B. Clinton: Hillary's next campaign would be different

[Omaha Steve]

Source: USA Today

David Jackson

If Hillary Rodham Clinton decides to run for president in 2016, her next campaign "will be better," her husband says.

"It'll be different," ex-President Bill Clinton told ABC's This Week. "Whether she's in it or not, they're all different."

The former president added: "The main thing you can't do, the great trick in any human endeavor, including politics, is you must learn the lessons of your mistakes and your failures without becoming a general who fights the last war, because every new encounter will be shaped by different forces."

While careful to say that former Secretary of State Clinton hasn't decided whether to run in 2016, Bill Clinton said her loss to President Obama in the 2008 Democratic Party was partly the product of "complicated" circumstances.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/09/29/obama-bill-clinton-hillary-2016-election/2890765/

[Katashi_itto]

1. Sure. Just like "Hope and Change" was different.

[JDPriestly]

2. Hillary Clinton, the machine's candidate. I don't think so.

Who cares whether her campaign would be different?

Her record is awful. Not only did she vote for the War in Iraq, she did so in spite of the fact that well informed sources like women in Code Pink who had gone to Iraq to investigate the pro-war verbiage themselves, warned her against it.

Hillary Clinton is on the side of Wall Street as is Bill Clinton. They always were. What did Hillary Clinton do to stop the flood of foreclosures that harmed so many ordinary Americans?

If Hillary runs, it's her record and her social and political connections, not her campaign that will defeat her. Hillary wrote (or supposedly wrote) a book entitled It Takes a Village. That book sits on my shelf. It was inspiring. But what about the American village? Hillary favors H-1B visas, outsourcing jobs, trade agreements that are detrimental to the interests of American workers and the American middle class and through these and other means furthers the disparity in wealth here in the US between the top 1% and the rest of us.

No, thanks. No to Hillary.

[closeupready]

23. +1000 to ALL of this.

Thanks.

[Whisp]

26. +++

Truth.

Plus the fact that she has many excruciatingly embarrassing moments that there is no talking her way out of.

Working on the progress the Obama Administration has done (and done under enormous odds against them) will not be carried forward by a Clinton. She will move things backwards and away from progress, like the 3/4 republican she is, and the 1/4 ca-chinger the whole family is.

[MrMickeysMom]

3. Yeah?

1) Check's in the mail...

2) I'll respect you in the morning...

3) Funny... I never saw the Kennedy assassination from THAT view ...

[Mass]

4. Bill. Shut up.

Particularly if all you have to say are stupid things.

Hillary has been part of each of his campaigns, so it is stupid to try to make it as if she had no experience in campaigning. And kind of insulting for her.

As for the complicated circumstances, does he mean he was the only " gifted people with great political skills" in 1992? I know modesty is not one of his gifts, but still. How incredibly condescending of him.

The best thing Hillary Clinton can do if she runs in 2016 is to keep her husband at bay. Not an easy task, but who knows? She may look better if she succeeds.

[Whisp]

27. Absolutely that Hillary would look better without Bill.

He is her albatross in the matter of elections.

It makes her look weak and taking orders from him the way things sit because Bill will forever hog the camera.

I swear, if Hillary got rid of him and went truly solo I would have to take another look at her in a much more positive light. For all her 'feminisms' (*cough) her husband is the anti-matter.

[CountAllVotes]

5. We need some new blood

I've had enough of Bill "Big Dog" Clinton and his wife Hillary.

I frankly believe that she is not the best candidate for the next president of the USA.

I like Elizabeth Warren a lot. I'd like to see her in the job -- someone new with some fresh perspectives and not someone that used to be married to a former president of the United States.

Hillary said she was done and wasn't going to run. Now she is going to run? I just don't get it at all and I'm also concerned about her health.

What exactly was that "episode" that downed her last year and had people in a panic? You never hear a word about that anymore.

As for Bill Clinton, I'm tired of listening to him.

[davidpdx]

14. I agree

I'm hoping Clinton and Biden will decide against running. I like Warren, but I'm not sure she'd run. At this point I don't see any reason to get behind anyone.

[Doctor_J]

6. She can pretend not to be a neocon/neolib.

That worked for the president in 2008.

[wyldwolf]

7. It's going to be great watching her smack the Republican nominee around.

[Beacool]

8. It will be great to see heads explode, and not just on the Republican side.

Bill was just responding to George's questions. He didn't bring up the subject on his own. Frankly, this place is becoming disgusting with their anti-Clinton crap.




Bill also said this during that interview:

Former President Bill Clinton weighed in on an increasingly likely government shutdown in an interview with ABC's 'This Week'. Clinton criticized Republican demands, as well as their obsession with Obamacare.

"I've never seen a time-- can you remember a time in your lifetime when a major political party was just sitting around, begging for America to fail?"

The House voted early Sunday to make major cuts and delays to the Affordable Care Act in exchange for continuing to fund the government. The bill marks the 43rd time that House Republicans have voted to defund or repeal Obamacare. The White House and Senate Democrats have already said that this kind of a demand is a non-starter.

