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TOPIC: Obama and Bill Clinton: Frenemies (Townhall 6/13/10)
Jen the Michigander


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Obama and Bill Clinton: Frenemies (Townhall 6/13/10)
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http://townhall.com/columnists/SalenaZito/2010/06/13/obama_and_bill_clinton_frenemies

If you’re keeping score of who is better at getting Democrats elected this cycle, President Obama is 0-for-4 while former president Bill Clinton is golden at 2-for-2.

Last fall’s gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, and this year’s U.S. Senate races in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, proved Obama impotent at influencing voters.

Conversely, Clinton’s performances for Democrat Mark Critz in last month’s special election to replace the late U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., and for U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., in her squeaker of a primary last week, were nothing short of brilliant.

Villanova University political science professor Lara Brown says the Obama-Clinton relationship “is complicated. Both are politicians of enormous stature whose reputations are made daily in the competitive and constantly changing world of politics.”

Clinton represents the common-man, blue-collar-worker middle class – those who work hard and play by the rules, who view themselves as fighters who dig in and don't give up.

“Clinton also represents the pragmatic side of politics,” Brown said, “the side which does not adhere to ideological tenets, the side that is interested in winning.”

Clinton can be clumsy, not cool (although he liked to think he was just like Elvis, playing his saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show in 1992). According to Brown, that is “part of why many Americans feel like they can relate to him.”

Obama represents the party’s intellectual elite and ideological progressives. He is a cool hipster who knows about technology. (Remember, this is the guy who did not want to give up his Blackberry when he became president, despite security concerns.)

He is intellectually sophisticated and likes to surround himself with those at the cutting edge of cultural trends: musicians, artists, technology whiz-kids. He eats arugula, drinks Chablis, and has “date nights” in trendy D.C. restaurants.

Clinton is all about the heart and emotion; Obama seems to be about the brain and intellect.

Obama has never struck me as being exceptionally intelligent. What exactly does he say or do that makes people think he is so brilliant compared to all the other elites in DC? 

Clinton’s beliefs are quite the opposite, she says, and are similar to what makes Republican Sarah Palin resonate: “He believes that some of America's greatest wisdom and strongest spirit comes from those people who do wrestle with the joys and hardships of everyday life in ways that the intellectual elite believe are too mundane … to be meaningful.”

Obama's is the "coastal" part of the party – the secular, educated, wealthier side that, despite its ardent belief in helping others, rests on a noblesse oblige service-ethic towards those less fortunate.

Clinton's is the "fly-over" part of the party – the religious, hard-working, more middle-class side that believes in pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps with help, not a handout, from government.

If Obama passes off to Clinton the job of helping Democrats in the midterm elections (either because he is too busy or too unpopular in certain districts), then those Democrats may not be so willing to help him in 2012.

“Obama is eventually hurting Obama by employing Clinton to be his partisan wrangler in this election,” Brown said.

And yet, Obama is supposed to be so gifted?

Clinton, however, doesn't lose a thing: The more he helps Democrats, and the more successful they are, the more they will carry on his vision and his political legacy.

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freespirit


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And, the Come-back Kid wins again. Some really good points in this article. People do identify with Clinton, and they correctly believe that he understands them, their lives, their problems. Plus, they recognize that he has the raw intelligence and ability to solve the larger problems impacting their lives.

I agree, Jen, Obama hasn't demonstrated that he is super-intellectual. He seems to be well read, and can read a speech well, but no grand solutions are coming from his WH. Even if he had an IQ higher than Einstein's , his inability to even pretend to care about the plight of Americans makes him a poor fit for the position of potus.

The reason people feel that Bill cares about them is that he does. True empathy is hard to fake - especially for long periods of time. I seriously wonder if Obama has the ability to feel empathy for others. Sometimes people whose early childhood needs were unmet fail to learn to trust the world around them and the people in it. When that happens, they may not be able to develop the ability to experience empathy.

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Amy Dugan


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so many of these article compaing the clintons to obama and writing of needing the clintons to save our country.
i just posted another thread today

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Amy Dugan
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