Clinton-memoir too long (urges Dems not to move "hard to the left")

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/entertainment/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-5/111653280031770.xml&storylist=entertainment5/19/2005, 4:03 p.m. ET
By HILLEL ITALIE
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — In the paperback edition of "My Life," former President Clinton acknowledges that his memoir may have been too long, recounts some friendly faces from his book tour and some odder ones sighted under the influence of anesthesia as he underwent heart surgery last September.

"At first I saw a series of dark faces, like death masks, flying toward me and being crushed," writes Clinton, whose book comes out May 31 in both trade and mass market paperback. "Then I saw circles of light with the faces of Hillary, Chelsea, and others I cared about flying toward me, then away into a bright, sun-like source."

When Clinton regained consciousness after surgery, he "waved to people, said I was all right, and laughed." At least, that's what his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, told him. The former president himself doesn't remember...

Much of the new material — a 12-page afterword, and a brief preface — summarizes Clinton's recent activities, from the building of his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., to raising money for Tsunami victims. He also offers a quick analysis of last year's presidential election, urging fellow Democrats not to move "hard to the left."...

It was a good read, though. He's a great writer.

I was at page 190 and realized I was still only post-grad school in his life! LOL!

door stop right now.

don't get me wrong, I think he's one of the greats, but c'mon Bill, tell us what you really think about people. The way it reads to me is he doesn't want to offend anyone because he's still gonna gun for some prominent public post and can't burn any bridges.

I liked the early chapters, but when the book finally arrives at his presidency it's like he just recited entries from his daily logs. There wasn't much insight into the events or even any colorful anecdotes. You don't get much of a sense of why he did anything (although there's lots of gushing over the DLC).

I guess it was worth reading, but I didn't find it all that interesting.

It is wonderful to listen to him again! I would never read a book I can get on 'tape' again.

as opposed to dry humping george bush on every street corner around the world?

He is a lot further right of where he was prior to his surgery. Makes you wonder what was in his anesthetic. Anyone on this board ever do a google search on 'MKultra'. If you haven't you really should.

:tinfoil:

made the Democrats in Congress have to negotiate with a President nominally of their own party and in almost every case ended moving to a "Republican Lite" position. I want unapologetic liberals so the 50% who don't vote because they can't tell the candidiates apart have a reason to go to the polls.

Besides, this country has moved so far right, that there is no too-far left to go to, that won't end up being what at one time would have been considered slightly left.

Maybe that didn't make much sense, but I agree that our candidates and political positions, at the national level, have left people wondering what's different about us.

There is, or should be, a huge difference, and I'm proud of the differences between us and the right-wing nut jobs, and think we should stop apologizing for caring about the poor and middle class.

The catering to billionaires and corporations, the loss of liberties, all of this has gone on too far, and too long. And so that I don't leave anybody out, let's keep Church and State separate, the way our Founding Fathers wanted.

You're right about the colossal shift rightward and Clintonism has facilitated it.

By triangulating, Clinton weakened the party at precisely the time when liberalism needed to make a defense of itself as well as the institutions it had created and nourished. It isn't much of a leap to say he was the sugar around the pill we now call Bushism.

The savage sanctions on Iraq served as precursor to war, the weakening of civil liberties paved the way for the Patriot Act, and the neoliberal economic model chopped the legs out from under workers and, as we are seeing now, the middle class.

Clinton telling Democrats not to move to the left is like a wife-beater urging his mate to decline karate lessons.

But I fear you are correct. And how can a brilliant man like him STILL NOT SEE WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY?

In reality, it's not even about Left and Right anymore, but about Liberty and Tyranny, about the mad delusions of the Nazis vs. the Reality-Based Community of Human Decency.

How can he not see?

As you say, Tom, he is formidable.

But brilliance--measured in intellectuality--is not enough. The right has its share of brilliance, too.

For me, the question is always: whose interests does a politician serve? And in Clinton's case, the record suggests not those of the many.

I think the essence of Bill, whom I like, too, for his wit and charm, is that he is the marriage of vast careerist ambition and the party's historic post-Reagan desperation.

With his gifts and zeal Clinton would be a noteworthy success in any endeavor. It is his (and our) fate that he aspired to national politics within a party that was willing to do anything to win--including selling its soul.

the 'third-way' is a disaster that has only caused more suffering in the world.

PEOPLE over PROFIT, baby

peace

We have to be an opposition party, and with the ruling party being so extreme right, we have no choice but to move left...and of course with this bunch it isn't too difficult to be left. We must offer the American people an option, a different way of doing things, actually not all that different, just what we've been doing for the last, oh, 70 years or so.

I liked the book, but his "tale" about why he avoided the Chicago Convention in 1968 when he knew he should have been there was bullshit and self-serving and he should have never written it.

Other than that, he is a good writer although he overuses the word "old" way too much.

Have any of the loudest cheerleaders calling for the replacement of the nation-state with a corporate-state ever worked as a serf for a corporation?

I mean, not worked for a corporation that their daddy built, and where they were installed as a CEO. But started as an office worker, who put up with a lot of bullshit just for a pension down the road. Only to have the CEOs raid the pension and wipe it out?

