Barack Obama, the unity candidate, has decided that the way to win the Democratic nomination is to tear down the presidency of Bill Clinton and divide the party yet further. Reagan good. Clinton bad. Where have I heard that before?
It was Obama's bad-mouthing of the Clinton presidency that spurred Wolf Blitzer to remind the Senator from Illinois that many Americans remember the Clinton years with fondness. The resulting emotional outburst of ear-splitting applause from the audience at the California Democratic debate was startling in its intensity.
Honest thoughtful critiques are one thing. Trashing our one and only two-term Democratic president in the past FIVE decades because you want to win votes is an act of sabotage that aids only the Republicans. You remember Republicans, the political players savvy enough to create narratives that catapult their presidents to mythic heroic status while vilifying ours as lowly failures.
No wonder Republicans are so fond of Barack Obama.
In yet another apparent effort to reach out to Republicans, the unity candidate sent this nasty little mailer out just before Super Tuesday. It reads: "8 years of the Clintons, major losses for Democrats across the nation." It blames the Clintons for Democratic losses during the 1990s. Chris Matthews is so salivating.
Blame the Clintons? I blame the GOP attack machine fueled by the well-heeled conservative infrastructure initiated way back in the 1970s. I blame the apathetic left, or the absence of the kind of progressive infrastructure sorely needed by Bill Clinton or any Democratic president.
Bill Clinton was an immensely popular and beloved two-term Democratic president who can boast a long list of positive accomplishments in spite of the fact that he governed in a rabidly conservative era in a conservative country and received precious little support from a largely apathetic left.
Increasingly the choice in this Democratic primary seems to be between the arrogance of youth and the humility of age. I vote for the humility.
Photo: President Bill Clinton soaks up the love in a shower of rose petals as he strolls through an adoring crowd of fans in India.
President Hillary
Obama Goes Negative
Yup, that’s right, Mr. Hope just went super negative.
Obama Attacks Bill Clinton's Prosperity Presidency
Hillary Clinton Super Tuesday News Democratic Primary Attack Politics Barack Obama Bill Clinton 1990s
