready to be President. She should be reminded of her comments -- and so should Obama.

Note: I'm putting up the following column from my national blog because it's relevant to the concerns of this site.

The pundits last night didn't really "interpret" Mrs. Clinton's "concession speech" (more properly, her "non-concession speech"). Instead, they mainly had a befuddled look on their faces. Some wondered if she was not perhaps launching the first shot in her 2012 campaign for the presidency. (I suggested that the next presidential election -- the one after this year's -- might end up pitting Senator Clinton on the Democratic side against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the Republicans. (In this scenario, President John McCain would have -- as we used to say in business -- "elected to take early retirement.")


Of course, the major question the Senator left is whether she wants (expects?) the vice presidential nod. CNN"s David Gergen suggested that Mrs. Clinton seemed to be indicating that she wanted Senator Obama to agree to some sort of "coalition" government -- or perhaps a co-presidency. On that point, what about a "troika," that would have three equal parts: Barack, Hillary, and -- of course -- Bill?


The problem with Hillary as a vice-presidential nominee is this: she has supplied the Republicans with all sorts of ammunition. Famously, she once said, "I have a lifetime of experience; Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience; Senator Obama has a speech [against the Iraq War] that he delivered in 2002." When Obama runs against McCain, he will hear those words used in ads -- again and again and again.


Mrs. Clinton's slogan in her campaign was "Ready on Day 1." She has implied that John McCain would also be ready to serve as President on Day 1. Of course, her words mean that Obama would NOT be ready. If she thought the Illinois Senator had the appropriate seasoning (and as Prince Hamlet said, "The readiness is all"), then her slogan would have made no sense. Bill Clinton said on June 2 that the Obama campaign was "sliming" his wife.


Again, if Hillary Clinton accepts (the proper word may be "seizes") the vice-presidential nod, Bill Clinton's words just might ring throughout the fall campaign. The former President indicated that Obama is relying on "surrogates" to hurl mud at his wife.Are Hillary and Bill Clinton really ready to mend fences with Obama? Are they willing to say, in essence, "all is forgiven, Barack. We really didn't mean all those nasty things we said about you."


Is this to be a ticket that contains a undertone of the following: "It's true that I said Barack wouldn't be ready on day 1; however, since he will have me with him (in the White House? perhaps the Lincoln Bedroom?), he won't have to worry about not being quite ready for prime time."


And what would the presence of Mrs. Clinton on the ticket do to Obama's seminal message of change? In fact, the "Billary" triplex would be a continuing reminder of the ghosts of American politics past. Barack would learn that it's impossible to fire a vice-president (or a former President)

.For Senator McCain, campaigning against an Obama-Clinton team might not be the daunting task it appeared to be yesterday. The Republican message -- one of them -- is going to highlight Obama's unsuitability for the highest office. And the main "spokesperson" for that position might not be John McCain, but rather Hillary Clinton -- with occasional assists from her husband.

Let the games begin!