Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Bill Clinton Rips Mitt Romney For Being Too Much Like Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton, arguably the most popular pol in America today, is stumping with and for Obama on the campaign trail this week. From the LA Times:
"Nearly a week after President Obama stopped his campaign's momentum with a lackluster debate performance, former President Clinton sought Tuesday to help him recover by offering a withering new critique of Mitt Romney. "I had a different reaction to that first debate than a lot of people did," Clinton told nearly 2,000 supporters at a campaign rally for Obama and other Democrats. "I thought, 'Wow, here's old moderate Mitt. Where ya been, boy?' "
Team Obama has turned to Bill Clinton as they continues to struggle with the most predictable and telegraphed "pivot to the center" in the history of politics.  Many of the President's supporters are adopting the "Moderate Mitt" label that Clinton uses here as a pejorative, and outlining Romney's new moderate positions to prove that he has changed positions. Think Progress is a case in point:
"In a last ditch effort to win over undecided moderates, Mitt Romney is finally fulfilling his adviser’s prediction that he would become the “Etch-a-Sketch” candidate. During the first presidential debate, Romney started reversing positions he espoused all year while he was trying to placate the Republican base. Since the debate, he’s continued to shed his hard-line stances that alienated moderates. Here are 5 examples..."
It may or may not be "last ditch", but it appears to be working for Romney. Does it not occur to Obama supporters that promoting this moniker and Romney's new moderate positions make it much more likely that undecideds, centrists, independents, and moderates will vote for him? That the fact that he changes positions to adjust to the prevailing political winds and public polls is exactly what they want to see in a President?



Apparently not. Daily Kos is aggressively promoting this YouTube video showing Romney debating himself (H/T Mike K) :



While we did not have YouTube in 1992 when Bill Clinton ran for President, we did have newspapers  and political pundits:
[Click image to biggify]
 Paul Greenberg of the LA Times on October  2, 1992:
"The Bush-Quayle campaign compiled an extensive list of Bill Clinton's contradictory positions on everything from free trade to school vouchers, which is no great feat. They're all part of the voluminous record... Clinton vs. Clinton cold go on interminably. And often does. The Comeback Kid is never sharper than when he takes on the Democratic presidential nominee... Bill Clinton could have a two-man, maybe a three-man, debate of a wide variety of issues in this presidential contest all by himself. When accused of being a slick, unprincipled, double-dealing pol, he has an effective answer in this modern age: George Bush is another. "
Yeah... this line of attack didn't work out so well for the Bush-Quayle campaign either. And apparently the irony of Bill Clinton on the stump mocking "Moderate Mitt" - for being too "Clintonesque" is completely lost on Team Obama.

The parallel between Romney and Clinton's approach to political integrity was obvious to the Dividist when Romney was running for the Republican Nomination over 5 years ago:
"I think Romney, like Clinton, is a consummate politician, whose convictions are determined at the intersection of his ambition and the most current polls."
Yes Romney lied. So did Obama. So did Bush43.  So did Clinton.  So did Bush41.  So did Reagan. So did Carter. Well... maybe not Carter. He was just incompetent. But you get my point.  Making the case to vote for a candidate based on 11% percent fewer lies is a tough sell.  It just does not work. Recall that Bill Clinton was actually impeached and stood trial in the Senate for lying under oath. And he is still more popular today than either Romney or Obama.

The reality is this: In an evenly divided country with a divided government there are worse things than a President without core ideological convictions who is willing to compromise and govern based on pragmatic politics and the polls. What is specifically worse, is a dogmatic President who does not. The polls are, after all, indicative of the will of the majority.

Based on their relative performance in the Democratic Convention, Bill Clinton is a more effective advocate for reelecting Barack Obama than is Barack Obama.  But when Barack Obama campaigns with Bill Clinton he runs the risk of reminding voters that Mitt Romney is more likely to be a  "Clintonesque" President than Barack Obama has proven to be over the last four years (without the interns, of course).

No comments: