Video of Bill endorsing Obama
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
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Damn. As much as he makes me crazy, I can't think of anybody, on either side of the aisle, who's got such a gift for explaining policy and making it real.
At last - a politician explaining in layman's terms why supporting the bailout is good for the country! Why does it seem that only politicians who are not running for office can display this courage (though Obama has made a decent stab of it in the last few days)?
Clinton fans? Here? Is this video going to reduce poor Lady de Rothschild to tears? Or has the market already done that?
THIS is why bill clinton matters.
THIS it makes no sense to argue that bill clinton is really not that important.
the boy is BAD!!! i watched his speech right after watching obama's speech this morning and it was no contest.
he explains the shit in a way that obama can only dream of explaining things.
take notes, barack...
and put aside your pride and lay out an itinerary for clinton that will have him busy every day of the campaign, from this point forward.
I thought you all hated and despised Bill Clinton because he was a racist and a traitor to the Democratic Party and Obama should tell him to go fuck himself?
Go troll elsewhere Libertarian.
Someone somewhere mentioned Sarah Palin wasn't a brilliant human being. Put your cape on and sort it out.
The point that I made a couple of days ago was that Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee and that means that the Democratic party elite and the Democratic party activists are his cheerleaders until election day. This is what you do and everyone who has ever worked for or volunteered for or in any way represents a political party understands this.
Bill Clinton's recent interview where he ponders his love for McCain was inappropriate because of his standing within the Democratic party.
However, Bill Clinton stumping for Obama in this video is Bill Clinton showing how it's done. This is exactly what the Democratic party elite is supposed to be doing right now. Exactly.
Bill is just that kind of guy, isn't he? He can be so infuriating and then turn around and be just so damn good.
I hope he keeps doing this. Bill is a great speaker, and people listen to him.
on a personal level, i never really liked clinton.
i always thought he was a phoney who would sell out his mother if it benefited him politically.
(at least i realized this after his first couple of years in office.)
but, i have always appreciated his genius.
what he does, he does as well as anybody alive.
period.
and i think that obama has gotten caught up in the same BS personal stuff that caused problems with the gore and kerry campaigns, to everyone's detriment.
clinton is probably a vain, insecure a-hole, when dealing with him on a personal level.
so other politicians get their back up and say, f@#k you, bill clinton, i don't need your sorry butt.
so they don't exploit what he can bring to a campaign.
gore and kerry and now obama have gotten caught up in that dynamic. which is very understandable, on a personal level.
everyone needs to grow up and put all that stuff behind.
clinton can help obama win this election. plain and simple. obama should use him as much as he can.
btw, i've consistently argued that clinton should be a very important actor in this election.
no change here.
Points to those who speculated the McCain ad with Clinton doing his nonpartisan analysis would get Bill off the fence and out there campaigning.
He's good at this. He can run the subliminal "weren't the 90s great, economically?" thing while explaining this mess. Though contra Frankie d I thought Obama did well with his "At some point you have to stop venting about how careless your stupid ass neighbor is, leaving his stove on all the time, and put out the fire at his house before it starts burning down your own house."
I have a close relative who worked with every president from Carter through Clinton and so had many exposures to Clinton (in his capacity as President) over the years. This relative has always been forthcoming with his insight at family gatherings.
To put it simply, this relative felt that Clinton was one of - if not the - most brilliant people he had ever met, and that he could have been the greatest president in U.S. history, if not for the fact that he was "a moral degenerate". Obviously, the Lewinsky scandal plays a major role in that assertion, but its not the only factor. Clinton's temper and ferocity was apparently legendary.
Libertarian
You are trolling, and thus toying with deletion and banning. You won't be warned again.
deborah,
i agree that obama did well with that one analogy.
what is remarkable is that those moments are so rare.
and i think that it is intentional.
i think that he intentionally chooses to present in the kind of cold, professorial tone he uses. it makes it harder to "negrofy" him.
i just think that it is possible to present in a fashion that makes him appear to be as intelligent as he actually is, while presenting a side of himself that is similar to what clinton shows.
we see that side of obama every once in a while, and it is refreshing and it tells me that he really does have it in him.
trust me, as an african-american professional who has worked my entire life in overwhelmingly white environments, i understand exactly what obama is trying to do.
i happen to think that america would respond much more positively to a looser, more informal, more personable obama. an obama who joked and laughed more and showed emotion and sometimes got mad, when normal people would get mad.
i want obama to be obama, not this hesitant, stiff lecturer he appears to be most often.
Oh really?!
I seem to remember you, yourself posted a comment asking why the fuck you should care about Bill Clinton and that the majority of posts on that thread considered him sleazy and irrelevant an opportunist and that Obama didn't need him and that at least one poster mentioned his inability to keep his dick in his pants.
I guess that doens't count as trolling though because that poster is an Obama supporter.
By the way, it would be really nice if you could spell check and grammar check your postings here on The Atlantic Monthly, I doubt I am the only person who has noticed you make a lot of mistakes. And banning me won't change that, buddy.
Enjoy!
Libertarian,
Thank you for the critique.
T.
I'm not sure what's funnier Lib, you throwing a hissy fit or this:
from someone who seems to make a spelling error almost every other post - doens't in this post, it's delightful hypocrisy completely in line with your shilling for McCain while using that specific nom de plume.
