I do have to laugh at watching Bill Clinton give Democrats pointers on how to win a midterm election

[Drunken Irishman]

It's kind of like having Jim Zorn give you pointers on how to be a good NFL coach.

No offense to Bill, because he obviously was very personable and connected with voters, but c'mon!

He watched as his party got steamrolled in a midterm election. You'd think he, more than anyone, would understand the problems facing Democrats currently.

It's as if none of that happened, though, and it's really rather funny listening to Chris Matthews and Arianna Huffington discuss Clinton like he somehow revolutionized politics.

Face it, Clinton was in a worse spot than Obama currently and yeah, he was able to overcome it - but that's the point.

Bill Clinton alone can win elections. Bill Clinton is very much like Barack Obama. People like 'em both and that goes along way toward success in politics.

But the President alone can't lead a party to victory. You'd think Clinton would have figured this out in 1994 when he nearly blew any chance of re-election.

If it were as easy as Clinton suggests, I'm guessing Newt Gingrich would've never become a household name.

But it isn't. So it is kind of disingenuous of Clinton to tell the Democrats and Obama what they need to do.

Clinton means well, I have no doubt, but it's just hard to hear him lecture Democrats on what they need to do when he presided over, as president, the worst mid-term elections for the Democrats in modern American political history.

[Kdillard]

1. You summed it up nicely. Also unlike the media narrative we

are in pretty good shape to keep the Senate with a 52 seat majority unless later polls show a change and we have a good chance of keeping the House too if we concentrate on the toss up races which are winnable. Bill Clinton would have loved to have been able to say the same thing when he was President.

[karynnj]

7. Not to mention - Bill repeating Republican talking points on Obama and jobs is not helpful

Maybe Bill wants to be the only Democrat elected twice for the rest of his life.

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. Strange business politics. I expect after-timing is pretty much a constant.

A kind of Lewis Carroll world.

A particularly vicious old Tory called Enoch Powell, like so many others, had potentially an impressive degee of intelligence, but one almost entirely built on slurry, false assumptions. However, he did once (or 'one time', as you Americans are wont to say) make a very perceptive remark, namely, that all political careers end in failure. In the end, I think the World, the hidden, Leviathan string-pullers get, them from many different directions, some more obvious than others.

The Liberal PM, Lloyd George, the greatest British PM of the 20th century, ended up thinking, like so many others among the monied classes befoe WWII, that Hitler was working wonders for the German people. On the face of it, he was right, of course. Unfortunately, it relied on endless conquest, and a superior, imperial, worldy wisdom to the blind hatred of the Nazis.

[karynnj]

8. Powell's was a very interesting comment

If you think of it, there are very few politicians who retire to applause from their party and the country and never have their accomplishments questioned. So many have their careers end abruptly in either a sad defeat or, worse, a scandal where they have to stand before the world humiliated.

[paulk]

3. maybe the idea is that he learned something

from presiding over the worst mid-term elections for the Democrats in modern American political history.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. But he didn't really mention that...

He just said Obama has do this and that without any hint that he learned the hard way.

Then they go to Chris Matthews and Huffington who melt at what Clinton is saying and how essentially he would have been able to overcome something like this.

Uh...he would?

[TheWraith]

5. I'm sure he has learned, a great many things.

He pretty much acknowledged as much in his book, that he screwed up on a few big points: most notably obfuscating the healthcare reform proposal and pushing the "Assault Weapons Ban." Combined with the rising power of the Christian right and it's fusion with the Gingrich "revolution," those three things pretty much created 1994.

Now, whether he's learned enough to be offering advice to Obama... that's an open question. And one I would not necessarily approach from the assumption that he has.

[paulk]

9. I find the notion that a twice elected Dem President

who presided over the longest continuous expansion of the US economy ever, created 22 million jobs, etc, shouldn't be offering advice to Obama in the middle of the worst economic downturn in 80 years somewhat absurd.

I'm sure Obama is all ears...

[Drunken Irishman]

10. His advice is backhanded...

He suggests Pres. Obama doesn't offer hope to the people out there. That he isn't discussing this issue and instead, focusing on what he's accomplished and not accepting that many Americans are pissed and don't see success.

But that's exactly what Pres. Obama has been doing for months. Listen to his speech from Ohio a couple weeks ago. He doesn't just focus on what the administration has done - he's not glossing over the troubles.

He continually talks about what they NEED to do and yet, Clinton acts as if he's sealed himself in the WH and has no interaction with the people whatsoever.

Well that's where I have to laugh. Clinton seems to be spouting off what Obama needs to do, but doesn't actually admit Obama has been doing a lot of this.

