NYT: Clintons demanding loyalty from their friends, friends say 'not so fast'

WASHINGTON — Nancy Larson’s most difficult conversation was, by far, the one with Chelsea Clinton.

“It was just heartbreaking,” said Mrs. Larson, a Democratic National Committee member from Minnesota and, more to the point, a superdelegate who had initially pledged herself to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. This was last Saturday, after the former first daughter learned that Mrs. Larson would be shifting her allegiance to Senator Barack Obama.

“She is a delightful young woman who loves her mother very much,” Mrs. Larson said. “She was really pushing me. She kept asking me why I was doing this. She just kept asking, ‘Why? Why?’ ”

(snip)

But there is something more wrenching at work as well, a reckoning of whether the Clintons, on balance, have been good or bad for the party. It has the feel of a very personal testing of loyalties to a former president who once always seemed to be adding to the “Friends of Bill” list, and to a sitting senator who, if not so driven as her husband to win over everyone, used her fame to help elect other Democrats.

But one person’s “disloyalty” is, to another set of eyes, well-deserved “comeuppance.” And there is no shortage of powerful Democrats who are quick to accuse the Clintons of defining loyalty as a one-way street, with little regard for the sacrifices they have made for a couple whose own political needs seem to their critics always to come first.

more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/politics/20loyalty.html?ei=5065&en=bdeed0067115920a&ex=1209268800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

...when they need you.

"Nixon stabbed his Enemies in the back, but Clinton did it to his Friends. His lust to inflict Punishment surpassed even Nixon's, and he put more people in prison than Caligula. He had his own brother locked up & he refused to pardon his old friend Webb Hubbell. Richard Nixon was a criminally insane Monster -- Bill Clinton is a black-hearted Swine of a friend."
- Hunter S. Thompson

So that's all I need to know.

because of the fact that it might have been close to the truth.

Guess Obama's kids should be making calls.

that would really change her mind. She sounds like a small child when you tell them they can't do or have something "But why? Why? Why?". Guess Chelsea is not used to being told NO. She is lucky I'm not a Super Delegate because I would give her an ear full of reasons why I will never support her mom.

Look - I don't care who grabs whose ass, as long as it is consenting adults. And it doesn't matter to me if it's gays, straights, bi-s or whatever. But what the hell has our campaign system sunk to when a candidate's family member gets their ass grabbed by a total stranger? Yo! Any secret service agents on the scene?

www.firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/19/921148.aspx

From NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger
PHILADELPHIA -- Chelsea Clinton stopped traffic Friday night as she wandered the streets of Philadelphia on a gay bar crawl, winning rave reviews for both her politics and her appearance.

Led around the neighborhood by Gov. Ed Rendell, Chelsea was mobbed by local gays and lesbians, as she walked from one club to the next. They ran up to hug her, posed for pictures and certainly invaded her personal space.

“I grabbed her ass,” one young woman exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter.

www.cheatseekingmissiles.blogspot.com/2008/04/clintons-send-chelsea-off-to-gay-bars.html

But I do take issue at the choice of Chelsea's venue. There are plenty of places to pander to the gay vote besides gay bars on a Friday night: universities, churches, gay political clubs. In sending their daughter out to the gay bars, the Clintons were manipulative, exploitative ... and Clintonian, as in:

“I grabbed her ass,” one young woman exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter. (MSNBC)

I mean, really! Haven't they just turned their daughter into a campaign slut? (Albiet an effective one, as this morning Google cranks out 22,800 hits for "Chelsea gay bar crawl.")

your own candidate is God, truth goes out the window.......

:kick:

:kick:

Unfortunately, they do not have as many friends as they thought they had. Bill may have had 65% approval rating by a poll after he left office but the fact is that he never won 50% of the vote in either of his elections.

:shrug:

And we've seen where that's gotten us.

Recommended.

She has put herself into this campaign. She has gotten involved beyond giving speeches and talking about her time in the white house.


People need to learn that this is not a vote for school board. This is the future of the United States at stake. People cannot be tied to some vague loyalty to a person or family when it comes to their vote. Otherwise this country will never be able to move forward.

It is about issues folks. The War has taken many lives, The economy sucks, Oil is over 115 and rising faster than ever before (My guess is 200 USD by 2010) Lobbyists basically control the government. Etc..

This is not a monarchy. And people will move on. If candidate for president held on to sadness that someone decided for the other guy based on issues and how the campaign was run. Then that candidate will not have that many friends in life.

Politics is damn dirty. It will be centuries before humanity gets to the point where we no longer have to worry about this process. So in the meantime, Shit happens, alliances are broken, Shocking events happen. Allegations are thrown. And people vote. That will not change until people keep issues on their mind 100 percent of the time.

What friggin' democracy? They simply think that their machine should put them in power, the will of the voters be damned. They have been running a top-down, big money, big donors, big marketing campaign, one that probably would have worked quite will in the 90s. They are old and out of touch now and can't even fathom what is wrong with the voters. And now, under increased pressure as Hillary clearly is at the end of her rope we see her true colors come out, reverting to Rovian smear tactics. It's disgusting and very, very sad. They could have had a wonderful legacy (although apparently it was all a sham from the start).

:dem:

:thumbsup: