A twist on a fairy tale
Once upon a time there was a very good politician who met another very good politician and didn’t seem to like him too much. CNN reports that this politician was very angry — possibly about the threat of being made a character in a fairy tale that wasn’t about him:
“Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen…It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, ‘Well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn’t know how you would have voted on the resolution? You said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war”…
“What did you think about the Obama thing calling Hillary the senator from Punjab? Did you like that? Or what about the Obama handout that was covered up, the press never reported on, implying that I was a crook. Scouring me — scathing criticism over my financial reports. Ken Starr spent $70 million and indicted innocent people to find out that I wouldn’t take a nickel to see the cow jump over the moon.
“So you can take a shot at Mark Penn if you want. It wasn’t his best day. He was hurt. He felt badly we didn’t do better in Iowa,” said Clinton. “But the idea that one of these campaigns is positive and the other is negative when I know the reverse is true — and I have seen it and I have been blistered by it for months — is a little tough to take. Just because of the sanitizing coverage that’s in the media doesn’t mean the facts aren’t out there.”
Some say President Clinton sounded too hot. Some say his wife sounds too cold (until just the other day). But the result of their efforts was just right, at least in New Hampshire. Senator Clinton won 39-36. We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out just who lives happily ever after.
Addendum: it is a little bit funny that President Clinton accused Senator Obama of flip-flopping on Iraq — “You said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war” — when President Clinton apparently did exactly the same thing.
Finally, more high quality, tasteful commentary here. (HT: Ace) And nutty questions about whether the results were rigged.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Almost three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Bill Clinton (ostensibly) lost his composure while being interviewed by Charlie Rose. I commented that this was surprising given his sang-froid during the 1992 sex scandals (not to mention the Starr investigation and impeachment).
Give the devil his due: in view of Obama’s subsequent momentum, the Clintons were absolutely correct to go on full red alert in mid-December.