It's not that Pres. Obama is failing at getting the message out there. That isn't why the Democrats are in trouble. The Democrats are in trouble because regardless of what the message is, people want results over anything.

Clinton saw that first hand in 1994. If you don't have results, you can only tell the American people what you plan on doing so many times before they tune you out.

Pres. Obama is right by going after the right who continue to attack his record. He is right to point to the fact we were losing 800,000 jobs a month when he took office and now, on average, we're gaining private sector jobs.

That needs to be talked up more because all the doom and gloom and discussion about what they want to do will fall on deaf ears if Americans don't think they're accomplishing anything.

If anything, that's what dogged Clinton in 1994. His presidency was struggling from a lack of any success. They were killed in the healthcare debate. Their stimulus, which he ran on, failed to gain any traction in Congress because conservative Democrats like Sam Nunn opposed it and what's more, the economy was still shaky.

Republicans ran on the idea that Clinton wasn't effective. That's exactly what they're running on now and just getting out in front of the television and telling the American people over and over again what you plan on doing as president in the next couple years isn't going to help.

Pres. Obama knows this. I'd think, after he went through it in 1994, Clinton would know this too.

It's about results. That is where hope lies.

Right now, Obama needs to continue showing the people what he's accomplished instead of focusing on what he wants to accomplish.

That will come and he can tell them his plans, but it's got to go together with his record or the Democrats WILL lose in November.

[paulk]

15. I don't agree that Obama is getting across to people

I'm not even sure he gets it himself - he "balances" out a good appointment like Elizabeth Warren with a few lousy ones, like this one:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/obama-nominee-jacob-lew-f_n_732594.html

and this one:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/perab/members/goolsbee

former Senior Economist at the PPI, conservative Dem thinktank

and his response to the woman who was "exhausted of defending him" struck me as out of touch -

"So there are a whole host of things that we’ve put in place that do make your life better. But, the bottom line is, if your 401(k) is still down substantially from where it was a while back, if you haven’t seen a raise in a long time, if your home value went down, depending on where you live, all those things still make you feel like, gosh, I’m treading water."

What 401k? That's been cashed in to pay the mortgage! What raise? You need a JOB to get a raise!

And what of his "accomplishments? What good does touting a healthcare bill that won't take effect for another four years do him?

The fact is - he fucked up. He was more concerned with how history is going to view his administration than in dealing with the pressing problems of the moment. Like the economy - and jobs, jobs, jobs.

He needs to focus his fire on the Republicans for obstructing the government, for running a bunch of whackjob teabaggers who don't have a clue how to govern - I think you're wrong - Obama doesn't have any accomplishments he can point to - if he makes himself the focus of this campaign, the Democrats will lose, imho.

[karynnj]

6. Not to mention - Clinton never had a race as hard as Obama had to win the nomination

The fact is that because Bush 1 was at about 90% approval in very early 1991 before his support spiraled quickly as the year went on, many of the strongest Democrats did not run - including Cuomo and even Gore. The media really let Clinton off the hock repeatedly on things like Flowers and the draft. On the latter, the media really hit Kerrey for bringing it up. Obama had to beat the Democratic establishment including the former President.

I agree with you on Clinton speaking of how a President can help with the mid terms - neither of his were all that good. In addition, Bill Clinton had a President at 33% in 1992 and Dole in 1996. He never had a tough election. The fact that 1992 was suspenseful at all is really surprising

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

11. and Bill used triangulation to screw congressional Dems

focusing on his own personal reelection and leaving the Congress in GOP hands.

the Dick Morris-crafted tactic was basically Bill saying "Hey, I'm not with those guys"

the thing no one noticed is that Clinton won in spite of the policy, and not because of it. Voters weren't clamoring for the GOP agenda. They kept Bill in as a check on Newt, who they rightly saw as dangerous nut.

[Drunken Irishman]

12. Very good point and probably why Clinton has hinted that Obama would be best served losing the House

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/19/ftn/main6881548.shtml">Clinton: Losing House Would Help Obama in 2012

Yet in a telling comment, when asked if President Obama's reelection chances might be improved if the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in the midterms, Mr. Clinton said yes.

The former president discussed the current state in Washington, in relation to his own two terms in office; Democrats lost control in Congress after a rise in anti-government fervor in 1994, and yet President Clinton was able to score several major legislative victories with the help of Republicans.

[niceypoo]

13. Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it

[Honeycombe8]

14. But who best to know what NOT to do than someone who made mistakes?

Just like John Kerry has admitted he made a mistake in not answering to the Swiftboat attacks early on.