Name calling? Smears? Remember "Slick Willie" and Willie Horton.

[pnwmom]

It was no accident that, when Clinton was running for President in 1992, Repubs gleefully called him "Slick Willie."

The name harkened back to "Willie Horton," the subject of a vicious political ad campaign just four years earlier. Willie Horton was a felon who committed a murder while on parole in Massachusetts -- and whose case was used in an advertising campaign that helped to defeat Michael Dukakis in his 1988 Presidential bid. Willie Horton was black, and his picture was spread all over the airways in a campaign designed to defeat the Democrats by playing on racist fear.

The Bushies and much of the patrician-minded media clearly regarded Clinton and his family as "white trash" -- and "Slick Willie" was designed both to evoke that and to make the connection with Willie Horton.

The MoveOn ad used name calling, yes. But it was also truth-telling -- and it is about time.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

1. Even some

DU'ers use 'Slick Willie' on this board.

[pnwmom]

3. Maybe they wouldn't if they understood its roots.

Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Scum conservatives changed the tone in America

Fuck them, they can not communicate in rational calm language. ray-gun did away with the fairness doctrine giving birth to septic tank dwellers like limbaugh and anyone on faux. They changed the tone, I am communicating with them in language that they can understand.

[calimary]

4. Me, too, BOSSHOG. Me TOO! If they can dish it out, they better damned well

be able to take it. Reap what you sow, republi-CONS. If you can't stand the heat, then STFU, until you can speak to us in civil tones. AND, btw, it might also help a great deal if you shitheads bothered to get our party name correct. It's the DEMOCRATIC Party. NOT the "Democrat Party." If you're going to be piss-ants, we will show you how it feels and sounds to be a piss-ant.

I don't mind slinging names back at them. In fact, I relish it! Taste of their own medicine. See how they like it. Turnabout IS INDEED fair play. And when they play fair, so will I.

[Rageneau]

5. "Slick Willie" was a term coined by Paul Greenberg of Little Rock

Greenberg is a right-wing political commentator for the state's big newspaper, the "Arkansas Democrat" (hah!). He started calling Clinton that back when Bill was still governor. "Slick Willie" actually means, "This guy is too slippery for us to destroy, goddamn him!"

Like the rest of the media, this newspaper hated Clinton because he threatened the status quo -- which is what newspapers so endeavor to maintain.

[Igel]

7. This seems reasonable.

The OP's explanation sounds like a folk etymology, reasonable sounding in the present given current beliefs and assumptions, but not correct.

I know that I still had some repub friends in '91 and '92, heard the expression, but *never* heard OP's reason cited.

[pnwmom]

9. The etymology doesn't really matter. The association does.

When the Repubs grabbed the name "Slick Willie" they can't help but have been aware of the connection to the Willie Horton name, and they took full advantage of it.

[pnwmom]

8. It may have been coined by him, but the Rethugs used it

knowing full well that it would link Clinton to Willie Horton.

[Perry Logan]

6. "Slick Willie" is an obvious rip-off of "Slippery Dick."

Republicans can't even come up with an oriignal insult. Of course, in Nixon's case, the name fit.

[2rth2pwr]

10. Slippery Dick?

Tricky Dick- it was an obvious reference to Moby Dick.

[Milo_Bloom]

11. Two wrongs STILL don't make a right. (nt)