Did Bill Clinton Hurt Hillary’s Campaign?
USA Today appears to believe that Bill Clinton's rewriting of history may have damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign. He informed an audience in Iowa that he had opposed the war in Iraq "from the beginning." The media and people on both the left and the right side of the political spectrum immediately called him on it.
WASHINGTON — It was a partial clause in a sentence uttered in Muscatine, Iowa. But Bill Clinton's assertion Monday that he'd opposed the Iraq war "from the beginning" triggered outbursts across the political spectrum.From the left, the right and the media establishment, the judgment was the former president had committed a gaffe that could hurt his wife's presidential bid.
"Bill Clinton Rewrites History on Iraq?" wondered ABC News' Political Radar blog. "A political blunder of monumental proportions," Dan Spencer wrote at the conservative Redstate.com. At liberal DailyKos.com, the headline was "Bill Clinton's 'truthiness' problem."
Clinton's comment, reported by the Associated Press, came in a discussion of tax cuts for wealthy Americans during wartime. "Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers," he said.
The Clintons have a rather long history of twisting the truth to fit whatever agenda they have at the moment. Unfortunately, the internet makes that a little harder to pull off these days. Does it do some damage? I would bet it does, especially in Iowa where the loss of even a few votes could spell the difference between victory or defeat.
By syn, Thursday, 29 November , 2007 @ 8:23 am
When NOW embraced and protected notorious male chauvanist pig Clinton I began to sense that something was not quite right about who and what I had been supporting most of my life.
Unfortunately it took a barbaric enemy who attacked civilian buildings one September morning to help me realize that Liberals in general “have a rather long history of twisting the truth to fit whatever agenda they have at the moment.”
By martian, Friday, 30 November , 2007 @ 1:38 pm
Clinton is simply engaging in his favorite tactic that worked for him so well in the 90s - Say anything long enough and loud enough and BECOMES the truth - no matter how false it was originally. He can be excused for this for the simple reason that it WORKED for him through two presidential elections. It even worked for him during the Lewinsky scandal - half the country STILL believes that Clinton was impeached for lying about sex to the American people. Ask any liberal. I guarantee you most of them won’t even acknowledge that he was actually impeached for committing the CRIME of perjury in a COURT OF LAW.
Unfortunately, for him, the world of today is NOT the world in which he was elected. Rather than having to deal only with a very left leaning MSM that was perfectly happy to cover up as much of his lying as they could get away with, we now have a huge internet presence for the common citizen and some very avid bloggers who will grab anything like this lieing incident and run with it. It’s much harder for the Clintons to get away with this tactic anymore.
Will it hurt hillary’s campaign? Some, but not a lot, I’ll wager. Most voters have already made up their minds about Hillary. It might sway some of the undecideds but, at least in her case, I don’t think there ARE all that many undecideds.