"Rand Paul keeps attacking Bill Clinton. Why?"

[applegrove]

Rand Paul keeps attacking Bill Clinton. Why?

By Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/02/07/rand-paul-keeps-attacking-bill-clinton-why/

"SNIP.....................................



1. It revs up the base. Bill Clinton's popularity may be at record levels but he remains someone that Republicans don't love. In a Gallup survey conducted in July 2012 that showed Clinton's favorable rating at 66 percent among the general public, a majority of Republicans (50 percent) had an unfavorable opinion of him. While Clinton is not as reviled as he once was by Republicans, if his wife runs for president in 2016, that old dislike will surge back -- and Paul's comments will endear him to a certain critical faction of the Republican base (read: social conservatives).

2. It's a way to get at Hillary. Paul, like everyone else with a brain, knows that Hillary Clinton is as strong a frontrunner for their nomination as Democrats have had for three decades and that the effort to define her in a more negative light than the public currently views her needs to start now. Check out these quotes from Paul's NewsMax interview: "What if that unsavory character is your husband? What if that unsavory character is Bill Clinton raising money for people across the country, and what if he were someone that was guilty of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior at the workplace -- which, obviously, having sex with an intern at the office is inappropriate by any standard." There's not a whole of subtlety in those comments.

3. It's who Rand is. As we saw demonstrated during his 2010 Senate campaign -- and, in particular, his answer(s) regarding the rightness of the Civil Rights Act -- Rand Paul is not someone who backs down from an argument easily or quickly. When asked a question -- and his responses on Clinton in the NewsMax and C-SPAN interviews were prompted by questions from the anchors -- Paul answers it, no matter whether or not he thinks it might cause some political controversy. He quite clearly prides himself on his willingness to defend positions and argue cases that many other politicians -- Republican and Democrat -- simply won't.

4. It's personal. It's easy to assume that any time a politician says or does something more than once, he/she has a grand strategy behind it. In truth, that's often not the case. One Paul ally admitted not really understanding the Senator's repeated emphasis on Clinton's past behavior. It's uniquely possible then that Paul simply doesn't like Clinton and in his heart of hearts believes the former president was let off too easy for his affair with Monica Lewinsky.




....................................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Maybe he's trying to bait the Clintons into pointing out that Monica Lewinsky

told a friend she was going to Washington and had knee pads. Which the Clintons or their surrogates cannot do.

[JI7]

2. he thinks he is going to be the PResidential Nominee for 2016

and Hillary will be the Dem nominee

[Cha]

3. All you need to know about ayn rand paul..

[rurallib]

4. 5. This guy is dumb as a box of rocks

and has a base equally as stupid.

[Rex]

5. He is so pathetic and delusional as to believe he will be running against her.

Then again, Rand Paul is no ordinary fool. No, he is a mega fucking tool of a fool. A fail fool

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Politicis as usual. It's the 'Murikan Way.

[Still Sensible]

7. Riles up the rabid, bat shit crazies... who

send checks! Clinton & Obama are the right wing targets that get those checkbooks open.

[Jesus Malverde]

8. It's a strange phenomena..nt