Clinton also said President Obama was right to not take Republican demands seriously.

"If I were the president, I wouldn't negotiate over these draconian cuts that are gonna take food off the table of low-income working people, while they leave all the agricultural subsidies in for high-income farmers and everything else," he said. "It's chilling to me. The entitlement spending is going down as the unemployment rate drops and the economy grows. Half of the deficit's already disappeared. The rest of it just seems almost spiteful."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/29/bill-clinton-gop-government-shutdown-obamacare_n_4012148.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D383659

[wyldwolf]

13. "becoming" disgusting?

It's been that way for years.

If Hillary runs, they'll be some anti-Hillary leftward candidates, maybe our own tea party types, who people on DU will latch onto. Then, a few months in, thanks to some astute oppo research, it will be revealed that one or two of them have engaged in the same heretical behavior they despise Clinton for. Then, the anti-Clinton brigade will be in full denial and justification mode.

It's going to be quite entertaining.

[Beacool]

15. You're right, it's been like that for years.

You may have a crystal ball. It'll probably go down as you predict. We'll just have to tune out the background noise. LOL!!

[hughee99]

9. Ah, THAT's the issue, Hillary just needed more experience in a presidential campaign.

Sometimes I wonder if Bill listens to his own BS later and wonders if anyone actually believed it.

[Scuba]

10. It's not the campaigning Bill, it's the policies.

[Beacool]

11. As if Obama's policy positions in 2008 differed much from Hillary's.

[merrily]

18. She was for the individual mandate and he was against it.

That was actually a major difference at that time for some people.

I think the key for some, though, was her vote on the Iraq War versus his speech against that war.

[Beacool]

21. Key word here is "speech".

That's all he did, talk about it in one speech.

[karynnj]

22. What else could an Illinois legislator do?

I know that Bill Clinton argued there was no difference on their policy in Iraq - once Obama joined the Senate. That is true - and I wish Obama had had the guts to vote yes on Kerry/Feingold.

However, they now have both been on record on war and peace. It does seem - looking at the few public differences while she was Secretary of State, that she is more hawkish than Obama. She argued with Gates for a bigger surge in Afghanistan than he agreed to - and by all accounts, he was pulled to the surge by them. She was arguing for getting far more involved arming the rebels in 2011 and she (and through her Obama) encouraged the rebels - leading to the current mess. She was also more aggressive on Libya.

The odd thing is that I suspect that the thing that could help Hillary the most is if Obama and Kerry are unbelievably successful in ending the worst problems in the Middle East, Near East and Africa. The fact is that that area of the world has become more and more a tinderbox - and it started at least as far back as the Carter administration. The causes sometimes had nothing to do with the US - and many times were our fault. Some people ignore that trend and want to just compare whether things were better at the beginning of a person's term compared to the end. (Remember the idiotic comparisons in August/September 2012 asking if you were better off 4 years ago - before the crash that happened in September 2008?) We lose that comparison if it is taken as 2009-2012 - other than the US popularity numbers being far higher in many countries. However, if things are better by 2016, the comparison for most people will be the full Obama (not HRC) term.

If things are calmer, Hillary is likely to point to her role on woman's and children's issues - both of which interest more Americans than Syria or Iran. There she has an issue that she has worked on as a single lawyer, as AK first lady, as First Lady, as Senator and as SoS - all at a time where many think that electing the first woman President is important in and of itself. She will also be able to point to the improved poll numbers of the US in many countries from the Bush years.

It may be better to NOT re litigate 2008 - She lost. Instead realize that she is connected to Obama and the best thing for her is to have Obama succeed - especially on foreign policy.

[Beacool]

25. Yeah, I know how you feel about Hillary.

Kerry will solve every single M.E. problem that poor Hillary couldn't solve. Everyone will get along thanks to his sage advice and all things will be peachy by the end of 2016.

Please.......

[bunnies]

12. "complicated" circumstances

What the hell does he mean by that?

[JI7]

16. does this mean no Mark Penn ?

a guy who didn't know the rules of the Primary .

[roguevalley]

17. not only would we get stuck with her, we would get stuck with

him running around sticking his face in things and fucking up an already fucked up process. Bush and Clinton- GO AWAY!

[merrily]

19. I heard Shrum talking about this on Sharpton's show a while back.

How Hillary could phrase things if she ran again.

Part of me was annoyed that he thought phrasing things differently would be enough for the American voter.

And part of me was sad because I think he may be right.

I don't mean that personally to Hillary. I just mean it is sad to think how easily we can be manipulated in general by campaign strategists.

[blkmusclmachine]

20. An old dog can't learn new tricks.

HRC. Queen of the Third Way/Blue Dogs/"New" Democrats

JUST. SAY. NO.

[yurbud]

24. so she's going to repudiate the DLC policies? I voted for Obama over her because he seemed to be the

more progressive of the two.

If it gets down to two DLCers again, it will be third party time.