Corporations suck. They're corrupt, they kill the soul, and eventually, when they "lay you off" and remove your medical insurance, they could directly kill you.

I say we burn the fortune 500 down the waterline and drive the theiving executive class into the sea.

Is THAT too far to the left?

"Then I saw circles of light with the faces of Hillary, Chelsea, and others I cared about flying toward me, then away into a bright, sun-like source."

We dont have to go left, center, right- we will win when we get the GUTS to just speak the plain, simple facts about Repubs.

"not to move 'hard to the left"

means

screwing the workers and promoting trickle-down corporate welfare.

You all hate President Clinton now?

Disclaimer: Clinton was my governor for 12 years and he was pretty good for the state. I stood in line for two hours to vote for him in '92, voted for him again in '96 and was thankful for a much shorter wait. I wrote letter after letter to Hou$e members opposing his impeachment. I am what you would call a Clinton supporter.

I do not understand his buddying-up with the Bush family, the very nest of snakes that started trying to take him down before he was even elected!

Clinton is a VERY astute politician. Yet he keeps harping on this Centrist mantra when he knows damn well that it is LOSING elections for Democrats (not that Diebold et al are helping us any)!

What it looks like to me is that Clinton is clinging to some very outdated theories--which worked well for him, but do not work for anyone else. I love Clinton for all he has accomplished, but these days my usual reaction to his latest pronouncement is "Bill, what the fuck?"

If they move any further right they will no longer be Democrats. Many of them are no longer Democrats, they're just elephants in Democratic clothing.

(I gotta think some Clinton haters are going to say he's lying, because he should have seen "hellish visions")

How Clinton saw the light during surgery

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Saturday May 21, 2005
The Guardian

Bill Clinton has seen the dark side but - fittingly in a week in which Star Wars mania has swept America - was saved by the light. A new extract in the paperback edition of his autobiography reveals that the former US president was prey to bizarre apparitions while under anaesthetic for heart surgery last year.

"At first I saw a series of dark faces, like death masks, flying towards me and being crushed," Mr Clinton writes. Then, in what could be a metaphor for his political trials and tribulations during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he reveals that his family pulled him through.

"Then I saw circles of light with the face of Hillary, Chelsea, and others I cared about flying towards me, then away into a bright, sun-like source," the former president says. When Mr Clinton regained consciousness after surgery he apparently "waved to people, said I was all right and laughed". At least that is what his wife, Senator Rodham Clinton, told him. The former president does not remember.

The paperback edition of My Life is due to go on sale in the US at the end of the month. Much of the new material - a 12-page afterword, and a brief preface - summarises his recent activities, including his fundraising for tsunami relief.

(more at link above)

:puke:

Me thinks the light he saw was how he better kiss the almighty Bush family ass if he intends on Hillary ever being prez-o-dent. Also can't hurt those upcoming book sales either huh Bill? :eyes:

“As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H.L. Mencken

Hanging out with all the Stunteds. "No Voter Fraud At All Here! Move along!" What is he thinking? These people tore him apart, and now he not only forgives, he helps shill for them. Shit. "Make nice with the Nazis, now!" I think it's a damned curse, the Chamberlain curse, and we need our Winston Churchill now, and who?

Barbara Damn Boxer, that's who! And John Conyers! Damn it Bill, GET HELP!
:spank:

Sorry but I used to support you,
but now you scare the hell out of me!

Hello from Germany,
if only this guy would have become a modell or a boy-group-singer but never ever a politician.
Bush II and his fashist gang might have been prevented, if the democrats would have had to offer an ALTERNATIVE to Reagan, after two decades of neoliberalism and the Washington-Consens. And then there was Clinton and the DLC...
The only U.S. president so far, who did bomb other nations to stop the corporate mainstream-media, he has helped to install, to talk about his stupid dick.
Bush might really envy Clinton for killing millions of Iraqis along with Mrs. Albright, instead of just to kill more than 100.000 and get a bad press.

Clinton tried to turn politics into a kind of mainstream pop-culture. He failed miserably. He has replaced democatic structures of a representative democracy with PR-agencies and Advertising. It did exist before, but Clinton along with Blair have pushed this in a way that really sabotaged democracy.

Hard to the left????????
If someone has nothing better to do than to sell out the very few things, two decades of neoliberal Reagonomics have left over, he shouldn't wonder that noone takes the democrats serious anymore. Clinton has turned the Democrats into the other right-wing of the one-party-system. I guess, he still admires the "real" elite like the Bushes, being still just a boy-group-singer going astray. A monstrous Bubble, an economic bubble, a New-Economy Bubble, a War-Bubble.

Just what Stan Goff wrote a few days ago:

"the Democratic Party is not only just another party controlled by big capitalists; it is not even a good *capitalist* opposition party (much less a real opposition).

You don’t deserve anyone’s support, not even as a tactical matter any longer, because you end up doing ritual verbal combat then giving the “cornpone Nazis” of the Republcan Party any goddamn thing they want."
http://stangoff.com/index.php?p=102


Moving away from idiotic narcisstic corrupt failures,

Dirk