Bill Clinton In Chicago: Occupy Wall Street Movement Can Create 'Good Positive Debate'

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

Former President Bill Clinton spoke Tuesday evening as part of Chicago Ideas Week at a sold-out Chicago's Chase Auditorium engagement.

In conversation with Time managing editor Richard Stengel, Clinton addressed a number of topics -- including the economy and Steve Jobs' passing -- but in the midst of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement, including a series of protests in Chicago, Clinton couldn't help but offer his opinion on the demonstrations.

That opinion seemed to be more favorable than the comments Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel shared at another Ideas Week event the previous evening. The former president went so far as to compare the protests to the Arab Spring.

"The Occupy Wall Street crowd basically is saying, 'I'm unemployed and the people that caused this have their jobs again and their bonuses again and their incomes are high again. There's something wrong with this country. This is not working for me,'" Clinton said, the Chicago Tribune reports. "So I think it can be a good positive debate."


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/bill-clinton-in-chicago-o_n_1007184.html

[tridim]

1. Debate with who? The Republicans?

:rofl:

[Kingofalldems]

2. Excellent. Looks like only repubs don't like OWS.

K and R

[No Elephants]

3. Lord, I hope the movement does not allow itself to be co-opted.

[JTFrog]

4. Fuck off Bill. You're a big part of the reason that OWS is necessary. n/t

[Plucketeer]

8. That's the GODS HONEST TRUTH!

Clinton go home! (and shut up)

[Maccagirl]

5. Excellent quote from the Big Dog

But actions speak louder than words...

[coalition_unwilling]

15. Clinton presided over the execution of a death row prisoner (Ricky Ray Rector) with

an IQ of approx. 70 during primary season in 1992, all to prove he was 'tough on crime.' So, yeah, I'd agree that actions speak way louder than words.

The USSC has subsequently ruled that execution of the mentally retarded constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is unconstitutional. No help for Ricky Ray Rector, though, sacrificed to Clinton's ambitions.

[leftynyc]

24. Going back 20 years

to trash Clinton is pathetic. If you think anything is going to get done without support from people like the former President, you are also delusional.

[cmkramer]

29. Nice try, but some of us know the truth here.

Rector murdered 2 people (one a police officer he had agreed to turn himself into) and then shot himself. That is the reason for his brain damage. He was not brain damaaged when he committed the crime.

[Po_d Mainiac]

6. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ring a bell, Bill? n/t

[No Elephants]

17. Don't forget NAFTA.

[GeorgeGist]

7. Still triangulating after all these years.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

[UpInArms]

9. Glass-Steagall, Bill?

Alan Greenscum left in charge of the Fed?
Welfare Deform?

Ah, Bill, having a fading memory is a blessed thing, no?

[PETRUS]

10. DEBATE?!?!?! uh-huh.... nt

[Muskypundit]

11. Thanks for NAFTA

Jackass.

[riderinthestorm]

12. Watch your back Big Dawg, You've said the forbidden words and you must pay.

Doncha know already when to quit opposing the PTB? Supporting OWS means you are really in the crosshairs now....

[No Elephants]

18. He put all of us in the crosshairs with repeal of Glass Steagall, NAFTA and DADT.

Not to mention the DLC, proudly ending "welfare as we know it," Dick Morris, and so, so much more.

His faux support of the protestors is laughable.

[me b zola]

13. Hey Bill, I'm waiting for you to say that NAFTA was disastrous

...and I want you to say it loudly.

[Iliyah]

14. Get them BILL

and please leave them y- - - - g alone - hehehehehhe

Just kidding

[me b zola]

22. I'm not sure what your post is saying

But if it is about blow jobs I don't give a rat's patooty about that. Quite frankly that was just part of the circus the rw drummed up and beat to death that kept the nation from debating the real issues, like NAFTA and Glass-Steagall.

[hulka38]

16. Patronizing tool

[DallasNE]

19. How Interesting

Just a couple of days ago I was reading an opinion comparing and contrasting Occupy Wall Street with the Tea Party and said to myself no way and concluding OWS is more like the Arab Spring. At first I recoiled from the thought because the Arab Spring was protests against various dictorships. That was, of course, an over simplification. What both groups were protesting against was those that call the shots on who get what, the have's and have not's. In the Arab countries it was the political dictator and in this country it is Wall Street.

[sabrina 1]

20. I don't think he gets it. It isn't only about jobs, that's a side effect

of the real problem. Its main thrust is the Money in Politics and how corrupted the system has become as a result of Corporate money.

We don't want a 'debate' with politicians any more, about what? The goals are clear, Corporate money must be taken out of our electoral system. This is the root of all the problems we have.

He is thinking we just want to talk? To whom? We tried to talk to Democrats and they called our ideas 'retarded', AFTER we gave them the job of implementing those ideas which they failed to do.

To the Republicans? That really is a crazy idea. The time for debate with the current power structure is long past. They didn't want a debate.

The debate now is among the people as to how to go about accomplishing the goal of removing Corporate money and influence, their lobbyists etc, from our political system.

Clinton was part of the problem, and he was intelligent enough to know better. Signing away Glass Steagal, allowing Corporations to take over the media, he was responsible for much of what led to today's problems. I stood up for him for years, and then one day I saw a photo of him with Bush Sr. He made no comment to those who had fought against Bush supporters on his behalf. He moves in circles that we do not, and his interests don't correspond with those of the people anymore. Maybe at one time they did, I can't say. If I did speak to him my first question would be 'why did you throw Brooksley Born out of her job and sign away Glass Steagal'?

[shockra]

26. I am disappointed by him sometimes too, but...

then I remember the fine line he has to walk. I think he's playing it cool. I certainly don't think that's the entirety of what he thinks.

As for seeing him act cozy with Bush, yeah that irks. But then I think about how much of that can attributed to mere survival. He has to play nice with the Bush Crime family because if they didn't want him alive, he wouldn't be. He denied Bush 1 a second term, and Bush 2 reversed as much of the good he had implemented as he could as soon as he took office, just out of spite. He's just a "hick from Arkansas" (and so's my mom, so I say that in jest). Didn't have the Chicago machine behind him or the love of the corporate media, and the Washington elite reviled the Clintons for crashing their town. I try to put it all in context.

He did some corporate-friendly things but still managed to do things for the people (while being hounded 24/7 by rabid Repubs). That took extraordinary toughness and I hope we're able to elect someone at least that good again. The Clinton Foundation is doing a lot of different types of humanitarian work around the world. The guy doesn't rest, and I think he's clearly more of a people person that a corporate one.

[woo me with science]

28. Beautiful post. nt

[workinclasszero]

21. Bill Clinton is the reason there is a need for OWS

He rammed NAFTA through and killed Glass–Steagall.

FU BILL!!!!:grr:

[Odin2005]

23. Fuck off you corporate tool.

[DonCoquixote]

25. Bill

YOU are a large part of the reason we did not vote for your wife in 2008, namely because you made it clear that you intended to revive the "two for the price of one" brain trust. As far as Obama, the reason he has disappointed us is because he acts way too much like YOU!

[NikRik]

27. The Clinton years !

All I knoiw is I remember during the Clinton Presidency ,almost everyone I knew and including myself where making money and working. Since Bush 2 most of them and once again including myself have seen everything go downhill, except the size of our debts.It seems to me that President Clinton deserves some credit for the economy and the over all condition of things during his watch over our country.
IMHO NikRik