Bill is going to bat for Hillary, and using his old technique of the brazen, shameless lie. Tell a huge lie, go on the offensive, change the narrative, win the news cycle. It old-school Clinton. But he just doesn’t seem to pull it off anymore:
“Breathtakingly” misleading. That’s what former president Bill Clinton called a question Tim Russert asked his wife at this week’s Democratic presidential candidates’ debate. And boy was he mad.
“The implication was that in the last few weeks since she’d been a candidate, I had endeavored to cover up records involving her. You agree with that? That’s what people thought when they heard that question,” Clinton said. “Here are the facts.”
He asserts the letter in question is five years old, involves Hillary only incidentally and requests that the National Archives speed up the release of certain documents, not slow it down. Read more about the controversy here.
Clinton made the comments during an appearance Friday morning on the Microsoft campus with CEO Steve Ballmer. To hear Clinton’s impassioned defense in his own words, watch this video by P-I reporter Todd Bishop.
UPDATE: Paul Lindsey of the Republican National Committee responded to Clinton’s comments this afternoon:
“The only thing that’s breathtakingly misleading is Bill and Hillary Clinton’s continued distortion of the facts,” Lindsey wrote in an e-mail. “All this takes is for the Clintons to release the documents related to their time in the White House instead of regaling the American people with more flimsy delaying tactics and excuses.”
video and quote from Seattle P. I. Blog
Via Dan Riehl,
Unless it’s absolutely over the top, it’s never the misstep that trips you up in politics; it’s the counter move that often proves to do the most damage. Until now, Clinton Inc. has been incredible. But they’ve now made two, if not more gaffs in response to issues arising from the recent debate – the viktum card and Bill spinning a web that just won’t hold. He doesn’t have his old stuff in this video. He just has old, while reminding people of the worst of his Presidency.
And with two serious challengers with nothing to gain by going at one another, the target is Hillary, while not even Bill seems able to bail her out. And attacking St. Tim (Russert) was a dumb move.
Bill Clinton says that one of the questions Tim Russert asked Hillary at Tuesday night’s debate was “breathtakingly misleading.” Let’s take a look at the question
And, yes, the media is taking note – here and here. Meanwhile, Obama seems to be on a bit of a roll with some very nuanced pieces coming out here and here. They won’t help him with the Right. But they don’t need to. Monday and Tuesday will be important.
You know, I used to look at Clinton brazening out lies like this and just wonder at the fact he could fool people or be so shameless and get away with it, but he looked so genial and hale and red-nosed and hearty he just kind of jollied people along with it.
Now, after 8 years, a heart attack, the prospect of being 2nd in command and no longer the center of attention, and now he’s lost all that weight and his hair has gone white, he just looks old and pathetic. He used to be able to pull off his act with his charm and “charisma”, I guess (it never worked on me) but now I think his act even wears thing on Democrats.
I couldn’t look at a Republican ex-president who had done the things he’d done and not think about the 8 years he’d squandered, with selfish, immature actions. I think a lot of liberals are sighing deeply that the only chance of winning in ’08 they have is to hold their nose and vote for Hillary! and then they get four more years of this bullsh*t.
You have got to be thinking a lot of them are hoping she’ll lose. Even if you hate Republicans, you can’t actually LOVE Hillary, and no one wins without passionate support from SOMEBODY.
I have said it before and I’ll keep saying it: Hillary will never be president of the United States. This kind of stuff is why. Bill can’t pull of his act anymore.
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