Enjoy!
The difference between me and Ta Nehisi is that I'm an anonymous nobody posting on this blog and he has his name on a blog for The Atlantic Monthly which has one of the most storied histories of any magazine in the country. I would think it would be a point of pride for anyone given such an opportunity to make sure whatever they were posting was well written.
Me, I'm a nobody, a troll, a fake libertarian, so who cares if I can spell?
You people crack me up.
It had a storied history - Michael Kelly did to it what happened to him in Iraq, frankly. TNC is probably the best thing on here, which isn't meant as damning with faint praise.
And you've been throwing the biggest tantrum about Sullivan, but now spelling is a huge issue? Ambinder does it all the time, and usually doesn't bother to correct it.
You're upset. It's ok, don't blame the spelling. Here, come have a hug.
Of course, F. Scott Fitzgerald couldn't write a sentence without spelling two words wrong.
If you're looking for perfect grammar, stop looking to blogs for your reading pleasure. Pick up a the Times or the Journal which actually have, you know, copyeditors. Part of what's great about blogs - especially the ones at The Atlantic like Coates and Sullivan's - is that they are unfiltered and unedited. Which means they will, by their nature, have some grammar or spelling mistakes from time-to-time. If you don't get that, you simply don't "get it."
As for Bill Clinton, that was a great speech in that video, and that is the good Bill Clinton, and more evidence that he is the most talented politician of his generation (not that any more was needed).
And I say that as one of those who pretty much despises the man. He's a liar who sullied his office and let down the entire country, and besides that was happy to sell out what was right for political expediency EVERY SINGLE TIME!
Brilliant man, brilliant politician and political tactician, and empathizer in Chief, still the best at that today. And I believe empathy is important.
But I'm sorry, getting blowjobs from interns in the Oval Office? Really? Putting the entire country at risk of blackmail? Standing up and lying about it repeatedly, under oath? Having his wife go up and slander people like Lewinsky and Flowers? Sorry, I don't judge people for what they do in their own homes, that's their business. But in the Oval Office? Unacceptable.
As to Bill's race-baiting in the primaries - again, he is not a racist in the normal sense, but simply used race for his own/his wife's political expediency.
Anyway, the man is brilliant, but he's a menace. And history will show that the reason America and the world were forced to live through the W Bush era - a disaster on every front with war, economic collapse, Katrina, torture at Gitmo and Abu Graib - is because Bill Clinton sold out his party, his country and the Presidency of the United States for a blow job.
Talk about tragic flaw. Too bad it fucked the entire country.
I figured Bill Clinton would wait until after McCain visited his Global Initiative thing to come out swinging for Obama. Does anyone really think that Bill Clinton would prefer to see John McCain elected President? No way. And unlike Gore and Kerry, Obama is a charismatic guy who doesn't need to worry about Bill Clinton stealing his thunder. I say keep Bubba out there every day till election day. As long as he stays on message, he's an incredible asset.
Clinton is good with the stump speeches, but he praises McCain and Palin entirely too much for a surrogate who's supposed to be on message. You didn't see Carly (whatever happened to her?!) praise Obama/Biden at all.
I'd rather he go somewhere, sit down, and be quiet while actual Obama supporters put in the work.
There is the other possibility that given the huge recent surge in the polls and McCain self-destruction, WJC now thinks Obama is a lock, and he's going to make sure he was seen supporting the new President and Dem figurehead.
Libertarian,
1. Bill Clinton was being an asshole on Larry King, David Letterman, and whatever that other conference he was at the other day. He wasn't being helpful to the campaign.
2. Bill Clinton gave a great speech in that video. That sort of thing is helpful to the campaign.
3. You are an asshole.
1 and 2 aren't mutually exclusive. Each one deserves its on post with different commenter reactions. This isn't hypocritcal in any way. If Bill Clinton kept saying great things about McCain while not supporting Obama enthusiastically, then the original point stands.
"Does anyone really think that Bill Clinton would prefer to see John McCain elected President?"
Ummm...yes.
"WJC now thinks Obama is a lock, and he's going to make sure he was seen supporting the new President and Dem figurehead."
I think we're getting warmer.
C'mon TNC,
He's pretty good here. Definitely does the best succinct communication on this issue, of the DOZENS of people explaining this situation, in an easily graspable way.
Glad you posted this - hadn't seen through the whole video, so liked getting a chance to watch it.
As was said above - in terms of ability to easily explain complex subjects simply (and correctly), no one is better. Including Obama.
I believe that - while also believing that Obama, because of the lack of what we'll call "personal issues" with Clintion - may well be a more effective executive.
We'll have to see - but that's what I hope to be the case.
"The difference between me and Ta Nehisi is that I'm an anonymous nobody..."
No argument here. Why don't you gather your bearings and come back to this discussion at a later time.
Frankie D: I believe the key to a looser, funnier, occasionally angry Obama is to get Alan Keyes up there. Might be worth a shot in the last debate for McCain; why not?
deborah,
now that would be a hoot.
alan keyes standing in for john mccain!
the entertainment factor would definitely increase!
i hate his politics, but keyes is entertaining as heck, cause he's crazier than a loon!!!