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Bill Clinton Suggests Obama Is The Establishment Candidate

January 15th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

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Former President Bill Clinton — who was President for eight years, and whose people took over the Democratic party and ran the federal government — introduced a new argument in the Nevada primary campaign today: Senator Barack Obama, who’s locked in a head-to-head battle with New York Senator Hillary Clinton there, is the real establishment candidate:

Bill Clinton, who carried Nevada in two general elections, urged voters Tuesday to buck labor endorsements for Sen. Barack Obama and support his wife in Saturday’s hotly contested presidential caucuses as the only Democratic candidate with the experience necessary to change the country.

The former president trumpeted New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s accomplishments while painting Obama as the “establishment” candidate who would bring only the “feeling of change.”

“One candidate says you should vote for me because I’ve not been involved at all in the struggles of the past and therefore we need to turn over a new leaf and (try) something absolutely new. And if you want the feeling of change, then that is the person you should support,” Clinton said in a 75-minute speech to about 300 people in a YMCA gymnasium.

“The other candidate says vote for me because I spent a lifetime making change, raising hopes and fulfilling dreams for other people,” he said about the former first lady.

Bill Clinton’s role in the campaign is something of a first. Usually a relative or former President let’s his/her preferences be known if someone close to them is running. But Bill Clinton is basically running as if he’s running for his own third term or as if he’s a Vice President candidate acting as dart-tongued “surrogate.” Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers had been higher until he was given free reign to turn her campaign into their campaign.

Buoyed by an endorsement from the largest union in the state, Obama had 32%, Clinton 30% and Edwards 27%, according to the poll conducted for the Reno Gazette-Journal with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Bill Clinton said he talked with many of the 60,000-member Culinary Union’s rank-and-file who intend to ignore the endorsement and vote for his wife.

“In this case the establishment organization is with him and the insurgents are with her,” Clinton said in his speech. He then asked for a show of hands from about 50 precinct captains in the audience and challenged them to stand up to the union’s leadership.

“They think they’re better than you are at identifying and physically getting people to their caucus sites. And I bet they’re wrong,” he said to cheers.


FREE POLITICAL ADVICE TO HILLARY CLINTON: You were GREAT in tonight’s debate and look GREAT when you deliver speeches. You are finding your voice and come across as someone extremely serious. Your husband is now becoming overexposed and interfering with your emerging image. Why not get a roll of the stuff below and use it on him?
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    • v
    "Bill Clinton’s role in the campaign is something of a first. Usually a relative or former President let’s his/her preferences be known if someone close to them is running. But Bill Clinton is basically running as if he’s running for his own third term or as if he’s a Vice President candidate acting as dart-tongued “surrogate.'"

    I actually wouldn't expect anything less from a former President whose spouse is now running. Since they are married I would expect to see them support each other. Whatever one's feelings are about Bill, if she's elected you get them both. A marriage is a partnership and it's great that Bill is on the campaign trail with her.

    It's actually a good strategy because they can cover twice the territory than the other candidates. Even though candidates' spouses campaign now it's not the same as an ex-President campaigning simply because everyone else is virtually unknown, by comparison.
    • ^
    • v
    "painting Obama as the 'establishment' candidate"

    And this was attempted because there are plenty of Democratic voters who believe it!

    Phffft
 
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